How ZenMarket increased its revenue by accepting cryptocurrency payments

Since that dawn of the cryptocurrency era, a new wave of financial adoption has emerged. Businesses have started rapidly accepting digital currencies as a payment method at their checkout, expanding their global user reach and entering untapped markets.

Are there actual, tangible benefits to adapting a crypto-friendly mindset, and putting that mindset into practice by accepting cryptocurrency payments? These were the exact questions that troubled ZenMarket prior to integrating CoinGate’s cryptocurrency payment solution.

The Problem

ZenMarket, one of the biggest online shopping services in Japan, has always accepted traditional payment methods, as does the majority of businesses around the world. Most would be surprised to know that Japan was a cash-based society for a long time, and many places in Japan did not accept card payment for quite a while. However, the recent studies and trends are showing signs of Japanese people moving away from physical money and cashless technologies are getting more popular.

Despite this, there has been significant growth in popularity for cryptocurrencies among Japanese youth. Moreover, Japan’s officials have recognized cryptocurrencies as a viable method of payment for goods and services.

But there was a fundamental problem – the lack of places where you can spend cryptocurrencies. Currently there is a handful of shops that accept cryptocurrency in Japan and worldwide, but before ZenMarket partnered with CoinGate, there was a growing demand of places where consumers can spend their Bitcoin. 

Although Japan is not the core market for ZenMarket due to its global operations, they understood the demand and the uniqueness of the solution, thus ZenMarket saw a perfect chance to carve out its competitive advantage and increase its user base by accepting cryptocurrency payments.

The Solution

After opening its business account on CoinGate, ZenMarket went through a quick verification process. When done right, verifying your business is rather quick, while CoinGate support makes it even easier than it really is.

Following the successful verification, ZenMarket integrated its cryptocurrency payment method via an API. It’s the most customizable and popular payment solution on CoinGate, allowing to process more than 70 cryptocurrency payment virtually on any website. API is just one of the several integration methods that we are offering here at CoinGate.

The Result

+264% increase in sales

Although the total amount of crypto transactions for ZenMarket are about only 1%  of its total monthly sales, ZenMarket sees gradual growth number every month. Crypto transaction have more than tripled since the introduction of digital currency payments. This has led to an increase in its user base and a staggering +264% increase in sales compared to the same period last year.

Increase in brand awareness

As ZenMarket started to advertise itself as crypto-friendly, media quickly caught the attention of it. Blog articles popped up on how to use Bitcoin in Japan, which keeps attracting thousands of visitors every month.

ZenMarket’s decision to integrate cryptocurrency payments for their proxy shopping services has been profoundly successful. It not only allowed its customers to pay with more than 70 cryptocurrencies (including BTC, ETH, DOGE, SHIBA, and many more) from anywhere around the world, but it also allowed ZenMarket’s global users to avoid costly currency conversions that happen during cross-border banking transactions. On top of that, ZenMarket took the advantage of cheaper transaction costs, as it is relatively lower than any traditional payment provider (1% fee compared to traditional 2.5-3% fee).

ZenMarket embraced the new base of a global audience that wants to spend their cryptocurrency, resulting in an increase in traffic, media coverage, and, most importantly, a profound increase in overall sales.