Gucci will start accepting cryptocurrency in the luxury industry

The pilot project, which starts in five stores later this month, is an important step towardsacceptance of Web3 by the Gucci community.

At the end of May, the brand will add support for payments in cryptocurrencies in stores in North America. The move marks the adoption of cryptocurrencies by a leading luxury brand.

To make a payment to the buyer, it is enoughfollow the link sent by email with a QR code. The first Gucci stores to accept cryptocurrency are Wooster Street in New York, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miami Design District, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas. Gucci will accept payments in over 10 currencies, including BTC, BCH, ETH, WBTC, LTC, SHIB, Doge and five stablecoins.

It should be noted that brands are increasingly testing blockchain technology, primarily through the creation of NFT collections, while payment in crypto for goods is still at an early stage of adoption.

Most recently, Gucci reported in the Gucci VaultDiscord that owners of NFT, SuperGucci and Gucci Grail will be privileged with special access to pre-orders of the Gucci collection before it is released to the public. This move clearly connects the NFT collections and the budding Gucci Web3 community to real consumption.

“Gucci is always looking to explore newtechnologies when they can provide our customers with greater opportunities,” said Gucci President Marco Bizzari. “Now that we can integrate cryptocurrencies into our payment system, this is a natural evolution for those customers who would like to have this option.”

Apart from Gucci, several other niche retailersalso began testing cryptocurrency payments. In March, Off-White announced support for cryptocurrencies at its flagship stores in Paris, London and Milan. Philipp Plein is in the process of setting up a store in London that, in addition to accepting crypto payments, also has an NFT gallery. In February, the company told Vogue Business that the brand makes at least one cryptocurrency transaction per day and has already amassed 150 BTC in revenue.

Offer in-store payments withCryptocurrency requires some staff training, especially as NFT buyers expect special ownership privileges, including access to certain products.

To this end, Gucci Kering's parent companyIn collaboration with creative agency Al Dente, this week introduced its own game that trains NFT and Web3 employees. According to the representative, the number of registered employees has already exceeded all expectations.

Gucci recently built a Web3-focused team and acquired digital real estate on The Sandbox, a blockchain-based real estate platform.