Farfetch to accept payment in cryptocurrency

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 13, 2022

Luxury e-commerce giant Farfetch is to start accepting cryptocurrency payments across both its own marketplace and participating boutiques and brands by year-end. 

The option will be available for customers in the US, the UK and Europe with other territories to follow later. It will accept seven cryptocurrencies initially, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Binance Coin (BNB), among others.

The online move follows the “successful launch” of cryptocurrency payments at the group’s retail stores, Browns and selected Off-White flagship stores in March, with the Palm Angels flagship store in Milan launching the option “imminently”.

It has partnered with global cryptocurrency platform Lunu for this, including “sleek POS terminals for in-store transactions and an online widget”.

And the partners said they want to “help the luxury industry embrace these innovations” so will “share this expertise and capability with the Farfetch community of boutiques and brands that also want to offer this solution in their retail stores”.

The complication with accepting cryptocurrency payments compared to regular national currencies is that the value of crypto can change radically very quickly. That presents a problem regarding pricing. But the trial in its physical stores has overcome this. The Lunu POS terminal, “applies the best available cryptocurrency-fiat exchange rate at the time of the transaction”. 

Customers are able to access their cryptocurrency wallets to pay for purchases by simply scanning a QR code from their smartphone. Lunu accepts more than 60 popular crypto wallets as a form of payment from Farfetch customers.

Farfetch chief José Neves said the launch through its physical stores "was a crucial step to test and learn, and we are excited to share our technical and service know-how with our community. As a platform company, we are continually innovating to serve as the bridge for the luxury industry to new technologies and environments where the luxury customer is today, and where they’ll be tomorrow. With this move, we look forward to empowering our incredible boutique and brand partners to embrace cryptocurrency”.