The competition in e-commerce businesses is high. To stand out, you must have a solid product selection, good customer flow, and a willingness to keep up with new technologies, aiming to stay ahead of the competition and attract new buyers. With a growing demand from customers, accepting cryptocurrency payments is a must.

Accepting bitcoin and altcoins is a convenient way to receive payments for your goods and services online. It's cheap, it's fast, and it's way easier than you can imagine.

OpenCart is among the most popular e-commerce development platforms. Payment gateway CoinGate offers shopping cart plugins and extensions that allow you to accept bitcoin payments in your online shop with only a few steps. 

But, before learning how to accept bitcoin on OpenCart, let us see the perks that businesses can gain from cryptocurrency payments.

Benefits of accepting cryptocurrency payments in e-commerce businesses

Merchants will always end up on a winning side if they integrate bitcoin payments into their company processes. A few reasons to do so are listed below. To learn more, read CoinGate’s article “Why businesses should accept crypto payments”.

Instant payments from all over the world

Blockchain services technology allows faster, direct transactions from all over the world. Compared to cryptocurrency, fiat transactions might be more time-consuming and limited to their countries' borders.

On the other hand, cryptocurrencies can be sent instantly and cross borders without obstacles, delays, or additional fees. And there is no need for currency conversion. Also, with the help of a cryptocurrency payments processor, you can accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and 70+ cryptos in a blink of an eye.

Lower fees

Banks, credit card processors, and other traditional payment providers have a standard merchant processing fee of 2.9% or more, plus additional fees for incoming transactions. 

Cryptocurrency payment providers charge less. For example, CoinGate has only a 1% transaction fee. Nothing is hidden, and no additional setup fees are required.

No chargebacks

Do you know that 80% of all chargebacks are filled wrongfully? Cryptocurrency poses no risk of  fraudulent chargebacks, and no bank or payment processor can revert the payments you receive. 

Simply said, it is impossible to charge a crypto wallet without its owner's permission. 

New marketing possibilities

Since cryptocurrencies are relatively new, crypto-friendly merchants get instant media attention. Also, it helps access a new segment of customers. 

If you advertise that your business now accepts crypto payments, you make a statement that every crypto owner is welcome. You make your product accessible to as many people as possible. 

Wealthier customers

A study of BitPay customers shows that a crypto owner, as a customer, spends twice as much compared to those who use fiat. Also, blockchain-friendly clients tend to return if they have a smooth and positive customer experience. 

The study also shows that 40% of customers who pay with crypto are newcomers to the merchant, implying that cryptocurrency owners are constantly looking for crypto-friendly businesses.

Easy to implement

Implementing cryptocurrency payments at your online stores is as easy as any other payment method. Crypto payment gateways provide various plugins and integration methods to make crypto adoption as easy and accessible as it can be. 

To prove a point, let's look at how to accept cryptocurrency payments on the OpenCart store.

Accept cryptocurrency payments on OpenCart

Third-party services such as CoinGate offer to handle crypto transactions on your behalf and will provide everything you need to accept payments from 70+ cryptocurrencies. 

CoinGate also offers multiple withdrawal options – you can collect earnings in Euros, US Dollars, bitcoins, or other supported digital currencies. 

With the OpenCart extension, you can accept different currencies from your customers. To accept payments in cryptocurrencies, there are some steps you should take. CoinGate shopping cart plugin makes it easy to set up Bitcoin payments in your online shop. So without further ado, let's go through the whole process together.

Coingate OpenCart plugin installation guide

It's pretty easy to install the CoinGate OpenCart Bitcoin extension. But first of all, to make this happen, you should visit the official OpenCart Marketplace or our GitHub Repository and download the appropriate CoinGate plugin for your OpenCart version.

Please note that there are different extensions for OpenCart 2.0 – 2.2, OpenCart 2.3+ and OpenCart 3.0+. This guide is made for the OpenCart 3.0+ version. If you use OpenCart 2.0-2.2, OpenCart 2.3+, or any other OpenCart version, check this blog post to see the installation process. 

When the plugin is already downloaded, we'll take 4 small steps to install and set up your Bitcoin extension.

1. Go to OpenCart Dashboard Installer and upload the extension

To install the Bitcoin extension in your online store, go to the OpenCart website and log in to the admin panel. Here you'll need to find an extension installer. Once you're logged in, go to "Extensions" and press on the "Installer" field.

Then, upload your downloaded file. You'll know that it's ready when you see a message under the Progress bar. It usually takes only a couple of seconds.

2. Select the extension type on the OpenCart admin panel

When your file is uploaded, in the menu bar on your left, navigate to "Extensions," and on the drop-down menu, select the "Extensions" segment. Then, you'll be given the possibility to choose an extension type. Select the "Payments" option.

3. Install the CoinGate payment extension in OpenCart

After you are given all “Payments” extension options, you should find the CoinGate plugin and enable it by clicking the green "Install" button.

4. Enable and edit other settings

After installing the CoinGate plugin, choose the blue "Edit" button to edit the plugin's settings in the same window.

Here you should enter your API credentials, enable the plugin to receive payments, and set the "Receive Currency" parameter to the currency you wish to receive your payouts from CoinGate.

Please note that you must pass merchant verification before receiving payouts.

Voilà! Your online store can now accept digital currencies at the checkout.

Conclusion

Accepting cryptocurrency payments might be the easiest solution for e-commerce businesses to upgrade their services, attract new customers and provide them with fast and convenient payment options.

OpenCart lets you launch an online business and accept digital currencies as a form of payment. CoinGate provides OpenCart merchants with a cryptocurrency payment plugin so they can accept 70+ different cryptos for their goods or services.