CoinBeyond Integrates Bitcoin Payments into over 95,000 Bigcommerce Online Stores

Bigcommerce’s platform works differently than most e-commerce platforms as it provides support and a personalized website, while allowing businesses to retain their brand, something eBay and Amazon don’t offer. The startup facilitated a total gross merchandise volume exceeding $5B USD in 2014.

Noah Judson, CTO of CoinBeyond, said in a statement that the integration showcases how easy the startup makes merchant bitcoin payments. “We realize merchants are skeptical about the complications of a cryptocurrency, so we made the integration take the amount of time it takes to make a cup of coffee.”

“Joining the evolution of monetary systems has never been so easy.”
— – Noah Judson

The integration is result of feedback and testing from a beta program CoinBeyond has been running with select merchants since April 2014. The startup is seeking to differentiate itself from the competitors in the space by being the first bitcoin payment processor with a secure portal for customer service representatives, which doesn’t expose sensitive financial information to employees. CoinBeyond also offers the usual services provided by bitcoin payment processors, such as instant payments, conversion to USD, and low-costs.

Bigcommerce is the largest merchant platform the company CoinBeyond has signed since the service completed beta testing.

Bigcommerce has operations in Australia and the United States, and allows businesses to create their own website, manage invoices, add numerous payment options, and take care of other technical aspects. It gives companies the convenience and help of websites like e-Bay, while letting businesses put their brand front and center. Last November, Bigcommerce raised $50 million from investors, including SoftBank Capital,Telstra Ventures, and American Express, bringing the company’s total funding to $125 million.

As of last year, 70% of the platform’s merchants were located in the United States, but the startup has also been growing the company’s presence and partnerships in Asia, an  e-commerce market that is growing very quickly. SoftBank Capital partner Steve Murray joined the company’s board to help build the company’s presence in Asia. Bigcommerce also partnered with online marketplace Alibaba to allow their merchants to directly source their products from Chinese factories and suppliers.

One of the largest stores on the platform, e-cigarette and vaporizer vendor Mt.Baker Vapor, is taking advantage of the integration. The store has filled 1.5 million e-cigarette orders since its launch in 2011. Mt.Baker launched a 15% discount for those who pay with bitcoin to promote the new payment method.  Bitcoin also allows Mt.Baker to save money by avoiding the fees charged by credit card companies.

“We have had a number of requests for us to accept Bitcoin from customers,” commented Mount Baker Vapor COO Michael Sullivan. “For a long time we wanted to, but there was no convenient option for integrating it with our current website. Luckily, the great folks at CoinBeyond took care of that.”

“When they came up with an easy Bigcommerce integration, there was no reason to not listen to customer requests.”
— – Michael Sullivan

CoinBeyond, which was founded in 2014, graduated from the Invert startup incubation program, and raised undisclosed funding from Denny Hill Capital L.P., international law firm Perkins Coie, and Technology Alliance Group. Some of the startup’s advisors include Congressional Candidate for Washington State, B.J. Gulliot; Western Washington University  MBA Professor, Dan Purdy; President at Lerner Consulting, Lawrence Lerner; Attorney at Balloun Law Professional Corporation and previous legal counsel at Google, O.Shane Balloun.