The BBC has reported that the British Chancellor Philip Hammond has “saved the penny”. Since 1971 the British Pound Sterling (GBP) has been divided into 100 copper pennies. There were suggestions that the it should be abolished since it was now worth so little. This raises a couple of interesting topics.
One of the arguments against abolishing the penny was that retailers like prices ending in “.99”. It is certainly true that customers are more likely to buy if a something costs £4.99 than £5.00. Cryptocurrency marketeers who are promoting adoption must consider the effect of their pricing.
For example, is a customer more likely to buy a skirt if it is £91 or 0.99 Dash?
At first sight it seems that the unfamiliar denomination might put the customer off but in some circumstances it might actually increase sales.
“The guy who invented poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius.”
– Julius “Big Julie” Weintraub
In the example above the skirt was £91 and the retailer will suffer typical transaction fees of about £1.50. This is OK for a skirt but how is retailer to sell a penny chew without a penny coin?
The payments industry considers any payment of less than $1 a micropayment and crypto will come to dominate this space.
Cryptocurrencies designed for retail use like Dash have already demonstrated average fees of under 2c. Cryptocurrencies designed for high transaction volumes and low costs such as IOTA have demonstrated transaction fees of less than 0.01c.
Cryptocurrency marketing teams should consider how pricing in crypto can be used to increase a retailers sales though clever pricing and reducing the cost of payments under $1. CRYPTOSTAR.MONEY lists over 70 businesses that can help businesses accept crypto.