What are the benefits for Merchants?
Bitcoins have great properties for consumer transactions. Low fees mean you can pass the savings on to your customers and get a price advantage over other merchants. There are no chargebacks in Bitcoin, any confirmed transaction is protected by the full hashing power of the network. So businesses can accept bitcoins from any country in the world, with no risk of fraud or chargebacks. Most Bitcoin payment processors assume all exchange rate risk on the Bitcoin price.
Point-of-Sale (POS) Transactions
In retail stores, bitcoins can be used side-by-side with local currency and credit cards. The merchant will need a point-of-sale device or Shopify tablet system to calculate the exchange rate and process the bitcoin transaction. For less formal transactions, a simple mobile phone wallet app can accomplish the same thing.
Features to look for
Here are some common questions that merchants should ask:
- Can I get a unique Bitcoin address for each transaction?
- How is the exchange rate calculated?
- How fast are payments approved?
- What is my exchange rate risk?
- How do I receive the funds?
- Are there any fees involved?
- How can I see a listing of my sales?
Payment providers
Merchant tools with USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, YEN exchange: BitPay
A more comprehensive list of available shopping cart interfaces can be found at the Wiki page.