Late last night, Tony Sakich – Marketing Manager at BitPay – announced the results from the latest incarnation of “Bitcoin Black Friday”. Named after the date that high street retailers generally shift their accounts from red (debt) to black (credit) the traditional Black Friday is known as a daywear retail activity spikes through the offering of large discounts on particular products. Bitcoin Black Friday is the digital currency-sphere’s take on this event, and its results have been logged for the last two years by BitPay. There were a few key takeaways, highlighted below:
This year we saw an 82% increase in the number of merchants who completed transactions compared to last year’s BBF. While last year many of the discounts and deals were for bitcoin related technology, like bitcoin mining equipment, this year a broader range of retailers were offering bitcoin-specific deals on a wider array of items.
Both Gyft and NewEgg experienced their best day of bitcoin sales ever. Gyft had 62% more transactions this BBF than last year, while increasing the value of purchases by 139%. NewEgg set personal records for total dollar value of purchases, as well as number of transactions.
So it looks like the use of bitcoin is not only increasing quantitatively, but it’s application is also spreading outside the tech space and into the realm of general retail. Sakich concluded:
With traditional Black Friday sales down 11% from last year, it’s important to recognize that bitcoin is being used for a variety of traditional products and services now. This Bitcoin Black Friday may signify a move forward and toward mainstream acceptance of bitcoin.
Did you take part in BBF? How was the experience? Let us know!