Online technology retailer Newegg joined the ranks of bitcoin-accepting businesses today, adding payment support to their shopping card and announcing the new option on their homepage. With $2.8 billion in annual revenue, Newegg is nearly twice as large as bitcoin-friendly online retailer Overstock.com, and is generally thought to have greater sales volume than rival tech retailer TigerDirect. Newegg has been hinting at bitcoin integration since January. The company has partnered with Atlanta-based payment processor BitPay to handle bitcoin transactions.
Speaking with CoinDesk, Newegg Chief Marketing Officer Soren Mills noted that the company has a long relationship with bitcoin, as many early miners purchased their increasingly specialized equipment from the site. “Adopting bitcoin as a payment method is another way we’re responding to our customers’ diverse needs,” he said.
Customer demand has also been a factor, Mills told CoinDesk, citing the months-long Twitter and Facebook campaigns by bitcoin users to get the site to offer cryptocurrency payment support. Mills said that bitcoin integration has been on Newegg’s agenda for quite some time, but that the company required several months of due diligence and testing to “ensure a smooth transition.”
Given the timing of the announcement, the California-based Newegg might also have been waiting for state lawmakers to formally declare bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as “legal money.” A bill changing the language of California’s financial laws was passed over the weekend, effectively making it the first state in the U.S. to give formal recognition to digital currency.
