Golden Observation｜Luxury products have successively opened encrypted payment swords to Web3

As cryptocurrencies become more popular and more widely accepted, the luxury goods industry has begun to accept cryptocurrency payments.

Open encryption payment

On May 22, the Swiss luxury watch brand Tag Heuer (Tag Heuer), a Swiss luxury watch brand owned by the French luxury goods giant LVMH, announced that its US market official website will support 12 major cryptocurrencies and 5 stable coins as payment options, and more digital currencies will be allowed later. Currency payment.

On May 23, the French luxury brand Balenciaga said it will accept cryptocurrency payments in the United States, its website balenciaga.com, New York’s Madison Avenue (Madison Avenue) and Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive (Rodeo Drive) Designated stores will begin accepting cryptocurrency payments next month.

The company said it has not yet decided which payment solution provider it will use, but it will initially accept cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum , and consider adding others in the future. In the future, other regions and e-commerce businesses will also support cryptocurrency payments.

It is becoming increasingly trendy for luxury goods to accept crypto payments. Italian luxury streetwear brand Philipp Plein opened cryptocurrency payments as early as August 2021. Philipp Plein said that on average, at least one cryptocurrency order is completed every day.

In 2019, Swiss luxury watchmaker Franck Muller partnered with Regal Assets to create the first Bitcoin-only watch, the Vanguard Encrypto. The watch, which sells for $50,000, is premium diamond-studded and can be purchased by credit card, bank transfer or directly with Bitcoin.

HUBLOT, a luxury watch brand under the LVMH Group, launched a high-end watch that only accepts bitcoin payments in February this year: Big Bang Meca-10 P2P.

In April of this year, Italian street fashion brand and luxury brand Off-White accepted encrypted payments at its flagship stores in London, Paris and Milan. Customers can pay in BTC , ETH, BNB, XRP , USDT, and USDC .

Following Off-White, Gucci announced that it will start accepting cryptocurrency payments in five stores in the United States later this month, and plans to expand the service to all direct retail stores of the brand in North America this summer. The cryptocurrencies that these pilot stores currently plan to accept include BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, Dogecoin, etc.

Target Web3

In fact, accepting cryptocurrency payment is only the first step for these luxury brands to understand the encryption market. As Web3 has truly entered the consciousness of mainstream businesses, their longer-term goal is Web3.

Frédéric Arnault, CEO of TAG Heuer, said that the company has been paying attention to Bitcoin since its birth. The recent ups and downs of the encryption market have not changed its view of digital currency as a transformative technology. Payment is the beginning of TAG Heuer's foray into Web3. TAG Heuer said it is developing a broader and long-term strategy for Web3, which will bring its brand to life in bold new ways through blockchain technology, NFT and more technologies in the e-commerce and retail fields.

As early as last year, Balenciaga began to continuously lay out the "Metaverse", such as holding virtual fashion shows and launching virtual clothing in the game. Balenciaga has also created a "metaverse" department dedicated to exploring and researching marketing and opportunities in virtual worlds.

As a leading brand in the fashion industry, Gucci started its metaverse project very early, and its exploration in the metaverse field has always had a strong demonstration significance for other brands.

At the beginning of this year, Gucci announced that it would open a virtual fashion experience store on the sandbox game The Sandbox, inspired by the famous experimental online space Gucci Vault created by Gucci. This virtual shelf presents exquisite vintage collections, carefully selected by creative directors and brand collection experts, and carefully trimmed to meet the perfect sale standard. Many of the pieces are unique, including curated and bespoke pieces. In addition, Gucci will also launch brand-themed NFTs and retro bags on the platform, and release virtual wearable items for The Sandbox players to purchase and wear in the game.

Not only that, luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Burberry have also launched NFT mobile games.

The current testing of the waters by many brands also marks another solid step for the luxury industry to integrate its existing physical retail with the emerging Web3. The growing popularity of luxury brands in the Metaverse has made Web3 a space of undiminished enthusiasm and constant innovation.