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Throughout 2023, ForumPay has witnessed a significant expansion in our roster of active merchants accepting cryptocurrency payments for goods and services, which has seen a four-fold increase since the close of 2021. This surge not only highlights the growing and global acceptance of cryptocurrencies but also positions ForumPay as a pivotal bridge between FIAT-based merchants and the fast-growing community of crypto consumers.
Nonetheless, while blockchain payments have great benefits, such as no chargebacks, and the fact that all transactions are final, in some cases, merchants will still be asked to refund their customers. According to a recent Capital One report, the average retail return rate of purchases made in FIAT is 16.6% for e-commerce and 16.4% for in-store purchases. Although refund requests for crypto purchases are infrequent, merchants should be prepared to offer a clear refund policy to their crypto customers, as it is at their discretion to grant a refund request. Should merchants accept the request, ForumPay offers two means for returning funds to the buyer.
In this article, we hone in on ForumPay’s payment and refund processes, emphasizing their simplicity, versatility, and cost-effectiveness.
The payment process
ForumPay prides itself on providing a quick and straightforward payment process, capitalizing on the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and round-the-clock availability offered by blockchain technology. Whether in-store or online, this unique approach enables thousands of merchants in the FIAT space to seamlessly connect and transact with the rapidly expanding world of crypto consumers, and vice versa.
Thanks to ForumPay, merchants can market their goods and services to crypto consumers with the confidence that their prices will never be affected by fluctuations in the value of the crypto asset being used for payment. ForumPay’s instant price determination fixes the crypto price equivalent to the FIAT amount charged by the merchant. ForumPay owns and operates its own cryptocurrency exchange, which aggregates price feeds from a number of major cryptocurrency exchanges to provide the best available exchange rate for the transaction in real-time.
Refunding in FIAT, stablecoin or crypto through the ForumPay buy order solution
As the leading crypto solution for payment processors and businesses, ForumPay understands that in reality, some transactions will be subject to refund requests. One of the benefits of cryptocurrency is that it eliminates chargebacks. Consequently, merchants are empowered to make a discretionary decision on whether to grant a customer’s request for a refund. Should they agree to process the refund, merchants can choose to simply return the original price in cash, or local FIAT currency, as they normally would. Another option is to convert that original price into crypto and send it back to the consumer as digital funds, including popular stablecoins such as USDC or USDT.
Whilst this latter method saves the consumer the trouble of converting their refunded FIAT back into crypto, depending on the value fluctuations of the asset used to make the payment, the consumer may prefer to be refunded in cash and buy crypto back themselves. In any case, merchants should be prepared to state a refunds and returns policy to crypto consumers, just as they do their FIAT-spending counterparts, so they know what to expect before entering into a transaction.
With the increasing availability of products and services from merchants worldwide, there is a growing demand for a hassle-free, easy-to-use payment system that allows users to make cross-border payments through cryptocurrencies. ForumPay is the solution; an accessible and user-friendly system for consumers who wish to purchase from merchants accepting digital currencies. Inevitably, some consumers will request refunds. However, ForumPay provides merchants with the chance to accommodate these unforeseeable requests quickly and conveniently.
If you are a merchant looking to start accepting payments in cryptocurrency with ForumPay, book a meeting with one of our crypto payment experts to find out how. They are available to answer all your questions. Alternatively, visit forumpay.com for more information.
