The blockchain company – Ripple – joined forces with the Berlin-based cryptocurrency payment provider – Lunu – to allow luxury retailers to accept digital assets as a means of settlement. Customers can pay their bills this way, both in-store and online employing Ripple’s Liquidity Hub.
Crypto as a Payment Method
Following the collaboration, British and European luxury retailers will be able to sell clothing and jewelry in cryptocurrencies. Lunu works closely with the UK-based Farfetch and Steven Stone, the Italian Off-White, and more. Those will embrace digital asset payments when selling products in-store and on their online platforms.
The initiative will be made possible via Ripple’s Liquidity Hub, launched several months ago. Its primary goal is to support cryptocurrency adoption in the long term and allow individuals and businesses to buy, sell, hold, and use digital assets for settlements.
Rajesh Madhaiyan – Director of Product at Lunu – believes retailers in the luxury industry need “to stay on top of the latest trends” to catch up with innovations and satisfy clients, which is why they want to engage with the fast-growing crypto space.
“Our partnership with Ripple has the potential to greatly impact retailers’ customer service offerings by expanding the variety of payment methods and by portraying retailers’ brands as more innovative and progressive.”
Sendi Young – Managing Director of Ripple, Europe – stated that the organization intends to “build a suite of enterprise-oriented crypto products” for the benefit of all users.
“This is why we are so excited by this fantastic new use case for Liquidity Hub, which will enable Lunu’s luxury retail clients to accept crypto payments at the point of sale,” she outlined.
Luxury Brands That Previously Embraced Crypto
The German fashion company Philipp Plein is one of the most popular names part of that club. Last year, it enabled its customers to pay in 15 digital assets as Bitcoin and Ether were two of them.
A month ago, the Italian fashion house Gucci also jumped on the bandwagon. It embraced 12 cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, including Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu, for selected stores in the US.
The Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer and the French fashion brand Balenciaga completed that list. The former said “yes” to cryptocurrency payments on its US website, while the latter allowed customers to buy products from the shops in New York and Los Angeles with digital assets.
