Expanding the Demographics of Bitcoin to Include Women

As many you already know, our store has launched with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment options available out of the gate. At first glance you may wonder why a cosmetics retailer would offer cryptocurrency payment options. It’s no secret that the demographics of Bitcoin slant heavily in the direction of males 20-39; it’s also no surprise that in-turn many of the services/products offered for Bitcoin are geared towards this group.

There is no question that increasing the usage of Bitcoin for a greater segment of the population would be beneficial for cryptocurrency; the question is how to get there.

New merchant acceptance typically comes from either community demand or pioneering, that is to say from reactive or proactive merchants. We all know how passionate the Bitcoin community is in requesting that their favorite stores add Bitcoin. We also see how some vendors like tech services and computer accessories are a natural fit with Bitcoin.  In the case of natural beauty products there is very little to no demographic overlap with cryptocurreny users and this presents an interesting opportunity.

Accepting Bitcoin can do several things including:

•         Bring legitimacy/normalcy to non-crypto users
•         Encourage non-users to learn more about bitcoin
•         Create new users

The first point is the most likely to happen and this is a good thing; a stigma that exist around cryptocurrency can slowly be washed away by the association of Bitcoin with well known, physical goods especially international and award winning brands. The very first Bitcoin merchants were mostly digital goods, this then expanded to largely niche physical items such as artisan goods and head-shops. Slowly the sphere is changing to bring in large mainstream stores such as Overstock or Tigerdirect. It’s likely that we’ll see more large merchants step up to welcome cryptocurrency (even with Paypal seriously considering integrating Bitcoin), but until then there is still a lot of value in spreading Bitcoin to non-traditional (For the 5-some years Bitcoin has been around) areas such as natural skincare and cosmetics.

My message to potential vendors is this: even if Bitcoin is a largely male-populated scene, all men have women in their lives. There are a lot of wives, girlfriends, mothers and aunts; and there are always going to be birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, special occasions and a desire for healthier choices.