Bitcoin E-commerce: Web hosting, cannabis & game revenue up during COVID-19 crisis [SURVEY]

Blockonomics recently hosted a survey where over 100 website owners provided their experience using Blockonomics to accept Bitcoin payments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to our amazing community, we were able to put together an interesting set of data to better understand the effect of Bitcoin in e-commerce payments, as well as how the crisis has affected businesses worldwide.

Survey Demographics

Of the total respondents in our survey — 30% of Blockonomics users reside in Europe, 23% in North America, and 22% in Asia Pacific.

The majority of those surveyed use Blockonomics for their web hosting or digital product website, at 40.8% each. It’s important to note that “digital products” may be further segmented into different industries, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on how digital products are generally affected by COVID-19.

Affect of COVID-19 on E-commerce

While COVID-19 has very obviously ravaged businesses of all sizes in every sector of the world, business is continuing to operate in digital format with less negative impact than those with brick-and-mortar locations. 33.3% of respondents saw no change in revenue during the crisis, while 16.7% actually saw an increase of up to 50% in revenue. However, of the businesses that lost over 50% of their revenue because of the pandemic, 22.2% struggled the most (> 50%).

Usage of Bitcoin Revenue During COVID-19 Pandemic

Our e-commerce store owners continue to be major believers of Bitcoin: 44.9% of the respondents have decided to hold on to 100% of their Bitcoin during this time, with 10.2% additionally buying Bitcoin. Most likely for logistic and inventory reasons, 26.5% of respondents were converting their revenue straight to cash, with the remaining splitting their revenue between Bitcoin and fiat.

E-commerce Industry Impact

Gains

Video games, nutritional supplements, cannabis, and web hosting appear to have the least negative impact from the pandemic.

Website hosting is clearly an essential for many website owners, and for that reason web hosting services have not experienced a negative impact. 45% of respondents saw either no change in revenue or an increase of sales of up to 50%.

Nutritional supplements also saw an increase of revenue of up to 50%, as people continue to look for alternative ways to stay healthy (possibly in response to empty food shelves at the grocery store).

Cannabis orders are also up: people are buying more weed than ever, with revenue up over 50%. I mean, what else are you going to do at home? 💨

Lastly, for those websites offering digital codes for video games, these website owners saw their revenue increase by over 50%, presumably as people are at home spending more time playing video games.

Losses

For digital products, it's important to note that no website that offered digital products saw an increase in revenue. 25% of respondents reported no change in revenue, while the remaining 75% saw decreases. While each of our digital product websites offer a wide variety of products, it's important to note that many digital products are still considered non-essential, and with many losing their jobs across the world, revenue can certainly be impacted by that. This is fundamentally different to physical products, which are affected by slower supply chains, and the inability to purchase goods in-store due to customers staying at home to self-isolate.

COVID-19 has already made a significant impact on the global economy, and the unfortunate lengths that it will go still remains to be seen. But as business owners look for new ways to sustain their businesses, new opportunities are appearing that can help mitigate COVID-19’s effect on your organization’s future. We hope the data above will help you make more informed decisions ahead.