‍

Consumer brands need a seamless multi-option payment system to satisfy customers and create a high-quality experience. 

‍

Web3 payments are growing in demand as consumers crave alternate options to purchase and engage with brands. These modernized payments involve AML/KYC compliance, digital wallets, blockchain, smart contracts, crypto, and dozens of tools to create a web3 ecosystem. 

‍

But here's the good news: With Mojito, brands easily accept payments with traditional methods like credit cards or bank information, alongside web3 digital payments. Mojito brings it all together so you can increase sales and meet customer demand without stress.

‍

Right now, brands have the opportunity to become pioneers in the consumer web3 shift. Customers can pay how they want—whether with a credit card or a cryptocurrency like Ethereum.

‍

Together, we'll dive into the uniqueness of web3 payments, blockchain and crypto, benefits, and how to integrate web3 no matter your adoption stage.

Unpacking web3 payments

Web3 digital payments are one component of the web3 ecosystem. Web3 is considered the third iteration of the internet. 

‍

Three phases were built on top of each other to create an immersive internet:

‍

Web1: This was the read stage. You could get information from a web page or use the internet as a reference. 

‍

Web2: The "write and publish" stage gave everyone the power to engage with each other through social media and other platforms that presented everyone with their own corner of the internet. 

‍

Web3: The phase we find ourselves in today is about digital ownership. Internet users can create something and own it as an asset. They can pay for products through various digital currencies. 

‍

The best brands have nurtured and serviced their customers through every iteration of the internet. Because of this, they became (and many remain) the biggest movers in the market. 

‍

Web3 ownership has the following characteristics:

1. New revenue streams

When customers buy a digital good from your brand, it's theirs. But for the first time, brands can add a new revenue stream through the re-sale of their digital goods. 

‍

If a customer wants to resell an NFT you minted, you can earn a percentage in royalties. Also, if someone sells an item in your marketplace (Mojito can power this with our white-label solution), you can receive a portion of the transaction.

2. Audit capability

Brands build their reputations on quality and customer experience (creating trust). It's vital to develop a payment environment that's transparent and secure for traditional and web3 payments.

‍

Web3 technologies provide transparency, automation, and audit capabilities. When someone makes a transaction, like a web3 payment or transfer of ownership, it’s recorded on a public ledger—the blockchain. 

‍

If it’s a digital asset like an NFT (non-fungible token), it has a unique identifier tied to you until you sell it. Since this is public information, everyone knows what data is shared and can verify its authenticity. 

‍

This allows brands and consumers to trace the provenance and transaction history of digital assets. This offers a safer and more transparent form of ecommerce.

‍

Not only are these benefits good for consumers, but they also add additional levels of safety and better responsibility standards for brands interacting with their customers and communities.

‍

Smart contract automation also helps save operational time, cost, and labor.

3. Digital ownership for customers

Thanks to the blockchain (a public ledger), platforms can integrate themselves with it, and users can ideally maneuver between spaces and apps. Consumers can own their digital assets outright.

‍

For example, customers can purchase your NFT in a marketplace with Mojito’s white-label solution. Since the token, provenance, and transaction are recorded on the blockchain, consumers own it no matter what marketplace they bought it from (like with a physical purchase). 

‍

Customers don't need a credit card company, the merchant bank, or the bank to communicate. Instead, they can transact directly with you—the merchant—and have immediate ownership. 

Everyone saves on fees and once that payment is sent, you don’t have to worry about chargebacks or losing on completed sales. Mojito makes the payment and integration experience easy and user-friendly, like the internet experience everyone loves today.

‍

More importantly, brands prevent becoming obsolete (like the iPhone apps Apple created that replaced everyday necessities) and can instead become definitive leaders in the market.  

4. Community and culture

Through token-gated access (when customers have exclusive access to a community, rewards, virtual events, or physical events because of NFT or similar ownership within your brand project), they can join other passionate customers and invest in your brand. 

‍

Web3 cultural identity plays a huge role. It’s the idea of freedom over your digital assets and data, fostering creativity and innovation. Web3 payments facilitate the buy-in as customers want to grow closer to your brand. 

5. Fast payments

Since web3 payment infrastructures do not rely on a centralized bank or intermediaries, the transactions settle immediately.

‍

Faster transactions provide multiple benefits to both the brand and the consumer. The first is better cash flow. Businesses have more control over their funds, with faster payments arriving in their accounts. 

‍

Another plus is a smoother experience. Customers can get their asset or reward as soon as they purchase it without waiting for delayed funds or a slow system. 

‍

Faster payments create a real-time approach to transactions to improve security, asset delivery, and overall experience. 

‍

Image credit: Reddit

‍

In July 2022, Reddit launched their ‘Collectible Avatars’ – 150,000 NFTs at $20-30 each for users to purchase (with fiat or crypto) to use as their profile pictures on Reddit. Roughly 3 million new wallets or ‘Reddit Vaults’ were created with the launch, generating ~$6 million for Reddit to-date, with $2.5 million of that from secondary royalties. 

‍

The successful drop was not only a win for Reddit, but for their community as well. Since all of the Avatars were purchased via user-owned ‘non-custodial’ wallets, they could easily choose to sell on secondary markets where the average price is around $114 for an Avatar. The rare "Cyber Snoo" avatar sold for as much as $24,149. Reddit users love showing off their Avatar, and have made requests for more in future.

‍

Reddit also gave users the ability to earn royalties on any future sales of their NFTs. While ~75% of their secondary trading volume has been on OpenSea, Reddit announced that it would be launching its own custom NFT marketplace in January of this year. 

‍

Our 0.02ETH 🍃

The Reddit community traditionally has been skeptical of crypto, and so the widespread positive reception of this launch was a great win. In large part due to its seamless user journey, making it easy for crypto newbies to stand up their own wallet and get their first NFT (using MPC wallet similar to Mojito’s). Everything about this drop was positioned to make NFTs more accessible and user-friendly and to pave the way for wider adoption of the technology.

‍

Reddit is taking an even deeper step into web3, with the launch of their custom marketplace, and this will allow them to enforce royalties (including payouts to Reddit users), as well as increased trust for new crypto user Reddit fans who don’t want to sift through the chaos of OpenSea.

‍

Signup for news, trends and analysis on tap. Join 2,000+ brand leaders going deeper into web3