Gucci accepts payments in Apecoin. Italian luxury fashion house Gucci announced that it now accepts ApeCoin (APE) in a tweet on Thursday. The token will enable in-store purchases in select stores in the United States.
Gucci at the forefront of crypto-currencies
The Florence-based fashion giant started accepting cryptocurrencies in early May in a bid to woo the most crypto-friendly customers after the 2021 bull run.
Besides Bitcoin and Ethereum, Gucci has also started accepting payments from less established and renowned cryptocurrencies, such as Litecoin but especially Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
The latter enjoy a huge community, especially among the younger generations, which surely explains this choice made by the Italian haute couture house. Gucci customers can pay using a QR code emailed to them.
The president and CEO of the brand, Marco Bizzarri said on this subject
Gucci is always looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers.
Now that we are able to integrate cryptocurrencies into our payment system, it is a natural evolution for customers who wish to have this option.
Last month, one of the biggest names in fashion also invested $25,000 in the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) of the NFT SuperRare marketplace. In February, the luxury brand released a series of NFTs in partnership with toy brand Superplastic.
Other big names have also embraced digital fashion. Dolce & Gabbana unveiled its own collection of NFTs last September. German fashion house Philipp Plein, known for its particularly flashy outfits, started accepting cryptocurrency payments last August.
In April, Philipp Plein, the controversial designer behind the brand, predicted that his company would earn around $16 million from crypto enthusiasts this year.
ApeCoin, which launched last March, is the official cryptocurrency of the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem. Although it made waves after its launch, the token failed to maintain this momentum in less favorable market circumstances.
It currently sits in 31st place by market capitalization (behind competitors such as Bitcoin Cash and Monero). This is still an excellent performance for this token recently launched by Yuga Labs and who could benefit from this news?
Gucci pioneered luxury in Web 3
Gucci stands out from many of its competitors through its appetite for the world of Web3 and its many innovations. The Italian house was notably the first to sell a luxury NFT and recently purchased several plots within the Sandbox metaverse.
The SuperGucci and Gucci Grail NFTs notably allowed their owners to benefit from special access to pre-order a Gucci collection before its release to the general public. This move clearly links NFT collections and Gucci's nascent Web3 community to real-world consumption, which is significant for a luxury brand.
This announcement by Gucci caused another player in the crypto industry to react, namely the Vechain Foundation. The foundation in charge of the VET and the Vechain project has indeed proposed its offer of direct integration of Web3 services within the production lines in order, in particular, to easily allow the authentication of the products and their traceability.
We will see in the future if the Italian house responds favorably to this proposal.
The generation of millennials (born between 1981 and 1994), and generation Z (born between 1995 and 2010), represent more than 40% of spending in the luxury sector, according to a Mckinsey study.
In the crypto world, nearly 60% of them are owned by people under the age of 34, according to research firm Triple-A. So Gucci hopes to attract this type of customer and retain them over the long term!
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