The recent Bitcoin Black Friday returned some encouraging results that demonstrate just how much the bitcoin ecosystem has grown and diversified since last year. Here are some stats on BitPay merchants from this year's BBF.
This year we saw an 82% increase in the number of merchants who completed transactions compared to last year's BBF. While last year many of the discounts and deals were for bitcoin related technology, like bitcoin mining equipment, this year a broader range of retailers were offering bitcoin-specific deals on a wider array of items.
From 2013 to 2014 we witnessed a shift in spending patterns. Last year a large portion of the transactions were for bitcoin mining equipment, while this year we saw more spending on traditional ecommerce merchandise. Both Gyft and NewEgg experienced their best day of bitcoin sales ever. Gyft had 62% more transactions this BBF than last year, while increasing the value of purchases by 139%. NewEgg set personal records for total dollar value of purchases, as well as number of transactions. Amagi Metals also had their highest amount of bitcoin orders in one day. Other merchants with notable volume on Black Friday include: TigerDirect, Adafruit and Namecheap.
With traditional Black Friday sales down 11% from last year, it's it's important to recognize that bitcoin is being used for a variety of traditional products and services now. This Bitcoin Black Friday may signify a move forward and toward mainstream acceptance of bitcoin.
