NCR executives: merchant response to Bitcoin eclipsed Apple Pay – „accepting bitcoin was the right move for the brand”

Bitcoin has been the most well-received alternative payment method that NCR Silver has added to its point-of-sale (POS) platform, according to product manager Reggie Kimble. Speaking to CoinDesk.com about his company’s new partnership with bitcoin merchant processor BitPay, Kimble suggested that the addition of bitcoin payments has so far garnered more attention than integrations for options such as Apple Pay and PayPal.

Kimble said: „When you look at our past alternative payment methods, I would say this has probably been the most well-received in terms of people commenting and people reaching out proactively to ask questions about the offering.”

NCR Silver added bitcoin payments on 10th November, allowing small merchants to enable the payment option at their mobile POS terminals. The company added Apple Pay support on 9th September and enabled PayPal support in January 2013. Kimble called the reaction a surprising development, one that in turn allowed the more than 100-year-old POS terminal, ATM and payment kiosk provider to showcase how it is seeking to embrace payments innovation.

The product manager, who joined NCR in 2008, went on to state that NCR Silver aims to keep up with developments in the bitcoin space, adopting a „watch-and-learn” strategy.Prior to partnering with BitPay, Kimble indicated that NCR Silver had been monitoring bitcoin’s development at a distance. However, once the company began to learn more, Kimble said his team became convinced accepting bitcoin was the right move for the brand.

In particular, Kimble cited recent research that suggests 70% of small business owners are interested in accepting bitcoin, but don’t because their POS provider hasn’t yet integrated the payment option.
„The small business community is where our focus is,” Kimble said.

Kimble indicated that NCR has not yet gathered enough data on the bitcoin transactions it so far has processed, though the company may look to issue these figures at a later date.

Founded in 2012, NCR Silver is a subdivision of the NCR Small Business unit, functioning, according to Kimble, as a startup within the $6.1bn financial conglomerate.