Crypto Rewards Drive Sales For Online Merchants

There’s an old adage that the best investments are the ones you don’t lose sleep over.

However, one might twist that thought a bit to read: Some of the best investments might be garnered in the pursuit of a good night’s sleep.

In recent months, PYMNTS has tracked interested in using cryptocurrencies in everyday transactions. Earlier this year, PYMNTS’ research showed that about 18% of the U.S. population — approximately 46 million people — would be interested in transacting with crypto. And more recently, data showed that two-thirds of users who have held cryptocurrencies purchased them to make a transaction. Another 53% purchased their crypto holdings in part due to fear of missing out.

Read more: Nearly 60% of Consumers Want to Buy Stuff With Crypto

Thus, the installed base of crypto users, holders and those with intent to spend is growing. For some retailers, offering crypto rebates and rewards can spur sales.

And in an interview with Karen Webster, Alexandra Zatarain, co-founder and vice president of Brand and Marketing at Eight Sleep, billed as the “world’s first sleep fitness company,” said crypto fits seamlessly within the lifestyles and values of younger consumers.

For those younger individuals, health and wellness — and a bit of enthusiasm for all things technological — are top of mind.

The conversation came against a backdrop where the company held a promotion last month, through which — under the tagline “invest in your sleep while investing into crypto” — Eight Sleep partnered with BitPay to give consumers $150 back in crypto. Those rebates were contingent upon purchasing Pod Pro or Pod Pro Cover. The Pod Pro is a smart mattress that tracks sleep patterns and features custom cooling and heating, and the Pod Pro Cover is a mattress pad with similar capabilities.

In a promotion scheduled to coincide with the end of daylight saving time, which ran in the U.S., Canada and Britain from Nov. 8-11, customers receiving their crypto rebates could sign up for BitPay and receive the equivalent of $150 as a rebate in the crypto of their choice, deposited into their BitPay wallets.

Granted, holding in crypto and being able to sleep at night may have an inverse correlation. Volatility is a hallmark of crypto no matter what one holds. And that $150 rebate is just as likely to crash as it is to skyrocket.

But beyond the vagaries of volatility, the convergence between crypto and the customers Sleep Eight is looking to serve is clear, Zatarain said. Like other cutting-edge device companies, Sleep Eight’s target market adopts “technology to improve their lives and into performance optimization. They want to be healthier, or they want to be richer. And they’d like to put more money into crypto. They have those aspirations.”

Those comments dovetail with PYMNTS own, earlier findings that tech-savvy millennials, bridge millennials and Generation Z consumers are the generations that are the most predominant crypto holders today. Significant percentages of those who own cryptos at present, or have owned them in the past, have incomes of at least $50,000 annually.

Zatarain said her firm has been featuring crypto as a payment option on its site for several months, hoping to bring the crypto community into what it dubs the “sleep fitness” movement.

The crypto-focused promotion helped lead to one of Eight Sleep’s most successful sales periods year to date — right up there with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, she said. Looking ahead, cryptocurrencies will remain a feature as the company moves beyond its current reliance on online channels and begins establishing “try and buy” initiatives — such as featuring Pods at select hotels — in the coming months.

“Very high engagement, great adoption,” she told Webster of the November promotion. “It was beyond what we were expecting — and we’re definitely going to bring back offers such as the crypto rebates.”