How to Start an Online Business Using Gift Cards

Thinking about how to start your own business from home but don’t know where to start? Starting and running a small business for the first time can be undeniably difficult. However, that doesn’t always have to be the case, especially when you maximize the power of the Internet, the potential of cryptocurrency, and an all-around platform like Paxful. Here’s a simple guide on how you can start your own dropshipping business from home using gift cards bought on Paxful.

Things You Will Need For Your Dropshipping Business

🛒 E-commerce Platform Account

The first thing you’ll need is to prepare an account from your preferred e-commerce platform. If you want to reach a broader market, you can set up an account on e-commerce platforms like eBay, Amazon, or Shopify. You can also set up your online store and list your products and services on Facebook Marketplace.

It’s important to know the guidelines, customer support, costs and fees, marketplace traffic, and other rules set up and offered by the e-commerce platform you’re using. Doing so will help you gauge if a marketplace closely matches your online business operations and needs.

💲 Payment Processor Account

You can try signing up for online banking to make transferring, managing, and tracking payments faster and more convenient. You can also try some popular and credible online wallets available in your area to offer more payment options for your customers. It’s important to create two separate payment processor accounts for your business. The first would be the principal or main account directly connected to your online store, where customers’ payments are received. The second account will serve as your wallet or fund storage. This is where you’ll send and keep the funds from your primary account. Transferring your funds from the primary account to the secondary account right away can save you from potential chargebacks.

✅ Verified Paxful Account

Once you setting up your e-commerce platform and payment processor, the next thing to do is opening a Paxful Account. On Paxful you can buy gift cards of diferent brands at discounted prices (up to 50%). After signing up you get a FREE Paxful Wallet where you can easily store, send, receive and track your Bitcoin. Be sure to complete all the necessary account verification steps. This includes confirming your email address, phone number, ID, and residential address. Verifying your account is essential, whether you’re using Paxful for personal or business purposes. Apart from allowing you to enjoy exclusive platform features and more suitable offers, it also boosts your credibility and trustworthiness as a crypto trader. 

🛍️ Products You Would Like To Sell

You need to strategically choose the items you want to sell. To enhance your dropshipping business with gift cards, we recommend selling products such as: shoes, clothes, accessories, makeup, home and office furniture, videogames as you can buy these items using gift cards. You can buy said gift cards in Paxful for up to half the price. This is where you’ll get your profit!

How To Use Crypto And Gift Cards To Power Your Business

Let's now talk about how to build your online store and make gift cards work for your business using Paxful.

✔ Setting up your online store 

To make it easier for your customers to navigate your online store, you can include as many important details as possible. This includes photos, product name, description, item variations, condition—whether it’s new or used—and availability of the products you offer. The sales competition in online marketplaces is exceptionally high. One of the most effective ways to attract customers to buy your products is to give them competitive or marked down rates—the higher the discount, the better. Offering items with 10 to 20 percent cheaper prices than the suggested retail price (SRP) can grab customers’ attention right away. Categorizing your products will also help your customers to navigate through your online store easily.

✔ Setting up your preferred payment method 

Many e-commerce websites allow you to use third-party payment gateways, while some only accept built-in payment processors. Often, online marketplaces that enable third-party payment processors charge extra fees—another thing to watch out for. When it comes to setting up a payment method for your online store, it’s important to consider the most accessible options for you and your customers. This includes banks, online wallets, and other secure third-party financial service providers. Keep in mind that you might need payment processors that are globally accepted. 

✔ Accepting orders from the online store 

It’s important to confirm the receipt of your customer’s order. Doing this will let them know if the order they placed has pushed through. You can also consider accepting pre-orders to avoid shouldering the expenses should a buyer cancel their order. Another essential thing to include in your product information is the available shipping options and fees.

✔ Using the customer’s payment to buy BTC on Paxful 

Once you’ve received your customer’s payment in your primary payment processor account, it’s better to transfer it to your secondary account to avoid the possibility of chargebacks. You’ll use this fund to buy fractions of Bitcoin on Paxful. There are many ways to buy BTC on Paxful, including the most popular payment method in your country.

✔ Buying gift cards on Paxful 

Paxful also allows you to sell your Bitcoin and get paid in gift cards from 125 brands worldwide. To use crypto in your online business, you can sell amounts of it for gift cards from specific brands at a much lower price. Let’s say a customer ordered cosmetic products from your store; you can buy a gift card with a value of 100 USD for a discounted rate of only 70 USD worth of BTC on Paxful. Note that it’s better to consume the gift card right away, so you can immediately check the gift card’s value or balance. 

 ✔ Buying products with gift cards 

For the next step, go to the online retailer’s website, load the gift card to your account, and buy your customer’s order using the gift card credit. Note that it’s better to ship the product to your address as many online marketplaces have strict rules about changing the shipping address and frequent changes might get your account banned.

 ✔ Shipping the product to your customer 

Once the item is delivered to you, you then ship it to your customer right away. Don’t forget to update the product’s delivery status, so your customer will know its estimated date of arrival.

Applying The Steps In Real Life Business Process

Let’s say Emily (dropshipper) created an online store on a popular e-commerce site where she sells makeup and skincare products of a popular brand. To attract more customers in a highly competitive online beauty market, Emily sells her products at much lower prices and offers a 10 to 20 percent discount. She also signed up for a paid subscription to enjoy the platform’s exclusive perks for sellers and accepts transactions from the most popular and accessible payment options to make store purchases easier and more convenient. Kate (customer) saw Emily’s online store and placed an order for an eyeshadow palette. Since Emily’s products have marked down prices, Kate got her makeup with a 15% discount. Emily receives Kate’s payment in her online wallet that is directly linked to her online store. To avoid potential chargebacks, Emily transferred the funds to her other bank account right away. After that, Emily logs in to her Paxful account to buy Bitcoin using bank transfer. Once Emily has enough BTC in her account, she then looks for competitive gift card offers with a 20 to 50 percent discount and sells her BTC in exchange for the gift card of a popular makeup retailer. Emily then uses the gift card to buy Kate’s eyeshadow palette from the makeup retailer’s online store and waits for the item to be delivered to her address. When the package arrives at Emily’s doorstep, she then ships it to Kate. Emily can earn a 5 to 35% profit from this transaction depending on the discount she got when she bought the gift card.

 Are you ready to start your online venture? 

It’s important to note that just like any new endeavor or financial opportunity with BTC and other digital currencies, gift card trading can also be tricky. That’s why learning the ins and outs of Bitcoin trading is a must if you plan to start an online business with gift cards. We’re pretty sure you’ll get the hang of it as time goes on. Does this sound like something you would be interested in? Get your hands on crypto and gift cards through Paxful to kick start and grow your dropshipping business today.

Practical Ways to Make Money With Bitcoin in 2022

Over the last few years, Bitcoin has gained popularity as the number one form of decentralized currency. Its creator might remain a mystery up to this day, but one thing’s for sure: there are lots of opportunities for you to make money with Bitcoin today. There are many options to choose from and deciding the best path isn’t always easy. To make things a bit simpler for you, we’ve compiled a list of tips on how to make money with Bitcoin from. Let’s get started!

1. Buy And Hold Bitcoin

If you’re thinking how to make money with Bitcoin without putting in too much effort, the buy and hold strategy is your best option. Buying and holding BTC is one of the most straightforward and beginner-friendly ways to earn money with crypto. Here’s how it works: 

1. Create a Paxful account—you’ll receive a free Bitcoin Wallet upon signing up!
2. Buy Bitcoin with Bank Transfer or choose from nearly 400 payment options.
3. Hold on to your BTC and wait for spikes in price—no matter how long that may take.

You could wait days, months, or even years before you decide to sell. That’s the beauty of buying and holding. This technique has become so popular; there’s even an internet name for it HODL acronym for Hold On for Dear Life.

Difficulty: Very Easy
Speed: Slow

2. Earn Interest On Your Crypto

If you’re looking to use your Bitcoin to preserve wealth, a new helpful tool might be your best bet. Paxful Earn allows you to earn even more money by gaining interest on your crypto weekly. Every Tuesday, to be exact. It works like a savings account where you keep your money but with more opportunities to make extra cash.

Difficulty: Easy

Speed: Fast

3.Accept BTC Payments For Your Products And Services

As Bitcoin continues to grow, we're starting to see more businesses accept BTC payments for their services. So if you're already running a business and want to more money with Bitcoin, why not considering Bitcoin as payment for your service or product?

Integrating BTC into your payment system will expand your reach and make transactions more accessible to customers who don’t have bank accounts or credit cards. The best part is that it’s incredibly easy to start accepting BTC payments. 

If you’re running a physical establishment, you can start by simply putting up a small sign at your storefront and beside your cash register. If your business is online, you can put a banner on your home page or use a payment intermediary like Paxful Pay and fully integrate it into your website. Customers can just send funds directly to your Bitcoin wallet.

Difficulty: Easy

Speed: Fast

4. Trade Bitcoin

If HODLing is long-term investing, Bitcoin trading is the fastest way to earn money. Essentially, BTC trading means taking advantage of its highly volatile nature. This method requires practice and knowledge of the market, so be sure to do your homework before giving it a shot.

Here are a few trading strategies  you can try out to make money with Bitcoin: 

• Day Trading– This approach entails short and quick trades, allowing opportunities for small and fast profits. Day traders don’t hold open positions overnight, so this method carefully analyzes the market, sees small money-making opportunities, and capitalizes for a small profit. At the end of the session, day traders could have a significant cumulative gain. 
• Swing Trading – If HODLing is long-term and day trading is short-term, swing trading is kind of in the middle. Like HODLers, swing traders will buy low, wait long enough to see their holdings increase in price, and then sell high. However, their holding time isn’t as long as a HODLer and isn’t as short as a day trader. 
• Arbitrage – Bitcoin arbitrage is similar to the styles above. However, instead of looking for money-making opportunities within the same exchange, traders who use arbitrage look for those opportunities across different platforms. In essence, they buy BTC from exchange A then sell it at exchange B for a higher price. 

These methods require a lot of practice, so don’t expect to get it right on the first try. You can also try the simple strategy for earning money from Bitcoin Trading on Paxful. This involves buying BTC and selling it for a profit. Note that on Paxful, you have nearly 400 payment options to choose from and bank transfer has the lowest fees among the payment groups. You can use it to buy Bitcoin and make a significant profit by taking advantage of the offer margins. 

Difficulty: Medium
Speed: Fast

5. Play Bitcoin & Ethereum Games Where You Can Earn Money

Yes, you can earn money and have fun at the same time! Bitcoin Play To Earn Games like Bitcoin Alien Run and Sparkprofit. Recently, non-fungible token (NFT)  have started to emerge. 

Some of the most popular blockchain games you can try are Axie Infinity, CryptoBlades, and My DeFi Pet, among others. While it takes more effort than micro jobs, we’ll say Bitcoin games are probably more fun than completing a survey.

Difficulty: Medium
Speed: Medium

6. Mine Bitcoin

Bitcoin mining was one of the first ways to obtain BTC, where miners used powerful computers to solve complex mathematical problems. When they crack the code, they’re rewarded with newly-minted BTC. It’s a race to see who can solve the block the fastest and those lucky enough to do so reap the rewards.

Back in the day, mining wasn’t as complicated. Some of the earliest miners could make money by mining Bitcoin using just their home computers. Now it’s different. To mine in today’s BTC scene, you’ll need top-tier equipment, which can set you back a few thousand bucks. 

You can join Bitcoin mining pools or mining clouds to give yourself a fighting chance. A Bitcoin mining pool is a collaborative group of miners who combine their computing power to solve complex mathematical problems faster. A Bitcoin mining cloud is similar, but they use the cloud to connect their computing power. That way, they won’t have to install and run the hardware and related software directly. 

As the competition gets fiercer, you’ll need better equipment and you have to run your operation with maximum efficiency to generate profit. Do plenty of research before getting into mining because there are many easier ways to earn money with Bitcoin.

Difficulty: Hard
Speed: Slow

7. Start Your Own Dropshipping Business

If you’re planning to put up your  online store, accepting Bitcoin isn’t only the way to incorporate cryptos into your business. Dropshiping, for example, is another approach you can try. You can sell Bitcoin in exchange for gift cards from hundreds of global brands. This includes clothing, electronics, accessories, groceries, and a lot more.

On Paxful, you can buy gift cards at a lower price for up to half off! You can use these gift cards to purchase items for your online store. Then, you can sell the items at your online store at a suggested retail price. This is where you’ll get your profit.

Let’s say your customer ordered a limited edition pair of shoes. You can buy gift cards of the shoe brand on Paxful at a cheaper price and use them to buy the shoes at the online store. Once you have the item, you will ship it to your customer’s address. You’ll make a decent profit from the gift cards you used to buy the shoes.

How to Start an Online Business Using Gift Cards?

Thinking about how to start your own business from home but don’t know where to start? (Read the article to know more)