Accepting Bitcoin at a retail shop:
a practical guide

Retail is different from restaurants

Restaurants have captive customers — people sit down, eat, and pay. The payment happens at a fixed point and the transaction is straightforward. Retail is messier: customers browse, ask questions, change their minds, and might pay for very different amounts depending on what they pick up.

Crypto works in retail — but knowing the friction points ahead of time makes setup much smoother than figuring it out on the fly.

Setting up your counter

The physical setup matters more in retail than almost any other business type. You're asking customers to do something unfamiliar — often with a line behind them. Make it frictionless:

• Display the QR code prominently. OrangeTill lets you generate a static QR code for a specific amount, or a dynamic one you enter at checkout. For retail, the dynamic checkout flow works best — you enter the total and display the QR on a tablet or phone screen facing the customer.
• Add a "We Accept Bitcoin" sign. Many customers don't ask — they assume you don't take crypto. A small sign at the register changes the conversation. OrangeTill's window sticker (available through our Moo.com partnership) is designed exactly for this.
• Train your staff on the one-sentence answer. They need to be able to say: "You just scan the QR code on the screen with your Bitcoin or Coinbase app and confirm the amount." That's it.

Which coins to accept in retail

For most retail shops, we recommend starting with two options:

Handling variable totals

In retail, the final total changes based on what the customer buys. OrangeTill handles this naturally — you simply enter the final dollar amount at checkout and the app generates a QR code for exactly that amount. There's no pre-set amount required.

For busier stores, consider setting up OrangeTill on a dedicated tablet or secondary screen so the QR code faces the customer while you manage the register on a separate device.

What to do about partial Bitcoin payments

Occasionally a customer wants to pay part in crypto and part in cash or card. OrangeTill doesn't handle split-tender natively — the cleanest approach is to run the cash/card portion through your existing POS first, note the remaining balance, and then generate a crypto QR code for that exact amount. Takes about 30 extra seconds and works cleanly.

Returns and exchanges

Returns are your biggest crypto policy question. The cleanest approach:

1. Decide before you launch: store credit only, or full Bitcoin refund?
2. Post the policy clearly at the register and on receipts.
3. For Bitcoin refunds, send from your wallet back to the customer's address for the original amount. The customer's wallet address will be in your OrangeTill transaction history.
4. For store credit, issue a note for the dollar amount — no crypto movement required.

Many retail merchants choose store credit for crypto returns to avoid the complexity of outgoing transactions. This is a perfectly reasonable policy as long as it's disclosed upfront.