Established in December 2013, an online retail marketplace HighKart.com will be the first e-commerce website in India to accept 'Bitcoin payment' for products. Their objective is to make purchasing easy and secure for anybody who has internet access. Today, they are present across various categories including mobiles, cameras, and computers with a lot more to come.
Amit Kumar (31) is the CEO of the company. He has over 10 years of experience in IT and related business fields and has worked with IT giants like Infosys in the past to cater to large corporations like Boeing and Verizon. He recently developed the SMS-based systems and application for telecom in India. This is what Amit had to say about highkart when I interviewed him -
Krishna: Why the name highkart.com?
Amit: The concept originated from high level of customer service and high discount Pricing using pathbreaking cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Krishna: Why did you choose Bitcoin as your only payment method?
Amit: With Bitcoin the number of benefits associated are many, including very low / nil transaction fees, no chargebacks and no delays for starting to accept with an unprecedented security factor.
Krishna: When did you first come in contact with Bitcoin?
Amit: In the early days of year 2013.
Krishna: Have you previously been involved with eCommerce?
Amit: Yes. Have worked on board with several eCommerce ventures including Marketplaces, eTicketing and loyalty based system
Krishna: What is the size of highkart.com right now as an organization?
Amit: Currently we are a small team with total strength of 15 staff members. Looking forward to add more team members very soon.
Krishna: How did you get to where you are today?
Amit: By profession I am a technocrat and by passion I am an adamant entrepreneur. With these qualities in my background it became very necessary for me to look at the ever evolving cryptocurrency business model and taking it forward along with community support.
Krishna: How do you see yourself breaking out of the 'Bitcoin supporters only' e-commerce site barrier it seems like you have set up for yourself?
Amit: There is no need to look it at as a barrier as with technology up-gradation, advancement and acceptability it will have a much larger user base than usual payment systems. We are working very hard and with great community support looking forward to make the cryptocurrency as mainstream currency and not just virtual currency.
Krishna: How do you plan on dealing with the high volatility of Bitcoin?
Amit: We do not store Bitcoin with us and with great support from our payment processor we are able to encash it on same day, which reduces any kind of risk involved due to volatility of Bitcoin.
