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A Florida-based online computer and consumer electronics store that has been accepting bitcoin since January 2014 says it was a “fantastic experience”.

When TigerDirect announced its decision to accept bitcoin payments, it was one of the first major retailers to do so. A year and a half afterwards, the company is happy about its decision, according to an interview given to Bitcoin Magazine by Steven Leeds, head of marketing at TigerDirect.

Leeds says accepting bitcoin as a currency was instrumental in bringing company new customers: 46% of those who pay with bitcoin are new users. A bitcoiners also spends 30% more money per order than an ordinary client. The greatest number of expensive goods is purchased during the periods of high volatility, says Leeds:

“On days when the price is rising, we see users eager to spend some of their newfound wealth. And when the price begins falling, we see others who want to avoid the volatility by spending it on consumer electronics.”

TigerDirect may be an exception. Expedia reported a 40% decrease in bitcoin purchases. According to Connie Chung, payments manager at Expedia, with some merchants it amounts to 90%. CoinFox previously reported that in 2014 Overstock lоst $8000 on cryptocurrency holdings and during the first quarter of 2015 its digital currency assets are reduced by one-third. The success of TigerDirect among bitcoin enthusiasts could be explained by the specialization of the merchant: computer and electronics appeal to tech-savvy bitcoiners. Among them, there is a number of bitcoin miners who buy hardware from TigerDirect because with that company they don’t need to convert the bitcoins they have mined into fiat.

The company does not seem to keep assets into cryptocurrency, preferring to convert them into fiat:

“We’d recommend Bitcoin to any company considering it. We’ve had a fantastic experience accepting it, and BitPay allows us to integrate the payments into our existing checkout flow easily.”

Not all Redditors were enthusiastic about the interview. Some reported problems with TigerDirect, such as not getting a refund after paying in bitcoins. Others expressed doubts about the importance of bitcoin payments for the overall business of the company:

“When article about "fantastic growth" doesn't include a single sales figure, it typically means that those would be embarrassing to disclose.”

Still others were more positive:

“TigerDirect is a multi-billion dollar company. Of course Bitcoin is a tiny amount of their overall business. But it brings in new, higher volume customers, which is why they like it. It doesn't have to dominate their revenue for them to see huge potential value in it.”