Washington, May 6 (IANS): Italian luxury brand Gucci will start accepting payments in cryptocurrencies in some of its stores in the US.

Customers will be able to pay using a number of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, the BBC reported.

The service will be rolled out later this month at some of its flagship outlets, including Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles and New York's Wooster Street, the report said.

Gucci, owned by France's Kering, joins a growing number of companies that have started to accept virtual currencies, according to the BBC report.

The firm said it will also accept payments in Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, a so-called "meme" cryptocurrency that was originally created as a joke.

Customers paying in stores with cryptocurrencies will be sent an email with a QR code to use with a digital asset wallet, a financial transaction app that runs on mobile devices.

The brand said it plans to introduce the policy to all the North American stores it operates directly in the near future.

The announcement by such a high-profile brand marks another step forward for the acceptance of cryptocurrencies by mainstream businesses.

Gucci is the latest big name to announce that it will take cryptocurrency as payment.

Some of the world's biggest brands now accept digital currencies, including technology giant Microsoft, US telecoms firm AT&T and coffee chain Starbucks.