If any of Shopify’s millions of merchants wants to sell NFTs, they don’t need to point customers to a dedicated marketplace like OpenSea or Magic Eden. Instead, they can mint and list NFTs through their existing storefront through one of Shopify’s blockchain apps. Venly now enables them to produce their NFTs on Avalanche. 

Today, Venly, a blockchain tech startup, publicized the growth of their Avalanche integration with their NFT creation application for Shopify. This layer-one blockchain foundation, which is advertised as a cheaper and more rapid alternative to popular NFT stage Ethereum, was before only accessible to specific Shopify clients but can now be used by any storeowner on the platform.

Shopify is an extensive ecommerce platform alleged to have operations that supply online businesses to millions of merchants worldwide. Moreover, Tobi Lütke, the CEO of the platform, is a strong supporter of Web3 technology and is currently a member of Coinbase’s Board of Directors.

No prior knowledge of Avalanche wallets nor handling cryptocurrency is necessary to purchase an NFT through Venly. Buyers are able to pay with traditional currencies like any credit card and they will receive a link to a recently made Avalanche wallet with the just-minted NFT inside, which they can then move to another wallet if they desire.

OpenSea Now Supports Avalanche Non-Fungible Tokens

Venly, launched in 2018 and providing blockchain wallet services, is among the blockchain technology app collaborators incorporated in the Shopify system. Other allies have presented users with means to develop NFTs via blockchain platforms like Ethereum and Flow before.

Tim Dierckxsens, the co-creator and chief executive of Venly, informed Decrypt that they had initially provided NFT minting utilities to companies and artists working on Shopify, yet they could see the rising necessity for an easy, code-free resource that anybody could employ to make non-fungible tokens. He also stated that Shopify requested they build an app to make it easier for its merchants to present NFTs to more widespread audiences. Dierckxsens shared with Decrypt that this marks a significant shift in the NFT space, and that individuals no longer need an understanding of cryptocurrency to purchase these assets.

Merchants using Shopify now have the ability to make use of Venly to offer up NFT collectibles to their customers. Additionally, they can use these tokens to give entry to exclusive experiences, or to authenticate with physical products. Dierckxsens believes that social media channels that link to Shopify stores could provide creators and artists with great strategies for the sale of NFTs.

Christina Lomazzo, Shopify Blockchain Ecosystem Lead, commented in a release that the company is devoted to reinforcing merchants who are offering NFTs to their customers on their storefronts, which helps to add to the progression of Web3 and extend what can be accomplished in the world of commerce.

Venly released its Shopify NFT creation tool on Polygon in late 2021. Avalanche is the next platform to be compatible with the feature, and Dierckxsens said there are plans for integrating Venly with Hedera and Immutable X in the near future.

Considering the fluctuating and oftentimes expensive fees of Ethereum's mainnet, Dierckxsens made it clear that there is a deliberate choice to prioritize layer-1 platforms and Ethereum layer-2 networks to create a low gas fee experience for customers. He noted that it would be unrealistic to ask the consumer to pay a transaction fee of anywhere between $20 to $100 when trying to purchase a mass market item. 

Despite its relatively low trading volume of $1.2 million in December (as reported by CryptoSlam), Avalanche has seen a growing number of users trading NFTs throughout the past year. Especially during the upsurge of Web3 gaming, this October OpenSea, a top notch NFT market, introduced support for Avalanche's NFTs.



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