How Amazon’s interest in NFTs could shake up the retail landscape — again
NEW YORK — Can Amazon’s entry into the digital NFT market have the same impact it did on e-commerce more than 20 years ago?
The recent announcement that Amazon is launching its own NFT marketplace in April, offering non-fungible tokens tied to the purchase of collectibles and physical clothing products, could be a game-changer for the nascent NFT market and possibly impact furniture and the interior design world down the road, according to one observer.
Yoni Mazor, Chief Growth Officer of GETIDA, which provides cloud-based refund solutions for Amazon sellers, said as the leading e-commerce platform, “Amazon has the trust of consumers right along with third-party sellers.
“By using NFT to increase security and trust in digital product ownership and payment processing, Amazon may have the opportunity to become a leading force that will push the digital e-commerce industry into the promise of the digital NFT era,” he said.
Amazon is reportedly exploring NFTs through the purchase of fashion items — for example, shoppers buy a physical item of clothing and receive a corresponding NFT in their account — which Mazor said could be a gateway for those not currently in the NFT collectibles market.
“By merging the NFT tool with regular consumer spending and, in this case, shopping for clothes, Amazon can try to instill in the market a habit of using and trusting NFT items until it becomes ubiquitous in the mass market,” he explained.
To aid this transition, Amazon is making NFT purchases more accessible to buyers through the use of their existing Amazon accounts, rather than requiring cryptocurrencies, several industry reports noted.
Although Amazon is starting with collectibles and apparel, Mazor said there is potential to move into furniture and home design.
“It could be a unique opportunity for highly admired brands, designers and artists to embed a digital NFT element into home decor,” he said. “Imagine your kitchen, living room or bedroom designed with a limited edition collection by a world-renowned designer, and you have NFT as ground-breaking proof of who the designer is and how, when and where it was designed. This can increase the overall value of your property in case the work of the famous designer becomes even more popular over time.”
NFTs, Mazor said, serve a few purposes, one of which serves “as a very interesting element of storytelling and value creation in the consumer market and popular culture.”
They also provide marketing and monetary value to consumers because they can use NFT to verify the authenticity of a product and carry that trust over when the item is resold. “This level of trust can definitely help with marketing … and deliver future value,” he said.
At this point, Mazor said, it’s hard to know the level of adoption of this new technology and the growth of Amazon’s role in it. “Nevertheless,” he said, “the sky really is the limit for mass adoption as people are now connected on a global scale more than ever before.”
