Shopify sellers can now sell Avalanche NFTs through their online stores

If any of Shopify’s millions of sellers want to sell NFTs, they do not need to refer customers to a dedicated marketplace such as OpenSea or Magic Eden. Instead, they can create and list NFTs through their existing storefront through one of Shopify’s blockchain apps. Thanks to Friendlythese NFTs can now be stamped on Avalanche.

Venly, a blockchain technology startup, announced the expansion of Avalanche support today through its Shopify NFT coining app. The Layer-1 blockchain platform, which is billed as a faster and cheaper alternative to the top NFT platform Ethereumwas previously only available to select Shopify users, but is now offered to all sellers on the platform.

Shopify is a major e-commerce platform that powers online stores for millions of merchants worldwide, the company claims. CEO Tobi Lütke is a Web3 advocate who also sits on the board on the crypto exchange Coinbase.

Buyers do not need to have an existing Avalanche wallet to purchase an NFT, according to Venly, nor do they need to handle cryptocurrency. Instead, they can pay with fiat money (like with a credit card) and will then receive a link to a newly created Avalanche wallet with the newly minted NFT inside, which they can then transfer elsewhere if they want.

Venly, which was founded in 2018 and also offers blockchain wallet solutions, is one of several blockchain app partners integrated into the Shopify ecosystem. Other partners have provided users with tools to create NFTs on the blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and Flow in the past.

Tim Dierckxsens, co-founder and CEO of Venly, told Decrypt that it first offered NFT embossing tools to brands and artists on Shopify, but that it saw a growing demand for a simple, no-code tool that any merchant could use to create NFTs. He said Shopify asked Venly to develop an app for its merchants to enable streamlined NFT sales to regular users.

“I think it’s one of the biggest developments [for NFTs] where this can be taken to a mass market, said Dierckxsens Decrypt“and you don’t need to understand the necessity of crypto to make the purchase.”

Shopify sellers can sell NFT collectibles through Venly as well offer NFT token gated experiences, or linking NFTs to physical products for authentication, along with other potential use cases. Dierckxsens also believes there is significant potential for creators and artists to sell NFTs through social media channels that can integrate or point to Shopify stores.

“Our growing blockchain ecosystem demonstrates our commitment to supporting merchants as they sell NFTs directly through their storefronts, helping to further increase participation in Web3 and expand what’s possible in commerce,” said Shopify Blockchain Ecosystem Lead Christina Lomazzo in a publication.

Venly first launched the Shopify NFT minting tool on Polygonit Ethereum scaling network, in late 2021. Avalanche is the second network to be supported, and Dierckxsens said Venly plans to add support for NFTs made through Hedera and Ethereum scaling network Immutable X in the future.

Focusing on layer-1 platforms and the Ethereum layer-2 network with low gas fees for customers is intended, he said Decrypt. Ethereum mainnet gas fees can vary widely and be costly, although they do not seem to fluctuate as wildly as they did during first NFT buying frenzy in 2021.

“You can’t sell a mass market item and expect end users to pay around $20 to $100 in transaction fees,” Dierckxsens said.

Although NFT trading volume on the platform is relatively low—about $1.2 million worth in December, per data from CryptoSlam—Avalanche has seen increasing NFT adoption over the past year. Top NFT Marketplace OpenSea added support for Avalanche NFTs in October in the middle growth of Web3 games on the platform during 2022.