Salesforce continues with the controversial NFT Cloud pilot
Salesforce will continue with NFT Cloud, a new non-fungal token marketplace, despite employee protests earlier this year.
Salesforce NFT Cloud will be a code-free platform that enables users to create, manage and sell NFTs, said Adam Caplan, senior vice president of emerging technology at Salesforce. NFT Cloud is currently in a closed pilot, and Salesforce plans to make it available in October.
NFTs are controversial for several reasons, including security concerns, the unregulated nature of NFTs as financial assets and the impact they place on the environment when associated with the Ethereum blockchain, said John Hughes, an NFT technology consultant and CEO of NearMintNFT. . a marketplace under development for comic book artists to sell original digital artwork.
All three concerns were raised in a letter of protest signed by 400 Salesforce employees in February last year when Salesforce first announced its plans for NFT Cloud, Reuters reported. Salesforce did not comment to SearchCustomerExperience on its employees’ concerns.
Salesforce NFT Cloud will only support transactions on energy-efficient blockchains, such as proof of effort; it will not support the more energy-intensive proof-of-work blockchains, the company said. This is in line with Salesforce’s long-established claims to support sustainability. While company spokespersons did not mention which blockchains will be supported when the closed pilot ends, they also said that Salesforce does not intend to create its own blockchain.
NFTs come with risk, rewards
Salesforce NFT employee kerfuffle is a microcosm of what can happen to any company that joins NFTs, Hughes said. Salesforce users who eventually use NFT Cloud must be prepared to respond to negative accusations related to NFTs. They will inevitably come.
“I’ve heard them all, [but] If you have legitimate reactions to calm the fear, people will react, “Hughes said.” All the artists I have approached have said the same thing to me: ‘Oh, these things are a rip-off, and they are bad for the environment. ‘”
When a company proves that it is an ethical NFT broker who takes safety and sustainability into account – and makes it a team effort in collaboration with marketing staff – it is possible to build success with an NFT program, Hughes said. The blockchain platforms Salesforce chooses to integrate with NFT Cloud will be crucial to sway skeptical users, he added. For example, the Solana blockchain uses about as much energy as two Google searches to create an NFT.
To use NFTs most effectively, Hughes said, Salesforce users should think of NFTs less as collectibles or artefacts, and more as next-generation loyalty programs for their best customers. Built on the blockchain and backed by smart contracts, NFTs can be modified instantly to change terms – and unlock both physical and digital rewards – as customers engage more with a company. Some clothing companies, including Gap and PacSun, have found marketing success with NFTs linking digital goods with real-world garments.
Businesses and individuals who sell NFTs as assets, such as artists, can also use smart contracts to control resale terms, including the original creator’s share of future resale – a common NFT ownership scheme.
NFTs will provide more quality data for marketers than loyalty apps, websites and cards, Hughes predicted. In addition, they offer companies a boost into the digital worlds where consumers – especially younger audiences – spend more and more time. NFTs become assets in the digital world.
“This is real. It sounds like a crazy thing that people want to buy digital art that lives on their phone,” Hughes said. “Everyone under 30 lives on their unit.”
Commerce Cloud updates
The news of the upcoming Salesforce NFT Cloud came with several other marketing and e-commerce features related to Salesforce Connections, a user conference aimed at Salesforce administrators and others who manage Salesforce cloud applications in their companies. Salesforce collectively refers to them as “pioneers”.
In a pilot starting this month with a planned release for September, Commerce Cloud users will be able to sell on TikTok by switching to the site as their own sales channel in Commerce Cloud’s social media channels; Salesforce plans to add it to the console along with other social media apps, such as Snapchat and Instagram. Users will be able to automate catalog product feeds into the TikTok app, as well as measure ad performance and segment audiences for ad retargeting with TikTok Pixel.
“We make it much easier for salespeople to engage with channels on all social channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat [and create] relevant offerings for their customers through automated feeds and couriers, “said Scot Gillespie, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Salesforce Commerce Cloud.” Payments, speed and flexibility continue to be critical to our customers. “
Salesforce also launched Commerce for Customer Service, a set of features that gives agents a customer’s order history across channels and enables returns, exchanges, promotions or complete orders from the agent console. It is available now. The Commerce Marketplace, which allows Salesforce users to set up their own marketplaces to sell their own merchandise along with other companies’ merchandise, launches in September.
Don Fluckinger covers enterprise content management, CRM, marketing automation, e-commerce, customer service and enabling technologies for TechTarget.
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