GM DOers!
Amazon launching its own NFT marketplace…in a bear market!
That wasn’t on our 2023 bingo card, but it sure does make us bullish for this year.
While the timing may be unexpected, Amazon's experience in building successful marketplaces gives it the potential to disrupt the web3 space, which has struggled to bridge the gap between digital and physical goods.
As the world's largest e-commerce giant, Amazon has a significant advantage.
The question now is whether Amazon has the vision and execution to take web3 mainstream.
Let's dig deeper.…
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Amazon’s NFT Marketplace - What, When, and How?
Here’s what we know so far.
Amazon plans to launch its NFT marketplace on April 24th, with 15 collections initially available for purchase by Amazon Prime customers in the U.S. The marketplace will gradually roll out to other parts of the world as well.
Given that there are over 200 million Amazon Prime customers worldwide, this could be a significant development for web3. Huge!
While specific details are currently scarce, Amazon is expected to make its Digital Marketplace experience user-friendly for web2 users.
This means that existing customers will be able to use their Amazon accounts to add NFTs to their cart and pay for them using a debit or credit card.
It's also possible that the NFTs available for purchase may represent more than just digital collectibles.
Customers may be able to redeem an actual physical item available on Amazon's Marketplace by purchasing an NFT, delivered to them by Amazon's own delivery service.
This could be a 1-to-1 NFT item that represents an identical real-world product, or a range of products that can be redeemed depending on the rarity and price of the NFT.
While this opportunity has great potential for Amazon, users, and businesses, questions about self-custody wallet options, data privacy, and other details remain.
However, it would be a significant missed opportunity for Amazon if they fail to bridge the gap between web2 and web3.
Let's dig deeper…
Amazon’s Web3 Playbook
Amazon has been getting more involved in web3.
From hiring web3 natives for AWS, to partnering up with Avalanche to bring blockchain solutions to enterprise customers, Amazon’s getting its feet wet.
And now, they’re upping their NFT game. 🚀
With the launch of its NFT marketplace, Amazon is positioning itself to become a formidable force in the NFT space, especially given the fact that they already have an enormous e-commerce marketplace in which digital and physical goods are traded left and right.
It’s simple. Amazon has an existing customer base in the hundreds of millions. It knows how to build marketplaces. And it has all the connections, reputation, and infrastructure, both digital and physical, to pull anything off.
OpenSea should be watching closely, as it’s about to get ugly. 😰
Amazon and OpenSea may soon become fierce competitors. Why? Because Amazon has the capital, and the track record, to pursue a ruthless race to the bottom by subsidizing their marketplace in order to eliminate competitors and attract customers.
They’ve done it before, they can do it again.
Are you new to the predatory (and unsustainable) tactics employed by new NFT marketplaces competing against OpenSea? Hint: bribes through airdrops, and other shenanigans. Read more about the tokenomics and incentives of NFT marketplaces in our recent PRO Report.
But it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, because, compared to LooksRare or Blur, Amazon has A LOT more to bring to the table, not just hype and cheap incentives.
Amazon can provide extra features for NFT buyers and sellers. They could tap into the rest of its web2 marketplace, offering unique deals by mixing together digital collectibles and physical redeemables. 👟
OpenSea and others cannot do these things out of the box. This alone should give us a hint as to how powerful an e-commerce-web3 fusion Amazon could create.
Just how powerful?
How Amazon Will Flip E-Commerce on its Head With Web3
Let’s unveil the massive scope of the Amazon marketplace and why we think it's a game-changer in the world of web3-powered e-commerce. 👀
There are 2 big things we see that could come from this, assuming Amazon does it right 😉:
👉 This move will be incredibly powerful for creators and businesses, as they will now be able to get a much deeper insight into who their customers really are.
By having their physical goods linked to a digital collectible, which itself is linked to a wallet, their other relevant on-chain activities will be visible (with their permission, of course).
Now, a customer's digital collectibles, niche social communities, event/party attendance badges will help businesses build a stronger sense of how best to tailor their product to them, as well as reward them with customized discounts, whitelists, airdrops, and more.
It will become much easier for companies to provide other experiences and perks to their users across the web, not just Amazon's platform.
For example, a fitness gear NFT with their physical redeemables sold on Amazon could now be used to seamlessly offer an exclusive access to a token-gated fitness app, or discounts and free merch at a fitness center who happens to be a partner of the company.
👉 Furthermore, having unique digital identifiers tied to physical goods would allow brands to, for example, take pre-sales of an upcoming sneaker collection to a whole new level.
Why?
Because NFTs allow for inventory management and additional revenue from secondary sales. Before the sneaker collection is delivered, owners of the NFTs could sell it to others in the meantime, whereby both Amazon and the brands could take a cut from. Then, when the sneakers are ready owners can burn or activate the NFT to have them delivered.
Not to mention, brands can connect with their most dedicated fans in ways that transcend a simple transaction.
From granting sneaker NFT owners access to exclusive events, to gifting a free redeemable sneaker NFT of a future collection that they can choose to either sell or keep.
Again, the possibilities are endless!
And seeing how Amazon has such deep ties to the physical world, has mastered distribution of goods both in digital and physical spaces, and has their own infrastructure to do so, an NFT marketplace on their platform just makes sense.
But can they build a great web3 product that aligns with the web3 vision?
Time will tell...⏳
🤝 Together with SegMint: Revolutionizing the way we think of digital ownership.
Wouldn't it be cool to buy and hold parts of an expensive NFT and share its ownership and utility, like airdrops or exclusive access?
Well, say hello to SegMint.
SegMint is a non-custodial NFT platform set to launch in Q3 of this year and aims to allow users to easily create access keys and share ownership of NFTs with friends and community members.
The team is going through their Beta release soon and has opened up their waitlist for Web3 Academy listeners.
If you want to stay at the forefront of web3, sign up for SegMint's waitlist today!
Uncover More of Web3’s Latest News
- Coinbase is now offering Wallet-as-a-Service, allowing companies to easily create and deploy their own wallets: Source
- Snoop Dogg is launching a new web3 streaming app called “Shiller”: Source
🟣 Hold on, DOers!
As lifelong learners, you have to put in the (home)work…even during the weekends. 😉
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Blockchains operate like businesses. But are any of them profitable? And if not, what are the implications for their futures? Read our latest PRO report for more on-chain analysis: Business of Blockchains
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