Chicago Bulls x Shopify: NFT Store Collaboration

Shopify has just incorporated Sweet's NFT platform, and the Chicago Bulls have started an NFT distribution through Shopify. Brands will be permitted to retail their registered NFTs simply via their own shops using Shopify's digital shopping platform.

The Chicago Bulls, who have their own NFT web store, would be the first to utilize the functionality. NFTs are typically offered via a third-party market rather than explicitly by a brand's site. Brands may establish their own NFT shops using Shopify's technology.

Brands have less influence over the selling procedure with third-party markets, and they must drive customers to another channel. When companies opt to sell NFTs on a single platform, they have much lesser influence over the design, marketing, and brand positioning, which may not reflect the company's ideals.

Through top E-Commerce network Shopify, the NBA's Chicago Bulls have released NFTs representing six championship triumphs from the 1990s. Shopify is a global company that offers online stores and payment processing. On July 26, on Twitter, Shopify's chairperson, Harley Finklestein, confirmed the NFT drop.

The Chicago Bulls are one of Shopify's earliest collaborators to create an NFT store on the network, as per Finklestein, with Shopify's chairperson stating that the product will only be offered to a "selected few" in its early phases.

Sweet's NFT platform was linked to Shopify in May, letting users to create and trade NFTs straight via the renowned E-Commerce platform. Sweet supports NFTs that follow the Ethereum ERC-721 protocol, the SLP token standard, and the Flow blockchain from Dapper Labs. The NFTs for the Chicago Bulls were created on Flow, which also houses the NBA Topshot tokenized highlights collections.

The "Bulls Legacy Collection" will be issued in six installments, with each token honoring the club's six championship victories between 1991 and 1998. The first NFT went live on July 26 and has already sold out, with the second NFT set to go live in July. The final four NFTs will be released over the following four days.

Despite the current slowdown of the NFT market, revenues of NFTs exceeded 2.5 Billion USD in the first half of 2021. Coin Telegraph revealed on July 21 that OpenSea, a prominent NFT marketplace, has concluded a 100 million USD Series B investment round headed by venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz at a value of 1.5 billion USD, showing that venture capitalists remain positive on the NFT industry.

Retail investors are still keen to get their hands on valuable NFTs, with a single token from Tyson Fury's first NFT launch fetching over 1 million USD in an auction on July 16, and more than 32,000 individuals signing up to participate in modern artist Damien Hirst's second NFT drop last week.

As a result, in addition to solving these issues, Shopify's brand-managed NFT shops enable brands and consumers to connect, as well as advertise the platform to their target demographic. The NFTs are also randomly distributed to customers, which is a unique feature. The content and rarity of an NFT can only be discovered once the buyer opens it.