The current era of technological advancements sees us interacting with blockchains extensively. According to Statista, With non-fungible tokens (NFTs) projected to generate a revenue exceeding 1.6 billion dollars in 2023, we should not underestimate how prominent these tokens will be in this decade. NFT marketplaces continue dominating the market, as most enthusiasts and businesses interact heavily on these platforms.
Such prominence has kindled numerous entrepreneurial minds to launch an NFT marketplace app with novel and proprietary features. We will see the process behind building such a marketplace platform catering to a wider market by making it compatible to work in multiple platforms.
NFT Marketplaces: The Current Trend
As far as the NFT marketplace trends in 2023 are concerned, there have been many frontiers that businesses focused on. Especially, established ventures like OpenSea and Rarible integrated NFT aggregation facilities into marketplaces, providing a more technical option for professional NFT traders. Even platforms like Blur and Uniswap NFT Aggregator have been giving tough competition to mainstream marketplaces.
While generic NFT marketplaces continue dominating platform rankings, businesses based on niches such as gaming and generative art have emerged to gain a pivotal position. The trend is expected to continue till the rest of the year as more people enter the world of NFTs in different capacities.
How Do Businesses Benefit from Developing an NFT Marketplace?
Businesses aspiring to build an NFT marketplace app generally think so due to the benefits the platform offers. Some of them include the following:
- The presence of Diverse Remuneration Streams means businesses can garner some revenue at all times, irrespective of market conditions and trends.
- The possibility of having Huge Community Support enables ventures to expand into other facets of the NFT market, like gaming, virtual worlds, and financial services.
- Creating Partnerships with Real-world Brands allows an NFT marketplace app venture to captivate audiences beyond the known NFT community, strengthening its brand value.
- The Usage of Decentralized Digital Ledgers for storing and managing transaction data eliminates concerns of data breaches and hacks common with conventional server-based systems.
Should You Launch an NFT Marketplace App?
If you are an entrepreneur or a brand executive considering delving into the NFT space as a business, chances are you might have come across considering an NFT marketplace. If you have seen the Web3 news for long enough, you might have known the intense battle between various marketplace ventures currently.
While such competition might be disheartening to face as a debutant in the NFT business space, focusing on novel provisions will enable you to launch an NFT marketplace app and gain recognition. As more and more people adopt NFTs into their daily lives, operating an NFT marketplace application becomes a viable option to work in the long run.
Top 20 Most Popular NFT Marketplaces
Elaborating the Process of NFT Marketplace App Development
NFT marketplace app development is an extensive process spanning numerous steps that include various technological stacks.
- Business Planning
- Hiring Professionals for the Process
- Prototype Creation
- Front-End Design
- Smart Contract Development
- Third-Party Services Integration
- Testing and Troubleshooting
- Marketing and Launching
- Continued Maintenance and Upgrades
We will see each of these steps in detail in the upcoming sections.
Business Planning
The first step when you decide to launch an NFT marketplace app is to plan for the business. The process involves researching market trends, niche research, competitors, and community opinions to come up with pain points you wish to address. You should decide on the solution you offer customers addressing the pain points you have identified.
Plan the NFT marketplace solution surrounding the features that resolve the pain points so that users will be greeted with exclusive experiences. Also, plan your thematics and visuals for the NFT marketplace according to the niche you wish to focus on to attract users.
Hiring Professionals for the Process
The next step is to hire professionals to develop the NFT marketplace app. The process requires expertise in blockchain technology and smart contracts, and utilizing the services of experienced professionals is suggested. You can either hire personnel to form your own team of developers or partner with an NFT marketplace development company.
Both pathways come with their own merits and challenges. While hiring your own team lets you have the upper hand during app development, the process of recruiting talent with adequate experience is a challenging endeavor in today’s job market. Working with an established service provider eases the process quite a bit, and with enough communication, you can have a smooth platform development campaign.
You should create the documentation related to developing the platform in accordance with the vision you have in mind for the business. The roadmap should also be framed at this juncture to ensure everything is set before proceeding further.
Prototype Creation
Now, we proceed with building the marketplace app’s prototype with all the features that have been discussed in the official documentation. Here, professionals design rough sketches of the NFT marketplace application. Wireframes, slide decks (especially for mobile apps), landing pages, interactive front end, low-fidelity working models, and video prototypes are commonly used for the process.
After getting these rough sketches, you can check if the output satisfies your requirements, based on which you can either proceed to the next step or refine the model to bring a solution that aligns more closely with your needs.
Front-End Design
Now, we continue with designing the marketplace’s front-end elements. Developers use programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and libraries such as React and Vue.js. To ensure the platform is compatible with blockchains, tools like Web3.js and MetaMask are used to let users interact with blockchains and connect their wallets.
The NFT marketplace’s user interface layers and structures are designed keeping in mind the user’s expectations from the platform. We should also ensure the resultant interface is friendly to users of all knowledge levels, including those acquainted with NFTs and new to the space. The platform should also be compatible with mobile devices and browsers, as most target audiences access the platform through these mediums.
Smart Contract Development
Developing the NFT marketplace application’s smart contracts is the next step in the process. Experts use blockchain-specific programming languages like Solidity and Rust to code the self-executing contracts governing various functions inside the platform. Creating these programs is essential to make the platform decentralized, which proves to be vital in establishing trust and transparency.
Processes such as minting, listing, and selling NFTs and transferring cryptocurrencies between buyers and sellers are automated through smart contracts. One should note that conditions for executing a process are agreed upon externally, which should be facilitated by the marketplace’s front-end portals.
Third-Party Services Integration
We next continue with integrating various third-party services to launch the NFT marketplace app successfully. Elements such as wallets (like MetaMask, Coinbase, and Trust Wallet), decentralized storage solutions (like IPFS, Pinata, and Filecoin), and crypto payment gateways (like CoinGate, BitPay, and Coinremitter) are integrated into the app.
Provisions for sharing NFT listings on various social media networks and portals for forms (for inquiries and newsletter subscriptions) are included to enhance communication between the marketplace and the community. It is essential that you choose service providers based on your operating network and long-term resource constraints to keep the app running anytime.
Testing and Troubleshooting
The NFT marketplace app is now tested by Quality Assurance (QA) professionals using pre-existing documentation and use case scenarios. They conduct extensive tests and find errors which will be promptly corrected with the necessary measures. Both automated and manual test cases will be utilized to find and resolve most errors.
These tests will be conducted repetitively to ensure all sorts of bugs are accounted for and resolved and improvements are made. As a business owner, you have to test the application for a final time to ensure the platform meets your expectations.
Marketing and Launching
Now, developers will deploy the marketplace on the blockchain. Before rushing through to launch the NFT marketplace app for public use, it is crucial to promote the platform and generate hype in the market. You can utilize the services of a creative NFT marketing agency to popularize your NFT marketplace using numerous strategies focusing on multiple channels.
Apart from reaching the global NFT market, it is necessary to create a close community that supports the app right from the beginning. You can gain support by offering early-bird incentives that drive users to the marketplace. Finally, you can launch the platform to the public.
Continued Maintenance and Upgrades
As you continue operating the NFT marketplace, users might encounter unforeseen errors in the platform. Using an inquiry form to get such information and resolving it during maintenance processes can enhance user trust in the platform. It is also important to change according to market trends to stay relevant to the community’s pulse.
Through app updates, you can not only stay updated with the latest trends but also reinforce the platform with performance and scalability optimizations. Having continuous maintenance in practice can aid your business greatly as you can improve user experience on the go, which is a symbol of pride in the NFT space.
Conclusion
We have seen the comprehensive process involved in NFT marketplace app development. As the world inclined more toward using mobile devices, businesses planning to launch NFT marketplace apps should reinforce themselves to offer the ideal experience people want. As the global smartphone market is projected to reach 792.51 billion dollars by 2029, businesses in the NFT space should plan how to take advantage of widescale mobile device adoption. Also, with NFTs closer to becoming household items, creating a platform to trade these tokens becomes a necessity rather than a luxury, encouraging startups, enterprises, and brands to explore the decentralized realm holding lots of promises.
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