NFTs have been around since 2014, but it’s only going mainstream in 2021. What’s more, many big companies, like Nike, Team GB, NBA, Coca-Cola, and Taco Bell, already use them.
Nowadays, companies are aware that the NFT trend can be an excellent strategy for establishing a profitable business. Moreover, business owners can create their own NFTs and sell on NFT marketplaces, helping to increase brand awareness and entice more customers.
Alternatively, building an NFT marketplace might also be another business idea.
This article will cover a step-by-step guide on building an NFT marketplace using WordPress and WooCommerce. Let’s get started.
What Is an NFT?
There are several assumptions about NFTs, so it is important to understand the meaning of NFTs, how NFTs work, the types of NFTs, and several examples of NFTs.
NFT is short for Non-Fungible Token, where the word non-fungible means irreplaceable or non-interchangeable. Imagine an NFT as a piece of art, like Van Gogh’s The Starry Night or Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Even though the artwork has hundreds of copies, the original asset only has one legitimate owner.
Meanwhile, the word token represents the ownership of a real-world and digital asset that can be bought, sold, and traded.
Additionally, though NFT ownership is kept secure in a blockchain, it is still susceptible to potential cyber attacks. For example, scams are a dangerous threat as attackers can deceive users into giving sensitive information, such as their NFT wallets.
Types of NFTs
There are various types of NFTs on marketplaces. The following are several popular types of NFTs:
Digital Artwork
Artists or designers can now profit from creating and selling their work as an NFT. This is especially considering that art is currently the most popular type of NFT.
For example, here are the top five most expensive NFTs ever sold on an NFT marketplace:
- Pak’s The Merge
- Beeple’s Everydays: the First 5000 Days
- Beeple’s Human One
- CryptoPunk #7523
- CryptoPunk #3100
The same concept applies to video NFTs, such as short videos and GIFs. Popular ones are valued up to millions of dollars on online marketplaces.
For example, a ten-second loop video entitled Crossroad by Beeple sold for $6.6 million. Another example is Nyan Cat, Christopher Toress’ original catlike-character GIF that sold for about $590,000.
Video Game Items
Many video game publishers also see NFTs as a new way to drive more sales. According to statistics, the revenue generated from gaming-related NFTs was around $4.8 billion in 2021.
Instead of selling entire games as NFTs, video game companies sell in-game content, such as characters, equipment, skins, and even virtual land.
Take an example from The Sandbox Metaverse, where users can create, play, own, and monetize their virtual reality creations as NFTs.
Music
Visual art is not the only type of NFT – music is also a part of this crypto hype. Even though music is a fungible product that can be distributed physically through CDs and digitally, music producers and DJs now sell and profit from their work as NFTs.
Moreover, musicians can receive total profits because there are no extra charges when selling NFTs, such as the case with streaming platforms or record labels.
Some examples of highly valued NFT musicians are:
- 3LAU with Ultraviolet Collection generated over $11.6 million
- Purple Queens by Gramatik earned $2 million
- HEXAGONIA by Don Diablo sold for $2 million
How Does an NFT Work?
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Litecoin, NFTs are a unique crypto asset that exists on a blockchain, where most of them belong to the Ethereum blockchain. This means there can only be one user who owns a particular NFT at any given time.
Purchasing, selling, and trading NFTs can be done via NFT marketplaces. Every transaction will be recorded and shown publicly. Additionally, all NFT transactions use an NFT smart contract to verify the NFT’s ownership, making it secure.
How to Set Up an NFT Marketplace Using WooCommerce
Although there are already numerous popular NFT marketplaces, building your own might be a good opportunity to establish a new business.
However, there are quite a number of considerations when building an NFT market. This section will therefore cover a simple step-by-step tutorial on how to make an NFT marketplace using WooCommerce.
1. Determine the Marketplace Business Model
Choosing a business model gives you a clear direction of how your NFT marketplace will look and evolve. It also helps you decide which features to implement on the marketplace.
There are two options here – a personal NFT store and a multi-vendor NFT store.
A personal NFT store allows only you to create NFT tokens and sell them. Meanwhile, other users or customers cannot make NFT tokens or resell the purchased tokens on your website.
A multi-vendor marketplace is an NFT eCommerce store that lets you and any customer create and resell NFT tokens on the site.
2. Get WordPress Hosting
When creating a WordPress NFT market, the easiest way to launch and manage it is using WordPress hosting.
Many web hosting companies provide reliable WordPress hosting services. However, we still recommend that you conduct thorough research to choose a hosting service that suits your needs the most.
Additionally, there are various factors to pay attention to when choosing a WordPress hosting provider:
Scalability
Make sure that your WordPress hosting is easy to scale so your eCommerce store can grow along with your business. For example, find a web hosting platform where you can easily upgrade hosting plans as needed.
Security
A secure and reliable marketplace helps increase customer trust and loyalty. So, it is crucial to double-check the security features offered by your web hosting provider.
Support
It is important to check that your hosting provider offers reliable customer support. Lack of dependable customer support means you might have difficulty dealing with technical issues.
Reputation
Check your web hosting company’s reputation and choose a reputable one that ensures service reliability and credibility.
3. Choose a Domain Name
Once you purchase a WordPress hosting plan, consider picking a domain name that matches your business idea.
Having a good domain name gives your website advantages, such as:
- Business credibility. Using a domain name that matches your brand name can increase customer trust, which is important when establishing a successful NFT store.
- Brand recognition. If your online marketplace has a memorable domain name, it is easier for customers to remember it. Also, it can help improve your online presence.
- SEO rankings. Though a domain name is not a major ranking factor, it still affects search engine optimization (SEO). Having a click-worthy and concise domain helps increase the chances of your website ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Most WordPress hosting services already include a free domain name, meaning you don’t need to register it on a separate domain registrar.
Another tip for choosing a domain name is deciding the domain extension. For example, if your domain name is available as a .com, you’ll want to register it immediately since that’s the most popular domain extension.
However, you are free to choose another popular domain extension that suits your business.
4. Set Up WordPress and WooCommerce
The next step is to set up your platform. The WordPress installation process is relatively easy, especially if your hosting provider has 1-Click Install or Auto Installer feature. Once the installation process is complete, it is time to set up WooCommerce.
Fortunately, WooCommerce is available as a WordPress plugin, meaning you just need to download the plugin via the WordPress dashboard and activate it.
To fully utilize the WooCommerce plugin, you need to complete its configuration wizard. Provide your contact information, choose a payment method, and add several useful extensions to maximize your online store functionality.
5. Choose and Design the Website Template
Before launching your WordPress site, customize the website template to make it look more attractive and professional to your customers.
To do that, start by choosing a theme from the WordPress directory or find WordPress theme recommendations for marketplaces.
Alternatively, you can easily create your own custom theme using a premium WordPress plugin like SeedProd.
After that, start customizing the website template. When doing this, pay attention to the media and text layouts, color combinations, font styles, and navigation menus.
6. Install a WooCommerce NFT Plugin
Now that the WordPress foundation is set, it is time to install an NFT WordPress plugin for WooCommerce to turn your website into an NFT store.
NFT plugins allow you to create your own products or resell any purchased NFTs. You can also use the plugins to embed an NFT market to your storefront, like OpenSea, Rarible, Nifty Gateway, and SuperRare.
There are a number of NFT plugins ready to install, but make sure to check the features and benefits of each plugin. Some are free to use, while others require a paid subscription.
7. Create and Upload Website Content
Though you can create and sell any product as an NFT, we recommend sticking to the current digital artwork trend since the chances of making sales are higher.
However, the current trend might change at any time, so stay up-to-date with the market demand. Additionally, you can create content like articles for the marketplace’s blog or product descriptions for the NFT collections to give customers clear information about your products.
8. Customize the NFT Marketplace
An NFT market has different characteristics from other marketplaces. The following is our list of recommendations for customizing your marketplace:
Storefront
NFT stores usually have a storefront that functions as a dashboard. It provides users with information about an asset, such as its owners, previews, bids, and value history.
Wallet
A crypto wallet lets users store, send, and receive NFTs or cryptocurrencies.
Consider creating your own wallet or integrating an existing wallet, such as MyEtherWallet, Coinbase, or Fortmatic, into your store
Search Feature
Utilize a search feature to allow customers to find your NFTs effortlessly. This can also help improve the user experience when navigating through your store.
Ratings
The rating feature is beneficial for users who want to check the credibility of a seller. It also lets customers give feedback based on their transaction experience.
9. Test and Preview the NFT Marketplace
It is essential to test and preview your site before launching it. By doing so, you can make sure that all features work as expected, or you can add other improvements to your site.
If you have the budget, consider hiring an expert web developer to help maximize your website’s functionality and improve your site’s interface.
Additionally, check whether your website is SEO-friendly. This is useful to increase the website’s chances of ranking higher on search results, making it easier for customers to find it.
10. Launch the Marketplace
Once the final checks are complete, you can launch your NFT store. Additionally, make sure to monitor your website’s performance continuously.
Monitoring your website is important to maintain its uptime, speed, and security. For this, WordPress provides various tools such as JetPack, Pingdom, and ManageWP.
Moreover, you can promote your website on social channels and integrate social media navigation menus so that visitors can easily share the site’s content.
WooCommerce Plugins for NFT
If you’re wondering which NFT plugins work best for your website, read on to see several recommended WordPress NFT plugins.
NFT Maker
NFT Maker can turn your WooCommerce into an NFT store. Tatum, a blockchain development platform, is the developer of this plugin.
It has easy usability, as you only need to select which blockchain to use on your NFT market. Additionally, it lets users generate wallets by adding the Tatum API key. You can also create NFTs and deploy NFT smart contracts.
Like other WordPress plugins, NFT Maker is open-source, so you can contribute to the plugin’s development by pulling requests to Tatum’s GitHub repository.
OpenSea
OpenSea, developed by NFTU, is another NFT plugin. However, it is different from NFT Maker because OpenSea works by embedding an existing NFT storefront to a WooCommerce site.
It uses shortcode so that you can embed the storefront instantly. For more information, the plugin’s official site gives a tutorial on installing and activating the plugin. NFTU also provides a demo site to show users what it looks like.
Moreover, the OpenSea plugin is free to install and use, meaning you don’t need to pay extra.
NFT WordPress Plugin
Another useful NFT plugin that helps increase the functionality of your store is the NFT WordPress Plugin for WooCommerce.
This plugin is EthereumICO’s product, and they charge a premium for it. Pricing starts from $6.99 to $1,393.99, depending on the number of sites, subscription period, and add-ons.
Additionally, the plugin lets customers buy NFT tokens on your website using fiat currency, like USD and EUR. It also supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Ether.
WP Smart Contracts
The WP Smart Contracts plugin is a blockchain technology by WPSmartContracts that enables easy NFT smart contract creation on your WooCommerce website.
It supports up to four blockchain networks, such as Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, xDai Chain, and Ethereum Mainnet.
WP Smart Contracts offer three subscription plans for ERC-20/BEP-20 Standard Tokens with different features, including Vanilla, Pistachio, and Chocolate. Meanwhile, their NFT marketplace offers three plans – Mochi, Matcha, and Suika.
LikeCoin
LikeCoin is a plugin used for decentralized publishing, meaning the plugin provides digital evidence for any NFTs created and published. It also helps secure the content metadata permanently.
To use LikeCoin, you need to have cryptocurrencies and a crypto wallet. Then, register and connect your wallet to Keplr Wallet or Liker ID.
Moreover, the plugin itself is free, but you might need to pay extra to access premium features.
Conclusion
NFTs are a great opportunity to establish or grow a new business. However, it is important to first understand the basics of NFTs if you are a newcomer.
Setting up an NFT marketplace using WordPress and WooCommerce is relatively easy, especially since WordPress already provides plugins you can use to build the marketplace.
In conclusion, the following is a recap of 10 steps to building an NFT market using WordPress:
- Determine the marketplace model.
- Choose the right WordPress hosting.
- Decide on a domain name.
- Set up WordPress and WooCommerce.
- Choose and design the website template.
- Install a WooCommerce NFT plugin.
- Upload website content.
- Customize the NFT marketplace.
- Test and preview the website.
- Launch the marketplace.
Establishing a cryptocurrency business requires a thorough understanding of the market, as it has high risks and returns. So, take your time to learn and adapt. Good luck with building your NFT marketplace!
