News Technology Media Telecoms

SAP readies its NFT Launchpad

sap

Despite the crypto winter, there’s a recognition by corporates that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can play an important role in customer engagement and loyalty. Hence it’s not hugely surprising that SAP is working on an NFT management solution, NFT Launchpad, which is currently in the alpha release stage.

One of the companies that SAP has worked with to build the solution is Tchibo, the German coffee shop and online retailer with more than 1,000 stores and revenues of more than €3 billion.

SAP aims to make the process more user-friendly, so it created what it refers to as a web 2 friendly application. As a trial, Tchibo minted 1,000 NFTs on the Polygon blockchain for its Royalty Club. Some Golden NFTs were redeemable for small prizes. 

Looking at the Polygon blockchain, there are only 34 unique wallet addresses for the collection. On the one hand, because the solution is web2 friendly, token holders don’t have to transfer them to their own wallet. They can view them directly on the Launchpad, so the NFTs would likely stay in the Tchibo wallet. On the other hand, NFTs come into their own when the customer interacts and uses them rather than just viewing them.

SAP sees NFTs as an extension of digital twins where the twin is a promo item, a ticket for an event, or can be redeemed for physical goods.

In the coffee realm, Starbucks launched its NFT loyalty program late last year.

Other big technology firms have also created solutions for their corporate customers to issue NFTs as part of a loyalty program. Given NFTs are about customer engagement, it was strategically important for Salesforce to get involved. Its solution goes beyond issuing NFTs and pulls customer wallet data into its CRM platform.

However, Meta launched NFTs, and then when it started to cut costs, the NFT offering was one of the first to go. Meanwhile, Microsoft is testing a web3 wallet.


Image Copyright: unitysphere / 123RF.COM