Daniel Bobroff, Head of Retail at HTEC Group, explains why NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are being adopted by fashion retail.
2020 is probably the last lesson that retail will ever need to understand the urgency of transformative digital technologies.
As we finally emerge from our bunkers and start to grapple with what all this means, not just for retail’s future but very much its present, too, some key battlegrounds are emerging. How can we reimagine our customers’ experience?
For me, it is in this wider context that we should choose to see the value of the non-fungible token, or NFT for short. NFTs, or non-fungible-tokens, are digital works that cannot be replicated. Recently, Gucci launched an NFT based on its most recent Aria catwalk collection, and the four-minute clip is currently being sold at New York auction house Christie’s. Despite luxury’s late arrival to the digital party, it is now very much on board and this latest innovation is impressive.
For fashion retail, NFTs might well drive us further towards a gaming culture from which they take inspiration, and which remains the high watermark for digital experience.The gamified technique of scarcity, entrenched in the fashion industry and often exploited through collectibles and limited editions, can now cross their phygital divide.
NFTs deliver the promise of scarcity, uniqueness and traceability, and cross the physical/digital divide. NFTs are fundamentally value creating – maybe not a silver bullet, a powerful weapon to be embraced now.
