eBay Debuts NFT Services

eBay is expanding into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to a company blog post.

The eCommerce site “has always been the world’s destination for buying and selling the most unique and hard-to-find items — and we’ll continue to be the destination for collectors of all kinds, physical or digital,” the post stated.

NFTs, according to the post, offer more of a chance for bigger audiences. Similar to the way digital publishing worked to bring more exposure for writers, digital art can give more opportunities for artists and creators.

eBay plans to “double down” now, making NFTs available through the platform provided by “trusted sellers” who meet high standards, the post stated. NFTs will be in categories including trading cards, music, entertainment and art.

The company plans to use NFTs as a springboard for more activity, with the initial rollout to be used to determine what people are interested in, according to the post.

There will likely be more “programs, policies and tools that will allow our audiences to buy and sell NFTs with greater ease and confidence, across a broader range of categories,” the post stated. eBay will be adding more capabilities to help bring blockchain-based collectibles to the platform.

eBay told investors in April that post-pandemic growth is likely to slow down in the second quarter by 8 percent to 10 percent, a decline from the frantic 42 percent pace it posted in the first quarter, PYMNTS reported.

That kind of outlook is similar to several of the company’s rivals, which have forecast that digital growth as the pandemic begins to wind down won’t be as robust as initially thought because consumers will no longer be largely confined to their homes.

eBay Chief Financial Officer Andy Cring said that there is a correlation between mobility and gross merchandise volume (GMV), meaning more people have begun to go out and, as such, there are less people making purchases digitally.