Salesforce Inc. today announced it’s rolling out its digital collectibles platform for Web3 branded nonfungible tokens in a limited release so that brands can more readily embrace the decentralized technology and build loyalty programs.

Salesforce Web3 brings the power of blockchain technology into the hands of businesses to create, manage and deploy nonfungible tokens in a way that can be trusted, scalable and sustainable. It also connects these new digital assets to the company’s customer relationship management system so their collection and use can be tracked and associated with sales.

Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are a type of digital collectible and an emerging market that many international brands are interested in but are wary about because of ease of use, potential security issues and sustainability problems associated with them.

In an interview with SiliconANGLE, Adam Caplan, general manager of Web3 at Salesforce, explained that the launch of NFT Management – formerly known as NFT Cloud – has given companies the ability to create and manage their own digital collectibles through Salesforce. The company initially piloted NFT Cloud in June to a few companies in order to give them what it called a “360-degree view” across the customers’ physical and digital experience.

“When NFTs just exploded a couple of years ago now we just had a ton of interest from [chief marketing officers] and customers just asking us how to leverage this technology,” Caplan said. “They thought there was something interesting here, but they were nervous from a brand perspective, from a reputation perspective, from a security and trust perspective, and from a sustainability perspective.”

To handle that, NFT Management was built with customer safety and ethics in mind. Digital collectibles minted and managed in Salesforce Web3 are audited and secured, and the company has engaged its Office of the Ethical and Humane Use of Technology and Web3 Advisory board to speak to ethics issues for value-driven approaches for Web3 technology. The company will also only work with energy-efficient proof-of-stake blockchains, which the company notes produce 99% less emissions than proof-of-work blockchains.

Since the initial launch of the pilot program last year, more than 275,000 transactions have been registered by the platform for brands such as Crown Royal, Mattel and Scotch & Soda, all using it for creating and securely deploying digital collectibles.

Along with NFT Management, Salesforce is also making available Web3 Connect, a new application programming interface integration that allows brands to create personalized experiences more easily through their websites and apps, so they can offer NFTs and track them through Salesforce.

Mattel Inc. put this to use by launching digital collectibles with Salesforce by releasing digital collectible NFTs in packs. Since Mattel has a massive collector community with its Hot Wheels toys, these collectibles were sold in digital packs with multiple cars per pack that could have various rarities of NFTs within the packs. Each pack could have the potential of having a high-rarity digital collectible car that winners could redeem for a physical die-cast replica.

“Salesforce Web3 enhances our NFT collections to help us connect with customers and bring our Web2 and Web3 systems together,” Sven Gerjets, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Mattel. “Web3 Connect is powering invaluable insights into our audience and seamlessly bridging Web3 channels with the rest of our customer experience.”

And now that Mattel has collected all of this data from its customers buying these collectible packs, entering their information, redeeming digital cars for physical cars and more, all that data comes back into Salesforce and can be used for more opportunities.

For example, the ownership of a digital collectible could open up the opportunity for discounts in a store, or activate digital experiences or VIP rooms on a website only accessible to people who have that digital collectible – the same way specific premium NFT Hot Wheels could be redeemed for the physical car.

For now, Caplan said, the program is in limited general availability for brands interested in creating and releasing their own NFT digital collectibles. That’s so Salesforce can help coach new businesses and make sure they’re ready to embrace the new technology.

Image: Salesforce