Define

Shopify merchants historically have been faced with a difficult process often taking more than two weeks to be able to sell, gift, or mint NFTs within the Shopify ecosystem. This long approval process has greatly limited the adoption of blockchain applications and products by merchants and their customers. This is a complex process that takes time and, in many instances, creates potential compliance and security issues, which create a suboptimal user experience.

Target Audience‍

Target Audience: Shopify merchants looking to integrate NFT functionalities into their online stores to enhance customer engagement and leverage blockchain technology.

Objective‍

The aim was to expedite the NFT-enabled approval process without missing the most critical elements: Compliance, security, and user experience. Optimizing the application user interface was hoped to cut down the hours, mostly triple-digit, so merchants could spend time engaging the new technology in blockchain. Such an decrease resulted in faster iterations, increased utilization, and easier inculcation of NFT-based commerce for the Shopify platform.

Research

• Methodology: Conducted user interviews with Shopify merchants, analyzed support tickets and feedback from the Shopify community, and reviewed existing NFT distribution workflows.
• Findings: Identified key pain points such as the lengthy approval process, lack of clarity around compliance requirements, and difficulties in integrating NFT functionalities seamlessly into existing store operations.

Final Design: Delivered a streamlined NFT integration process, featuring a simplified application form, real-time eligibility checks via the GraphQL Admin API.Merchants who are selling NFTs are required to get approval from Shopify before selling through Shopify Payments. Developers supporting merchants with NFT distribution must gate this functionality and restrict the ability to mint, gift, or list NFTs for sale to approved merchants.

Check NFT Sales Eligibility

To comply with Shopify Payments terms of service, merchants must submit an application form to determine their eligibility to sell NFTs through Shopify Payments. If your existing app distributes NFTs or you're looking to build an NFT distribution app, you need to check this new API to confirm the shop is approved to sell and/or gift NFTs. If not approved, you must block the ability to mint, gift, or list NFTs for sale.

How the App Works

1. A merchant opens an NFT distribution app.
2. The application queries the NFT Sales Eligibility API.
3. Based on the response, the 3rd party NFT distribution app either blocks or permits the use of its selling and/or gifting features.
4. The app polls the NFT Sales Eligibility API at hourly intervals to confirm eligibility.
5. If the API replies with a reapplyDate that is the current date or in the past, the merchant is eligible to re-apply.

Merchant Eligibility

Merchants who want to sell NFTs through Shopify Payments must get approval from Shopify before selling. This process is facilitated through an automated application, with responses shared with app developers via an API. Merchants with Shopify Payments enabled must check their eligibility if their NFTs will be offered for sale or as a gift.

Merchants not using Shopify Payments, or those in an ineligible region, cannot access the application form.
All merchants must adhere to Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy when selling anything on Shopify.

Merchant Eligibility Changes

f a merchant is no longer approved (e.g., due to a change in status), they must immediately suspend all NFT sales, deleting NFT products with non-zero prices within 5 days of notification. Failure to do so results in rejection from Shopify Payments. App developers should automatically notify merchants and delete these products, although manual notification and deletion are also acceptable.

Your app must poll the NFT Sales Eligibility API hourly to check the shop’s eligibility. If a merchant isn't using Shopify Payments, the API will show reapplyDate as nil and giftingApproved/sellApproved as false. When a merchant enables Shopify Payments, the next query will show the current date for reapplyDate, indicating the user needs to fill out the form. Direct the merchant to the application form at: https://{shop}.myshopify.com/admin/nft-application.

NFT Gifting

Check the eligibility of a merchant if their NFT will be offered for sale or as a gift. If a "free NFT" is gifted and causes a price increase (e.g., gifted at the time of t-shirt purchase or later), this is considered a sale of an NFT. Therefore, the merchant must be approved to sell NFTs.

• Results: Reduced the NFT approval process from weeks to days, increased merchant satisfaction, and boosted the adoption of NFT functionalities on the Shopify platform.
• Learnings: Gained insights into the importance of clear communication and compliance requirements in blockchain applications, and the value of iterative design based on user feedback.