How To Create an NFT Marketplace?

Whether you are an entrepreneur, an established organization or crypto enthusiast, you must have heard about the NFT marketplace and its growing user base. According to the NFTGo, in the first quarter of 2022, the general capitalization of the NFT market has surpassed $16B that was $62M in the first quarter of 2021. So, it is safe to say that it’s time to build an NFT marketplace now.

If you are thinking about creating an NFT marketplace like Open Sea or Larva, this blog has covered all the things you need to know about developing such a marketplace.

What is an NFT Marketplace?

NFT marketplace is a platform where users can store, show, trade or create their NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects and is majorly based on Ethereum Blockchain technology. NFT marketplaces allow creators to expose their NFT art to a large audience group. Using these platforms you can buy or sell NFT arts at a fixed price. However, to access and operate on these marketplaces, you will need:

• A crypto wallet

• Cryptocurrencies or coins in the wallet

• A user account, indeed.

NFT marketplace lists various NFT artworks from different domains including photos, arts, videos, and more digital collectables. Usually, particular niche marketplaces are higher in demand than the standard ones because they offer what a client may need, specialize in selling specific artwork and target a certain group of audience.

How does the NFT Marketplace Work?

An NFT marketplace uses a transaction protocol known as Smart Contracts. These protocols allow the network to store the information indicated in the NFT transaction and regulate the connection between seller and buyer. A smart contract in the NFT marketplace ensures that the digital assets are non-replicable and one-of-a-kind. It also makes it possible to have permanent identification information of the NFTs. Blockchain-based smart contracts consist of a series of if/then and when statements. Predetermined conditions must be met and verified for actions to be performed. Hence the process of buying and selling tokens becomes secure and convenient.

NFT Marketplace Must-Have Features

NFT marketplace is a blend of features of an online shop, auction, and blockchain platform. Needless to say, a creator should be able to create and sell their NFT artworks. Apart from these, there are some important features that your NFT marketplace must have to attract and keep more clients. These features include:

• Sign Up/Login

To buy or sell on the platform, a user should be able to create an account. The sign-up process can be easily accomplished through phone numbers, emails, or social media accounts. After that, the users are asked to state their cryptocurrency account for transactions. However, if they do not have one, they may sign up through Coinbase wallet, Metamask or other crypto wallets.

• Storefront

A storefront or dashboard is a necessity for a thriving NFT marketplace because it offers users all the information they need about the digital asset, including bids, owner name, value history, and previews.

• Advanced Token Search

Another important feature to add to the NFT marketplace is advanced token search. If you distribute different digital assets into categories like arts, videos, photographs, etc. it will enable users to find the data on the type of asset they want on the platform easily.

• Product Listing

There must be a separate page for listing products quickly with ease. This page must have the option to upload and submit their assets, provide a detailed description, add tags, name, price, and external links.

• Buy or Bid

The NFT marketplace must help clients to buy the asset and get the NFTs on the platform. In case of a bid, the marketplace should also offer the validity date of the bid and details on the current status of their bid.

• Crypto Wallet

A crypto wallet is a must in the NFT marketplace as the user needs to send, receive and store cryptocurrencies and NFT tokens securely. The easiest way to achieve this is by integrating popular crypto wallets like Coinbase, Metamask, or WalletConnect.

• Rating and Reviews

Reviews and ratings will help the buyer to know whether the seller and their NFTs are appreciated by others. The rating score can be on a scale of 1-10 and the review can be the comment a verified user leaves.

• Notifications

Push notification in the NFT marketplace web app can help users to be informed about new bids in their preferred categories, status changes etc.

• Support

Having a support service in a trading marketplace is a must. It will help users to find solutions for their problems and answers to their concerns.

• Trading History

Having a section where users can check out their trading history can be beneficial for both buyers and sellers. It will help them to understand what has been bought or sold with the name, price, date, time, event, seller, buyer, and so on.

How To Build An NFT Marketplace?

Before you start to create your creating an NFT marketplace or hire developers to do so, you need to consider keeping your marketplace transparent, secured, decentralized. Moreover, it is important to have smart contracts to prevent fraud and a monetization model that beforehand informs the users if there’s a fee for listing, selling, etc. or not.

To build an NFT marketplace for your business, you need to consider the following process:

• Prepare Your Strategy & Choose Your Niche

As usual, everything starts with a strategy that you need to prepare from all angles, i.e., technology, competitive edge, target audience, and more.

First and foremost, you will need to choose a blockchain to run your NFT marketplace on. You can pick from Defi Host, Ethereum, Solana or Polygon according to your budget and need.

Another important thing to determine is the niche of the marketplace, whether you want a white-label NFT marketplace or build one from scratch, which NFT standard to support, how customers will be charged for NFTs, etc.

• Plan the UI/UX Design of the Platform & Begin Designing the Front-End

The UI/UX design is a crucial part of developing an NFT marketplace. The navigation and design of the marketplace make the first impression hence it should be simple enough that anyone can easily understand and use it.

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The main task of the front-end development is to offer a simple interface of the NFT marketplace. Some of the technology stacks that can be used for the front-end are Angular.JS, Backbone, React.js, or Ember (as programming languages), and MVC, MVP, MVVM, or Viper (for architecture).

• Backend and Smart Contract

At the time of NFT marketplace development, backend development changed a bit. The NFT marketplace is decentralized, so the authentication of the data is done on the blockchain. As the NFT marketplace uses crypto tokens, it also needs smart contracts, for trading it will need wallets, and for bids, it will need an auction mechanism.

So the technology stacks that the backend of the NFT marketplace may need include:

1. Blockchain: Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Defi Host, Solana, Polygon.

2. Smart Contracts: BSC Virtual Machines, Ethereum Virtual Machines.

3. Token Standard: ERC721, ERC1155, BEP-721, BEP-1155.

4. Programming Languages: Java, Python, PHP.

5. Databases SQL/NoSQL: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Cassandra.

6. Search Engines: ElasticSearch, Apache Solr.

7. Cache: Memcached, Redis.

8. DevOps: Jenkins, Terraform, GitLab CI, WS CodeBuild.

• Test and Deploy the Marketplace

At the time of development of the NFT marketplace, regular code and performance tests are conducted by Quality Analysts to ensure that the platform is working properly. After the marketplace is launched continuous assistance for removing bugs and providing quality performance is also a must.

NFT Marketplace Development Cost

The cost and duration of the NFT marketplace will depend on the development of UX/UI design, authorization, security, user profile, home page, search and filter, product page, reviews & ratings, shopping cart, payments, notifications, Ethereum incorporation, management of NFT and inventory, buyer panel, admin panel, and author panel.

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However, to give you an estimation, the development of the NFT marketplace can range anywhere between $37.5K to $110K. You can hire a blockchain development company to create a customized web app marketplace and get the features you want.