Extending luxury into the NFT marketplace: The role of category typicality, brand prominence, and visual quality

Luxury brands are increasingly expanding into the digital markets through NFT collectibles. It raises important questions about how consumers evaluate these dematerialized brand extensions. Drawing on signaling theory, this research investigates how visual design features, including category typicality, brand prominence, and visual quality, influence consumers’ willingness to buy and willingness to pay a price premium for luxury NFTs. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed-design experiment was conducted with 448 Millennial U.S. consumers. The results show that all three visual features significantly increase willingness to buy, whereas only visual quality significantly impacts willingness to pay a price premium. Moreover, brand prominence moderates the effect of category typicality on buying intentions. The preference for high typical NFTs is attenuated when brand prominence is low. This interaction is further moderated by visual quality, suggesting a joint effect among the visual features. This research advances emerging work on the digital extensions of luxury brands by empirically showing how consumers derive product value from visual design features. It also provides practical implications for luxury brands seeking to design and market NFT collectibles.