More buying, more trust? The spillover effect of branded NFTs secondary trading on future physical purchase intention

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the impact of consumers’ branded NFTs transactions in the secondary market on their intention to purchase physical products. Despite initial consumer enthusiasm, many branded NFT projects have failed due to secondary market volatility, price declines and liquidity shortages. However, the spillover effects of consumer secondary market trading have not been thoroughly explored in existing literature. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs two field studies and one laboratory experiment. Study 1 built a proprietary platform, issued rarity-differentiated blind box NFTs (five levels), operated for one-month, distributed questionnaires, monitored secondary trading and cross-validated with backend data. Study 2 partnered with a Chinese enterprise, sold non-rarity NFTs bundled with belts, tracked third-party platform trading and collected post-sale questionnaires. Study 3 employed an online recall priming experiment with control variables to strengthen internal and ecological validity. Findings – We found that when consumers buy NFTs at a high price from the secondary market, this buying behavior enhances brand trust and leads to positive intention to purchase physical products. Conversely, when consumers sell branded NFTs, they perceive the sale as negative feedback on the brand’s value, leading to low brand trust and potentially causing customer attrition. Originality/value – This research contributes to NFTs literature by uncovering NFTs’ counterintuitive spillover effect, differing from prior focus on primary markets. These findings not only enrich the theory of NFT marketing but also offer recommendations for brands on deploying and issuing NFTs.