Backend Platform for Home Goods Marketplace
Designed and developed a backend system for a growing marketplace. Ensured stable order processing, catalog and pricing management. The platform handles 50,000+ concurrent users and is ready for significant growth.
About the Client
A home goods marketplace focused on designer interior items. The platform hosts 500+ sellers with 35,000 monthly active users.
Fast-growing e-commerce segment requires reliable infrastructure for order processing without losses or downtime during peak periods.
Challenge & Problems
- Growing product catalog with complex attribute structure and dependencies
- High order processing load during peak periods
- Complex pricing logic with discounts, promo codes, and seller conditions
- Need for reliable payment and logistics integrations
- Risk of downtime and order loss during traffic spikes
- No technical team for backend development and maintenance
Why standard solutions didn't work
Off-the-shelf solutions (Shopify, WooCommerce) didn't provide needed catalog flexibility and couldn't implement specific multi-vendor marketplace business logic.
Project Goals
Ensure stable order processing
Scale platform for audience growth
Stabilize API response time
Automate catalog and inventory sync
Our Solution
Developed a modular backend platform with centralized order processing and catalog management services. Architecture designed for external system integration and fault-tolerant operation under load.
Catalog Service
Product, attribute, and inventory management. Full-text search and filtering.
Order Service
Order processing, cart, delivery calculation. Status tracking and history.
User Service
Authentication, profiles, favorites, purchase history.
Payment Gateway
Integration with Stripe and local payment systems. Payment and refund processing.
Notification Service
Email, SMS, and push notifications for order statuses.
Architecture
Modular structure with unified API Gateway. Async processing via message queues. Caching to reduce database load.
Fault Tolerance
Data replication, graceful degradation on external service failures, automatic recovery.
Monitoring
Centralized metrics and log collection. Alerts on anomalies. Request tracing for diagnostics.
Development Process
Architecture Design
Business requirements analysis, API and data structure design. 2 weeks.
Architecture Design
Business requirements analysis, API and data structure design. 2 weeks.
Core Services Development
Catalog, orders, and user services implementation. 6 weeks.
Core Services Development
Catalog, orders, and user services implementation. 6 weeks.
Integrations
Payment systems, logistics, and notification connections. 3 weeks.
Integrations
Payment systems, logistics, and notification connections. 3 weeks.
Infrastructure Setup
Kubernetes deployment, CI/CD and monitoring configuration. 2 weeks.
Infrastructure Setup
Kubernetes deployment, CI/CD and monitoring configuration. 2 weeks.
Load Testing
Performance verification under load, bottleneck elimination. 2 weeks.
Load Testing
Performance verification under load, bottleneck elimination. 2 weeks.
Phased Launch
Production deployment, metrics monitoring, adjustments. 1 week.
Phased Launch
Production deployment, metrics monitoring, adjustments. 1 week.
Technology Stack
Backend
Databases
Infrastructure
Monitoring
Cloud
Results
Measurable Results
API response time
under working load
Concurrent users
without degradation during peak periods
Request processing
current load after launch
Availability
over first 6 months of operation
Qualitative Improvements
- Stable order processing without losses during peak periods
- Ability to quickly add new features without architecture rework
- Client team independently develops product on the platform
- Infrastructure ready for significant load growth
Business Value
Platform enabled on-time product launch. Stable backend operation helped secure next investment round. Infrastructure cost — $800/month at current loads.
Current Usage
Platform serves 35,000 MAU and 500+ sellers. System operates 24/7 with minimal operations team involvement.
Scaling Opportunities
Architecture designed to scale to 1M MAU. Adding new regions and sellers requires no core system changes.
Challenges & Learnings
Peak Loads During Sales
During marketing campaigns, load increased 5–7x. Order service couldn't cope, users received errors.
Implemented order processing queue with prioritization. Configured automatic horizontal scaling based on load metrics.
Designing for peak loads is mandatory for e-commerce platforms. We apply this architectural approach to all marketplace backend projects.
Data Consistency Between Services
Under high load, order and inventory services became out of sync. Customers placed orders for out-of-stock items.
Implemented Saga pattern for distributed transactions. Added inventory reservation mechanism with TTL and automatic rollback.
Data consistency matters more than speed. For multi-vendor marketplaces, this is a critical architectural aspect.
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