How to Scale Effectively: A Retailer’s Guide to Marketplace Growth

Scaling an ecommerce platform in today’s landscape is less about growth at any cost and more about growing with purpose. For retailers operating marketplaces or planning to launch one, the stakes are higher than ever: economic headwinds, evolving customer expectations, and technological debt are all tightening the pressure.

So, how do you scale effectively in this environment? It starts with aligning your platform’s architecture and strategy around agility, customer value, and future-proof technology—especially if you're running a marketplace model.

Understand Your Product, Audience, and Intent Before You Scale

Retailers often rush to adopt new technologies or expand their product catalog without first answering a fundamental question: What does your audience really want—and are you solving their problems better than anyone else?

Mark Adams, SVP at BigCommerce, emphasizes the need to “map out exactly what you want to achieve.” Without clear market research and pricing intelligence, you risk building a marketplace full of products that don’t convert—or worse, investing in features your customers don’t need.

This is especially true in curated marketplaces, where success hinges on selecting the right vendors, offering relevant inventory, and making data-driven merchandising decisions.

Prioritize Customer Experience in Your Tech Choices

Once your foundation is clear, it’s time to choose a platform architecture that will support—not restrict—your growth. From open-source builds to SaaS solutions and headless commerce, your tech stack should align with your operational model.

Marketplace success demands:

• Fast, mobile-optimized storefronts
• Seamless checkout and payment experiences
• Real-time stock accuracy
• Order routing with minimal manual oversight

With mobile commerce projected to represent 62% of global ecommerce sales by 2027, marketplace platforms must be built to deliver consistently great experiences across all devices—even during peak traffic events like Black Friday.

Onport’s marketplace infrastructure, for instance, enables retailers to build flexible, API-powered ecosystems that adapt to change without compromising performance or customer satisfaction.

Invest in Flexible Infrastructure, Not Fragile Systems

Legacy systems can be one of the biggest blockers to marketplace agility. They’re rigid, siloed, and expensive to upgrade. As Chris Harris from Couchbase puts it:

“Legacy technologies cannot keep up with the scalability, performance, availability, and mobile requirements that modern consumers expect.”

Modern retailers like John Lewis are moving toward composable architecture, which breaks down platform functionality into modular, interchangeable components. This gives you the power to:

• Swap out payment providers or shipping integrations without replatforming
• Add new vendor management tools as your marketplace grows
• Implement AI-powered features (like personalized search or product enrichment) without disrupting core operations

Composable systems enable what Onport supports at its core: connected yet autonomous ecommerce building blocks that can scale independently.

Composable Commerce Unlocks Smarter Scaling

Instead of scaling monolithic applications as one massive unit, composable commerce allows you to scale only what’s needed—saving cost, time, and risk.

Chris Kronenthal, President at FreedomPay, describes it as a “plug-and-play” approach. You can integrate best-in-class solutions and experiment with minimal disruption—exactly what’s needed in fast-evolving categories like fashion, home goods, and lifestyle.

Additionally, API-first platforms give you full visibility into customer behavior, vendor performance, and market trends—enabling smarter decision-making and more personalized marketplace experiences.

Build Internal Alignment: Scaling Starts with Strategic Buy-In

Even the best platform design can stall without internal alignment. Big ecommerce transformations often fail because leadership isn’t fully bought in.

To avoid that, ensure your C-suite is part of the strategic conversation early. Help them understand how investing in composable architecture and modern marketplace platforms translates directly into customer value and business resilience.

With 26% of retailers planning to adopt composable architecture in the next three years, getting ahead of the curve requires a clear roadmap—and a compelling business case.

Encourage an iterative rollout strategy. Demonstrate value with quick wins, and create feedback loops across departments to encourage adoption and excitement.

Optimize What You Already Have

In a tight economy, retailers are under pressure to do more with less.

Many platforms already have underutilized features—tools for personalization, automation, or analytics that simply haven’t been explored. Before investing in new systems, audit what’s available and consider whether an upgrade, integration, or modular extension (such as Onport’s plug-and-play capabilities) could deliver the improvements you need.

That said, some retailers struggle to even find internal bandwidth for optimization. Prioritize investing in operational enablement—whether that’s through training, third-party support, or reassigning internal resources to strategic tech initiatives.

Final Thoughts: Sustainable Marketplace Growth Starts with Agility

Marketplace growth doesn’t have to mean building a massive monolith. It means investing in modular technology, building with your customer in mind, and securing buy-in across your organization.

By focusing on:

• Composable architecture
• Scalable infrastructure
• Strategic vendor onboarding
• Customer-centric UX
• Flexible integrations and APIs

…retailers can scale efficiently—and adapt to whatever comes next.

Whether you're evolving your ecommerce stack or launching a curated marketplace from scratch, the future belongs to retailers who prioritize agility, data, and modular design.

Onport helps power that future—enabling you to scale without limits.