Case study - Transforming Natuja: Migrating from Sharetribe to a Custom-Built Medusa Platform in 9 Weeks

Sharetribe provided Natuja with a solid foundation for their initial marketplace needs. However, being a pre-built solution, it offered less flexibility for extensive customization. And as Natuja grew, specific customer needs became more obvious and urgent.

The platform allowed for some level of customization on the storefront. However, access to the Vendor Panel was challenging for Natuja to fully modify backend features.

Additionally, the SaaS nature of the platform meant that certain changes required more time and resources, slowing down Natuja's ability to introduce new functionalities.

Sharetribe operates on a "pay as you grow" model, charging fees for each transaction. While effective for smaller operations, this structure became impractical as the business expanded.

While Sharetribe offers great features for service and rental marketplaces, it lacked functionalities essential for product-based marketplaces like Natuja’s. The absence of a variant's feature limited Natuja's product offerings, and the Stripe integration made payment processing and vendor payouts less adaptable to their specific requirements. These factors created challenges in managing operations efficiently as the business scaled.

Sharetribe has a unique and non-standard architecture. The migration process was particularly challenging because it required handling various proprietary systems and integrations not designed for easy data extraction or transfer. It needed an in-depth understanding of the existing system and careful planning to ensure a smooth transition.

With over 150 vendors and around 1000 products, ensuring that all data was accurately transferred without any loss or disruption was a critical challenge. Maintaining the integrity of vendor and product information during the migration was essential for a seamless transition.

The new platform needed to support Natuja's expanding marketplace and manage the increased load and complexity. Ensuring that the new system could scale efficiently and accommodate future growth was a primary objective during the migration process.

Custom functionalities were essential to support Natuja’s business model and operational requirements. For example, the ability to set shipping costs based on region and weight, and intelligent search were crucial for providing enhanced users, both vendors and buyers, experience.

Before initiating the technical process, we performed an in-depth evaluation to grasp Natuja's specific requirements.

This included a thorough analysis of the existing Sharetribe platform, pinpointing major issues, and outlining a detailed migration plan.

Our team collaborated closely with Natuja's team to ensure all needs were accurately captured and that the new platform would meet their strategic objectives and business aspirations.

From the beginning of our collaboration, Natuja's team was eager to transition to Medusa.js, recognizing its potential benefits.

We kickstarted the implementation with Mercur.js, our Medusa MultiVendor Marketplace Accelerator.

This approach not only ensured a flexible foundation tailored to the client’s specific needs but also reduced the implementation time by 4 weeks, allowing Natuja to start leveraging the new platform much sooner.

To create an efficient frontend, we leveraged the Next.js starter kit from Medusa, combining it with Natuja's existing design.

Initially, we began by changing the color palette to match Natuja's branding. We retained the structure and appearance of key pages from the starter kit, such as the cart, checkout, store layout, parts of the product page, and footer. However, significant redesigns were made to align the overall look and feel with Natuja's specific requirements. This included adjusting spacing, font sizes, and removing or enhancing various elements to ensure a consistent and polished interface.

This approach significantly accelerated the development process, and enhanced the user interface, providing a faster and more interactive experience.

By utilizing Medusa, which operates on Node.js, we significantly bolstered server-side performance.

This combination ensured a scalable and high-performance environment, capable of handling high traffic loads and supporting Natuja's growing user base. This setup enabled the seamless integration of advanced features, provided a solid foundation for future scalability, and the tools needed for efficient marketplace operations.

To ensure top-notch performance and scalability, the platform was deployed on reliable cloud infrastructures: Vercel and DigitalOcean.

We began with a soft release, initially transitioning vendors to the new platform first.

This early access allowed suppliers to familiarize themselves with the new system, providing them with the opportunity to adjust their workflows and offer feedback on the platform's usability and functionality.

Once we were confident that their side of the platform was running smoothly, we introduced the new platform to customers.

This careful, step-by-step process ensured that all users experienced a smooth and efficient transition to the new Medusa solution.

We ensured a seamless migration of over 150 vendors and around 1000 products from the old platform to the new one, maintaining data integrity and continuity.

With Sharetribe's Stripe integration, Natuja faced limitations in customizing payment processes and managing vendor transactions.

After migrating to a Medusa-based platform, we addressed these issues by implementing Stripe Connect. This solution provided the much-needed flexibility for payment processing, automated invoicing, and accurate tax management, effectively resolving the challenges Natuja encountered with the previous system.

We implemented Meilisearch as the search engine, integrated with smart filtering options. This enhancement significantly improved the search experience for users, making it easier to find products.

To enhance marketing efforts and communication, we integrated Mailchimp for marketing automation and Sendgrid for reliable email API services.

Vendors now have the ability to manage shipping costs based on region and weight through an intuitive user interface. Additional custom functionalities included:

• In the selected region, we set shipping prices for a given weight range and based on these values and the product's weight attribute, the final delivery price is automatically calculated. Additionally, if prices for a given region are not filled in, delivery is not available for these regions.
• Options for vendors to offer free shipping for orders exceeding a specified amount.
• Expanded product models with custom attributes for products and variants.
• Integration of review systems to improve product credibility and customer trust.

The migration and platform development were completed in just 9 weeks, thanks to the utilization of Mercur.js. This efficiency allowed Natuja to quickly transition and start reaping the benefits of the new system.

The initial feedback from users has been overwhelmingly positive, emphasizing the enhanced usability and new features of the platform. The enhanced shopping experience has attracted new customers, while the intuitive vendor management panel has drawn in new vendors, further expanding Natuja's marketplace.

The new platform provides a solid base for future enhancements, free from previous limitations. It is allowing Natuja to effortlessly add new features that enhance vendor operations and improve the shopping experience for customers. This flexibility ensures that the marketplace can continue to grow and adapt to evolving market demands.