Developing an e-commerce marketplace prototype for collectibles in China based on open-source commerce engine medusa.js
Wen Feng Mau · DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) · 2026
Medusa.js is an open-source, headless commerce engine built on Node.js, designed as a flexible, developer-friendly alternative to Shopify or Magento. Its full modular architecture (Workflows Engine and API first) design enables building highly customizable and complex commerce applications. This project explores the extensibility of Medusa.js by developing 收藏屋 (Shoucangwu), a prototype Customer-to-Customer (C2C) Marketplace tailored for China collectibles market, which includes old coins, sport cards, toys. The system enables seller onboarding, product listing, item browsing, and order processing while supporting multi-seller operations. The system integrates modular backend services with Medusa.js, a PostgreSQL database, and a web front-end built with Next.js and React, and secure payment workflows. Custom workflows are implemented to support vendor onboarding, order processing, and support transactions between independent sellers and buyers. The system demonstrates how an open-source commerce engine can be extended to support marketplace-based business models. The project evaluates the feasibility of Medusa.js for building scalable C2C marketplaces and discusses system design considerations, implementation challenges, and future enhancements.