The question
Independent stores can carry complementary products, but most marketplace models place the marketplace above the merchant and take ownership of the buyer relationship.
FaStart is exploring a different question: could merchants opt into a shared intelligence layer while keeping control of their catalog, brand, and customer relationship?
The direction
Possible future work includes merchant-approved cross-store bundles, discovery across eligible inventories, and second-hand or specialist commerce networks built on explicit participation.
This would require a network contract, not just a recommendation interface. Every participant would need to understand what data is shared, who owns the customer experience, and how a transaction is resolved when something goes wrong.
What remains unresolved
- catalog and inventory permissions;
- attribution and settlement between merchants;
- returns, service, and liability;
- ranking and conflict-of-interest rules;
- a merchant-controlled opt-in and exit model.
Current status
Planned research. No customer-facing marketplace, shared inventory network, or cross-store transaction flow is available today.
The work graduates only after a merchant-controlled network model and a testable end-to-end transaction exist.
Compare notes
If you have worked on multi-tenant marketplaces, network trust, settlement, or federated catalogs, contact research@fastart.tech.