Integration Patterns
Marketplace integration patterns answer one question: where does the marketplace UI render? Two patterns cover the common shapes.
The two patterns
Operator-Hosted
The marketplace is a standalone destination — operator-owned domain, full branded experience, complete shopping UI.
Embedded Marketplace
The marketplace UI lives inside another product (a banking app, a loyalty app, a publisher’s site) as an embedded shopping section.
How to pick
| If… | Pick |
|---|---|
| Marketplace is the primary product (the whole site is the marketplace) | Operator-Hosted |
| Marketplace is one feature inside a larger product (e.g., a bank app’s rewards shopping section) | Embedded Marketplace |
| You need full control of brand, navigation, and checkout flow | Operator-Hosted |
| You’re augmenting an existing app with shopping capability | Embedded Marketplace |
Both patterns support the Branded Marketplace use case; the choice is only where the UI lives. Every marketplace cart is single-merchant regardless of pattern.
The shared platform
Both patterns use the same Firmly API surface — auth, discovery, cart, checkout, payment, order placement. What varies is where the UI lives and how the operator integrates Firmly’s APIs into their stack.
Related
- Single Product Purchase Flow
- Multi-Product Purchase Flow — multiple items from one merchant
- Use Cases
- Agentic Commerce → Integration Patterns — the broader 4-phase matrix applicable across solutions