How Maisonette Runs a Curated Childrenswear Marketplace on Spree Commerce
Maisonette operates one of the largest curated childrenswear multi-vendor marketplaces in the United States, with over 65,000 products from hundreds of independent brands, all running on Spree Commerce with a Next.js storefront.
The Net-a-Porter of Children’s Fashion
Maisonette set out to be the destination parents trust when they want something better than mass-market kids’ clothing but don’t have time to browse dozens of boutique websites.
Founded in 2017 by Sylvana Durrett and Luisana Rocchia, the Brooklyn-based company launched its multi-vendor marketplace in 2018. The concept was straightforward: bring together hundreds of independent children’s brands under one roof, with a single cart and a single checkout.
The market agreed. Maisonette attracted $15 million in investment from firms including Prolog Ventures, as reported by Business of Fashion. The platform grew from a curated selection to a catalog of over 65,000 products spanning hundreds of vendors.
“Maisonette has quickly become the authority and leading brand in this high-growth, under-penetrated category. In just a year, they have established a devoted following of both customers and brands alike. I have no doubt that Maisonette is on its way to become the future of children’s online retail, and we are excited to be a part of it.” — Tony Florence, General Partner and Head of Technology Investing at NEA.
Today, a parent browsing Maisonette can add a cotton dress from one brand, a wooden toy from another, and a stroller from a third. One cart. One checkout. One delivery experience. Behind the scenes, Spree Commerce handles the product catalog, inventory, order splitting, and vendor payouts.
“Not only do we give our customers access to the best products from around the world, we also give these companies a platform on which to grow their business, market their brand and connect to their customer in a targeted and authentic way. We are the solution for both the customer and the vendor.” — Sylvana Ward Durrett, CEO and Co-founder of Maisonette.
The Challenge
Build a multi-vendor marketplace that feels like a single store, even though hundreds of independent vendors fulfill the orders.
Maisonette needed a commerce engine that could manage multi-vendor catalog synchronization, split orders across sellers, calculate commissions on every transaction, and present it all through a fast marketplace storefront. Off-the-shelf SaaS platforms couldn’t deliver this without layers of plugins and workarounds.
The marketplace model is fundamentally different from a single-brand store. Inventory counts change across vendor systems in real time. Commission structures vary by category and vendor. Payment splits need to route the right amount to the right seller on every order. A shopper who buys from three vendors expects one seamless experience.
When Maisonette launched, assembling this stack meant stitching together separate vendors for marketplace orchestration, payment splitting, and vendor management on top of the commerce engine.
The Solution
Maisonette chose Spree Commerce as its commerce backbone and built a Next.js frontend that communicates with Spree through the Store API.
The architecture separates concerns cleanly. The Next.js storefront handles server-side rendering for fast page loads and strong SEO across 65,000+ product pages. Spree Commerce manages the product catalog, pricing, promotions, inventory tracking, order management, and the marketplace module that orchestrates vendors.
What Maisonette had to assemble from separate vendors in 2018, Spree Commerce 5.4 now ships natively:
- Vendor onboarding and management. Vendors apply, get approved, and manage their own products from a self-service vendor dashboard. No custom admin panels required.
- Automated brand sync. Vendors already selling through their own stores connect via bi-directional vendor sync for products, inventory, orders, and shipments.
- Marketplace payment splitting. Stripe Connect and Adyen for Platforms handle automated commission calculation and vendor payouts on every transaction.
- Composable eCommerce architecture. Every layer of the stack is swappable. The search provider, the payment processor, the CMS, the frontend framework. Three years from now, when requirements change, you swap one layer without rebuilding everything else.
Architecture Overview
| Layer | What It Does | Spree Commerce Today |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend | Storefront experience, product browsing, checkout UI | Official open-source Next.js storefront (Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript 5) |
| Commerce Engine | Catalog, pricing, orders, inventory, promotions | Spree Commerce 5.4 with expanded marketplace features |
| Marketplace | Vendor lifecycle, commissions, multi-seller orchestration | Native marketplace module with vendor onboarding, dashboards, commission management |
| Payment Splitting | Per-vendor payouts on every transaction | Stripe Connect or Adyen for Platforms with automated vendor payouts |
Why This Matters for Marketplace Builders
Maisonette’s $15 million investment round confirmed that institutional investors were comfortable backing this architecture at scale. The platform processes orders across hundreds of vendors with real-time inventory synchronization and automated commission splits.
The key insight: the architecture that powers Maisonette is no longer a multi-million-dollar custom build. Spree Commerce 5.4 ships the marketplace capabilities natively. Teams launching today start with what Maisonette had to assemble from scratch.
For a detailed technical deep dive into Maisonette’s architecture, how the Next.js frontend connects to Spree’s Store API, and what Spree 5.4 changes for marketplace builders, read the full case study: How Maisonette Built a Multi-Vendor Childrenswear Marketplace on Spree Commerce.
Ready to build your own marketplace? Get started with Spree Commerce or fork the open-source Next.js storefront to see the stack in action.
