Python and Node.js: How To Choose The Best Technology For Your Online Marketplace

A marketplace is a complex, highly loaded system that brings together a large number of sellers and buyers, offers a variety of products, and has rich functionality. In our previous insight, we discussed how to boost and promote marketplaces in 2023. However, before advancing the online marketplace, you have to build it. The question arises of what tech stack you need and what best meets marketplace demands. Selecting a backend programming language or framework is a difficult decision that needs careful consideration and in-depth research. Based on our vast experience, we consider Python and Node.js the most appropriate technology for developing a digital commerce marketplace that gets millions of visits and deals per day.

Top Facts about Python

• Python is among the top five programming languages ranked by the sum of monthly active tests (2023 HackerRank Developer Skills Report).
• Python is one of the seven most popular programming languages (67.34%) (Stack Overflow’s 2022 Developer Survey).
• Its demand is growing at a steady pace.
• Python is the second choice of programmers when they have multiple options (more than 540,000).
• Python, like the other top 2022 languages, Java and SQL, will keep and improve its dominance over other languages in 2023.
• It is regarded as one of cloud applications’ most common programming languages.
• Automation and Robotization are predicted to be one of the key Python development trends in 2023.
• The number of Python web development scraping tools is predicted to expand in 2023.
• Python can be easily integrated with different programming languages enabling developers to work smoothly without interruption.
• Python/Jupyter is in the top ten most popular development environments used regularly and with which developers want to continue further. 

Top Facts about Node.js

• Node.js is one of the ten most popular web frameworks and web technologies (67.36%) (Stack Overflow’s 2022 Developer Survey). 
• Node.js is the most common web technology used by professional developers and those learning to code (47.12%). 
• Node.js is recognized as the optimum framework for data-intensive applications due to its possibility to operate via remote devices in real time.
• Node.js reduces the loading time of web pages by 50%. 
• Node.js is the second most popular GitHub repository.
• Currently, Node JS is used in more than 85 countries worldwide.
• By supporting real-time functionality and providing scalable solutions, Node.js is becoming one of the top choices when building data-driven, real-time applications.
• 98% of Fortune 500 companies use Node.js repeatedly.
• More than 230,000 websites use Node.js, 35% of which are in the USA. 
• Node.js’s serverless architecture feature makes it highly efficient for building cloud-based applications.

Top Facts about Marketplaces

• By 2023, e-commerce and marketplaces are forecasted to account for 17% of all operations. 
• One-third of all US business is conducted online via e-Commerce, 63% of which falls on marketplaces. 
• Forbes predicts that by 2024, market revenues will reach $3.5 trillion.
• 75% of marketplace consumers use multiple channels before purchasing.
• Global retail m-commerce sales are anticipated to hit $4.5 trillion by 2024 and account for almost 70% of all retail e-commerce sales.
• In 2023, the two-way online marketplace will extensively use the omnichannel selling principle.
• Social media is becoming the leading source of inspiration for shopping for 97% of Zoomers. 
• 63% of vendors only sell on marketplaces.
• The five top categories for selling on marketplaces are home and kitchen, toys and games, baby products, beauty, and health. 

Marketplace Formula 

It is not enough to be a good chef or have a modern restaurant to earn a Michelin star. It is necessary to meet a whole range of requirements, such as the quality of products, cooking features, flavors combination, dishes design, the quality of service, the atmosphere, and the chef’s originality. The same is with marketplaces. If you want to get a high-end and competitive platform, you need to combine the best ingredients that perfectly complement each other, are in balance, address your needs, and sound in unison with the desires of your customers. Our formula for a perfect marketplace looks as follows: 

ONLINE MARKETPLACE= 

painless searching and filtering +  automated optimization + ratings & reviews + сommunication tools + automated payment process + arbitration component 

When people use marketplace services, they pursue two main goals – to sell their goods/services and buy or get the required goods and services. Finding a necessary item among thousands of products can be a real challenge. If your users have problems with it or need help understanding the logic, they will leave your platform. Provide them with the opportunity to search for numerous items accurately. It is essential to optimize the data filtering and searching process. Otherwise, you will lose your current and potential clients if it takes much time (even several seconds). 

According to data, about 70% of shoppers always read from one to six reviews before making an online purchase. The objective feedback of prior customers encourages them to make their decisions. Make it possible for your guests and clients to add reviews or ratings for any merchant or merchandise. It is your duty to develop distinctive features for requesting, gathering, analyzing, and posting consumer feedback on the products and businesses they are working with. 

Customers and vendors should be able to contact each other as well as administrators once the need arises. One of your essential tasks is to provide users with tools covering both synchronous and asynchronous ways of communication. All your communication channels must meet the critical demand – they should be able to satisfy the target audience’s requirements. Chatbots, live chats, messaging apps, voice messaging, and social media channels have already become a “must-have” of a successful marketplace platform.

The purchase process should be as convenient as possible when paying for goods and services online. With the interaction of many participants and the presence of a wide range of goods that must be paid for and for which money must be received, the issue of automating payment processes must not go by the wayside. A payment gateway should be built in such a way as to simplify it for your clients and to enable you to monitor and control payment flows.

Businesses sometimes need to pay more attention to one essential component and obligation when developing online marketplaces: settling conflicts between the vendor and the consumer. As the platform’s owner, you assume responsibility for addressing ambiguous and potentially controversial situations. Your web application should encourage open and equitable cooperation and include unique features that make it possible for customers to access necessary sections and documents conveniently and quickly.

Comparison of Python and Node.js

An online marketplace includes all features of a classical eCommerce platform plus additional features unique to it. A competitive and efficient online market should be designed to reach many people (customers and vendors) and goods. You must always have the possibility to scale promptly, support your clients at every stage of the interaction with the product, communicate with them in a real-time mode, and organize a seamless payment process. From this perspective, let’s consider the core functionality of Python and Node.js for creating an online marketplace.

Features	Python	Node.js
Scalability	Python doesn’t have an asynchronous programming feature, which makes the scaling process a little bit difficult. But, at the same time, the language has a rich syntax and ecosystem of tools, modularity, and logical structure, as well as command line flexibility, which allows development to be scalable. Besides, Python provides users with third-party integrations, for example, Dask or Jug, to conduct clustering.	Node.js has a native cluster module that creates a separate process on each core. Additionally, it employs fewer threats when responding to customer requests. Developers can easily scale an application owing to these features.
Concurrency and   parallelism	The Python threading module, which generates threads to run specific code segments, allows programmers to establish concurrency, which does not ensure their parallel running. For parallelism, Python uses multiprocessing (the multiprocessing module), which allows parallel execution of resource-intensive tasks by launching independent interpreter instances. Each instance receives the necessary code and data to perform a specific task and runs independently without blocking each other on its own thread. The number of processor cores limits the number of processes that can be run in parallel.	Node.js was built to enable developers to create applications that effectively manage I/O intensive processes implementing two types of threats: a primary threat addressed by the event loop and a set of supplementary threads in a worker pool. The Event Loop can perform one thing simultaneously due to its single-threaded nature. However,  Node.js gives programmers the opportunity to separate and perform time-consuming CPU operations in parallel to boost efficiency by using a worker pool. The worker threads access the same memory and process ID as that of the parent thread.
Integration and     Extensibility	The language was initially conceived to be easily extensible. That is why it has a small kernel supplemented by libraries. Python has a large number of plug-ins, including web frameworks, web servers, testing, automation and system administration frameworks, text processing, and more. Additionally, the programming language offers robust extension features. Developers can expand it using C or C+, which enables them to execute Python code via C or C++ libraries or vice versa.	Node.js provides an opportunity to extend it with C/C++ by implementing addons. Node-API and native abstractions for Node.js help to put the add-ons into use and benefit from threads, C++ libraries, and speed.  Also, to build a native extension, a programmer can use binding.gyp file, node-gyp, bindings, n-api, and node addon api.
Performance Speed	It is a well-known fact that Python is slower than Node.js. And several reasons can explain this phenomenon. For example, the source code is automatically converted by Python into byte code, a low-level representation comprehended exclusively by PVM. However, focusing specifically on complex computational processes, Python will outperform Node.js when performing many computational operations.	Regarding performance, Node.js outperforms Python as it is based on the powerful Chrome V8 engine, making it one of the fastest server solutions and the preferred tool for chatbots and real-time application development.  Node.js doesn’t require a lot of dependencies; it’s lightweight and manages various aspects of the application. It is also more flexible and compact. For practically every I/O method operation, it has asynchronous methods. Also,  Node.js only supports a single thread; thus, if an activity requires much time, the main thread is not stopped, providing space for running other elements of your code.

Top marketplaces built with Node.js and Python

Many world-famous marketplaces prefer these two technologies to make their platforms operate coherently like clockwork. The Powercode team has selected the most popular marketplaces developed with Python and Node.js. 

Marketplaces powered by Node.js

eBay

eBay is one of the most popular and largest online marketplaces, founded in 1995 in San Jose, CA. It connects more than 135M active buyers with sellers in more than 190 markets globally. For the most part, eBay runs on a Java-based tech stack and prefers Node.js for its scalability and performance. They have chosen a tech stack that gives their customers the freedom to develop and prosper regardless of their geographic location, status, or nationality. 

PayPal

PayPal is a world-known digital payment platform that provides secure and safe money sending and receiving for transactions. Having more than 325M accounts globally and being available in 190 markets and 24 currencies, it fosters international eCommerce. By supporting payments across many areas, currencies, and languages, PayPal uses Java and Node.js as their backend technology. Their developers explain it by the opportunity to build applications faster with fewer resources, getting high performance, enhanced productivity, and less development time.

Groupon

Groupon is an American global e-commerce platform that unites customers with nearby businesses by providing cashback on purchases and various coupons. Business owners use this platform to entice customers into their stores to buy goods or services. They preferred Node.js because it enables specialists  to easily reuse previously written code elements, scale and maintain their applications. Thus, Groupon has 70 Node.js apps in operation across 30 countries.

Marketplaces powered by Python 

Zalando 

Zalando is the top online clothes retailer in Europe, with 20 million active customers across 15 countries. Robert Gentz and David Schneider launched the business on February 26, 2008, with its main offices in Berlin, Germany. Python offers a rich ecosystem with a variety of open-source tools, which Zalando widely uses. It also allows them to implement other means if it is needed without any hindrance.

Wayfair 

Wayfair is a well-known online marketplace of household goods and furniture founded by Nirai Shah in 2002 in the USA, the range of goods includes more than 700,000 items of various products and more than 11,000 brands. Their engineers are working on the technology that powers the experience for their customers. 

Spotify

Spotify is an online streaming platform that allows users to legally listen to podcasts, audiobooks, and audio without downloading. More than 450 million people use their service. With over 200 million subscribers, a library of over 80 million audio files, and 4 million podcasts, Spotify’s owners make development speed their top priority. That is why programmers prefer Python, which fully satisfies their needs.

Marketplaces powered by Node.js and Python

Netflix

The video streaming platform Netflix extensively uses the capabilities of both technologies, Python and Node.js, in its development processes. In terms of Python, they prefer to implement its libraries while working with security and alert issues. Netflix is able to use CI effectively and run developers’ tests locally, thanks to the adoption of Node.js. Now programmers have the opportunity to build on the server side because of horizontal server scaling.

Uber

Uber is a transportation company with an eponymous app for passengers and drivers. The first can call for a ride, while the last can receive fares. By third-party providers, including Hertz, Get Around, and Fair, the corporation also delivers car rentals and leases. Node.js and Python are the ideal solutions for the company because of a sophisticated architecture consisting of various modules that communicate via APIs and the need to handle a significant quantity of simultaneous requests. For instance, Node.js is used to develop the Uber dispatch system, which manages supply and demand with the help of web sockets.

Walmart

Walmart is one of the world’s biggest commercial and consumer goods retailers, owning an extensive network of hypermarkets throughout the USA. Walmart employs Python and Node.js technologies to examine consumer behavior and create functional patterns to provide its customers with accurate recommendations.   Additionally, they both make it possible to manage clusters and enhance real-time analytics.

Wrapping Up

Choosing the appropriate tech stack that fully meets your requirements is crucial if you plan to build a successful online marketplace. This has a great impact on the effectiveness as well as the speed and quality of development. It is entirely up to you to use only Python, solely Node.js, or both, as they have a wide range of benefits, including the capacity to create sophisticated apps quickly, process enormous amounts of data, build comprehensive business logic, operate at a high pace, and increase performance. These are the key reasons why Powercode developers enjoy employing them to create vibrant marketplaces. Get in touch with us, and we will show you how to execute your bravest ideas.