A diamond and gemstone marketplace connecting retail buyers with jeweller trade workflows.
Gemstone Market is a UK diamond and gemstone marketplace for retail customers and verified jewellers. It lets users browse certified diamonds, gemstones and melee products, compare stones, save favourites, manage baskets, place orders and access trade pricing where approved.
The platform had to combine public shopping journeys with protected jeweller workflows, without exposing supplier credentials or live inventory services to the browser. It also needed to handle a large, filterable stone catalogue, current pricing and availability, secure checkout, account management, KYC review and operational admin tools in one system.
MernLabs built a full-stack marketplace with a separate frontend and API layer so supplier access, payments and authentication could stay server-side. A hybrid inventory approach uses cached feed data for fast listing and live supplier lookups where current pricing, availability or detail accuracy matters. MongoDB stores users, orders, baskets, favourites, feed cache records, support tickets, contact submissions, discounts and jeweller applications. The platform includes role-based retail, jeweller and admin areas, with rate limiting, security headers, proxied supplier media and protected wholesale access.
01
Product Catalogue
Users can browse diamonds, gemstones and melee products with filtering, sorting, detail pages, media, certificates and comparison tools. This gives buyers a structured way to evaluate high-value stones before purchase.
02
Retail Checkout
The platform supports baskets, discount codes, VAT display, currency selection and Stripe payment flows. Orders store pricing snapshots, fulfilment states, delivery details and refund requests.
03
Jeweller Portal
Trade users can register as jewellers, submit KYC information and access wholesale pricing once approved. The portal separates trade purchasing, invoices, quotes, bulk orders and stone requests from the retail journey.
04
Admin Operations
Administrators can manage orders, users, jeweller applications, support tickets, contact forms, email templates, featured stones, discounts, feedback and feed refreshes. This keeps catalogue, customer and fulfilment operations inside one controlled dashboard.
05
Secure Supplier Proxy
Supplier API calls, credentials, certificates and images are routed through the backend rather than exposed directly to visitors. This protects upstream access whilst still allowing customers to view live product information.
Headings — Cormorant Garamond · Body — Jost
A documented data-shaping change reduced a diamond feed collection from approximately 490 MB to 150 MB for 246,000 diamonds. Supplier tokens are refreshed every 5.5 hours, and feed refresh jobs run daily with a seven-day freshness check.
