Products need images so we definitely need storage and since Stellar provides none we need to look for alternatives like IPFS or Sia coin as I learned today. Product metadata could be stored as json and retrieved on demand. The important parts would be trust and aggregation.
For trust I've thought about a SHOP token with auth required/revocable flags so anybody can create malls or shopping centers where people could attach their shops by buying lots on that marketplace (token).
That way it would be easier for search engines to query trustlines for a shoppping center (SHOP) and present all shops in that marketplace. They could be aggregated by categories like electronics, art, clothing, whatever since anybody could create a marketplace. Bad behaviour could easily be solved revoking the trustline. Successful shopping centers would increase in value since everybody would like to have their shops listed so they could either sell the lots (token) in the marketplace or simply print more, up to each mall owner.
Anybody could have an independent shop but why would they? Aggregation is half the success of any marketplace. I'd like to look for used iphones in one place and not in thousands of individual shops hard to find. Of course once the search apps present query results then we can go to individual shops to continue browsing for products.
Now, we all know drugs and illegal stuff will pop up in their own marketplaces, but everybody decides which SHOPping mall to trust and subscribe so there won't be any kind of censorship providing room for everybody who wants to trade anything. If you are a mall owner you set your conditions (auth revoke/require) but if Alice opens a drug paradise SHOPping mall then those interested would attach their shops there and subscribe to their query engine.
Also, there would be plenty of competition for query engines and UIs since everything is on the blockchain (and external storage) which would make the best marketplaces and the best apps to thrive.
Finally, since Stellar allows all kinds of assets to be created, people could easily use any currency (fiat or crypto) in the whole world to buy stuff and marketplaces could easily provide payment integration with all wallets already available in the ecosystem.
Of course we can dream with Stellar offering storage, dapps and marketplace operations some day, but until then we must push the world we want forward and build it ourselves with our bare hands.
