As the operator of a Sharetribe marketplace, you can log in on behalf of your marketplace's users. This feature is useful for understanding the user experience, solving reported problems, and helping users edit their listings or user profiles. For example, you can log in as a new provider to help them complete their first listing on the marketplace and make the onboarding experience extra smooth.

Logging in as a user works differently in your test marketplace and live marketplace. In a test marketplace, you have full access to user profiles and actions, while in a live marketplace, you have limited rights to user profiles.

You can log in as a user through Console. Navigate to the Manage users page in the sidebar navigation (1). You can search for the user you want to log in as (2) or select them from the user list. Open the user profile card, click on the three dots next to the user's profile picture (3), and select "Log in as user" (4).

This takes you to your marketplace’s front page, logged in as that user.

You will see a banner at the top that reminds you of who you're logged in as (5). Depending on your environment (test and live), you will see which rights you have. Learn more about the differences between logging in as a user in a test and live environment below.

From here, you can, for example, create a listing on behalf of the user (6), enter their inbox (7), and access their profile settings (8). All these functions work the same as they do for the actual user.

Your test environment is a sandbox marketplace, where you can test the full functionality of your marketplace. This is why you have more access rights when logging in as a test user as well.

When logged in as a test user in your test marketplace, you can:

Since the user is not a real person and all transaction data is test data, you have full access to user profiles, listings, and actions in the test environment. This is different from a live marketplace.

On a live marketplace, you have real users, real money, and real listings. This is why your access rights when logged in as a user are limited. You can still help users create great listings and edit their user profiles, but you can’t initiate or move forward transactions.

When logged in as a real user in your live marketplace, you can:

When logged in as a real user in your live marketplace, you can’t:

Instead, you can manage ongoing transactions as an operator through Console. Operator transitions are available for transactions that have transitions from one state to another, such as the default product purchase process.