This tutorial if for creating a listing to rent, where the provider adds an availability calendar that customers can use to make bookings. A listing for booking a service would be created using a very similar listing creation form.

The listing form in your marketplace may be about adding a product or posting a listing for inquiries instead. These differences are expected, reflecting the choices you made in the setup wizard when creating your marketplace from the Sharetribe website. If the listing form in your marketplace doesn't work the way you'd like it to work yet, don't worry – you can adjust it to your liking! We'll get to this later in the tutorial.

Ultimately, you can use Console to configure exactly what type of listings your providers should create. This tutorial walks through creating your first test listing so that you can understand how your marketplace works and identify what you want to change and what you want to keep.

Back in the marketplace (accessible via “View marketplace” from Console top bar), ensure you are logged in as the test user you just created. Click on “Post a listing” on the top bar. This will take you to the listing creation form.

The listing creation form has several sections. Each section asks the provider to fill information about the listing they are creating. Each section must be completed before moving to the next and all sections must be completed before publishing a listing.

To start, the listing creation form has sections based on the marketplace details you shared with us while creating your Console operator account. You may see any of the following sections in the left hand menu on your screen.

The first section asks providers for basic details. This information will be used to populate the listing page customers see during discovery and can serve as attributes for searching, filtering, and sorting.

Without any configuration changes done in Console, you will be asked to fill default fields (Title and Description) and one custom field (Example field).

Fill in these details as you wish. Later, you will use this information to search and find this listing when testing the customer experience. Here are the details that this tutorial will use throughout the rest of the test:

You may be asked to add a location for your listing. Add any location.

This tutorial uses the address of Sharetribe’s previous office building: "Bulevardi 14, 00120, Helsinki, Finland". We will use the optional field blank.

If you did not input the price in the previous section, then the next step is to add your price. This is the hourly, daily, or nightly price.

This tutorial uses a daily price of $50. We only need to type the number (50), as the currency is automatically assigned based on marketplace settings.

Alternatively, if you said your marketplace is about selling products in some form, you will be asked to add pricing and stock information instead of location. You input the price per unit.

Stock may not be asked depending on your choices during account creation.

Marketplaces where products are sold fill in delivery options now. Choose whether the product is delivered by “Pickup” or “Shipping” or both. Add a pickup location or shipping fee if applicable. During search and checkout, customers will be able to see what delivery options are available, select one if there is a choice, and pay a shipping fee if they choose this option.

Listing availability determines when the listing can and cannot be booked. To set their availability, providers create a default schedule first. Then, they can modify individual days and times as they need. The availability can always be updated and changed.

This tutorial uses the following options to set the default schedule:

If your marketplace is about making hourly bookings, you’ll need to specify available hours in addition to available days.

Once you have saved the default schedule, you can add availability exceptions. Availability exceptions modify the default schedule to add or remove specific dates and times.

Every listing requires at least one photo. Photos are shown in the listing thumbnail during search and on the listing page. They can be in landscape, portrait, or square orientation.

Feel free to use the image below if you do not have a ready stock image. You can download it by right clicking on the image and selecting "Save image as".

Once your image uploads, press “Publish listing". And, voilà! Your first listing is complete.

The first time you create a listing, a pop-up window will open for you to add your payout information to the marketplace. Payout information includes a bank account where any earned funds should be deposited and personal information necessary for completing "know-your-customer" (KYC) verification.

Stripe is the payment gateway that handles payments and payouts. Your Test marketplace is integrated with a test Stripe account you can use to quickly see how it works. Moreover, Stripe provides test bank account information for providers and test credit card details for customers so that you can try out payments and payouts without needing real money.

Here is how to add your payout details using the “Payout preferences” pop-up window:

A published listing means we’re ready to test the other side of the marketplace: the customer experience. The next tutorial walks through setting up a customer account and searching for the listing we created.