In this tutorial, we’ll set up a marketplace for new, physical products, or in other words, a classic product marketplace where:
Sellers add items and stock.
Buyers purchase those items and get them delivered by shipping (or pickup).
This tutorial goes through the design, listing, transaction, and content settings that are most relevant for product marketplaces. The example platform we're building in this tutorial is a t-shirt marketplace called Teetribe.
This is a no-code tutorial. All settings are configured without coding, using Sharetribe's no-code marketplace builder. The purpose of this tutorial is to create the first version of your marketplace fast and without coding. Your first goal should be to validate your marketplace idea. Once you know it’s worth investing more in, you can start building custom functionality on top of Sharetribe.
If you're looking for a particular feature or haven't found what you're looking for, take a look at our Help Center or reach out to our support team through the chat widget in the corner.
1. Create a Sharetribe account
This tutorial assumes you have a Sharetribe account. If you don’t, start your 14-day free trial. No credit card required.
You’ll give your marketplace a name at this stage (you can still change it later) and answer some questions about your marketplace idea. Sharetribe configures your account based on these answers, but you can still change all of the settings later.
Let’s get to the tutorial!
2. Add your own branding
We’ll start with something every marketplace needs: branding. In the branding settings, you determine your marketplace colors and visual assets.
Go to Design → Branding.
Update your main brand color. This color is used in most recurring elements on your website.
Upload a logo.
Choose a logo display height.
Upload a favicon.
You can check how the settings and images look on your test marketplace, which you can access through the View marketplace link in the top right corner.
5. Optional: change the primary button color.
6. Optional: upload an app icon, background image, and social media image.
7. Save changes.
If you don’t have your brand assets ready yet, you can keep the default assets for now and update them later.
3. Choose the layout
Your layout settings are defined based on your answers to the setup wizard. It’s still good to check that they match your idea.
Consider your marketplace carefully. We’re building a marketplace for new products (t-shirts in our example). The search and listing pages should feature images of the products heavily, as seeing them is an important part of a purchase decision.
Go to Design → Layout.
In Console, final layout settings for this marketplace will look like this:
Here are the reasons behind each choice:
Search page: Grid view. Listings will be presented in a grid on the right with categories and filters on the left in a side panel.
Your other option is map view, which features a map in addition to listings. It’s a great choice if location is an important element in your marketplace.
2. Listing page: Image carousel with thumbnails. The page features a carousel of images uploaded about the listing, followed by custom listing data. On the right side, customers will find the price and delivery method, choose the number of items to buy, see the order breakdown and a Buy now button.
3. Listing thumbnail aspect ratio: Portrait (3:4). This setting depends on the types of products you're selling. The listings in Teetribe are clothes, so the best option thumbnail ratio is portrait. For other items, the best aspect ratio may be different.
4. Add or edit user types
User types let you create different signup and user experiences for groups of users.
In this section, we’ll create two user types: one for sellers and another for buyers. In our example marketplace, the sellers will be small t-shirt manufacturers and designers selling directly to customers.
This section is relevant to you if you plan to differentiate between the buyer and seller experiences. For example, if you’re building a B2C (business-to-customer) or B2B (business-to-business) marketplace, it makes sense to create user types. If you’re building a P2P marketplace (peer-to-peer), you can jump to the next section on listing types.
Go to Users → User types.
Set up a seller user type like this:
Here’s the reason behind each setting option:
User type name: a descriptive name. In Teetribe, the name will be “Seller”.
User type ID: a unique identifier of the listing type. It’s used when you want to limit user fields to specific user types only.
Display name: enable. This means the seller will add a name of their business instead of selling under their own name.
Phone number: disable. This choice depends on your marketplace. Will you need to know the phone number of your sellers? Any information you ask adds steps to the signup process, so only ask what’s relevant for you to know.
Display name settings:
Add to the signup form: Enable.
Make mandatory: Enable. This determines if the seller has to add a business name or not. If your marketplace will have both business and individual sellers, you should leave this field disabled.
Next, set up your customer user type as follows:
And here’s why:
User type name: a descriptive name. In Teetribe, the name will be “Buyer”.
User type ID: a unique identifier of the listing type. It’s used when you want to limit user fields to specific user types only.
Display name: disable. Buyers who will operate on the marketplace under their own name in the format First name + First initial of surname..
Phone number: disable.
We’re purposefully making the buyer onboarding as simple as possible. To get buyers on board, there should be as few steps to join as possible.
If you’re building a B2C marketplace, one more way to differentiate between your buyers and sellers is to only give posting rights to sellers. You can control who gets to publish listings with access control settings.
5. Set up the listing type and transaction process
Next, we’ll check and confirm whether the listing type settings are configured to your needs. The listing type is set up for you based on your setup wizard answers, but it’s still good to confirm it fits your needs. In this tutorial, we’re setting up a listing type for products with stock and shipping.
Go to Listings → Listing types.
Set your product-selling listing type like this:
Here’s the reason behind each setting option:
Listing type name: a descriptive name. In Teetribe, the name will be “Purchase”. If you have more than one listing type, this name will be shown to users in listing creation.
Listing type ID: a unique identifier of the listing type. It’s used when you want to limit listing fields to specific listing types only. (We’ll set up listing fields later in this tutorial.)
Transaction process type: Purchase. This is the transaction process for product sales.
Stock type: Finite stock, multiple items. This means that:
The seller will add stock to a listing when creating it.
A buyer can buy more than one of the same item at a time.
Once the product is sold, the stock is reduced automatically.
The seller can add stock to their listing at any time.
Delivery options:
Pickup: Disable. If you want pickup as an option, you can enable it. In this case, sellers add an address to their listings and buyers can pick up their purchase in person.
Shipping: Enable. In listing creation, sellers add a shipping fee per item and additional items, which will be added on top of the listing price at checkout.
If you enable one of the delivery options, it’s the default when someone posts or buys a listing. If you enable both options, sellers can choose which delivery option they want for their listing. If the seller chooses both, the buyer can choose their preferred delivery method.
6. Payout details required before publishing: Enable or disable. This setting determines when a seller needs to add their payout details.
When enabled, the seller has to add their payout details before they can publish a listing.
When disabled, the seller can add them afterward.
6. Add categories
Next, we’ll add listing categories. Categories are a great way to organize listings on your marketplace and help customers find what they’re looking for. You can create main categories and two levels of subcategories in Sharetribe.
They are especially common on product marketplaces, where the variety of items can be vast. This video gives a great overview of categories and how to create them with Sharetribe.
In the case of our example marketplace Teetribe, we’ll add categories for t-shirt style.
Give the category a descriptive name. Sellers and customers will see the name on the marketplace.
Add a category ID. The ID is a unique identifier of the category. It’s used when you want to limit listing fields to specific categories only. (We’ll set up listing fields next.)
Add subcategories if you need them. It’s good to avoid having empty categories, so we won’t add subcategories in this tutorial, but we can add them later once listings are added.
This is what the categories look like in Console and on the marketplace, when the category filter is enabled:
7. Add listing fields
It’s time to create listing fields. Listing fields are unique information you want sellers to add to their listings. Customers, on the other hand, can filter search results based on them.
Go to Listings → Listing fields.
Give the listing field a descriptive name.
Add a listing field ID. The ID is a unique identifier of the field.
Choose the field type. Your options are free text, number, select one, and select multiple.
Decide if the field type is mandatory for the seller to fill.
Determine listing field specific settings. These vary depending on the field type.
Limit the listing field to a specific listing type or category. For example, in Teetribe, the field “Available in size” should apply to all categories. Category-specific fields are about a single category only. For example, the graphic tee category could have a dedicated field for "Art style".
Enable the filter as a search filter to include it on the search page.
Please note that product variations within listings are not available no-code in Sharetribe. This means that a buyer can’t choose a t-shirt and then specify a size or a color on the listing page. Instead, they should communicate their wishes to the seller in the transaction conversation. Product variations are possible to build with custom development.
8. Configure search settings
The final listing settings are the search settings.
Go to Listings → Listing search.
For a product marketplace, we’ll set up the search as follows:
Here’s the reason behind each setting option:
Search type: Keyword search. Since the marketplace is not primarily a location based platform, the primary search function will be by keyword. However, if you’re building a hyperlocal product marketplace, a location search can be a good option.
(Keyword filter: Disable. Only available with location search.)
Category filters: Enable. To help buyers find what they’re looking for, we’ll want to enable the category filter.
Date range filter: Disable. This setting is for marketplaces with time-based bookings.
Price filter: Enable and enter in the minimum and maximum values. Turning on this filter let’s customers filter by their desired price range. Choose the values based on the price range of items on your marketplace.
This is how the category and price filter will look like on your marketplace.
9. Define a commission
Next, we’ll determine commission rates. You can charge a commission from the seller, buyer, or both:
The seller’s commission is deducted from the listing price.
The buyer’s commission is added on top of the listing price.
The users don’t see each others’ commissions during a transaction.
When deciding your commission rates, you should consider at least the following:
Your commission rate(s) should not be so high as to drive off buyers and sellers. You should take into account factors like the average price of listing, competitive landscape, and the value you provide.
When choosing who to charge, consider which group—buyers or sellers—you’re more constrained on. Don’t implement fees (or as high a fee( for the group that’s tougher for you to reach.
Sharetribe uses Stripe to facilitate transactions. Stripe charges a payment processing fee from each transaction and it’s charged from the marketplace’s commission. Calculate your commission so that you can be sure it covers Stripe’s fees.
Learn more about finding the right commission rate in Marketplace Academy.
This video breaks down the commission feature of Sharetribe:
Go to Transactions → Commission.
In our example marketplace, the commission setup will be:
Provider commission: 15%. Charged from sellers.
Customer commission: 0%. No commission charged from buyers.
This is how the commission settings look like after these changes and how the seller and buyer see them, respectively:
10. Update marketplace texts
Marketplace texts are short pieces of text used across your marketplace website. This includes button labels, error messages, help texts, and more.
We’ll edit a small number of marketplace texts that are relevant to second-hand marketplaces.
While the marketplace text editor may feel daunting, it’s easy to edit once you get the hang of it. It gives you a lot of control over the language and terms used across your marketplace.
Go to Content → Marketplace texts.
The following changes take into consideration the specific niche of your marketplace. For example, instead of talking about “listings”, you can modify texts to refer to your marketplace’s unique offering.
Update display name to business name. To search for specific texts, click your cursor to the text editor. Type
CMD + F(Mac) orCTRL + F(PC).Search
"ConfirmSignupForm.displayNameLabel": "Display name"Update
Display nametoBusiness name.Search
"ProfileSettingsForm.displayNameLabel": "Display name"and update it the same way as you did the text above.Search
"SignupForm.displayNameLabel": "Display name"and update it the same way as you did the text above.Search
"ConfirmSignupForm.displayNameRequired": "You need to add a display name."Update
You need to add a display name.toYou need to add a business name.Search
"SignupForm.displayNameRequired": "You need to add a display name."and update it the same way as you did the text above.Search
"ProfileSettingsForm.displayNameHeading": "Your display name"Update
Your display nametoBusiness name.
Update the Post a new listing button.
Search
"EditListingPage.titleCreateListing": "Post a new listing"Update
Post a new listingtoList a [insert your marketplace offering here]. On Teetribe, this will beList a t-shirt.
Update the listing creation form.
Search
"EditListingDetailsForm.title": "Listing title"Update
Listing titleto[insert your marketplace offering here] title. On Teetribe, this would beT-shirt title.Search
"EditListingDetailsForm.description": "Listing description"Update
Listing descriptiontoDescription.
Update the search placeholder text.
Search
"TopbarSearchForm.placeholder": "Search listings…"Update
Search listingstoSearch [insert your marketplace offering here]. For example, in Teetribe, this text could beSearch t-shirts…Search
"NotFoundPage.SearchForm.placeholder": "Search listings…"and update this the same way as you did the text above.
Save changes.
Make sure to retain all special characters in the file, such as quotation marks, commas, and brackets. The editor will notify you if you try to save incomplete strings.
11. Edit content
Creating content pages for your marketplace is work that never ends, depending on how you approach your content strategy. But in the beginning, you’ll need just three pages to get started:
A landing page: The first page users land on. It's where you present your value proposition and convince people to give your marketplace a try.
Terms of Service: A legal agreement between you (or your marketplace) and the user who wants to use your service.
Privacy Policy: A statement or legal document that discloses some or all of the ways your marketplace gathers, uses, and manages the user data that you collect.
So our goal in this step of the tutorial is to get those pages ready to go. Once you launch, you can keep adding content pages for different purposes: educating your users, sharing more about your business, optimizing your marketplace for search engines, etc.
Go to Content → Pages.
Let’s get started with a simple task:
Delete the About page. Alternatively, you can edit this page with relevant content about your marketplace, especially if you already have a great story to tell.
12. Edit the Landing page
The first version of our sample landing page will be quite simple. You can keep adding to and editing it as you run your business.
In this tutorial, we’ll edit the existing fields in the landing page, but you can also delete existing section and add new ones.
This video is a great, fast overview of updating your landing page fast. Check it out or read on for step-by-step instructions.
Open the section “Marketplace introduction”. The settings of this section will be:
Section name: Marketplace introduction. You can change this to something else, such as Hero. It’s not shown to users.)
Section template: Hero. This section is specifically designed to work as the first section of the page.
Section title: a memorable short phrase that communicates your very basic value proposition in a quick and attention-grabbing way. For Teetribe, we’ll add “Your next favorite t-shirt is here.”
Section description: a slightly more detailed description of what your platform is about. For Teetribe, we’ll add “Buy top-quality t-shirts on Teetribe. Join our community of t-shirt lovers!”
Section call to action: Internal link
Internal link text: the text on the button link. For Teetribe, we’ll add “Browse t-shirts”.
Internal link address: /s. This is the basic URL for the search results page.
Section appearance: Custom
Background image: An image that communicates your value proposition and/or catches the eye. Make sure to use a copyright-free image or an image you own. Check out guidelines and tips for good-looking logos and images. If you don’t have an image yet, you can keep the sample image and update it later.
Background image overlay: Dark overlay. This setting depends on the image you use.
Text color: White. This setting depends on the image you use.
Open the section “How it works”. The settings of this section will be:
Section name: How it works
Section template: Columns. This template has content blocks in a grid.
Number of columns: 3 (or as many steps a customer's journey takes.)
Section title: Add a title for the section.
Section title size: H2
Section description: Add more detail about what the section is about.
Section call to action: No call to action
Section appearance: Default (light gray background, black text)
Open the content block New listing. The settings will be:
Block name: New listing
Block media: No media
Block title: Add a title for the block. This should describe the step in the user flow.
Block title size: H3
Block text: Add instructions on how to get started with the user flow. You can format the text in content blocks with Markdown, a lightweight markup language.
Block call to action: No call-to-action
Edit the other two content blocks Search and Payment in the same way.
Open the section “Featured locations”. Since our marketplace is not location-based, we’ll make this section a category section. You could also make a featured listings section once your marketplace has more listings.
Section name: Categories
Section template: Carousel. The content blocks are placed in a row and you can scroll them side to side.
Number of columns: 3. This number determines how big the content blocks are. 1 is biggest, 4 is smallest.
Section title: Add a title for the section.
Section title size: H2
Section title size: H2
Section description: Add more detail about what the section is about.
Section call to action: No call-to-action
Section appearance: Default
Delete existing content blocks (Location - Helsinki, etc.)
Click to add a new content block. Create one for each category. This is the basic structure and setup:
Block name: The name of a category on your marketplace.
Block media: Image.
Image file: upload an image that describes the category.
Aspect ratio: Portrait. Choose the one that best fits the products on your marketplace or the image you’re using. All block images should have the same aspect ratio for the best looking results.
Image alt text: Description of the image. The alt text is important for accessibility and search engines.
Block title: Add a title for the block, such as the name of the category.
Block title size: H3
Block text: Leave empty
Block call to action: Internal link
Internal link address: Go to your search results page. Click open the category you’re adding to the landing page. From the URL, copy everything start /s?. This is the internal link URL to that category. For example, for Teetribe, the URL for the category Band tees would be /s?pub_categoryLevel1=band.
Repeat step seven to create as many content blocks you need.
Delete section “Explained video”. We don’t yet have a video promo for our marketplace, so we’ll delete this section. We can add a video section and other types of sections later at any time.
Navigate to the SEO & Social tab. Update the following info:
Page title: You can use your slogan or hero section title here.
Page description: Describe your marketplace in less than 160 characters.
Page title for social media: You can use the same text as the page title here.
Page description for social media: You can use the same text as the page description here.
Page image for social media: upload an image here if you want the page to have a unique image when it’s shared on social media. Otherwise, the image will the default social media image you can upload in the branding settings.
Save changes.
13. Terms of service and privacy policy
The fastest way to update your terms of service and privacy policy is to use the free templates provided by Termsfeed, which you can find here in the Help Center.
This video walks you through updating the legal pages. Read on for written instructions to do the same. The process is very similar for both documents, so the video and this tutorial both use Terms of service as the example. You can follow the same steps to update the privacy policy.
Open the Terms of service template. The file is a Google Doc, formatted in Markdown.
Copy the contents of the document to the text editor of your choice.
Search for
{{--INSERTto find all the places that you need to replace with your own information. The text will always indicate what should be added, such as{{-- INSERT HERE YOUR MARKETPLACE NAME --}}.Update all the variables in your document.
Read through the document carefully to see that it matches your practices.
Copy the terms, excluding the instructions and disclaimer at the top of the document.
Go to your terms of service page in Console.
Open the section Terms of Service content section.
Open the content block Text content.
Paste your terms of service in the Block text field.
Save changes.
Then, repeat the same process for the privacy policy! Go to Content → Pages → privacy-policy. Find the privacy policy template here.
14. Footer
The final feature to update in this tutorial is the footer. We’re almost ready to launch!
Go to Content → Footer.
Set it up as follows:
Slogan: A short description of your marketplace
Copyright:
© [Current year] [Your marketplace name]. All rights reserved. For example: © 2024 Teetribe. All rights reserved.Number of content columns: 2. You can update this later if you add more links to your footer and want to divide them into more columns.
Social media links: Update and add links to your social media channels. The links automatically render as logos.
Content blocks: Add text content and links, formatted in Markdown. In this tutorial, we’re making only one change: removing the link to the About page, since we deleted the page earlier. Open the block named general and remove
- [About](/about).
15. Test your marketplace
Now, it’s time to test your marketplace. You may already have done so earlier, but it’s always good to see how the changes you’ve made in Console show on your marketplace website.
So head over to your test marketplace and set yourself in the mindset of a new user.
Create an account.
Create a listing.
Add payout information. You use a test bank account for this.
Create a second user.
Buy the listing. You can use a built-in test credit card.
In the Manage users page, you can log in as any user to easily switch between test users to complete a transaction, all the way to delivery and reviews.
Testing how your marketplace works super important in learning how it will work for your actual users. This way, you’ll be able to help them if they run into any problems and also, find out if there are still some settings you’d like to change or information to add.
16. Go live
Once your marketplace is configured, it’s time to go live. This doesn’t mean launching your marketplace to the entire world. The first steps after going live can be onboarding supply or inviting in early adopters to validate your idea.
To go live, you’ll need a live Sharetribe subscription: Lite, Pro, or Extend. Lite and Pro are plans for no-code marketplace builders. The Extend plan is for people who are customizing their marketplace with code. You can learn more about each plan and their features on Sharetribe’s pricing page.
In your test environment, click “Go live”. You’ll be prompted to choose a billing period (monthly or annual) and a plan.
Start a subscription. Your live marketplace will be set up based on your test environment setup. Even after going live, we recommend making all changes in your test environment, testing how they work, and only then copying them to live.
In your Live environment, add your Stripe account and map provider if relevant to your marketplace.
If you chose the Pro plan, configure your custom domain and outgoing email address.
If you want to limit access to your marketplace in the beginning, visit the access control settings. With these features, you can:
Make your marketplace private: only logged in users will see listings and user profile. Great for a marketplace in the beta stage or if you’re still in the process of building supply.
Approve each user separately: instead of giving new users full access, you can approve users manually.
Restrict publishing rights: instead of letting every user post listings, you can grant permission to publish listing to specific users.
Approve listings before publishing: You can also limit listing publishin on the listing level, for example if you want to review each listing for quality.
17. Automate workflows with Zapier (Pro plan)
While custom development might in the future for your marketplace, you can already automate tasks and functionality through Sharetribe’s integration with Zapier.
Zapier is a tool that lets you connect and automate tasks between different web apps. Sharetribe offers ready-made templates of Zapier workflows that make it fast and easy to start automating tasks.
For example, you can automate PDF invoices with taxes. While Sharetribe does not have built-in tax support, you can make sure your buyers and sellers receive tax information by integrating a PDF generating service through Zapier.
What else to check out
In addition to the features in this tutorial, Sharetribe has a host of other great functionality that might help your marketplace or become relevant later. Here’s a quick overview of them!
User fields: User fields let you ask for more information about your users during signup and in their user profiles. This information can be great for building community and letting users create rich profiles. You can also limit user fields to specific user types, if you only want your sellers to add additional information, for example. Learn more about user fields.
Access control: If you want to differentiate further between the sellers and buyers in your marketplace, access control features let you do that. For example, you could only give publishing rights to sellers to guarantee high quality listings. Learn more about access control.
Top bar: By default, the top bar includes the logo, search bar, and links to sign up, log in, and a button to post a new listing. In the top bar settings, you can add links to other pages. Learn more about the top bar.
Email texts: Similarly to the marketplace text editor, the email text editor let’s you modify the text content of the automatic emails sent to users from your marketplace at key events, like when a purchase happens. Learn more about email texts.
Minimum transaction size: If the downloads sold on your marketplace are generally quite low-priced, it may be useful to set a minimum transaction size to guarantee that your commission will be large enough to cover Stripe’s payment fees. Learn more about the minimum transaction size.
Analytics: You can add an analytics provider to monitor traffic on your marketplace. The built-in options are Google Analytics and Plausible. Learn more about analytics in Sharetribe.
The end of the tutorial
This is the end of the tutorial, but your marketplace journey has only just begun! And we’re here to help every step of the way. Reach out to us with any questions you might have about Sharetribe, and we’ll be happy to help.
And if you’re looking for some more generic marketplace business knowledge, there’s no better place to learn than Sharetribe’s Marketplace Academy.
Best of luck with your marketplace business!