In this five-step tutorial, we’ll test the most important user flows in your marketplace from user and listing creation to transactions.
Our example marketplace will be a platform for private, guided bike tours called Biketribe.
1. Create a service provider account
Our first step is creating a test service provider.
1. Go to your test marketplace through Console by clicking “View marketplace”.
2. In your test marketplace, go to the signup page. You’ll find it through the “Sign up” link in the top bar.
3. On the signup page, choose the user type “Provider”, if your marketplace has user types enabled.
Your marketplace will have user types enabled if you’re building a B2C or B2B marketplace and you indicated that in the setup wizard questionnaire. You can modify or create user types in Console.
4. Add the requested details. The exact set of information will depend on your answers to the setup wizard. At minimum, you’ll be asked:
Email
First name
Last name
Password
If you’re building a B2C or B2B marketplace, you will also be asked the following information:
Display name
Phone number
These fields are configured as non-mandatory, so you can leave them empty. They are default user fields that can be enabled or disabled depending on your needs. For example, the display name works as a business name field for business providers.
5. Check “I accept the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy” and click “Sign up”.
Verify email
Before moving on to creating a listing, confirm the provider’s email address. If you used an actual email address for the user, you’ll receive an email with a link to confirm.
You can also verify emails through Console:
Go to Manage > Users.
Click open the new user’s card.
Click open the menu behind the three dots.
Click “Verify email”
Confirm.
2. List a service
In your test marketplace, check that you’re logged in as the test provider you just created.
Click “Post a listing” in the top bar. This will take you to the listing creation form.
The listing creation form has sections based on your answer during onboarding.
Add listing details
The first section asks the service provider for basic details. This information will be on the listing page for customers to see. Data added here can also serve as attributes for searching, filtering, and sorting listings.
If you haven’t made any configuration changes in Console yet, you’ll be asked for a title and description and one custom field (Example field).
As an example, we’ll add a listing for a biking tour guide in the Helsinki area:
Listing title: Private tour of Helsinki on bike
Listing description: Explore Helsinki like a local on a guide! Pedal through scenic parks, charming neighborhoods, and along the beautiful waterfront. Our knowledgeable guide will share fascinating stories about Helsinki’s rich history, vibrant culture, and modern architecture.
Example field: Example option 1
Add location
Depending on your answers during onboarding, you may be asked to add a location for your listing. Add any location.
Add pricing
The next step is to add your price. Depending on your answers during onboarding, you’ll add an hourly, daily, or nightly price.
Add availability
Listing availability determines when the listing can be booked.
The timezone is automatically set to the provider’s browser timezone, but can be edited.
First, service providers create a default schedule. Then, they can add availability exceptions for specific days and times they are available or unavailable outside of the default schedule.
Add photos
In Sharetribe, every listing needs to have at least one photo. Photos are shown in the listing thumbnail during search and on the listing page.
Once your image uploads, click “Publish listing". Your first listing is now complete.
Add payout details
When your marketplace uses online payments, service providers must add their payout details before they can receive payments from customers.
In the listing type settings, you can decide if the service provider needs to add their payout details before they can publish listings. This way, you can make sure that when any customer wants to book a listing, they’ll be able to complete a payment.
Sharetribe uses Stripe for payment processing. Stripe is a top-of-the-industry payment provider that guarantees secure, seamless marketplace payments.
In your test marketplace, you use test data for payouts and payments. You don’t need to use actual banking details.
In the modal that opens:
Choose your account type and country
Click to “Add a bank account”.
Go through Stripe’s onboarding and add payout details.
Back on the marketplace, you may be asked to give Stripe some more verification information. Click “Get verified” and fill in the information Stripe requests. Typically this will be name, date of birth, and address. You can fill in test data since your test marketplace uses Stripe in test mode.
Once the payout details are in place, click “Publish listing”. Your listing is now available for booking on the marketplace!
3. Create a customer account
To complete a transaction on a two-sided marketplace, you’ll need at least two users. So let’s create another test account: this time as a customer. This is essentially the same process you went through in step one of this tutorial.
On your test marketplace, log out of the provider’s account.
Click “Sign up” in the marketplace top bar. Add the requested information.
Confirm the signup.
Verify your email as the operator from Console or via the confirmation email sent to the signup email.
Tip! You can’t use the same email for two users on your marketplace, but there’s a workaround for this. Add “+[alias]" to an email before the @-sign. For example, if your email address is your.name@example.com, you can create the alias address your.name+customer@example.com. Please note that this approach works only with some email providers, such as Google, Outlook, and Hotmail.]
You have two users now. In the Manage users, you can switch between the users with the Log in as a user feature.
4. Find the service
Logged in as the customer, click “Browse listings” on the landing page of your marketplace.
Or search for the listing through the search field in the top bar.
Since your marketplace only has one listing at this point, it’s easy to find. If you add more test listings and configure your listing data and search, you can test the search and filtering functionality in more detail.
5. Make a booking
The final step in this tutorial is making a booking.
Logged in as the customer, do the following steps to book the listing:
Open the listing page.
Choose the time you want to book and check the booking breakdown.
Click “Request to book”.
On the checkout page, fill in test payment details. You can use a built-in test credit card for this.
Add an optional message for the provider.
Click to “Confirm booking request”.
Log in as the provider again.
Go to the inbox through the link in the top bar. You’ll see a red dot to indicate a new booking next to the link.
Open the booking in your inbox.
Check the booking details and accept. You can also write an optional message for the customer.
At this point, the customer’s credit card is charged. Stripe holds the money until the booking is over.
Once the booking period has passed, the booking is marked as completed, and the customer and provider can review each other.
Next: Complete your service marketplace setup
You’ve now successfully gone through all of the key user flows of your marketplace. You can keep testing how your marketplace works in your test environment.
If you noticed something you’d like to change in the user or listing creation, search, or transaction process, it’s a great idea to modify your settings and then see how the experience has changed.
Next, it’s time to complete your marketplace setup. Your marketplace already has many settings configured based on your answers during onboarding, but there might be things you want to change. You’ll also want to update your landing page and branding with your own content, among a host of other great features Sharetribe offers.
Setup tutorial: How to set up a service marketplace with calendar bookings