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How to set up a Stripe payment page to charge one-time fees
How to set up a Stripe payment page to charge one-time fees

Learn how to set up a Stripe payment page to collect one-time fees from your marketplace providers.

Yifan Dong avatar
Written by Yifan Dong
Updated this week

In this article, you'll learn how to set up a Stripe payment page to collect a one-time In this article, you'll learn how to set up a Stripe payment page to collect a one-time fee from your users. Examples of one-time fees include listing fees, a purchase made by providers to have their listings published on the marketplace, and lead fees, a fee paid by providers to connect with a potential customer on the marketplace. You can learn more about these monetization strategies below:

You need to set up a different payment system as Sharetribe’s built-in payment system (Stripe Connect) is specifically designed for splitting payments and commissions between the marketplace, customer, and provider. One-time fees work differently, requiring a direct payment from your user to your platform.

In this guide, we’ll focus on using Stripe Payment links to collect one-time fees. Stripe offers secure payment processing and an easy way to set up a payment page without any coding. Though other payment systems are suitable for this use case, we recommend using Stripe Payment links.

Note: If you already have a Stripe account, you can skip steps 1 and 2 of this guide and jump straight to step 3.

1. Create and confirm your Stripe account

Creating a Stripe account is free, and you can delete it anytime. To create a Stripe account, go to https://dashboard.stripe.com/register

  • Fill in the required fields, then create your Stripe account

  • Go to your inbox to verify your email address. Check your email inbox and look for a confirmation email sent from Stripe (by notifications@stripe.com) named “Verify your email address.”

  • Click the confirmation link in this email and log in with your credentials.

Your Stripe account is now confirmed! Let’s proceed.

2. Activate payments on your account

As you will receive money from your users via your Stripe account, you have to complete your business profile by providing information such as your business type, industry, address, web URL and your bank account. This data is secured by Stripe and won't be shared with anyone. This process is called “Activating” your account. Click on "Start" on the page to fill in your business profile.

  • Complete all the fields according to the instructions and set Your website to your marketplace custom domain when asked.

    • It's OK to activate your account as an individual, you don't need a company ID. For example, in the US, it's okay to use your personal name and SSN in place of an EIN. You can read more about signing up without a tax ID or employer ID number from Stripe here.

    • The fields in the form vary based on the Business Location, so select that first!

  • Once completed, click "Agree and submit."

3. Create a product

Once you’ve activated payments in your Stripe account, the next step is to create a product in your Stripe catalog. In Stripe, a product represents the specific goods or services you offer. For your Sharetribe marketplace, this product will be the the one-tine fee that users need to pay in order to take certain actions on the marketplace, such as getting their listing approved, or being able to contact a potential buyer.

To create a product:

  1. Go to "Product catalog" on the left sidebar and add a new product, or click directly on this link.

  2. Fill in the product details:

    1. Name

    2. Description

    3. Image (optional)

    4. One-off

    5. Price amount

  3. Add your product.

That’s it! You’ve now created your one-time fee product. If you need to make changes later, you can always edit it by clicking the Edit product button on the product page.


4. Create a Payment link

After creating the one-time fee product, the next step is to create a payment link. In Stripe, a payment link is a customizable checkout page where you can add products from your Stripe catalog, allowing users to make payments easily.

To create a payment link:

  1. Go to "Payment links" on the left sidebar and create a payment link, or click directly on this link.

  2. Add the one-time fee product created in the previous step.

    1. (Optional) You can also configure other settings, such as collecting billing address and phone number, allowing promotional codes, and adding a custom payment confirmation message.

  3. Click on Create link.

  4. You can now copy and share the payment page link by clicking the clipboard icon next to the link. Here's an example of a payment link page for a one-time fee that allows the user to publish a listing.

5. Test the payments

When setting up your payment page, it’s a good idea to test the end-user experience before making the payment page live. Stripe makes this easy by offering a Test Mode, which allows you to simulate payments without processing real money.

By switching to Test Mode in your Stripe dashboard, you can create a test version of your payment page. This enables you to see exactly how the payment flow will function for users, but without handling actual money.

Stripe provides test card credentials that you can use to simulate a variety of scenarios, such as successful payments, declined transactions, or processing errors. This process ensures that your setup is working correctly and helps you troubleshoot any potential issues before your payment page goes live.

If you plan to use Zapier to automate the connection between Stripe and your marketplace, note that test payments (payments using test credit card credentials and the test checkout page) do not work as triggers in Zapier.

This means you will not be able to test the fully automated workflow while Stripe is in Test mode. Only Live mode payments on a live checkout page act as triggers. You can use Stripe’s test data only if you are finding the record it creates in Zapier manually while testing your Zap.

Learn more on how to connect Stripe and your marketplace using Zapier.


Final thoughts

Now you have a one-time payment page set up with Stripe. Providers can use this page to purchase the right to publish a listing on your marketplace or to receive transaction rights to contact a potential customer.

To complete your recurring fee system, you need to link the payment page you created using Stripe and your marketplace. Namely, you must publish the listing in your marketplace when you receive payment. Learn how to link your payment page and marketplace and how to integrate the two systems.

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