New in Sharetribe 🎉 Tailor experiences by user type

The latest no-code release builds on Sharetribe's user type functionality and gives you more control over what each user can do and see. With user roles and user account links, you can create more streamlined, role-specific experiences. For example, you can determine that only one user type can see the link to post listings.

This functionality is super impactful if you have user types in your marketplace. And especially if you’re running…

• A B2C or B2B marketplace (where only providers should post listings)
• A reverse marketplace (where customers post listings and providers bid on them)
• A marketplace without online payments (where links related to payments don’t really make sense).

Read on to learn how to enable the new user type settings—user roles and user account links—and make the most out of user types. 

User roles

In user type settings, you can now determine a user role for a user type. The role options are:

• provider (supply)
• customer (demand)

These two roles determine the basic user account experience.

Providers will see the provider inbox in their account, and their public profile will include reviews they’ve received from customers. Customers will see the opposite: the customer inbox and reviews they’ve received from providers. 

This means a clearer separation between supply and demand experience depending on user type. 

A user type can also have both user roles enabled. In this case, they will have both inboxes and reviews.

Tip! If you take user roles into use, you can update the inbox and review tab titles in the marketplace text editor. Search for the following keys and update the values.

• "InboxPage.salesTabTitle": "As a listing author",
• "InboxPage.salesTitle": "Inbox: As a listing author",
• "InboxPage.ordersTabTitle": "As a customer",
• "InboxPage.ordersTitle": "Inbox: As a customer",
• "ProfilePage.reviewsAsACustomerTitle": "Reviews as a customer ({count})",
• "ProfilePage.reviewsFromMyCustomersTitle": "Reviews from customers ({count})", 

User account links

User account links are links to specific marketplace actions that are visible in each user’s account. You can now toggle three of them on or off:

• Post and manage listings
• Payout details
• Payment methods.

Adjusting the user account links lets you fine-tune the user experience for both user roles. You can hide or show user account links based on your desired user flows for each user type. 

Post and manage listings 

Decide if a user type will see links to post new listings and manage their own listings.

On the regular B2C marketplace, for example, only providers should have access to these links. But if you have a reverse marketplace where customers post listings and providers bid on them, the customer user type should have this setting enabled instead.

You might also have a peer-to-peer marketplace where most users both buy and sell. In this case, you should turn this setting on for both user types.

Tip! You can also hide the link to post a new listing from all users, including users who aren’t logged in, in your top bar settings. 

Payout details

Choose whether a user type will see a link to add payout details to receive payments in their user account.

If your marketplace has online payments, provider-type users should have this link enabled.

However, if your marketplace doesn’t use online payments at all, disabling the link from all user types is an obvious choice.

Payment methods

Decide if a user type will see a link to add a payment method in their user account.

Most often, customer-type users should have this link enabled. But if there are no online payments on your marketplace, no user type will need this link, similar to payout details.

Head over to Console to enable user roles and user account link settings, and build the ideal customer and provider experiences.

Head over to Console to enable user roles and user account link settings, and build the ideal customer and provider experiences.