In this article, you'll learn how to set up Stripe in your marketplace to allow online payments between your customers and your providers, which allows you to collect commission fees from each transaction.
Test environment: setup is already done!
In your Test environment, you can try out payments in your marketplace in a test mode. This means that instead of using your real bank account and credit card information, you can use test information provided by Stripe. There's a button in your test marketplace to insert these details automatically when you're adding your payout details as a provider or your credit card as a customer.
Your Test environment is already connected to a test Stripe account provided by Sharetribe. You don't need to set up your own Stripe account in your Test environment.
There are two scenarios where you still might want to connect your own Stripe account to your Test environment:
If you're customizing your marketplace with code.
If you want to see how connected accounts look like in your own Stripe dashboard before going live.
If you want to change the Stripe keys in your Test marketplace and have user accounts with Stripe account IDs, you need to delete your connected account before changing your keys.
To check if your user accounts have Stripe connected, you need to go to Console -> Manage users, open each user to see if they have a Stripe account ID in place.
You can then click on the "Disconnect Stripe account..." option to remove the Stripe account. You need to remove all accounts before being able to change the key. If you encounter any issues or want some help for bulk operations you can contact the Sharetribe team.
Connecting your own Stripe account to your own Test environment works otherwise just like connecting it to your Live environment (see instructions below), but you should use Stripe's Test API keys instead of Live API keys.
Live environment setup
In your Live environment, you need to connect your own Stripe account if you want to process online payments and earn a commission from each transaction. The instructions below walk you through creating a Stripe account, configuring the appropriate settings in your new Stripe account (Stripe has a bunch of tools and your marketplace uses a specific one called Stripe Connect with Custom accounts), and adding your API keys to your Live environment.
1. Create and confirm your Stripe account
Creating a Stripe account is free, and you can delete it anytime. If you already have a Stripe account (for another project), it's better to create a new one to avoid any interference.
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. Complete your profile
As you will receive money from your users via your Stripe account, you have to complete and verify your Stripe account 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. Click on "Get started" on the page to complete your 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. Read more about signing up without a tax ID or employer ID number on Strip's website.
The fields in the form vary based on the Business Location, so select that first!
IMPORTANT! On the page where you fill in your bank account details, make sure to select "Manual" as the payout schedule.
Once completed, click "Agree and submit."
3. Go through the Setup guide
Sharetribe uses the Stripe Connect features with Custom Accounts. These enable your sellers to process payments through your marketplace and let you earn a commission on these sales. These next steps walk you through the Setup guide to use Stripe Connect.
This step is important. Without it, providers will not be able to receive money, and buyers will not be able to start any transaction.
On the left sidebar, click More → Connect.
Click Get started → Continue setup
Click Switch to sandbox when asked "Switch to sandbox account",
Click Continue setup
Choose Marketplace as the business model
Click Start testing → Create test account
Click Continue → View account
Click Create test payment
Click View integration guide
Review the integration guide (you don't need to enable anything). Sharetribe's Stripe Connect integration has the following properties
Hosted Onboarding
No Dashboard access
Destination Charge type
Click on Go live in the Setup guide
Click verify your identity → Switch to live mode
You may need to click on verify your identity again for the next step to appear
Click Agree and continue
Follow the steps and proceed with the identity verification process
Click on Confirm your integration choices in the Setup guide
Select Marketplace as the business model, and click Save.
Make sure the following options are selected at each step
Funds flow
Select "Buyers will purchase from you" and click "Continue."
Select "Sellers will be paid out individually", and click on Continue.
Account creation
Select Onboarding hosted by Stripe and click on "Continue".
Click on Account management
Select "Build your own with our API" and continue.
Read and acknowledge your responsibilities for liability for refunds and chargebacks and continue.
Read and acknowledge your responsibilities to collect ongoing verification requirements and click confirm.
4. Review payouts settings
Click on the gear icon on the top right corner of your Stripe dashboard → Connect → Payouts. On the External accounts tab, set the options as follows:
Select Yes for "Require at least one bank account?"
Select No for "Allow debit cards?"
Select No for "Collect multiple external accounts per currency?"
Enable the toggle for "Collect external account information for accounts where the platform is responsible for collecting requirements".
(Optional). Add your branding
You can customize the branding configurations, which will be displayed on the Stripe Connect Onboarding form.
This can be done by clicking on the gear icon on the top right corner of your Stripe dashboard → Connect → Onboarding interface. On the Onboarding Interface page, click on "Customise" to start customizing the onboarding interface to match your marketplace's branding, logo and colors.
5. Get your API keys from Stripe and add them to your Console
API keys are text strings made up of random characters, numbers and symbols that link your Sharetribe marketplace with your Stripe account, so you can manage payments in your marketplace.
Custom-coded marketplaces follow different steps to set up their Live environment with Stripe. Please follow the steps in our technical documentation to configure and deploy your custom marketplace.
First, get your API keys from Stripe.
At the bottom of the left sidebar, Click Developers → API keys
Copy the value from the Publishable key row from the Token column. It should look like pk_live_somelongrandomvaluelikeVqFze9etc
Paste that value in Console > Integrations > Payments, in the Stripe publishable key field. Save changes.
Go back to your Stripe account, in the API tab and click the Reveal live key token button. A new window will pop up with the Secret key.
Copy the value of the Secret key. It should look like
sk_live_somelongrandomvaluelike0Rx3jvetc. Make sure you to save the key somewhere safe, as you won't be able to see the key value again afterwards.Paste that value in Console at Integrations > Payments > Stripe secret key. Save changes.
That's it! You have now connected your Stripe account and are ready to receive payments in your marketplace!
Important: For security, never share your Stripe secret keys with anyone or post them in any publicly accessible place. Please do not send them to us (Sharetribe) through the chat widget either, we will not add keys on your behalf.