What are Listing fields

Listing fields are for your providers to describe their offerings and for your customers to find what they need.

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Written by Sharetribe
Updated over a week ago

Listing fields let providers add more information about their product, service, rental, profile, or offering when adding their listing to your marketplace. Listing fields can be turned into filters for customers to use when searching for listings. Most listing fields will be shown in the listing page when a user visits.

There are default listing fields and custom listing fields. We discuss both listing field types and how they work in your marketplace below.

What are the default listing fields

Default listing fields are listing fields that are defined by the transaction settings of your Listing type. These fields facilitate or enable the particular type of transaction you hope to have. Therefore, different transaction settings have different default fields. You can learn about the different fields included in each transaction setting in this article about Listing types. Below, we detail how each default field works.

Default fields can be enabled or disabled. They are enabled or disabled in Console when configuring your Listing type.

Enabling a default field means that the field features in the listing creation form used by providers to create their listing. Enabled default fields are required to fill in. Disabling a default field means that the information is not asked in the listing creation form.

Title

Listing title is a required field. This field lets providers write a brief title for their listing. The title is used throughout the marketplace, such as in notification emails or when displaying the listing on the search page. The Title is searched against in keyword search.

Title field is always enabled for every transaction setting.

Description

Description is a required field. This field lets providers write any amount of text they want. The Listing description is searched against a keyword search.

Here is an example of how the Title and Description are filled out in the listing creation form:

Listing availability

Description field is always enabled for every transaction setting.

Price

Price is for inputting how much the listing costs. This value is used in many places, including calculating the total cost of the transaction. Price is filtered against when the Price filter is in use.

The pricing unit is determined by the transaction settings. You can change the pricing unit label using Marketplace texts.

Here is an example of the Price field for a listing where bookings are made by the hour:



Price is always enabled when using Calendar booking or Purchase transaction settings. It can be enabled or disabled when using Free messaging transaction settings.

Location

Location field asks the provider to enter an address for the listing. This information is used in a variety of places in your marketplace. The listing location is searched against whenever location search is used. Moreover, the location information is displayed throughout the marketplace, including on the search page (in map view), on the checkout page, and on the order page.

Here is how Location fields look in the listing creation form:

Location services can be powered by Mapbox or Google Maps in your Live marketplace. If you plan to use the location field, you must configure either of these services in your Live environment. In your Test environment, Mapbox is configured so that you can try out location services when building. Learn more about configuring Mapbox or Google Maps here.

Location field is available when using the Calendar booking and Free messaging transaction settings. The Location field can be enabled or disabled.

Availability

Availability asks providers to input when their listing can be booked. Customers, in turn, can book from this availability calendar. You can learn more about availability management features in this article.

Here is how Availability fields can look in the listing creation form:

Availability field is available when using the Calendar booking transaction settings.

Stock

Stock field is about defining what number is available for purchase. How the Stock field works depends on your Stock type selection. Please visit this article for a detailed review of how different Stock types work.

Here is how Stock fields can look in the listing creation form:

Listing images

Stock field is available when using the Purchase transaction settings.

Delivery

There are two Delivery fields: Delivery: pickup and Delivery:shipping. Please visit this article for a detailed review of how these fields work.

Here is an example of how Delivery fields look in the listing creation form:

Delivery fields are available when using the Purchase transaction settings. You can enable both, disable both, or enable/disable only one.

Images

Images field is allow providers to upload images and store these with the listing. Images are used in many places on the marketplace, including the search page, listing page, and order page. At least one image must be uploaded in order to publish a listing. It is not possible to publish a listing without an image.

Here is an example of how image upload fields look in the listing creation form:

The listing image can be landscape, portrait or square, and the maximum listing image size is 20 MB and 3072 x 3072 pixels. Images can only be uploaded one image at a time. Listing images are arranged in the order they were uploaded.

How listing images appear depends on the layout options you configured. You can learn more about these options and their consequences on listing appearance in this article.

Images field is always enabled for every transaction setting.

Payout details

Payout details refer to the bank and personal information your marketplace requires to process payments on behalf of providers and pay out their earnings. You can require if these payout details are inputted by providers before their listing is published, or if their listing can be published without them. Payout details are always required before any purchase from the provider is made.

Here is an example of how payout details are asked through a pop-up that appears after a listing is submitted to be published:

Payout preferences

Please visit this article for a detailed review of how payout details work.

Payout details being required to publish a listing can be enabled or disabled when using Calendar booking or Purchase transaction settings.

How to modify default field labels

Using the Marketplace Texts editor, you can modify the default fields labeled in your marketplace. Learn more about editing Marketplace texts here.

What are the custom listing field types

You add custom listing fields in Console>Build>Listings>Listing fields. You can add up to 100 listing fields

Providers fill each custom listing field during listing creation. The inputted information is shown on the listing page. The information may also be used by customers when filtering results or searching by keyword. We discuss how listing fields are used in search below.

There are 3 types of listing fields you can add in Console: "Free text", "Select one" and "Select multiple".

Free text

This field allows providers to write text or numbers into it. It will be displayed as a text area in the listing creation form and as a block of text on the listing page. It can be used for many different pieces of information, and the information requested can be short or long.

Consider using the Free text field type when the information requested is open-ended, extensive, or you’d like to give the provider (listing author) more freedom to share about their listing.


Select one

This field allows providers to select one attribute from a list of options when creating a listing. When you create this field, you have to define the options that will be available for listing authors to select. This field's options will be displayed as a dropdown in the listing creation form.


On the listing page, all “Select one” fields are displayed in a “Details” section. This field type is ideal when you want to give your providers a limited set of options, only one of which should be applied to the listing.


Select multiple

This field allows providers to select multiple attributes (as many as are available) from a list of options. To create this field, you have to define the list of options available to select. These will be displayed as checkboxes in the listing creation form.

Select multiple in the listing form

On the listing page, the selected attributes are displayed among a list of all the possible attributes.

Select multiple in the listing page

This field type is ideal for relatively homogeneous marketplaces where people are comparing options. It can be used to display a rental space’s amenities, additional services offered or available sizes. As with Select One, if the options cannot be confined to a specific list set, consider adding a Free text instead (or in addition).

Field options for “Select one” or “Select multiple”

Available when choosing “Select one” or “Select multiple” as Field type. The list of field options you input, besides being the options that a listing author can select when creating a listing, is also the potential list of filter options on your search page. You need to add at least one option, but you can add up to 100 options.

Limit listing fields to Listing types and/or categories

You may limit a custom listing field to a particular Listing type, a particular category, or both. You may also limit them to multiple Listing types or categories.

When a listing field is limited to a category or Listing type, the listing field only appears for listings using that type or category. Providers creating that type of listing or that type of category will be asked to fill in this field; providers creating other types or categories will not.

Listing types determine what kind of listings are created in your marketplace, while categories are for grouping listings. Learn more about Listing types or learn more about listing categories in their respective overview articles.

Determining whether to limit to a Listing type or category depends on how you plan for the custom field to be used.

Listing types determine the type of transaction possible for a listing. For instance, if you have a marketplace for renting and selling bikes, you would need one Listing type to enable renting transactions and another to enable purchasing, as each transaction requires different capabilities to happen successfully.

Therefore, assign listing fields to different Listing types if the field is relevant only to particular type of transaction on your marketplace. You may want a custom field for stipulating "Rental rules" on your bike selling and renting marketplace. This would be limited to the Calendar booking listing type so that only listings that are about renting bikes include this "Rental rules" field.

On the other hand, categories are for classifying what kind of thing is being listed. Different kinds of bikes are a good example of categories: gravel bikes, road bikes, hybrid bikes, fixed gear bikes, touring bikes, and so on.

Assign listing fields to categories when the field is only relevant to a particular kind of listing. For example, a field for "Number of gears" would not be relevant to the fixed-gear category, so you would assign this listing field to every category except fixed-gear bikes.

A listing field's filter behavior is impacted when it is limited to a category. Before applying a category filter, customers see all fields on the search page. After applying a category filter, only filters created out of the limited listing fields are available for further filtering. This does not happen when a field is limited to a Listing type because customers cannot filter by Listing type.

How to configure listing fields

Listing fields can be added, removed, and configured from Console>Listings>Listing fields. Please consult this article for detailed information on how to set up listing fields using the available options.

Listing fields and search

Listing fields can play a key role in your search experience. When considered in a search context, listing fields contain the information that customers can use to search. You decide if a field should be used in search, how it should be used, and where it should appear.

Customers have a variety of search options available to them, including keyword search, location search, sorting, and filtering. Learn more about search on your marketplace.

Keyword search automatically searches against words found in listing titles and descriptions. In addition, you can add your “Free text” listing field to the keyword search parameter so customer queries search against the listing field. Learn more about keyword search.

Customers can also filter results on the search page. You can create custom filters out of the “Select one” and “Select multiple” listing fields you made. “Select one”-based filters return any listings that have at least one of the selected options. “Select multiple”-based filters return any listings that have all the selected options. Learn more about listing filters.

Filter options display at the top of the search page or on its side depending on your search page layout. Category filters and primary search filters show first and are always visible. Secondary filters are listed last on the search page or in a “More filters” menu, depending on your search page layout. Learn more about your search page layout options.

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