Your Sharetribe marketplace stores various data. The main categories of data are user accounts, listings, transactions, and reviews. You can view these in the Manage section.
You can export this data from Console as .csv files. By extracting this data into CSV files, you can:
open, browse, and analyze it in your favorite tool (notepad, Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, ...)
feed it manually into third-party programs (extracting emails to add to your marketing tools, import transaction data into a dashboarding tool, ...)
In this article, we'll cover how to export your data, what is included in each export, and how you might use it.
How to export your marketplace data to CSV files
The CSV exports can be downloaded from Console in Users, Listings, Transactions, and Review.
For example, the link to download the user list of the marketplace is found in the Users menu of the Manage section (1), then "Download .csv" (2). The Listings, Transactions, and Reviews sections of the Console have similar links.
After clicking "Download .csv" on any of these lists, a CSV file will be generated and downloaded automatically (this may take a couple of minutes, depending on the amount of data in your marketplace).
Important: the CSV files exported contain important and sensitive marketplace data of users of your marketplace. You should handle them with care! Once downloaded to your device, you are responsible for storing this data safely, and deleting it once no longer necessary, according to regulations.
What is included in the data exports
Users
This dataset includes information about each user in your marketplace. To export it, go to the Users menu in the Manage section in Console, and click on the "Download .csv" button.
See a list of the columns and what they mean below:
Listings
This includes information about all the listings in your marketplace. Find this by navigating to the "Listings" menu in the "Manage" section in Console and clicking on "Download .csv". Click below for descriptions of what data the file contains.
See a list of the columns and what they mean below:
Transactions
This dataset consists of all transactions that occurred in your marketplace. Go to the "Transactions" menu in the "Manage" section in Console and click "Download .csv". Click below for descriptions of what data the file contains.
See a list of the columns and what they mean below:
Reviews
This includes all reviews left by users. Find this in the Review menu in the Manage section in Console and then click on "Download .csv". Click below for descriptions of what data the file contains.
See a list of the columns and what they mean below:
How to open, read, transform your CSV exports
What are CSV files?
The data is exported into CSV (Comma Separated Value) files. They are text files where a comma separates all fields. They are not encrypted or password protected.
Here are more technical details on the file format:
Fields are separated by the comma (,) symbol.
Fields are enclosed with the quote (") symbol.
There is a header row.
File encoding is UTF-8.
Tools that can read/open CSV files
CSV files can be opened or imported into tons of tools and services:
A basic notepad
Any spreadsheet tool (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, ...)
Third-party service, through their import feature
How to browse PublicData, PrivateData, ProtectedData, Metadata easily in Excel
The PublicData, PrivateData, ProtectedData, Metadata columns in the CSV file exports contain lots of data in a technical JSON format. It can be read as text, but isn't as easy to navigate as other columns, as it contains many different fields stored into one.
With Microsoft Excel (and similar with other spreadsheet tools), it is possible to transform the JSON data stored in these fields to browse them more easily:
Open your CSV file with Excel or import it (Data > Get Data > From File > From Text/CSV) into an Excel sheet
Select all columns/data
Click the "Data" tab in the ribbon, then "From Table/Range" in the "Get & Transform" section
In the Power Query editor that opens, select the column which has data in the JSON format, and select it (for example,
ProtectedData)Go to the "Transform" tab in the Power Query ribbon, then "Parse > JSON" in the "Text Column" section
Click the double arrow icon that appeared in the
ProtectedDatacolumn to choose which data you want to display
The data stored in a JSON format is then displayed in regular Excel columns, which you can use as you'd like, using the usual Excel features. You can also learn more about this in Microsoft Excel's own documentation.
How to analyze your marketplace performance with this data
With these data sets in a CSV format, you can analyze the performance of your marketplace. For example, you can:
monitor your marketplace's user growth based on the user export with the help of the
CreatedAtcolumnexamine the popularity of listings from the transactions export and its
ListingIdvaluetrack the number of transactions in a given month
measure user satisfaction based on reviews
...and much more!
Understanding these data sets will help you make informed decisions to improve your marketplace. We've also shared some thoughts on the most important Marketplace metrics in this article.
If you prefer pre-built analysis tools, there is a third-party extension designed specifically to work with your Sharetribe marketplace data: Lemonado. You can sync your data there automatically, then use their tools to perform analysis, build dashboards, and more.
Other ways to export your marketplace data
Exporting data to CSV files from Console focuses on the data useful to manage your marketplace. In addition, you can export more of your marketplace data by:
using our APIs (requires technical knowledge)
asking the Sharetribe for a full technical JSON format dump of your marketplace