Payout details refers to information your marketplace must collect from providers so that they can process online payments and receive payouts. Payout details consist of bank account information and information about the individual or business who owns the bank account.
When setting up your Listing types, you decide if providers can publish their listings without payout details or if it should be required. On one hand, requiring payout details to publish a listing introduces friction to providers, requiring extra steps to have their offering shown on the marketplace. On the other hand, not having payout details in place may impede customer checkout, since it is only possible to charge payment when the payout information is known.
Whether payout details are required to publish a listing or not is configured as part of setting up your Listing types. You can learn more about Listing types here.
The rest of the article describes each scenario (payout details required before publishing or not) in detail to allow you to make the choice that works best for your business.
When payout details are required before publishing a listing
Requiring payout details before publishing means that providers are asked to provide their payout details before their first listing is published. Remember, you configure if payout details are required or not when setting up your Listing type.
After adding their payout details, publishing subsequent listings does not require adding payout details again unless Stripe needs to verify their information further.
How it works for providers
Payout details are added after providers upload their listing image and submit their listing to be published. A pop-up window appears then. Here is how it looks:
After completing the steps to add their payout details successfully (we share more about those steps below), the provider is automatically redirected back to your marketplace and the listing is published. Once payout details are added, subsequent listings are publishable after all required fields are filled and do not require adding payout details again.
Providers who do not complete the process do not have their listings published. They can try to publish their listing again at any point by editing the existing listing and submitting their payout details through the aforementioned form.
In Console, listings that are not published are marked “Draft”:
Listings may be in "Draft" state for different reasons, not only because payout details are missing. "Draft" indicates that the listing is not published nor ready for approval to be published.
How it works for customers
Listings that are published after payout details are ready to be purchased by customers. Customers can enter their payment information and submit. There will be no error from your marketplace since Stripe, the payment processor, knows where the payment should be paid out.
When payout details are not required before publishing a listing
If payout details are not required to publish a listing, then providers are not prompted to fill out payout details when submitting a listing. They will need to add their payout details before a customer can make a purchase.
Remember, you configure if payout details are required or not when setting up your Listing type.
Stripe requires that payout details are added in order to process payment card charges. This is is not possible to change without extensive custom doing. Therefore, we recommend having some way of ensuring your providers add their payout details if you enable listing publishing without these details, as customers cannot make purchases or payments until they are in place.
How it works for providers
Providers are able to publish their listing after completing all required fields. They are brought to their listing page. Here, they see several prompts to add their payout details. Clicking on any of these call to action buttons directs them adding payout details to the marketplace, a process we describe below.
How it works for customers
If a listing is available, but the listing author has not yet added their payout details, then customers cannot make a purchase through that listing. When customers try to checkout after submitting their payment card and billing information, they will be met with an error message that by default says: “This listing is currently unavailable because the listing author has not added their payment information. Please contact support.”
When this happens, no credit card charge has been made or transaction recorded. You will not see this attempt in Console or in your Stripe dashboard.
As soon as the listing author adds their payout details, customers can make a purchase by re-visiting the listing page and initiating checkout.
How providers add their payout details
Providers can add their payout details in different places on your marketplace.
When payout details are required to publish a listing, providers are prompted to add their payout details anytime they try to publish their first listing on the marketplace. When payout details are not required, providers are prompted to add their payout details on their listing page.
In addition, any user can add payout details in their account settings’ “Payout details” tab.
Payout information is added through a series of forms called Stripe Connect Onboarding.
First, providers fill out a pop-window or form. After saving these details, providers will be asked to get verified through Stripe. A new page, which is hosted by Stripe, will be opened up asking providers to fill out personal or company information associated with the account. The information will be used to verify their identity to comply with KYC/KYB regulations.
You can learn more about how adding payout details works with Stripe on your marketplace here.
Because payments on your marketplace are powered by Stripe, payout information (like payment information) is stored on Stripe’s servers and not your marketplace database run on Sharetribe servers. This is a good thing as this means Stripe handles compliance with regulatory requirements around online payments for you. You can read more about the way Stripe complies with laws in your jurisdiction in their legal pages (double check you’re reviewing the terms relevant to your country or region).
How operators can check if providers added their payout details
You can review if providers added their payout details or not in Console. Navigate to Console>Manage>Users and filter by “Users with listings & Stripe not connected”. This shows users who have not completed their payout details.
After providers add their payout details, they will be visible in your Stripe Dashboard’s Connect tab. Accounts here represent your providers. The Stripe Dashboard provides lots of useful information about your providers, including the account’s verification status or historical earnings.