Challenge

The transaction processes required to power a marketplace business are about as complex as online payments get. Sharetribe’s technical requirements were even more complex, since they build software for marketplace builders, who in turn enable payments for their sellers and service providers. Sharetribe marketplace operators also needed to deduct commission from each transaction. To ensure security, marketplace operators needed to be able to hold funds, delay payouts to providers, and charge deposits.

Sharetribe needed to be sure all this happened in a way that met all legal and regulatory demands, not only in the countries the marketplace operators themselves lived in, but also in all the countries of their potential customers. Sharetribe has customers in all the countries supported by
Stripe Connect today.

Solution

Marketplace-specific functionality, such as pay-ins, payouts, and holding funds, was the most important factor when Sharetribe compared potential partners. Sharetribe was also looking for usability and quick and easy onboarding for its largely non-technical customer base.

After careful considerations and multiple discussions with Stripe, Adyen, MangoPay, and PayPal, Sharetribe decided that Stripe stood out as the best provider to meet its needs. Sharetribe was further convinced by the positive experience it had with Stripe’s support and clear documentation.

The initial end-to-end integration to Stripe Connect took less than one month from one developer, from proof of concept all the way to making end-to-end payments. Sharetribe credited the speed of integration to Stripe’s easy-to-understand API and developer-focused documentation and API reference. Sharetribe’s developers also appreciated the versatile testing capabilities that allowed for creating test accounts, making test payments and payouts, and testing specific failure conditions.

Results

Stripe Connect allows Sharetribe to offer its customers a complete, powerful, and reliable marketplace payment flow that keeps its users in compliance with all local payment regulations. Connect supports Sharetribe’s global customer base and their growth ambitions.

These benefits helped Sharetribe enable its marketplace builders to launch new marketplaces faster than ever. Mike, the founder of Studiotime, launched a business with Sharetribe Go in one evening, and within a week, he had over 1,000 users on the platform. Larger companies use Sharetribe to speed up time to market, like Canon Australia that used Sharetribe to launch its camera rental marketplace.