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When to extend your Sharetribe marketplace with code
Plus, marketplace trends for 2025
Fiona Burns
January 09, 2025
Hey - it’s Fiona
Happy New Year! 🎉 Wishing all my lovely readers a happy, healthy and successful year ahead.
After a relaxing 2 week break with family and friends, I’m feeling refreshed and raring to go. But before I dive in to this week’s topic, I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who read Marketplace Minute in 2024 and sent me their marketplace design questions. Your emails have shaped the newsletter and the topics I cover, and will continue to do so going forward.
In case you missed them, my most popular newsletters from last year were:
Anyway, I’ve got so many more marketplace design tips and tricks to share with you this year so let’s get started!
In today’s issue I cover:
Common mistakes founders make when building a marketplace
My recommended approach to building a marketplace
Marketplace trends for 2025
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
The main purpose of using no-code tools like Sharetribe is to help you build a proof of concept before investing heavily in a fully customised marketplace. Many marketplace founders fall into the trap of spending tens of thousands of dollars on custom UI and features, only to see their marketplace flop a year later.
A no-code approach can save you significant time, effort, and money while validating your business idea.
Common mistakes I warn my clients against
Over-investing in customisation too early
Customising your marketplace’s functionality or UI before proving demand can be a costly mistake. Custom development often exceeds $10k, an investment that can be wasted if the idea doesn’t take off.
Focusing on branding over functionality
While beautifully bespoke marketplaces are tempting, custom UI design isn’t critical at the early stage. Instead, I recommend that my clients focus on creating a functional product. The default Sharetribe UI is clean, intuitive, and perfectly suited for early-stage marketplaces, and most customers and suppliers are unlikely to even know what Sharetribe is, let alone recognise its UI.
Failing to ask for feedback from early users
Early users are invaluable for shaping your marketplace. Some creators dismiss feedback, assuming they know best, but this can lead to building features that users don’t want or need. Listen closely to their problems and use their insights to guide improvements and future developments.
My recommended approach
If I was starting my own marketplace, here’s how I would do it:
1. Build a proof of concept
Start by customising your marketplace using Sharetribe’s Console. Focus on the basics: write clear, compelling copy for your homepage and About Us page to explain your value proposition. Use high-quality stock images or your own photos to give your marketplace a professional look. Ensure the “create a listing” process for suppliers is simple and user-friendly.
2. Test with a small audience
Before launching, test your marketplace in the Sharetribe test environment. Populate it with example listings to demonstrate how it works. Share it with a small, trusted group of friends or colleagues and ask for feedback. Find out if the landing page copy is clear, whether the listing process feels smooth, and if the visuals are engaging.
3. Refine and go live
Use the feedback you’ve gathered to improve key elements. Update unclear copy, simplify any confusing workflows, and replace visuals that don’t resonate with your testers. Once your marketplace feels polished, push it live and prepare to onboard real users.
4. Onboard suppliers
Focus first on building a strong supply side. Your marketplace needs a healthy inventory to avoid looking empty. Onboard suppliers and help them create attractive, high-quality listings by providing guidance on photos, descriptions, and pricing. Robust and high-quality listings will make your marketplace more appealing to potential customers.
5. Market to customers
Once you’ve built a strong supplier base, shift your attention to attracting customers. Use targeted marketing campaigns to reach your audience and showcase the value your marketplace offers. Highlight your range of suppliers and what makes your marketplace unique.
6. Prove the concept
As your marketplace gains traction, gather feedback from both customers and suppliers. Focus on understanding their pain points, such as difficulties in offering discounts or challenges with certain workflows. Avoid asking for solutions - dig into the specific problems they face and how these impact their experience.
7. Develop a product roadmap
Use the insights from your feedback to create a product roadmap. Prioritise addressing the most significant user pain points while keeping your overall goals in mind. This roadmap will help you stay focused on what matters most as you grow.
8. Invest gradually
With your roadmap in place, work through it incrementally. Introduce custom features and design updates only when they clearly address user needs or provide measurable value. This ensures that every investment you make contributes directly to the success of your marketplace.
No-code tools like Sharetribe are ideal for launching and validating your marketplace idea. Save custom development and bespoke design for when you’ve proven your concept, gathered user feedback, and are ready to scale. This phased approach ensures you focus on what truly matters: solving your users’ problems and building a sustainable marketplace.
—> ✉️ Reply with your questions and I’ll answer them in a future issue.
DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
Examples what’s possible using Sharetribe
To give you some inspiration of what is possible using Sharetribe, I wanted to share some examples of marketplaces that have and have not been extended with code.
Rose Street Store (no-code)
Finally, I wanted to share Rose Street Store. This is an Australian-based marketplace for people to buy and sell handmade items for under $50 (AUD). Again, they have done a tremendous job of customising and configuring the Sharetribe template using the no-code tools available in the Console. The outcome is a beautiful marketplace that feels very “on-brand”. Top marks!
Spokeo (no-code)
Spokeo is a marketplace for people to rent bikes and bike accessories for their next adventure. I’m sure they’ve got plenty design and feature updates on their wishlist, but for now they’ve stuck with the Sharetribe template. They’ve done a wonderful job of customising it using the no-code tools available in the Console and shows what can be achieved.
Rita Edited (extended with code)
Rita Edited is a marketplace for people who want to shop from local and independent businesses in New Zealand. They’ve made a lot of customisations to their marketplace, both from a visual (branding, colours, fonts, layouts) and feature perspective. It’s a great example of what can be achieved when you extend your marketplace with code.
OnBouy (extended with code)
OnBouy provide it’s customers with an environmentally responsible way to find and reserve short-term guest moorage anywhere in the world. They’ve used custom code to make some great changes to their Sharetribe marketplace using code, such as adding an image grid at the top of their listing pages.
VanSite (extended with code)
I bet there aren’t many people who can tell that VanSite is built on Sharetribe! This is a marketplace for people to find and book parking spaces for motorhomes. VanSite have designed a really beautiful marketplace, and have added some excellent features, such as discount codes at checkout, and the option for customers to add “extras” to their bookings (e.g. electricity).
DESIGN SNIPPETS
Marketplace trends for 2025
As it’s the start of the new year, I thought I would share a few of my favourite predictions marketplace trends in 2025.
Live shopping: Marketplaces are incorporating live shopping features, allowing sellers and influencers to present products in real-time, with viewers able to make purchases during the stream. (Codica)
Sustainability options: Marketplaces will incorporate features that highlight eco-friendly products, sustainable packaging options, and carbon-neutral shipping to meet growing consumer demand for environmentally conscious shopping. (Blue Digital)
Payment options: Flexible payment options, including "Buy Now, Pay Later" services like Klarna and Clearpay, will become more prevalent on marketplaces. These features aim to attract younger shoppers and increase conversion rates. (Blue Digital)
Enhanced analytics and insights: Marketplaces will offer more robust analytics tools to help brands and sellers make data-driven decisions. These features will provide insights into customer behaviour, marketing performance, and sales trends. (Business Matters)
—> ✉️ Send me your favourite design-related articles and I’ll feature them here.
Fiona Burns
Whenever you’re ready, there are two ways I can help you:
Sharetribe configuration - Feeling bamboozled by the Console, or simply lacking time? Leave it to me. I can set up, configure and customise your Sharetribe marketplace in no time.
UX/UI design - Whether you want to design some additional features, or redesign your entire marketplace with your own unique style, I'm here to help.
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