Once you can successfully call any authenticated endpoint using a Bearer token, begin building the marketplace foundation. These three steps are the typical starting point for every Arcadier development: they underpin listing structure, user flows, and end-to-end validation.
Create Categories
Categories are usually the first dependency for everything else: listing structure, filters, and navigation. Nothing can be listed until at least one category exists.
What to do:
- Create top-level categories.
- Add subcategories where needed.
- Keep it minimal first. Expand once you confirm the listing flow works end-to-end.
→ See Categories endpoints in API reference.
Create Custom Fields
Custom fields define what information the marketplace needs to collect. They must be configured before items or users are created, since the fields cannot be retroactively applied to existing records in a consistent way.
Common setups:
- Item custom fields: e.g. brand, condition, warranty, size.
- User custom fields: e.g. seller company name, tax ID, phone number.
→ See Custom Fields and Custom Tables endpoints in API reference.
Create Users - Test Buyer and Test Seller
Before real users are invited, create test accounts to validate end-to-end role behaviour. This step surfaces role-based access errors early, before they affect live onboarding.
Recommended setup
Create one test buyer account and one test seller account using the Create User Account endpoint. For the seller account, follow immediately with the Upgrade User Role endpoint to convert the buyer role to merchant.
Confirm the following before proceeding
- Both accounts are retrievable via the Get User API.
- The seller account returns the correct merchant role in the response.
- Token-scoped operations behave as expected for each role — buyer tokens should not be able to perform merchant or admin actions, and vice versa.
→ See Users endpoints in API reference.