When your Arcadier marketplace is first provisioned, it needs a baseline configuration before it's ready for real users or integration testing - This typically refers to what needs to get set up first within your Admin Portal.
These steps apply whether you are the marketplace operator, the developer, or both. Complete them on your Stage environment before inviting real users or beginning API integration work.
1. Set Up Payment Methods
Buyers cannot complete checkout without at least one active payment method configured. Decide how buyers will pay and how payment collection will be handled before anything else:
- Stripe, Omise (pre-integrated payment gateways)
- Cash on Delivery (COD)
- Offline or custom payment methods (i.e. bank transfer, manual invoices, integration)
→ (Admin portal) Settings > General > Payment Method
→ See Understanding Payments and Transactions & Payments (Developer & API Guides) articles in Knowledge base.
2. Create Your Category Structure
Items cannot be listed without at least one category. Create your main categories and any subcategories before testing item creation, whether via the portal or API.
→ (Admin portal) Items > Categories
→ See How to edit a category or subcategory and How to add a subcategory articles in Knowledge base.
3. Configure Custom Fields
If your marketplace requires additional data points on users or items — such as company name, tax ID, product condition, or brand — configure these before onboarding test accounts or creating test listings. Some field types, such as dropdowns and checkboxes, also support filtering on the consumer portal.
→ (Admin portal) Users > User Fields / Items > Item Fields
→ See Understanding Custom Fields and Adding Custom Fields articles in Knowledge base.
4. Set Up Shipping Methods (if applicable)
Required if your marketplace involves physical delivery. Checkout flows cannot be tested end-to-end without at least one active shipping method. Note that merchants can opt to use the admin-configured shipping method or set up their own:
- Shipping or pickup location configurations
- Shipping prices can be calculated by price or weight, or locations
→ (Admin portal) Settings > Advanced > Feature Control > Shipping 2.0
→ See Creating your own Delivery Methods and Shipping at Merchant & Admin Level (Developer & API Guides) articles in Knowledge base.
5. Configure Commission Fees
Set a default commission rate before running test transactions. Without this, transaction data will not reflect the correct fee split between merchant and marketplace. If you need different rates by seller tier or product category, configure those overrides after setting the default:
- Merchant-level commission: Set different commission rates based on the seller’s User Group (e.g., “Premium Sellers” vs “Standard Sellers”).
- Category-level commission: Set different commission rates for different product categories (e.g., Electronics 8%, Fashion 12%).
→ (Admin portal) General > Commission
→ See Admin Commissions and Choosing your admin commission fee article in Knowledge base.
6. Set Up Sub-Admin Access (if applicable)
If multiple team members will access the Admin Portal, configure user groups and permission profiles before go-live. This ensures each team member only accesses the sections relevant to their role:
→ (Admin portal) Users > User List | Add added users to User Group | Create a new Admin Permission profile for User Group
→ See Create more than one admin account and Managing Admin Roles and Permissions articles in Knowledge base.
7. Create Test Accounts
Before inviting real users, create one test seller and one test buyer to validate the full experience end-to-end - Seller onboarding, listing creation, browsing, and checkout. If you are also running API integration, these accounts will be used to validate role-based access at the API layer.
→ See Testing Role-Based Access article in Knowledge base for more details.