Private and business accounts

Many marketplaces have two kinds of members: private people selling a few things, and businesses such as dealers, shops and agencies. These options let you treat them differently from the moment they sign up:

• new members say whether they’re private or a business on the sign-up form, and you can rename the two types, for example Buyer and Seller;
• you can add account types of your own, such as Service provider or Agency, and choose what each type can do;
• each type can be asked its own questions, such as a company name only for businesses;
• you choose who can post at all, and who can post in each category;
• businesses can pay a different price to post than private sellers.

They build on business accounts, so switch those on first: everything on this page does nothing while Business accounts is off. All of it is part of the Professional and Marketplace plans and is off until you switch it on.

Ask the account type at sign-up

1. Go to Settings › General.
2. In Business sellers, make sure Business accounts is on.
3. Switch on Ask the account type at sign-up.
4. If you like, give the two types your own names (see the table).
5. Click Save changes in the bar at the bottom.

Setting	What it does
Ask the account type at sign-up	New members choose between the two types when they sign up.
Name of the private type	What the private type is called on the sign-up form. Empty means Private. Up to 40 characters.
Name of the business type	What the business type is called. Empty means Business. Up to 40 characters.
Approve business accounts	Off by default. When on, a new business account can’t post until you approve it under Business in the sidebar. See Business sellers.

The choice is on the sign-up form of the Nova, Default, Mercury and Atlantic Lite themes, and of the themes based on Atlantic Lite. With any other theme, members sign up as usual and are then asked once, on the One more step page. If Verify email addresses is on, members who sign up on those other themes aren’t asked and start as private.

What new members see

The sign-up form asks I am signing up as with your two types, and the member must pick one.

Members who sign up with a social login button are asked once, on a One more step page, straight after their first sign-in. They click Continue and carry on to the page they were going to. Members who sign up with their phone number start as private and can switch later.

A member who chooses the business type gets a business account straight away, or, with Approve business accounts on, one that waits for your approval. Members can change their type later on their Edit profile page, under Account type.

Emails about business accounts

While Ask the account type at sign-up is on:

• you get an email when a new business account waits for your approval, with a link to the Business page. It goes to the Sender email in Email settings;
• the member gets an email when you approve or reject their business account.

These emails have a fixed text and aren’t in Email templates.

Ask each type its own questions

With account types on, every user custom field has an extra setting, Only for, with a tick box for each type, your own types included.

• Leave them all unticked to ask everyone.
• Tick one or more types to ask only those types.

On the sign-up form, a field for one type appears once the member picks that type, and an answer is never saved for the other type. So a required Company name field ticked for businesses only doesn’t get in the way of private members.

Only for also applies after sign-up: members of other types don’t see the field on their Edit profile page, can’t save an answer to it, and their public profile doesn’t show it.

Choose who can post

Only business accounts can post

Switch on Only business accounts can post in Settings › General › Business sellers to make your site a marketplace where businesses sell and everyone else browses.

• Other members can still browse, message sellers and save favourites.
• When they try to post, they’re taken to their profile with Only business accounts can post on this site. Switch your account to Business in your profile to post.
• Visitors who aren’t signed in are asked to sign in or sign up first.
• You, your administrators and your moderators can always post.

Turn on Approve business accounts too. Otherwise any member can switch their account to Business and post straight away.

Who can post in each category

Each category can be limited to one type of account:

1. Go to Listings › Categories and open the category.
2. In Who can post here, choose an option (see the table).
3. Click Save in that card.

Option	Who can post
Same as parent (…)	The default: the category follows the category above it. The brackets show what that is.
Everyone	Every member, whatever the parent says.
Business accounts only	Only business accounts.
Private sellers only	Everyone except business accounts.

Subcategories follow the nearest category above them that has a rule, so setting Vehicles to Business accounts only covers Vehicles › Cars too, unless you give Cars its own rule.

• The posting form only lists the categories each member may post in. Moving a listing into a category they can’t post in is refused.
• Visitors who post without an account count as private sellers.
• Rows of a business seller’s bulk import or stock feed for a category they can’t post in are skipped and reported as a problem.
• Administrators and moderators can post in every category.

The card only shows while Business accounts is on. If Only business accounts can post is also on, private members can’t post anywhere, whatever the category says.

Charge businesses a different price

If you charge for posting, each category has a Business price next to its Price. Business accounts pay the business price; everyone else pays the price. A second category price for business accounts is part of the Professional and Marketplace plans.

1. Go to Listings › Categories and open the category.
2. Enter the Business price. Leave it at 0 to charge businesses the normal price.
3. Click Submit.

How the price is found, from the listing’s category upwards:

• at each level, a business pays that category’s Business price if it has one, otherwise its Price;
• a category with neither uses the category above it.

So a subcategory with its own Price but no Business price charges businesses its Price, not the parent’s business price. The easiest set-up is to put both prices on your top-level categories and leave subcategories at 0.

Business prices are only set on each category’s own page. The … to post label in the category list and the price table in Make money show the normal price. Business accounts see their price on the posting form and pay it at checkout, and it applies to their bulk imports and stock feeds too. Coupons work on either price.

Your own account types

Private and business may not describe your members. A services marketplace might have Customers and Service providers; a property site Buyers, Landlords and Agencies. You can add up to 20 account types of your own, each with a name, its own sign-up questions and its own rights.

Your own account types are part of the Professional and Marketplace plans and are off until you switch them on. They work on top of Ask the account type at sign-up, which must be on too.

1. Go to Settings › General.
2. In Business sellers, make sure Business accounts and Ask the account type at sign-up are on.
3. Switch on Your own account types.
4. Click Save changes in the bar at the bottom.
5. Click Account types in the sidebar, then Add account type.

The Account types page lists every type with how many members have it, whether it is offered at sign-up, and what it can do. Private and Business are always there, marked Built in.

Settings of a type

Setting	What it does
Name	What members see on the sign-up form and in their profile, up to 40 characters.
Counts as a business	Members of this type get what business accounts get: the Business badge, bulk import and the stock feed, business prices and business-only categories.
Needs your approval	New accounts of this type wait on the Accounts to approve page. Until you approve them they can’t post, sell, take bookings or open a store, and otherwise have the rights of the private type.
Offered at sign-up	Members can choose the type when they sign up, and switch to it in their profile. Turn it off for a type you only give out yourself.
What it can do	The rights the type has (see below).
Its own fields	The user custom fields asked only of this type (see Ask each type its own questions).

The rights are Post listings, Sell online (Buy now and cart), Buy online, Book, Take bookings, Make and receive offers and quotes, Send messages and Have a storefront. A new type has them all. A right only matters while its feature is on: selling online needs payments, and bookings, offers, quotes and storefronts need their own features switched on.

• When a member tries something their type can’t do, it is refused with a short message.
• Visitors who aren’t signed in have the private type’s rights for posting, buying and messaging.
• A type without Send messages can’t start new conversations or use contact forms, but can still answer the messages it gets.
• Your administrators and moderators can always do everything.

If Only business accounts can post is on, only types that count as a business can post, whatever their rights say.

Rename or change Private and Business

Open Private or Business on the Account types page to rename it (leave Name empty for the default name), change what it can do, or stop offering it at sign-up. Needs your approval on Business is the same switch as Approve business accounts. The two built-in types can’t be deleted.

Remove a type

Click Delete next to one of your own types. The confirmation says how many members have it: they all become members of the private type.

Accounts to approve

With your own account types on, the Business page in the sidebar is called Accounts to approve. It lists business accounts and members of every type that needs your approval or counts as a business, with an Account type column, in the Pending, Approved and Rejected tabs. Click Approve or Reject next to each one.

You’re emailed when a new account waits for you, and the member is emailed your decision. Both emails use the type’s name.

Good to know

• If you switch Business accounts off, all of this stops: the sign-up form no longer asks the type, everyone can post in every category, and everyone pays the normal price. Your settings are kept for when you switch it back on.
• A business account that is waiting for approval, or that you rejected, can’t post anywhere.
• The type names you choose are used on the sign-up form, the One more step page and the approval emails. Elsewhere, such as the Edit profile page, your site says Private seller and Business, unless your own account types are on: then your names are used there too.
• If you switch Your own account types off, your types and their settings are kept, but members of your own types are treated as private members until you switch it back on.

Related guides

• Business sellers — the Business badge, approvals, bulk import and stock feeds.
• User custom fields — the questions you ask members.
• Pay to post — charge per listing and category.
• Sign-up and login settings — the rest of the sign-up form.