Yclas friends
Today we are going to talk about creating an online marketplace with our new integration, Stripe Connect. First of all, we want you to understand the common way to monetize an online marketplace with multiple vendors is by getting a fee from each sale.
Popular sites like Alibaba, eBay, Amazon, Rakuten, etc have been doing it in the past years, you already know they make a lot of money.
With our new feature, you can create this kind of marketplace quickly and easily. Let's start with an example:
Nick is the owner/admin of a Smartphones marketplace. He allows merchants to sell their phones via his site. But Nick wants 3% of each smartphone sale. With Stripe Connect enabled within your Yclas admin panel you can allow this.
Here is a wide explanation about how to configure Stripe Connect with Yclas and create an online marketplace:
Prerequisites:
- Configure your site to user Stripe Connect, see below
- Your customer needs to have a different Stripe account to receive payments.
Payment Flow:
- Buyer pays for a product listed on your site
- Stripe receives the money
- Your customer (publisher) receives the amount in his Stripe account
- You (site owner) will get from his stripe account the fee you set in your stripe account
- 2 orders are created, 1 with the amount paid by the buyer and another with the fee paid by the publisher to you as an application fee.
- Buyer and seller get an email with the transaction details
Site configuration:
- The site owner needs a Stripe account it's free
- Create an application here https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/applications/settings
- Set as redirect URL http://yourdomain.com/stripe/connect/now
- Go to panel->settings->payments
- Activate Stripe Connect
- Set a Stripe client ID that you got here https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/applications/settings
- Set the percentage fee you want to charge to your customers
- Click save, ready ;)
Stripe Connect in 2026: what changed, and what a 3% fee really earns you
The steps above show how the integration worked when Stripe Connect was launched. Both Yclas and Stripe have changed since then, so here is how it works today.
Setup today
- Where to find it: the settings are now in Panel > Integrations > Stripe. Add your Stripe secret and public keys, tick Activate Stripe Connect and set your Application fee %.
- Sellers no longer need their own Stripe account to start. By default, a seller who clicks connect gets a Stripe Express account and completes Stripe's hosted onboarding. You do not need a client ID. The client ID and redirect URL flow shown above is now the optional Stripe Connect Legacy mode. If you use it, Stripe's OAuth settings are under Settings > Connect > Onboarding options > OAuth, and in live mode the redirect URL must use HTTPS.
- Connecting before posting is optional. If you want every seller connected before they can post an ad, enable "Make a connected Stripe account mandatory".
- Escrow flow: if you activate it, payouts are held for sellers who connect after you turn it on. The seller marks the order as shipped, optionally with a tracking code, and the payout is released when the buyer marks it as received. You can also cancel orders that are not shipped within a set number of days (the transfer is then reversed), and add a fixed fee on top of the percentage.
- Different fees per membership plan: each membership plan can have its own marketplace fee, so sellers on a paid plan can pay a lower commission.
How the money moves, and who pays Stripe
Yclas now uses Stripe Checkout with destination charges. The buyer pays your platform account, the full amount is transferred to the seller, and your application fee comes back to you. Stripe's documentation explains that with this charge type your platform balance pays the Stripe fees, refunds and chargebacks. In Stripe's own example, a $10 sale with a $1.23 application fee costs $0.59 in Stripe fees, leaving the platform $0.64.
Because your platform pays the processing fees, Stripe's "you handle pricing" Connect model applies. It costs $2 per monthly active account plus 0.25% + 25¢ per payout, on top of card processing. Stripe's Connect pricing page adds 1% for Instant Payouts and from 0.25% for cross-border payouts.
Redo Nick's math before you pick a fee
Say Nick sells a $400 phone and takes 3%: that is a $12 fee. At the 2.9% + 30¢ card rate Stripe quotes in that support article, processing the $400 charge costs about $11.90, and Nick pays it. He keeps about $0.10, before the monthly active-account and payout fees. In practice, set your commission well above the card rate. If you sell low-priced items, consider the escrow flow, which lets you add a fixed fee to every sale. Always run one real test sale to read the actual numbers in your Stripe dashboard.
User settings:
- Your customers will need to have a Stripe account to receive the items
- With stripe connect active it's mandatory to be registered before posting an ad, this is controlled by the application.
- Publisher will be redirected to his profile to connect with Stripe.
- Once connected he will be able to sell items on your site.
Here is also a video explained by our CTO and founder Chema. Following the steps, you will be able to start getting money as fees with your online marketplace
