Pilot merchant guide

Welcome to Parish Larder

A friendly guide to listing your stall on the platform — written for small UK food producers, makers and tradespeople. About 30 minutes from sign-up to your first product live.

To save this as a PDF: press ⌘ P (Mac) or Ctrl P (Windows) and choose “Save as PDF”.

What Parish Larder does

Parish Larder is a community platform with a built-in marketplace. It’s where parishes, villages, sports clubs, PTAs and farmers’ markets across the UK have their online home — and it’s where local producers like you can sell direct to customers in those communities.

For you as a producer, that means:

Your own stall page — your story, your products, your photos, your opening hours, your delivery area. Customers see you, not a generic listing.
One basket across multiple stalls — customers can buy from you and three other local producers in one order. We split the payment and delivery automatically.
Direct payouts — when an order ships and the customer accepts it, money lands in your bank account, minus our small commission. Daily or weekly payouts, your choice.
Optional in-person till — you can use your phone or iPad as a card terminal at markets, your stall, or your shop counter. Stock stays in sync between online and in-person.
You set the prices — we don’t markup, don’t discount your products, don’t push you to lower them.

If you’re a handyman, gardener, plumber or dog walker, the same merchant app has a “Handyman mode” — your tab bar switches to a jobs inbox, diary and escrow-backed payments. See the Handyman section at the end.

What it costs

Tier	Monthly	Commission per order	Includes
Standard	Free	15% on 1–29 orders/month, 12% on 30–99, 10% on 100+	Online shop, all four delivery options, coupons, offers, group buys, flash sales
Premium	£30	Same as Standard	Adds in-person POS till (Tap to Pay on iPhone), batch tracking + best-before, ticketed events, newsletter, gold badge
Platinum	£60	Same as Standard	Adds wholesale module — trade buyers see your trade prices automatically

Stripe processing fees (~1.5% + 20p per UK card transaction) apply on top of our commission, paid directly to Stripe by the customer. We never markup Stripe’s fees.

No setup fee. No subscription on Standard. You can start free and upgrade later if you want POS or wholesale.

Before you start — what to have ready

A 10-minute prep pays off when you start the onboarding wizard. Have these to hand:

Trading name — what your stall will be called
Trading address — where you make/store/dispatch from
Postcode of your delivery base
Business contact email + phone (kept private from customers)
Stripe details: UK bank account, ID (passport / driving licence), company details (sole trader or Ltd)
A short stall story (2–3 paragraphs about who you are and what you make)
Photos of your products (phone camera in natural light is fine)
Allergen + ingredient info for any food products

The 7-step setup

Create your account· 2 min

Open parishlarder.com/sell → click Get started. Enter your email; we’ll send you a 6-digit code. Type it in, pick a name, and you’re in.

TipUse a business email like hello@yourstall.co.uk rather than personal. Order notifications go here.

Set up your stall· 5 min

You’ll see a guided wizard. Fill in:

Trading name
Trading address + postcode
Stall description (your story)
Opening hours (for collection slots)
Delivery options (see step 4)

A “stall page preview” appears on the right as you type. Save when you’re happy.

Connect Stripe for payouts· 5 min

From the merchant dashboard, click Connect Stripe. You’ll be sent to Stripe’s onboarding flow (a separate page on stripe.com) where they ask:

Business type (Sole trader / Limited company / Charity)
Personal details (name, DOB, address)
ID document (passport or driving licence — phone camera is fine)
UK bank account (sort code + account number)
Phone verification (one text message)

Stripe usually approves UK sole traders within 5 minutes. Limited companies can take up to 24 hours. When approved, you’ll bounce back to Parish Larder. Your stall is now ready to take orders.

Pick your delivery options· 2 min

Open Dashboard → Settings → Delivery. Pick one or more of:

Curbside collection — customer picks up from you. Set your collection hours.
Your own delivery — you (or your driver) drop it off. Set a per-mile fee and max radius.
Parish Larder riders — we contract local riders in your area. Pay per drop; we handle the rider’s pay.
Royal Mail / national courier — for shelf-stable products that travel by post (preserves, charcuterie, dried goods). Set a flat shipping fee.

You can use different options for different products if needed.

List your first product· 5–10 min per product

From the merchant dashboard, click Products → New product. For each product:

Name + description — what is it? How is it made? Why is it good?
Price in £ — gross, including VAT if you’re VAT-registered.
Variants — optional. Different sizes / weights / packs as separate sub-rows.
Category + subcategory — drives where it appears in customer Browse filters.
Photos — drag-and-drop. First photo is the hero shot.
Ingredients + allergens — required for any consumable. Plain English list. For each of the 15 EU allergens, tick “Contains” / “May contain” / “Free from”.
Best-before / use-by — optional, but worth filling in.
Stock count — how many you’ve got ready to sell. Decrements automatically as orders come in.

TipList one product first, then duplicate it for your others (the “Duplicate” button copies all metadata so you only edit what’s different).

Take your first order· when it lands

When a customer orders from your stall, you get:

An email to your business address
A push notification (if you've installed the Parish Larder Merchant app)
A row in Dashboard → Orders → Awaiting acceptance

You have 60 minutes by default to accept the order. Stripe holds the customer’s payment but doesn’t charge them until you accept — so they never pay for something you can’t fulfil.

To accept: open the order, check the items, tap Accept. The order moves to Picking. You then:

Pick — gather the items (printable picking list available)
Pack — bag/box ready for delivery
Dispatch — drop into Royal Mail, hand to a rider, set out for collection, or load into your van

Customer gets a notification at every step. When you mark Delivered, Stripe captures payment and the funds enter your Stripe balance.

Get paid· 1–2 days after first delivery

Stripe pays out to your bank account on whatever schedule you’ve set in your Stripe Express dashboard. Default is daily; you can switch to weekly or monthly.

Each payout shows on your Merchant dashboard → Earnings, broken down by:

Gross sales
Our commission (10–15% depending on your volume)
Stripe processing fee (1.5% + 20p per transaction)
Net payout

Everything’s itemised so your bookkeeping is straightforward at tax time. We provide a downloadable monthly statement CSV.

Your first week — what to expect

Day	What happens
Day 1	Stall goes live. You appear in your community’s stall list + the platform-wide marketplace.
Days 2–3	First few customers find you via the community noticeboard, “Around your parish” rail, and homepage.
Day 4	First order. Accept it within an hour to keep your stall’s “responsive” badge.
Days 5–6	Add 2–3 more products. Each one increases discovery. Try posting one Story from the field clip — a 30-second video of you working.
Day 7	First payout lands in your bank account.

It takes about 2 weeks of consistent listing before customers start re-ordering from you regularly. The platform is built to reward producers who treat it like a real shop, not a pop-up.

Things worth knowing

Customers don’t see your real-time stock until they’re ready to checkout

We hide the “0 left” state from the browse pages so customers always see you as available. The variant only shows “Out of stock” if they try to add an item with zero stock.

Returns are case-by-case

Each stall publishes their own returns policy. For fresh food there’s typically no return window for hygiene reasons, but if something’s damaged or missing, the customer messages you from their order page. Most issues are resolved same-day.

You always own your customer relationship

Unlike Etsy or Amazon, Parish Larder doesn’t sit between you and your customers. They get your name, your stall page, your message thread. They can follow your stall to get newsletters about new produce. The platform’s job is to put you in front of the right people, then get out of your way.

We’re small and you can talk to us

Email hello@parishlarder.com. A real person reads every message during pilot, usually responding within a few hours during UK business hours. There’s also a phone number on your dashboard for urgent issues.

Alternative — Handyman mode

If you’re not a food producer but a local tradesperson — handyman, gardener, plumber, electrician, painter, cleaner, roofer, carpenter, dog walker — the same merchant app has a separate mode for you.

After signing up + completing Stripe Connect onboarding, open the merchant mobile app → Account → “Switch to Handyman”. Your tab bar flips to: Today / Jobs / Diary / Communities / Account.

You’ll see jobs posted by members of communities you serve. Workflow:

Respond to a job with a short message and a suggested visit time.
Visit the customer to assess the work in person.
Submit a quote with labour + materials breakdown.
Customer accepts + pays into escrow. The full payment sits with Parish Larder until you’ve completed the work.
You propose a schedule — one-off, weekly or fortnightly visits. Customer approves.
Each visit gets its own Start / Finish button which time-and-GPS-stamps you on-site.
When all visits are done, the customer signs off. Stripe transfers your payout (quote minus our 10% commission) to your Connect account.

Commission for jobs is 10% from the customer + 10% from your quote. So on a £100 quote, the customer pays £110, we keep £20, you receive £90. That covers escrow, matching and chargeback risk.

For recurring services (weekly dog walking, fortnightly gardening), you can quote in blocks — customer pays once, you complete the block, fresh quote for the next block.

FAQ

Do I need to be VAT registered?▾

No. Most pilot merchants aren’t. Stripe handles the customer payment regardless of VAT status. If you become VAT registered later, flick a switch in your stall settings.

What if I can't fulfil an order?▾

Tap “Reject” with a short reason — Stripe releases the customer’s payment within minutes, no charge to either of you. No penalty to your stall.

Can I list a product as "pre-order" or "made to order"?▾

Yes. Set the stock count to a high number and add a note in the description (“Hand-made to order — please allow 5 working days”). The customer sees that note before adding to basket.

What about food safety / labelling regulations?▾

You’re responsible for compliance with UK FBO regulations. We surface the right fields (ingredients, allergens, best-before, lot codes) so you can populate them — but the legal duty to be accurate is yours, same as any shop.

Can my customers leave reviews?▾

Yes — once they’ve received a delivery, they can leave a star rating and a short comment on your stall. Reviews show on your stall page and feed into our search ranking. You can respond publicly to any review.

What if a customer disputes a delivery?▾

Either the order arrived broken/missing, or didn’t arrive at all. Customers raise a dispute from their order page. You and they exchange messages from the platform’s chat. If you can’t resolve, Parish Larder mediates — usually within 24 hours.

Can I leave the platform anytime?▾

Yes. Hide your stall in one click from Dashboard → Settings. No exit fee, no clawback, no notice period. Your existing orders complete and pay out as normal.

Ready to start?

Open parishlarder.com/sell and click Get started. Stuck on any step? Email hello@parishlarder.com — we’ll get you unblocked.

Apply to sell Email us first

Or call us — number’s on the dashboard once you’ve signed up.

— The Parish Larder team