List your supplier business

For businesses that supply traders, markets and venues rather than the public: wholesale goods, packaging, equipment hire, cold storage, card machines, signage and services.

About 12 minutes to read

Before you start

  • A Market Hive SA account, and you are logged in
  • Your logo
  • Optional: your catalogue and price list as PDF files

Step 1: Open the form and choose Supplier

On your dashboard click + Create a listing, then click Supplier so it is highlighted in gold.

Four buttons labelled Vendor, Market, Supplier and Entertainment.
Click Supplier.

Step 2: Say whether you are a supplier, a venue, or both

The first question decides which half of the form you get. Leave it on Supplier if you only supply goods or services.

A drop-down headed 'Are you a supplier, a venue, or both?' with the options Supplier, Venue, and Both Supplier and Venue.
The question that shapes the rest of the form.

If you also hire out a space

Choose Both Supplier & Venue and a whole extra set of venue questions appears. The venue guide covers those.

Step 3: Business details

The supplier Business details section with boxes for trading name, contact person, position, registration number, VAT number, years in business, mobile, office phone and public email.
Who you are and how buyers reach you.
  • Registration and VAT numbers - optional, but they matter here in a way they do not for a market stall. Buyers placing a wholesale order want to know they are dealing with a real registered business, and a VAT number is often needed for their own books.
  • Years in business - a genuine trust signal for anyone deciding whether to order from you.
  • Office phone - many buyers still phone during business hours. Include it if you have one.

Step 4: What do you supply?

The 'What do you supply?' section with grouped category tick boxes, tick boxes for who you supply to, and tick boxes for service areas.
The section that decides which searches you appear in.
  • Categories - grouped by kind of supply. Tick everything you genuinely stock or do. This is the main thing buyers filter on.
  • Who do you supply? - vendors, markets, venues, or all of them.
  • Service areas - the provinces or regions you cover. Be accurate: quoting for a job you cannot reach wastes your time and theirs.

Step 5: About your business

The 'About your business' section with large text boxes for products and services, what makes the business unique, delivery information and additional information.
Where you explain the offer properly.
  • Products and services - specifics. "Kraft boxes, greaseproof liners, compostable cutlery and printed stickers" gets found. "Packaging solutions" does not.
  • What makes your business unique - minimum order, lead time, local manufacture, next day delivery. The thing a buyer is actually weighing up.
  • Delivery information - the question you will otherwise be asked in every single enquiry. Answer it here once.

State your minimum order

It reads as unfriendly, and it is the single most useful thing you can publish. It stops enquiries you were always going to turn down, and it reassures the buyers who do fit.

Step 6: Capabilities

The Capabilities section with tick boxes for delivery options, payment methods accepted and other capabilities.
How you deliver and how you take payment.

Delivery options and payment methods are practical filters. A vendor with no vehicle needs a supplier who delivers; a market organiser paying by EFT on account needs to know you allow it.

Step 7: Documents

The Documents section with a team photo upload and file uploads for a catalogue and a price list.
Catalogue and price list uploads.
  • Team photo - up to 4 MB. Puts faces to the business.
  • Catalogue and price list - PDF or photo, up to 8 MB each.

A downloadable price list wins work

Buyers comparing three suppliers will start with the one they can price up immediately, without waiting a day for a reply. If your prices move often, upload a range or a rate card rather than nothing.

Step 8: Images, agreements and submit

Add your logo as the main image and up to ten gallery photos, tick the five compulsory agreements, then click Submit application. If you picked a plan on the Hive Memberships page first, you go straight to checkout to finish joining. Otherwise you land on your dashboard, where the listing shows as pending until a person has checked it.

The Agreements section with five compulsory tick boxes.
All five are compulsory.

Step 9: After you are live

Your supplier dashboard shows each listing with its views and the number of leads it has produced.

A panel headed 'My supplier listings' showing a published supplier with view counts and lead counts, and Edit profile and View buttons.
Supplier listings track leads as well as views.

Worth reading next:

Next guideList your venue →For anyone with a space to hire out. A venue is added through the supplier form.

Still stuck? Email [email protected] or use the contact form. Tell us which step you are on and we will walk you through it.