A marketplace connects independent sellers with buyers. Mamo offers two marketplace models, and the main difference between them is who the buyer pays.
Platform-led: the buyer pays your platform. You set how each payment is divided between the seller, your platform fee and any third party, such as a delivery partner. Mamo then pays each seller out. Your platform is the merchant of record.
Seller-led: the buyer pays the seller directly, through a payment link you create on their behalf. Mamo moves your commission from each payment into your account. Each seller is their own merchant of record.
| Platform-led | Seller-led |
Who the buyer pays | Your platform | The seller, whose name appears at checkout |
Merchant of record | Your platform | Each seller |
How you earn | You keep what’s left after the seller’s share | A commission on each payment, as a percentage or a fixed amount |
Does the seller need a Mamo account? | No. You add them as a payout recipient | Yes, with a trade licence or freelance permit |
Who Mamo verifies | Your platform only | Your platform and each seller |
How sellers get paid | Scheduled payouts to their bank account | Payments go straight into their own Mamo account |
Refunds, chargebacks and VAT | Your platform | Each seller |
Which model is right for you?
A marketplace solution applies when some or all of a payment is owed to someone other than your platform. Examples include an app connecting buyers with cleaners or tutors, a platform that passes tips to service providers, and a booking site for event organisers. If you only sell your own products or services, regular Mamo payments cover you.
Platform-led suits you if your sellers are individuals or unlicensed small businesses, or if you want to own the buyer relationship and control when sellers get paid.
Seller-led suits you if your sellers are licensed businesses that should own their payments, refunds and disputes, while you earn a commission.
How the platform-led model works
Add each seller as a recipient. You only do this once per seller. Give us their name, how they relate to your platform, and their UAE bank details. Sellers don’t go through verification, so they can start receiving their share straight away. International payouts are available on request.
Set the seller’s share on each payment link. The share can be a percentage or a fixed amount. Whatever is left over is your platform fee.
The buyer pays your platform.
The seller’s share is added to their balance on the payment’s settlement date. If your account settles same-day, it’s added immediately.
Sellers are paid out on your schedule. Mamo transfers each seller’s balance to their bank account, for example weekly or monthly.
You stay updated. We notify your platform when a payment succeeds or fails and when a payout is sent, so you can keep your sellers informed.
Example: two sellers and a delivery partner
A buyer orders an AED 500 cake from Baker A, AED 150 of cupcakes from Baker B, and pays an AED 25 delivery fee. Both bakers get 90% of their sale.
Who | Gets | Why |
Baker A | AED 450 | 90% of AED 500 |
Baker B | AED 135 | 90% of AED 150 |
Delivery partner | AED 25 | The delivery fee |
Your platform | AED 65 | 10% of both orders |
Buyer pays | AED 675 |
|
Illustrative only. Mamo’s processing fees are not shown.
Payouts
Schedule: your payout schedule is agreed with our support team, for example every three days, weekly or monthly.
Minimum: payouts run once a seller’s balance reaches AED 10. Smaller amounts carry over to the next payout.
Payout fee: each payout has a fixed fee. Your platform pays it by default. If you’d rather deduct it from the seller’s payout, reach out to our support team.
Timing: payouts sent before about 7pm UAE time usually reach the seller’s bank the same day.
One-off payouts: to pay a seller outside the schedule, go to Dashboard > Payouts > Bank payouts > Create payout. This can also be done via API.
If a payout fails or is delayed: common causes are a wrong account name, a closed IBAN, or an occasional KYC check. Mamo will tell you what’s needed. Keeping sellers’ bank details current helps avoid this.
Sellers don’t have their own Mamo dashboard in this model, so your platform tracks and shares their balances with them.
Refunds and chargebacks
As the merchant of record, your platform issues refunds, responds to chargebacks, and is responsible for VAT on these sales.
How a refund is funded
When you refund a buyer, in full or in part, the refund comes out of your balance and the seller’s balance in the same proportion as the original split. For example, if Baker A’s AED 500 order is refunded in full, AED 450 comes from Baker A’s balance and AED 50 from yours. A partial refund of AED 100 is split AED 90 from Baker A and AED 10 from you.
If a balance is too low
If either you or the seller doesn’t have enough balance to cover your part, the refund stays pending. It goes through automatically once both balances can cover it. This is most likely to happen just after a seller has been paid out.
To keep refunds moving and chargebacks manageable:
Seller terms: make clear that refunds come out of the seller’s balance, and set out how you’ll recover chargebacks from them.
Payout frequency: where cancellations are common, pay out less often. Sellers are then more likely to have a balance to cover a refund, so it doesn’t sit pending.
Final amount unknown at checkout: hold the payment instead of charging it (see below), or collect without a split and pay the seller once the order is complete.
Hold now, charge later
A hold reserves money on the buyer’s card without taking it yet. This is useful when a booking needs confirming or a service needs completing first. Once you know the outcome, you can take the full amount, take part of it and release the rest, or cancel the hold. A hold lasts 7 days. After that, the funds are released automatically and the buyer isn’t charged.
How the seller-led model works
We enable the seller-led model on your account. Reach out to our support team to get started.
Connect each seller. You only do this once per seller. Request a connection using the login email of someone on the seller’s Mamo account. Their admins receive an email asking them to accept.
Create a payment link for the seller and set your commission, as a percentage or a fixed amount. The link belongs to the seller and shows their name to the buyer.
The buyer pays the seller. The payment lands in the seller’s Mamo account, and Mamo’s processing fee is taken from the seller as usual.
Your commission moves to your account. By default this happens as soon as the payment is captured. You can also set a later release date when you create the link. The commission appears as “Marketplace commission” in both accounts.
Example
A buyer pays AED 500 for a consulting session booked through your platform, and your commission is 3%. AED 15 moves to your account, and the consultant keeps AED 485 less Mamo’s processing fee. You can also choose to cover Mamo’s fee out of your commission instead.
Illustrative only.
Good to know
Commission terms are fixed when you create the link. The seller can’t change them afterwards.
Sellers handle their own refunds and disputes. If a payment is refunded after your commission has moved, the commission isn’t returned, so settle that with the seller directly. Setting a release date gives you a buffer: if the payment is refunded before that date, the commission doesn’t move.
Each link carries one commission. It can’t also split part of the payment to a platform-led recipient.
Key terms
Term | What it means |
Merchant of record | The business legally responsible for the sale, including refunds, chargebacks and VAT |
Recipient | (Platform-led) A seller you’ve added to Mamo so they can receive a share of payments |
Seller balance | (Platform-led) What a seller is owed before their next payout |
Payout | (Platform-led) The transfer of a seller’s balance to their bank account |
Connected seller | (Seller-led) A seller with their own Mamo account who has accepted your connection request |
Commission | (Seller-led) Your share of each payment made on a seller’s link |
Ready to get started?
Send your developers to the integration guides:
For anything else, reach out to our support team.