Hocuwa User Knowledge Base

Hocuwa is a marketplace for livestock, agricultural produce, feed, machinery, and related inputs. You can browse publicly, but you need an account to save a favourite, make an offer, bid, buy, send an available direct message, or publish a listing.

The normal trade journey

1. 1

   Create an account, verify the email if prompted, and complete your profile—especially your country.

2. 2

   Find a listing or publish your own. Sellers choose fixed price, open to offers, or an eligible auction.

3. 3

   Agree the price through Buy Now, an accepted offer, or a winning bid.

4. 4

   The buyer pays through Stripe. Buyer and seller arrange inspection and physical collection directly.

5. 5

   After receipt, the buyer confirms collection. Hocuwa schedules the seller's net payout after the configured delay.

Where: Register or Sign In

Create an account

1. 1

   Select Private or Business. This controls whether personal or company field labels are shown.

2. 2

   Enter the requested name/company, email, phone, address, city, postcode, and country details.

3. 3

   Choose a secure password, complete the anti-bot check when shown, and accept the Terms and Privacy Policy.

4. 4

   Submit the form. If email verification is enabled, Hocuwa emails a six-digit code.

5. 5

   Enter the code within 15 minutes. If it expires, request a new code from the verification screen.

Sign in and session duration

Sign in with your registered email and password. Google sign-in appears only when it has been enabled by Hocuwa. Select Remember me for a longer session (up to 30 days); otherwise the normal session is approximately 12 hours. If MFA is enabled, enter the current code from your authenticator app or use an unused backup code.

Reset a forgotten password

1. 1

   Select Forgot password? on the sign-in page.

2. 2

   Enter your account email. For privacy, the confirmation does not reveal whether an account exists.

3. 3

   Open the reset email and use the secure link within one hour.

4. 4

   Set a new password, then sign in again.

Where: Account menu → Dashboard

One dashboard covers both buying and selling. The overview combines your seller activity—active and pending listings, sales, received offers, and auctions—with buyer activity such as purchases, sent offers, bids, favourites, reviews, and recent messages.

Where: Dashboard → Edit Profile or Settings

Keep your profile accurate because buyers use it to assess a listing and Hocuwa uses account data to protect transactions. Depending on account type, your public profile can show your name or company/farm name, description, location, member age, rating, trust score, and verification or plan badge.

Country is especially important

Hocuwa compares your profile country with the listing country before offers, bids, Buy Now, and checkout. If they do not match, the action is blocked. Choose the country where you actually trade; an approximate local display currency does not change this rule.

Security settings

• Change your password if you know the current password.
• Enable authenticator-app MFA and store the backup codes securely.
• Disable MFA only after confirming your password and a valid authentication code.
• Review email preferences for offers, messages, auctions, payments, marketing, and newsletters.
• Account deletion requires an explicit confirmation. Access is removed, while records that must remain for transaction, dispute, audit, or legal history may be retained.

Where: Membership page or Dashboard membership card

Your effective plan controls your selling limits. If you do not have a current paid membership, Hocuwa uses the active default free plan. Plan values are controlled by the administrator, so always check the live Membership page for current pricing and allowances.

What a plan can control

• How many Active or Pending Review listings you can have at once.
• How many active listings may contain video.
• How long a listing stays active.
• Whether auctions are available and their maximum duration.
• How many listing boosts are available.
• Whether buyers can start direct conversations with you.
• Whether team access is available and the member limit.
• Your plan badge and the seller fees applied to completed sales.

Purchase a paid plan

1. 1

   Open Membership while signed in and compare the live plans.

2. 2

   Choose an available paid plan and continue to Stripe Checkout.

3. 3

   Complete the one-time payment. Hocuwa activates the membership after Stripe confirms it.

4. 4

   Return to your dashboard and confirm the plan name, allowance, and end date.

Where: Browse Listings

Use keyword search for titles, descriptions, locations, item details, or seller/farm names. Refine results using the available category, item, pricing method, price, and country controls, then sort by newest, lowest/highest price, popularity, or auction ending.

Understand listing price types

• Fixed price: purchase the available quantity at the displayed price.
• Open to offers: propose and negotiate a price, or use Buy Now when the seller also supplied an asking price.
• Auction: place qualifying bids during the live period; some auctions also have Buy Now.

Compare and save

Add up to three compatible listings to comparison to review category/type, age, weight, health, price, location, and seller rating side by side. Select the heart icon to add an item to Favourites. You must be signed in, and the item remains subject to availability.

Display currency

Hocuwa may show an approximate value in your detected local currency. Treat it as a guide only: the listing, checkout, receipt, and transaction use Hocuwa's configured platform currency.

Where: Dashboard → My Listings → Create Listing

The wizard is split into five steps. Complete the fields that appear for your category; livestock fields differ from machinery or produce fields.

1. 1

   Category: choose the category, subcategory, and item/type that best describes what you are selling.

2. 2

   Details: add a clear title and description, quantity/unit, location/country, and relevant age, weight, sex, condition, health, or vaccination details.

3. 3

   Media: upload at least one accurate image before publishing. Add more images, one optional video within your plan allowance, and optional supporting PDF documents.

4. 4

   Pricing: choose fixed price, open to offers, or an available auction. Enter all required price or auction fields.

5. 5

   Review: check the summary, correct any validation warnings, then save as a draft or submit for publication.

Where: Dashboard → My Listings

Listings can be Draft, Pending Review, Active, Sold, Expired, Rejected, or Archived. Actions available in the menu depend on status, ownership, active negotiations, bids, and your plan.

• Edit: correct details, media, stock, or price using the fields available for the listing.
• Archive: remove a listing from normal public trading without pretending it was sold.
• Remove/Delete action: take an eligible listing out of active use. Hocuwa archives the record so linked commerce history is preserved. Extra confirmation is required when offers or bids may be affected.
• Boost: use an available plan credit to improve listing priority. A boost is consumed when applied and is not a reversible draft action.
• Relist/create again: use the current listing tools and plan allowance after an expiry when appropriate.

Active-listing limits count both Active and Pending Review listings. Drafts do not count. Video limits apply separately. If a limit message appears, archive an unneeded listing, remove video where appropriate, wait for expiry, or choose a plan with a larger allowance.

Where: Listing detail → Buy Now

1. 1

   Review the listing description, quantity, location, seller profile, rating, verification, media, and supporting documents.

2. 2

   Confirm your profile country matches the listing country. You cannot buy your own listing.

3. 3

   Select Buy Now. Checkout purchases one unit at the displayed price; a multi-unit listing remains active until its recorded stock reaches zero.

4. 4

   Review the platform-currency amount and complete payment on Stripe's hosted checkout page.

5. 5

   Return to Hocuwa. Your Purchases/Transactions area shows the order after payment confirmation.

6. 6

   Arrange inspection and collection directly with the seller. Confirm collection only after you actually receive the item.

Where: Eligible listing → Make Offer; Dashboard → Offers

Send an offer

1. 1

   Open an active listing that accepts offers and select Make Offer.

2. 2

   Enter your proposed price and submit it. Your country must match the listing country.

3. 3

   Track the offer in the Offers dashboard. Only one pending offer from you can exist on that listing.

Respond or negotiate

The person who receives the latest proposal may accept it or send a counter-offer. A seller can also reject an unsuitable offer. The current proposer can withdraw while it is still pending. A pending offer expires after 48 hours if no decision is made.

After acceptance

Acceptance creates a Pending transaction; it does not charge the buyer automatically. The buyer must open Dashboard → Transactions, select the payment action, and complete Stripe Checkout. The normal collection and payout rules then apply.

Where: Auction listing; Dashboard → Auctions & Bids

Before bidding

Check the start/end time, current bid, minimum next bid, increment, quantity, location, seller information, and any Buy Now amount. You must be signed in, must not own the listing, and must have the same profile country as the listing.

Place a bid

1. 1

   Enter at least the displayed minimum next bid.

2. 2

   Submit and confirm the bid. A valid bid is recorded in the auction history.

3. 3

   Watch Auctions & Bids and your notifications. Hocuwa notifies you if another buyer outbids you.

4. 4

   At the scheduled end, the highest bidder receives a Pending transaction and the configured payment deadline.

5. 5

   If you win, pay before the deadline. An unpaid opportunity may pass to the next distinct bidder.

Auction Buy Now

Some auctions let you buy immediately. If available, Buy Now ends the auction, prevents further bids, and creates your payment opportunity. It becomes unavailable when bidding reaches the Buy Now amount. Other bidders are informed that the auction has ended.

Where: Dashboard → Transactions

Hocuwa uses Stripe Checkout for card payment. The amount shown at checkout is in the active platform currency. Seller membership fees are calculated separately from the seller's proceeds; they are not added on top of the buyer's item total.

Transaction statuses you may see

• Pending: the price is agreed but checkout has not completed.
• Paid: Stripe confirmed payment; collection and/or payout steps remain.
• Disputed: a case is holding normal payout progression.
• Completed: the normal payment/payout lifecycle is complete.
• Cancelled, Failed, or Refunded: the transaction did not continue as a normal completed sale.

Confirm collection

1. 1

   Inspect and collect the actual livestock or item according to your arrangement with the seller.

2. 2

   Open the paid transaction and verify it is the correct order.

3. 3

   Select Confirm Collection only when the item has been received and the handover is satisfactory.

4. 4

   Download the PDF receipt when available and keep your own handover records.

Where: Dashboard → Settings → Stripe payout connection

Sellers receive their net proceeds through Stripe Connect. Hocuwa deducts the seller's configured plan fees, then transfers the remaining amount after payment, collection/dispute checks, and the platform payout delay.

Set up payouts

1. 1

   Open Settings and start Stripe Connect onboarding.

2. 2

   Complete Stripe's requested identity, business, bank, and compliance information. Supported countries are controlled by Hocuwa's configuration.

3. 3

   Return to Hocuwa and confirm the connection is ready for payouts.

4. 4

   Keep your Stripe details current. Hocuwa cannot complete an automatic transfer while Stripe reports the account as incomplete or payouts-disabled.

Why a paid sale may not be paid out yet

• The buyer has not confirmed collection and confirmation is required.
• The configured delay has not passed.
• A dispute is open.
• Your Stripe Connect onboarding or payout capability is incomplete.
• The scheduled processor has not completed or an administrator needs to retry a failed transfer.

Where: Listing → Message Seller; Dashboard → Messages

When the seller's membership includes direct messaging, a buyer can start a conversation from a listing. Hocuwa keeps one ongoing conversation for each buyer/seller pair, even when you discuss different listings. The latest listing context may be shown in the conversation.

• Send text or a supported image and review unread messages from the dashboard.
• Business team replies appear under the shared business seller identity.
• Use the block control if you no longer want the conversation to continue.
• Direct messages are separate from formal offers. A message does not create or change a transaction price.

Where: Dashboard → Verification

Verification helps buyers understand whether Hocuwa has reviewed account documents. Submit the requested documents clearly and wait for the administrator's decision.

1. 1

   Prepare a valid National ID or Passport and a current Proof of Address.

2. 2

   Upload the correct document to each requested slot. Supported verification files are JPG, PNG, or PDF up to 5 MB.

3. 3

   Submit and monitor the status. An administrator can approve or reject the document with a reason.

4. 4

   If rejected, correct the stated problem and resubmit a clear, valid document.

Two different kinds of badge

• Identity verification: relates to administrator-reviewed documents.
• Membership badge: comes from the account's current plan and does not replace identity review.

The public trust score is influenced by account age, verification, review count, and average seller rating. It is a marketplace indicator—not a guarantee of the item, seller conduct, health, ownership, or future performance.

Where: Dashboard → Reviews or an eligible Transaction

After a transaction is Paid or Completed, the buyer can leave one review of the seller for that transaction. Choose 1–5 stars and optionally add a factual comment. The rating contributes to the seller's public average and trust score.

1. 1

   Open the eligible transaction or Reviews area.

2. 2

   Select a star rating and write an optional comment based on the real trade.

3. 3

   Submit once. A second review for the same transaction is not allowed.

If a review violates marketplace rules, the reviewed seller can report it for administrator attention. Administrators can inspect reported reviews and remove inappropriate content. Hocuwa currently supports buyer reviews of sellers; seller reviews of buyers are not part of the delivered flow.

Where: Dashboard → Transactions → eligible paid transaction

A buyer or seller can open a dispute before seller payout processing has started. Opening it changes the transaction to Disputed and holds normal payout progression while Hocuwa reviews the case.

1. 1

   Open the correct paid transaction and select the dispute action.

2. 2

   Choose the most accurate reason and describe what happened clearly.

3. 3

   Preserve relevant listing, message, collection, and external handover evidence. Do not include passwords or full card details.

4. 4

   Monitor the case and respond to Hocuwa support if more information is requested.

5. 5

   An administrator records the outcome. The transaction either continues normally or receives an eligible full refund.

Where: Dashboard → Team Members (eligible account owner only)

When the owner's plan includes team access, the owner can create separate staff sign-ins that operate under the business's single seller identity. The current member cap comes from the live plan.

Add a team member

1. 1

   Open Team Members and select the add action.

2. 2

   Enter the member's full name, unique email address, and a temporary password of at least eight characters.

3. 3

   Create the member and share the temporary credentials securely. Ask them to change the password after signing in.

4. 4

   The member can work with shared seller listings, offers, messages, and related dashboard activity under the owner identity.

Owner-only controls

The account owner retains membership/billing, payout, and team-management responsibility. A team member cannot add other team members or take over owner-only billing. Removing a member disables their access immediately; it does not create a separate seller profile or transfer shared records away from the owner.

Where: Notification bell; Dashboard → Settings

The notification bell shows recent in-app activity and an unread count. You can open individual notices or mark all as read. Typical events include offers and counters, outbids and auction results, messages, payment changes, listing moderation, membership activation, disputes, reviews, account status, and team access.

Settings provide email choices for supported categories such as new offers, accepted offers, new messages, outbids, auction endings, payment received, marketing, and newsletter communication. In-app records may still be created when an optional email category is switched off. Email is best-effort, so also check the dashboard for time-sensitive activity.

For the client-facing functional, technical, administrative, operational, and scope reference, see the Hocuwa Project Documentation.