Audience research
Part of Researching marketplace sellers around one decision without turning research into sales
An evidence ledger for marketplace software competitors, five classes kept apart
Build a marketplace software evidence ledger that separates company facts, supplier claims, contracts, independent records and unresolved questions.
Marketplace seller software competitor research needs an evidence ledger, not a copied feature grid. Start with one England merchant job and record what each source can actually prove. Do not infer market leadership, merchant clients, marketplace coverage, conversion, demand or product quality from search visibility or a register entry.
Use this checklist for every candidate route, including the merchant's current manual process. Candidate routes include listing and inventory sync tools, order management platforms, repricing and feed tools, and returns or settlement add-ons sold to sellers registered in England.
What to take away
- Keep register facts, first-party claims, contract terms, independent evidence and unknowns in separate columns.
- Search visibility and register entries cannot prove market leadership, merchant clients, coverage, conversion or product quality.
- Test seller workflows only with synthetic or specifically authorised records, never live purchases or accounts.
- Check the terms, database right and data protection position before reusing anything public. See Respect data, terms and rights.
- A candidate enters due diligence only when its identity and relevant service can be verified.
Identify the subject without inflating the evidence
- Record the exact legal entity, trading name and service or edition.
- Capture the source URL, page title, access date, stated geography and update date.
- Keep Companies House status, registered office, SIC and filings in a register-fact column only.
- Mark marketplace relationship, England service and customer population unknown unless a current specific record supports them.
Companies House guidance on searching the register lists the public information available. Those filings do not establish software capability, commercial fitness or seller authority.
Companies House can prove that an entity exists, whether it is active, where it is registered and what it has filed. It cannot prove who buys the software, what the software does or how it performs.
Separate five evidence classes
- Register fact:the narrow item recorded by an official register.
- First-party claim:exact wording from the supplier's current service, technical or policy page.
- Contract term:the signed or offered term for the named buyer and edition.
- Independent evidence:a competent authority's record with its own scope and date.
- Unknown:a material question with no adequate answer.
Do not merge a marketing claim with an independent finding. The CMA's online consumer reviews case page records current enforcement activity and open investigations. An allegation or investigation is not a finding against every service. Reviews also do not prove a product's technical behaviour.
The CMA can prove what its own case pages say and when they were last updated. It cannot prove that a supplier outside a named case has done anything wrong.
Five Evidence Classes Kept Apart
Register fact
- Source
- Official register
- Scope
- Narrow item
- Date
- Filing date
- Merge risk
- Do not merge
First-party claim
- Source
- Supplier page
- Scope
- Exact wording
- Date
- Current page
- Merge risk
- Do not merge
Contract term
- Source
- Signed offer
- Scope
- Named buyer
- Date
- Term date
- Merge risk
- Do not merge
Independent evidence
- Source
- Competent authority
- Scope
- Own scope
- Date
- Record date
- Merge risk
- Do not merge
Unknown
- Source
- No answer
- Scope
- Material question
- Date
- Open
- Merge risk
- Keep visible
Worked example for one candidate, five columns:
First-party claim
- Company number, status, registered office and SIC as filed, read on the access date
- The supplier's own wording on marketplace connections, with page title and access date
Contract term
- Company number, status, registered office and SIC as filed, read on the access date
- Blank, because no signed or offered term for the named buyer and edition has been seen
Independent evidence
- Company number, status, registered office and SIC as filed, read on the access date
- None located; the CMA case page records enforcement activity, not a finding about this supplier
Unknown
- Company number, status, registered office and SIC as filed, read on the access date
- Whether a named England seller account can connect, and on whose authority
The row above is a template, not a real supplier. Copy the layout for each candidate.
Research the seller workflow
- Map product evidence, listing identifiers, stock and price changes.
- Follow order, payment, cancellation, return, refund, dispute and settlement states.
- Record marketplace terms, account authority, interface or API dependency and change notices.
- Inspect correction, product withdrawal, support, export and exit routes.
Test only with synthetic or specifically authorised records. Never create a live purchase, customer message or marketplace account to make competitor research look hands on.
Respect data, terms and rights
- Read the site's terms and access conditions before collection.
- Do not bypass paywalls, authentication, access limits or technical controls.
- Store only fields necessary for the buyer decision and record retention.
- Keep copied text, screenshots and database extracts out unless use is approved.
The Intellectual Property Office's database-right guidance explains that database contents and their selection or arrangement can have separate protection. Permission and exceptions need fact-specific legal review. Public availability is not blanket permission to reproduce a protected dataset.
The IPO can prove what its guidance says about database right. It cannot decide whether a particular extraction is lawful for your use.
Companies House also says organisations reusing public company data remain responsible for applicable data-protection, copyright and other requirements. A privacy adviser should review any personal data retained from public sources.
Check suppliers without claiming assurance
- Ask who can access merchant and customer data, including subprocessors.
- Request evidence for authentication, logging, incidents, recovery and deletion.
- Record test scope, expiry and gaps for every certificate or report.
- Leave price, service level and exit cost blank without current buyer-specific terms.
NCSC supplier-assurance questions provide prompts for networks, cloud services, access and data. Answers need verification; they do not amount to government approval. The NCSC can prove what questions a published framework asks. It cannot prove that a supplier answered them accurately.
Close the ledger honestly
Give each claim an owner and recheck date. Keep contradictory and missing evidence visible. A candidate enters later due diligence only when its identity and relevant service can be verified. If evidence is missing, record hold without adverse inference. The ledger supports procurement research, not a market-share estimate or recommendation.
Recheck register facts at each filing, first-party claims quarterly or after a change notice, contract terms at renewal, independent findings when the source updates, and unknowns at every review.
Before you act
- Separate the five evidence classes and do not merge claims with findings.
Common questions
What should I record about a candidate supplier's identity?
The legal entity and trading name, the service or edition, and the source details: URL, page title, access date, stated geography and update date. Register fields sit in the register-fact column. Relationship, England service and customer population stay unknown until a current specific record supports them.
How should I handle supplier assurance answers?
Treat them as prompts to verify, not as assurance. Ask about data access and subprocessors, request evidence on authentication, logging, incidents, recovery and deletion, and note scope, expiry and gaps. Price, service level and exit cost stay blank until buyer-specific terms exist.
What does the ledger do when evidence is missing?
It logs a hold and keeps the gap visible, with an owner and a recheck date. Nothing is inferred from the gap. The ledger documents what the evidence shows and stops there.
