An evidence ledger for marketplace software competitors, five classes kept apart

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.