Planning

Office for Product Safety and Standards- Online Marketplaces Product Search Software

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS & TRADE

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

Planning

13 Jan 2026 at 15:14

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Planning

11 Jul 2025 at 13:36

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Department for Business & Trade is in the planning stage of a tender process, aimed at procuring an Online Marketplaces Product Search Software for the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). This procurement falls under the goods category, specifically software package and information systems. The tender is expected to have a contract period starting from 1st July 2026 and ending on 30th June 2027, with possible renewals up to June 2029. Situated in London, UK, the procurement process seeks input from businesses to assist in designing a tender that meets market capabilities while addressing OPSS requirements. The deadline for preliminary responses regarding market engagement is 26th January 2026. Key engagement areas include tender process preferences and potential pricing models.

This tender presents opportunities for businesses, particularly those providing Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) software solutions, to expand their market presence by assisting OPSS in enhancing their product monitoring capabilities across various online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) would be well-suited to engage in this tender, given its focus on streamlining data gathering processes and enhancing market compliance. Responding to this tender provides businesses an opportunity to influence the design of a procurement process that aligns with their service delivery capabilities and cost structures, fostering a competitive environment conducive to business growth.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Office for Product Safety and Standards- Online Marketplaces Product Search Software

Notice Description

Update: This is a further request for information based on the previous below Pre-Market Engagement Notice. Further to the UK2 preliminary market engagement notice published on 11 July 2025 (identifier 2025/S 000-039328), the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is looking for the market to provide further input to help guide any resulting tender process. Previously the market has responded to OPSS' request for information on the availability of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) packages that will enable OPSS to gather data on harmful products on the online market (Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Temu and Ali Express together with smaller webshops and social media markets selling products within the UK). This supplementary request is for the market to provide information on its tendering preferences and pricing models to enable OPSS to ensure any resulting tender is accessible to all bidders and any barriers which could deter a supplier from bidding, are considered (and removed where possible). You are requested to respond to the following questions: 1) Would a tender process involving multiple stages / multiple staggered responses be more desirable than a single stage / single response process? It is anticipated that the overall bidding timescales would be the same regardless of number of stages involved in the process. We are particularly interested in the challenges any resulting tender would place on the resources available to you and whether a multi-stage or single stage approach would enable you to manage this requirement and your other business opportunities / commitments more effectively. 2) How would you propose charging for the online market data gathering service (e.g. a flat fee, an annual subscription, price per 'scrape', price per page searched etc.). We do not require your specific pricing, rather the type of model you would use to calculate the charges to OPSS. 3) OPSS' annual budget is ~PS400k per annum. Currently, OPSS are searching for over 3000 products on the recall list (Product Safety Alerts, Reports and Recalls - GOV.UK). For this procurement, OPSS would look to run searches on initially 7 online marketplaces, with the potential for this to increase to 56. Currenly, OPSS has 21 individuals running manual searches on marketplaces, spending approximately 660 hours per month doing manual sweeps]. Are you able to deliver an appropriate solution to OPSS based on the expected budget, and current and future usage? Please respond by 9am (BST) Monday 26th January 2025 via email to commercialddat@businessandtrade.gov.uk . Please note, this is not a commitment from DBT / OPSS to proceed with procuring a solution. At this stage we are still gathering information to determine how we can support the market by designing a tender process that enables potential suppliers to bid for and deliver a COTS solution which meets our budget and functional requirements. There is no guarantee that any resulting tender will align exactly with proposals made by the market to this notice. We reserve the right to change and amend the budget, functional requirements and timescales as necessary to meet our financial, operational and delivery needs. This is a request for information (RfI) The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) are looking to understand if there are existing Commercial of The Shelf (COTS) software packages that will allow them to gather data on harmful products on the online market. At a minimum, OPSS will need the ability to gather data on products on the following online marketplaces: - Amazon - eBay - Etsy - Temu - Ali Express OPSS would also like the ability to capture product information from smaller, individual webshops and social media markets, selling products within the UK. The need for OPSS to get complete, accurate and quality data is the foundation to this discovery and will enable the fulfilment of other additional requirements that OPSS can benefit from pertaining to product searching. The desired results that the requirements aim to achieve as part of this work is: * Efficiencies in product searching * Better monitoring of previously delisted products * Ability to monitor seller activity * Better insights into problematic products * Increase in number of non-compliant product found/taken down * Increase number of prosecutions These outcomes will help enable OPSS to proficiently identify harmful products in the UK market and ensure consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence. We are issuing this request for information to understand if the above software is currently available at COTS software. Please contact commercialddat@businessandtrade.gov.uk to request access to the full list of current expected functional requirements. Please respond by 9am (BST) Monday 28th July 2025 via email to commercialddat@businessandtrade.gov.uk with confirmation on whether this is a piece of software that your company would be able to provide. Please note, there is not commitment from DBT to proceed with procuring a solution. Currently, we are solely gathering information on the curent market and to understand if there are is an existing solution in the market that meets our needs. There is no guarantee that any potential procurement that occurs will be like-for-like with the requirements in this notice, and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)/OPSS reserves the right to change and amend the requirements as they see fit. Please note that the estimated contract value and contract start dates within this notice are unknown and not confirmed. At this stage, DBT/OPSS is only gathering information from the market. Any eventual procurement that may arise from this RfI may not be of the same value or contract length as stated in this notice.

Planning Information

Please respond by 9am (BST) Monday 26th January 2025 via email to commercialddat@businessandtrade.gov.uk , providing a response to the 3 questions asked.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-055dc2
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/002753-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

CPV Codes

48000000 - Software package and information systems

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£1,200,000 £1M-£10M
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
13 Jan 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
2 Mar 20261 weeks to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
30 Jun 2026 - 30 Jun 2027 6-12 months
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Planning
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS & TRADE
Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
commercialddat@businessandtrade.gov.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1A 2DY
Post Town
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

Download

The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts. 

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