Executive decision
The original stakeholder briefing is directionally sound: the pain is real, privacy-first processing is credible and validation should precede a full build. This report narrows the opportunity and changes the preferred route to market.
Records are fragmented
Marketplace sellers commonly need separate order, transaction, payout, fee, refund, advertising, shipping and bank data to explain their numbers. A bank deposit is rarely the same as sales revenue.
Reporting is not taxation
Platforms report certain seller information to HMRC, but that does not make every reported seller taxable. Personal disposals, trading activity, allowances, expenses and other income must still be distinguished.
Willingness to pay
The most credible paying users are serious sole traders, handmade businesses, multi-platform resellers and accountancy practices, not casual wardrobe clearers.
Evidence labels and limits
Supported by HMRC, legislation, official platform documentation or an authoritative regulator.
Supported by multiple market, product or practitioner sources.
Commercial or behavioural claim that must be tested with real users and files.
Requires UK tax, legal, AML, data-protection or professional-regulatory confirmation.
Marketplace sellers: who they are
Seller status is behavioural and legal, not simply the name of the platform used. The same Vinted or eBay account can contain personal disposals and commercial trading.
| Seller type | Typical activity | Records complexity | Likely need | Dweise fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casual personal seller | Declutters possessions; does not buy or make items for resale. | Low, unless volume triggers platform reporting questions. | Clear explanation and evidence of original ownership/cost. | Low |
| Side-hustle sole trader | Repeated buying, making or sourcing to sell for profit. | Medium; often mixes personal and business money. | Sales, fees, stock costs, postage, advertising and tax-year summaries. | High |
| Reseller | Sources second-hand, clearance, vintage or collectable stock across channels. | High; stock cost, bundles, partial refunds and cross-listing complicate records. | Item-level cost evidence, personal/trade split and payout reconciliation. | Very high |
| Handmade-product business | Makes goods sold on Etsy, Shopify, TikTok Shop, markets and social channels. | High; materials, packaging, advertising and production costs matter. | Multi-channel income, COGS support, advertising and payment-fee separation. | High |
| Established ecommerce seller | Amazon, Shopify or multi-channel business with staff, VAT and accounting software. | Very high, but already served by specialist tools and accountants. | Automated settlement posting, VAT treatment, inventory and ledger integrations. | Medium |
| Limited company | Company owns the trade; directors operate marketplaces. | High; company records, payroll/dividends, Corporation Tax, annual accounts. | Clean bookkeeping feed and accountant integration, not a lightweight tax helper. | Partner-led |
How sellers currently work
Spreadsheet-first
- Manual order and stock logs
- Downloaded CSVs pasted into tabs
- Separate bank and marketplace totals
- Year-end clean-up for an accountant
Software-assisted
- Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Sage or spreadsheets
- A2X, Link My Books or connector apps
- Inventory tools for Amazon/Shopify sellers
- Receipt apps and bank feeds
Manual workarounds
- Treating net payouts as income
- Ignoring small fees or labels
- Using screenshots instead of source reports
- Mixing personal sales with trade
- Estimating stock costs after the event
Seller pain map
Written equivalent
Relative pain severity, scored out of 5:
- Explaining net payouts, 5.0. The single hardest problem: a bank deposit does not explain itself.
- Combining platform files, 4.6. Order, transaction and payout data arrive in different shapes.
- Stock-cost evidence, 4.5. Platform data cannot establish what an item originally cost.
- Personal versus trade split, 4.3. One account often contains both.
- Accountant handover, 4.2. Records arrive in a state the practice must rebuild.
- Refund and fee timing, 4.1. Adjustments land in a different period from the sale.
- VAT and MTD uncertainty, 3.8. Real, but less acute than the mechanical records problem.
The chart is an analytical severity assessment derived from the platform structures, practitioner material and user workflows reviewed; it is not a statistically representative seller survey.
Complete seller-to-platform-to-HMRC lifecycle
Written equivalent
- The seller lists an item, and the platform records the order.
- The buyer payment is captured by the platform.
- The platform applies deductions: fees, advertising, postage labels, refunds and reserves.
- What remains is the net payout, which arrives as a bank deposit.
- Separately, the order data leaves the platform as reports, CSV exports or API calls, and feeds the seller's bookkeeping records. The bank deposit feeds the same records from the other side.
- Those records go to an accountant, or to self-service review, and become a tax return, accounts or a VAT return.
- Independently, the platform sends its own annual report about the seller to HMRC where the reporting rules apply.
- HMRC then matches the platform report against the seller's own submissions, which is where discrepancies surface.
The two paths into HMRC, the platform's report and the seller's own return, are produced from different data and rarely agree without work.
Marketplace platform data and reconciliation map
Official reporting depth varies substantially. Mature ecommerce platforms provide structured reports and APIs; consumer resale platforms are more likely to require user exports, statements or manual evidence.
eBay
Seller Hub provides transaction reports, payout reports, tax invoices and financial statements. Official Finance APIs expose payment, refund, fee and payout-related transaction data.
Assessment
Support difficulty: relatively low.
Gaps: report variants, historical changes, promotions, postage labels, holds and transaction timing still require careful mapping.
MVP role: best first anchor platform.
Etsy
Sellers can download order and payment-related CSVs. Etsy’s Open API supports shop, receipt and transaction data, but finance and deposit reconciliation can require more than one source.
Assessment
Support difficulty: medium.
Gaps: listing, transaction, payment, advertising, refunds and deposits use different concepts and timing.
MVP role: strong phase-two handmade-business channel.
Vinted
Vinted provides tax/reporting information and account-level transaction history, but public, supported finance API access for third-party bookkeeping is not comparable with eBay or Shopify.
Assessment
Support difficulty: medium-high.
Gaps: consumer and trader activity may coexist; evidence of personal ownership and original cost is often outside the platform.
MVP role: commercially attractive but sample files must prove feasibility.
Depop
Seller receipts, payout and fee information are available through the seller experience, but third-party integration and export capabilities are less mature and less predictable than major merchant platforms.
Assessment
Support difficulty: high.
Gaps: policy and payment-model changes; limited supported API access; personal/trade classification.
MVP role: postpone until real exports and permissions are obtained.
Amazon
Seller Central provides settlement and transaction reports, and Selling Partner APIs provide structured reports. The data is rich but operationally complex.
Assessment
Support difficulty: high.
Gaps: reserve timing, FBA fees, reimbursements, VAT jurisdictions and very large report schemas.
MVP role: avoid initially; well served by A2X/LMB and specialist accountants.
Shopify
Shopify provides order exports, payout transaction CSVs and a payout reconciliation report. APIs expose orders, transactions and Shopify Payments balance data.
Assessment
Support difficulty: medium.
Gaps: third-party payment providers, Shopify billing, multi-currency and timing differences are not all covered by one report.
MVP role: useful later for handmade/direct-to-consumer sellers.
TikTok Shop
Seller Centre finance and settlement reports can support reconciliation, and partner APIs exist, but access, documentation and regional changes introduce product risk.
Assessment
Support difficulty: medium-high.
Gaps: affiliate commissions, promotions, logistics deductions, reserves and rapid policy evolution.
MVP role: attractive later through Link My Books/accountant comparisons, not day one.
Facebook Marketplace
Many UK transactions are local, cash or direct bank arrangements rather than centrally processed marketplace payments. Commerce tools are not consistently available to every seller.
Assessment
Support difficulty: very high.
Gaps: incomplete transaction trail, cash, off-platform payments and limited standard exports.
MVP role: manual income import only; do not promise automated reconciliation.
Comparative support scorecard
| Platform | Structured exports | Official integration | Reconciliation clarity | Policy/data risk | Dweise priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eBay | Strong | Strong | Medium-high | Medium | 1. MVP anchor |
| Vinted | Limited/variable | Weak for finance | Medium-low | High | 2. validate with files |
| Etsy | Strong | Medium-strong | Medium | Medium | 3. phase two |
| Shopify | Strong | Strong | Medium-high | Low-medium | 4. phase two |
| Depop | Limited | Weak | Low-medium | High | 5. later |
| TikTok Shop | Medium | Medium/partner-led | Medium | High | 6. later |
| Amazon | Very strong | Very strong | Complex | Medium | 7. avoid first |
| Facebook Marketplace | Weak | Weak/inconsistent | Low | High | 8. manual only |
Why marketplace reports do not equal bank deposits
− refunds and cancellations: £620
− marketplace/payment fees: £1,175
− promoted listings/advertising: £310
− shipping labels paid through platform: £465
− reserve/hold movement: £250
+ prior-period balance released: £120
= net payouts to bank: £9,800
Illustrative figures. Exact components differ by platform, period and payment model.
Still needed to calculate profit
- Opening and closing stock or item-level cost
- Materials, packaging and off-platform postage
- Returns not fully reflected in the same period
- Other business expenses
- Personal versus business sale classification
- VAT treatment where applicable
Taxable profit is therefore not the payout, gross sales report or HMRC platform report.
UK tax and accounting requirements in plain language
Trading versus personal possessions
Selling your own unwanted possessions is usually different from buying, making or systematically sourcing goods to sell for profit. HMRC considers the facts and “badges of trade”; no single platform threshold decides whether activity is a trade.
Trading allowance
A person may have a £1,000 gross trading allowance across relevant trading activities. Above the allowance, Self Assessment registration and reporting may be required, subject to the person’s complete circumstances.
Profit and expenses
Tax is generally based on taxable profit: trading income less allowable business expenses, or the trading allowance where claimed instead of expenses. Marketplace fees, stock, postage, advertising and other costs need evidence and correct treatment.
Records
Sole traders must keep records supporting income, expenses and tax returns. VAT-registered businesses and companies have additional record requirements and retention periods.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
MTD applies from 6 April 2026 where qualifying gross income from self-employment and property exceeded £50,000 in 2024–25; from 2027 above £30,000; and from 2028 above £20,000. Digital records and compatible software are required.
VAT and companies
VAT depends on taxable turnover, registration status, place of supply, imports and marketplace rules. Limited companies must maintain company records, prepare accounts and submit Corporation Tax information. Dweise should not reduce these to a simple seller threshold.
Tax-obligations decision flow
Written equivalent
- Did you sell goods online? If yes, ask whether they were mainly your own unwanted possessions.
- If they were your own possessions: ask whether there is any profit-making pattern, repeated sourcing or making to sell.
- No pattern: usually not trading income. Keep evidence, and consider Capital Gains rules for unusual or high-value assets.
- A pattern exists: treat as a possible trade and review the facts.
- If they were not your own possessions: treat as a possible trade and review the facts.
- For a possible trade, is gross trading income across all activities above £1,000?
- No: the trading allowance may cover it. Check exceptions and full circumstances.
- Yes: Self Assessment registration and reporting may be required.
- If Self Assessment applies, three further questions run in parallel:
- Is qualifying gross self-employment plus property income above the MTD threshold? If yes, use MTD-compatible software and keep digital records. If no, normal Self Assessment record keeping applies.
- Are VAT taxable turnover or special VAT rules relevant? If yes or unsure, obtain VAT advice.
- Is the trade run through a limited company? If yes, company bookkeeping, annual accounts and Corporation Tax obligations apply.
No single platform threshold decides whether activity is a trade. The facts decide.
AML, data protection and professional-regulatory boundaries
| Activity | Likely boundary | Risk | Recommended Dweise treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| User imports and categorises their own records | Self-service software | Lower, but claims and UX must remain accurate | Core MVP |
| Software suggests rules and flags exceptions | Automation/support, depending on wording and function | Medium | Transparent rules; user confirmation; no definitive tax judgement |
| Dweise staff review, correct or complete books | May be accountancy/bookkeeping service | High AML and competence implications | Do not launch before specialist advice/supervision |
| Accountant/bookkeeper reviews output | Professional service by supervised partner | Managed through partner contracts and responsibilities | Preferred hybrid model |
| Dweise submits MTD updates or returns | Tax software/agent and HMRC integration obligations | High technical and regulatory burden | Postpone |
| Cloud storage of seller records | UK GDPR controller/processor obligations | Security, breach, retention and international transfer risk | Local-first; optional encrypted backup later |
Competitor and pricing landscape
Price is segmented: cheap spreadsheets at the bottom, general accounting subscriptions in the middle, settlement automation and accountants above that. Dweise must avoid being compared solely with a £10 spreadsheet.
| Category / examples | Typical target | Indicative pricing | Strengths | Weakness or opening |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY spreadsheets Etsy/eBay templates | Casual and early sellers | Often low one-off prices | Cheap, familiar, editable | Manual entry, weak audit trail, fragile formulas, limited reconciliation |
| General accounting Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Sage | Sole traders and businesses | Monthly subscription; tiered | Full ledger, bank feeds, tax workflows | Marketplace payouts still require mapping or connectors |
| Settlement automation A2X, Link My Books, Taxomate | Established ecommerce sellers/accountants | Usually monthly, often by channel/order volume | Strong accounting integrations, VAT and settlement summaries | Higher complexity/cost; weaker coverage for consumer resale platforms |
| Platform-specific tools Vinta and seller trackers | Vinted/resale sellers | Freemium or low subscription depending on tool | Focused UX and platform familiarity | Single-platform scope and variable reconciliation depth |
| Specialist accountants/bookkeepers | Serious sellers, VAT and companies | From low monthly packages to bespoke fees | Judgement, filings, advice and accountability | Records clean-up is labour intensive; client data often arrives poorly organised |
| Tax-return services TaxScouts and similar | Individuals needing filing help | Fixed-fee return packages | Convenient filing and accountant access | Usually depend on the customer supplying usable records |
Written equivalent
Scored out of 5 on six axes:
| Axis | DIY spreadsheet | Settlement connector | Dweise target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low setup effort | 4.5 | 2.5 | 4.0 |
| Multi-platform | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.0 |
| Reconciliation depth | 1.8 | 4.8 | 4.5 |
| Tax and accountant readiness | 1.5 | 4.5 | 4.2 |
| Low price | 5.0 | 2.3 | 3.3 |
| Privacy and local control | 4.2 | 1.5 | 5.0 |
Dweise deliberately sits between the two: near the spreadsheet on setup effort and price, near the connector on reconciliation depth and accountant readiness, and ahead of both on privacy.
Defensible Dweise position
Not: “another accounting package”, “a spreadsheet replacement for everyone” or “HMRC compliance guaranteed”.
Instead: “Turn marketplace exports and payouts into a clear, evidence-linked records pack, with every exception visible and ready for you or your accountant to review.”
If a competitor responds
The opening described above is not protected by anything structural. It exists because the incumbents have chosen not to cover consumer resale platforms. That is a decision they can reverse, so the response to each move should be decided now rather than improvised.
| Competitor move | Who | Likelihood | Early warning | What still survives | Planned response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add Vinted and Depop coverage | Link My Books, A2X | Medium | Supported-channel pages and changelogs. Check monthly. | They still require a Xero or QuickBooks ledger, so the ledger-free seller is untouched. Privacy and the evidence trail also remain. | Stop competing on coverage. Lead on “no ledger required” and the accountant pack, and accelerate the practice workspace. |
| Go multi-platform | Vinta | Medium-high | Roadmap posts, new platform names in marketing, pricing-page changes. | Reconciliation depth, evidence lineage, the accountant pack and multi-client batching. Vinta is a seller tool, not a practice tool. | This is the most direct threat. Move the accountant workspace forward, and open an exploratory conversation early rather than after they have moved. |
| Native marketplace payout parsing | Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, ANNA | Low to medium | Release notes and app-marketplace listings. | Consumer resale platforms are unlikely to be prioritised, and their users must still run a full ledger. | Retreat deliberately to the sub-ledger niche: sellers who will never run a ledger, and practices standardising messy client records. |
| A capable free tool appears | Platforms, advisers, accountancy marketing | Medium | Free templates or calculators promoted around deadlines. | Reconciliation quality, exception handling, support and the audit trail. Free tools rarely maintain parsers. | Never sell the file. Sell maintained parsers, checking, evidence and support, and keep the free asset as the top of the funnel. |
| A practice builds its own internal tool | Larger accountancy firms | Low | Technology hires or in-house automation posts. | Cross-practice standardisation and maintenance burden, which few firms want to own. | Sell to practices as the maintained standard, positioned against the cost of building and maintaining it themselves. |
Market size and unit economics
Only the starting figure below is sourced. Every reduction after it is an explicit assumption, shown so it can be challenged and replaced with real data as the pilot produces it. The purpose is to bound the opportunity honestly, not to produce a confident number.
From reported sellers to a serviceable market
| Step | Assumption applied | Basis | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seller reports received by HMRC for 2025 | Starting point | Sourced Approximately 3.99 million reports, per a Freedom of Information response reported by BDO. | ~3,990,000 |
| Remove duplication across platforms | 25% to 35% of reports relate to a seller already counted elsewhere | Assumption Multi-platform selling is common, and each platform reports separately. | ~2.6m to 3.0m people |
| Remove non-traders | Only 15% to 25% are genuinely trading | Assumption Most reported activity is disposal of personal possessions, which is not trading. Section 07 explains why the reporting threshold is not a tax test. | ~400,000 to 750,000 |
| Keep only those with a real records problem | 25% to 35% have enough volume or platform spread to need reconciliation | Assumption Target profile from section 11: roughly 200 to 3,000 annual transactions, one to three marketplaces. | ~100,000 to 260,000 |
| Remove the already-served | 40% to 55% already use a ledger with a connector, or an accountant who absorbs the problem | Assumption A2X, Link My Books, general accounting software and specialist practices cover the upper end. | ~45,000 to 155,000 serviceable |
| Realistic capture in years one to three | 0.5% to 2% of the serviceable market | Assumption A new entrant with no distribution, competing against free spreadsheets and incumbent tools. | ~225 to 3,100 customers |
At a £149 licence, that range spans roughly £34,000 to £460,000 of annual revenue. The mid-case sits close to the £100,000 to £300,000 owner-operated scenario used elsewhere in the Dweise research, which is a useful consistency check rather than a coincidence.
The practice side of the market
Why practices change the arithmetic
A practice is a single sale that carries many seller workspaces. If a practice serves 20 to 60 online-seller clients, one relationship is worth as much as dozens of direct sales, and it renews on a professional buying cycle rather than a consumer one.
The constraint is not market size but sales cycle: practices buy slowly, in the quiet months, and only after seeing the output on their own client files.
Indicative practice economics
- 25-client seat pack at £499 a year is about £20 per client workspace.
- Ten practices at that level is £4,990 a year and roughly 250 seller workspaces.
- The same 250 sellers acquired directly would cost far more in marketing and support.
- Practice pricing must stay below the labour it replaces, which is the real comparator.
Assumption Seat pricing is illustrative and must be tested against measured time saved.
What Dweise keeps on a £149 licence
| Route | Fees | Fixed cost | Net kept | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct checkout (Stripe) | About 1.5% plus £0.20, so roughly £2.44 | None | £146.56 | 98% |
| Payhip Free | Payhip 5% (£7.45) plus processing (£2.44) | None | £139.11 | 93% |
| Payhip Plus | Payhip 2% (£2.98) plus processing (£2.44) | About £22 a month | £143.58 | 96% |
| Etsy | Transaction, payments, regulatory and listing fees plus VAT on fees, roughly £20.08 | None | £128.92 | 87% |
Payhip Plus overtakes Payhip Free at about five licences a month, which is a low bar. Etsy costs roughly £18 more per sale than direct checkout, so it is worth using only for the discovery it provides, not as the main route.
Cost to serve one customer
- Payment fees: £2 to £20 depending on route
- Support at an assumed 20 minutes per customer, valued at £40 an hour: about £13
- Licence and update infrastructure, local-first: £1 to £2
- Contribution per customer: roughly £115 to £130
Support is the variable that decides viability. At 60 minutes per customer the contribution falls by a further £27 and the model weakens sharply.
Revenue scenarios at £149
- 150 customers: about £22,000 revenue, roughly £18,000 contribution. Validation scale.
- 700 customers: about £104,000. A real owner-operated business.
- 2,000 customers: about £298,000. Requires the accountant channel to be working.
- Break-even on a £40,000 founder income: roughly 320 customers at £125 contribution.
These are scenarios, not forecasts. The 2,000-customer case is at the top of the funnel range above and should not be treated as a plan.
Underserved groups and strongest entry wedge
Best seller segment
UK sole-trader resellers and handmade businesses with 200–3,000 annual transactions, one to three marketplaces, no sophisticated accounting stack and an accountant or tax deadline.
Best partner segment
Small accountancy and bookkeeping practices serving online sellers but lacking efficient support for Vinted, Depop and mixed personal/trade records.
Best platform combination
eBay as the technically mature anchor, plus a second platform chosen by the week-one file test below. Vinted is the preferred second platform; Etsy is the pre-decided fallback.
Second-platform decision rule
| Week-one test on real consented files | Outcome | Resulting wedge | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vinted exports pass: at least 80% of lines normalise automatically and payout totals reconcile within tolerance across a full cycle. | Proceed: eBay plus Vinted | The intended position. A genuine gap, since neither A2X nor Link My Books covers Vinted, and Vinta covers Vinted only. | Highest policy and data risk. Requires versioned parsers and a monitoring plan. |
| Vinted exports are usable but incomplete: they reconcile only with manual assistance or heavy evidence chasing. | Proceed narrowly | Ship eBay fully and Vinted as a clearly labelled assisted import, with the unresolved items visible rather than hidden. | Support load rises. Do not market Vinted as automated until it is. |
| Vinted exports fail: the data cannot support reliable reconciliation, or access is withdrawn. | Switch to the fallback | eBay plus Etsy, aimed at handmade and multi-channel sellers, where exports are strong and the pain is real but the ground is more contested. | Weaker differentiation against connectors, so the accountant workspace becomes the primary defence rather than platform coverage. |
Recommended commercial model
| Model | Advantages | Risks | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure self-service seller app | Scalable, lower AML exposure, direct learning | Trust, support and acquisition costs; users may misclassify records | Include, but not as sole route |
| Managed Dweise clean-up | Higher price and learning from messy files | Bookkeeping/AML boundary, labour and margin pressure | Avoid until professionally resolved |
| Accountant-led | Trust, distribution, professional judgement, multi-client demand | Longer sales cycle; workflow must fit practices | Primary go-to-market |
| Hybrid seller + accountant review | Seller control plus professional confidence | Requires permissions, handoff and partner model | Best long-term model |
Proposed MVP and phased roadmap
Validation service prototype
Collect real exports, normalise manually with scripts, produce sample packs and test payment.
Local import and reconciliation
eBay + validated Vinted files; canonical model; exceptions; source lineage; tax-year/accountant exports.
Accountant workspace and Etsy
Batch clients, review comments, locked exports, practice templates and second/third platform support.
Selective integrations
Official APIs where stable; encrypted backup; mobile evidence capture; optional MTD bridge only after strategy review.
Build in MVP
- Business/tax-year workspace
- CSV/report import with format detection
- Canonical orders, fees, refunds, labels and payouts model
- Gross-to-net reconciliation
- Unmatched/uncertain queue
- Personal-versus-trade review prompt
- Stock-cost and evidence requests
- Source lineage and change log
- Accountant-ready Excel/CSV/PDF pack
- Local encrypted database
Postpone
- Direct HMRC filing or “compliance guarantee”
- Automated tax advice and VAT decisions
- Amazon/FBA depth
- Facebook Marketplace automation
- Unsupported scraping
- Full inventory management
- Invoicing, payroll or general ledger
- Multi-currency/OSS/IOSS engine
- Managed bookkeeping by Dweise
- Broad mobile app and live sync
Main risks and mitigations
| Risk | Severity | Why it matters | Mitigation / gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsupported or changing data access | High | Consumer platforms may alter exports or block integrations. | Upload-first; versioned parsers; no scraping dependency; format telemetry with consent. |
| Users confuse records output with tax advice | High | Incorrect claims create liability and trust damage. | Clear boundaries, sources, review prompts and professional sign-off. |
| AML/bookkeeping boundary | High | Managed clean-up may be regulated accountancy activity. | Self-service MVP; supervised partners; obtain specialist advice before staff handling. |
| Low willingness to pay | High | Cheap spreadsheets anchor price expectations. | Paid pilot; sell saved time, evidence and accountant handoff rather than “tracking”. |
| Messy stock-cost evidence | High | Platform data cannot establish cost or personal ownership. | Evidence queue, assumptions register and explicit unresolved items. |
| Customer acquisition | Medium-high | Sellers are fragmented and seasonal. | Accountant partners, platform-specific content, HMRC-letter/MTD triggers, communities. |
| Local-first support burden | Medium | Desktop updates, backups and device changes can complicate support. | Signed updates, diagnostics export, simple backup and documented recovery. |
| Scope creep into accounting suite | High | Inventory, VAT, filing and bank feeds can overwhelm a small team. | One bounded job: explain marketplace activity and produce reviewable records. |
Assumptions to validate before development
Customer interviews
- 15 serious resellers across eBay/Vinted/Depop
- 10 handmade sellers across Etsy/Shopify/TikTok Shop
- 8 ecommerce or side-hustle accountants/bookkeepers
- 5 sellers who received an HMRC platform-income letter or have MTD concerns
File and workflow pilots
- At least 10 consented export sets covering a full payout cycle
- Three seller-operated early-access licences at £149, with the seller confirming every classification
- Two accountant batch pilots with at least five clients total, run under the practice's supervision
- Compare Dweise output against accountant-prepared records
Seller-operated early access
The seller buys a £149 early-access licence and operates the tooling themselves. Dweise may watch a session, answer product questions and fix defects. The seller makes every classification decision and confirms every output. Dweise never opens the files and works on them independently.
This keeps Dweise on the software side of the boundary described in section 08.
Supervised practice pilot
The work runs under an accountancy or bookkeeping practice that already holds supervision and accepts responsibility for the client relationship in writing. Dweise supplies the tooling and support; the practice applies professional judgement and signs off.
The engagement letter must state who the client is, who supervises, and who is responsible for the output.
Pass/fail validation gates
| Metric | Pass gate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Paid demand | 3 sellers pay full pilot price or 2 practices commit real clients | Interest without payment is weak evidence. |
| Automatic normalisation | ≥80% of lines mapped without manual restructuring | Below this, support and margins deteriorate. |
| Reconciliation | ≥95% of payout value explained, with the remainder clearly flagged | Trust depends on explainable gross-to-net movement. |
| Evidence chasing | <15% of transactions need seller follow-up | Too much chasing turns software into a service business. |
| Time saved | ≥50% reduction against seller/accountant current process | Supports pricing and retention. |
| Accountant usefulness | 4/5 average rating and willingness to reuse | Tests the distribution and trust hypothesis. |
| Regulatory position | Written professional advice supports MVP boundary and claims | Required before public launch. |
Go, validate further or avoid
Seller-operated paid pilot
Sell a £149 early-access licence. Real exports, canonical mapping, exception review and accountant-ready output, with the seller confirming every classification.
Accountant partner discovery
Find practices with painful Vinted and eBay client clean-up, and test the batch workflow under their supervision.
Week-one second-platform test
Run the Vinted file test before any build commitment. Etsy is the pre-decided fallback if it fails, per section 11.
Licence pricing
£149 first year and £99 to £149 renewal are working assumptions. Confirm against measured time saved, not against spreadsheet prices.
Managed bookkeeping
Do not offer Dweise staff clean-up before AML and accountancy supervision is resolved. The pilot is a licence, not a service.
MTD filing and tax advice
Postpone recognised software, agent submissions, VAT logic and personalised advice.
One strongest overall recommendation
Selected source base
Official sources were prioritised for tax, platform reporting and data access. Commercial sources are used for competitor features and pricing context. Pricing and platform policies should be rechecked immediately before launch.