On MarbleMap, offers are collected under a sealed-bid process. This page explains who sees what around a demand, and which details a company profile shares and which it keeps private.
The core principle
The rule you also see on the demand screen is this: Bids are sealed — competitor offers and counts are hidden.
In practice, every supplier prepares its own offer independently of the others. The buyer sees all offers together; suppliers see only their own.
What the buyer sees
On a demand you opened yourself (the demand detail under My Demands):
- The Offers tab lists every offer received on the demand; you can narrow the field down and compare the ones you move to a shortlist (max 6 offers per shortlist) side by side.
- In the Messages tab you run a separate conversation with each supplier. Suppliers cannot enter one another's conversations.
- From the offer list, click the name of the bidding company to open that company's profile.
The My private note field on an offer row belongs to you alone; as the on-screen hint states, "Only you can see this — never shown to the supplier".
What the supplier does not see
When you open a demand from Marketplace, you see the demand itself, its product lines, the delivery details and the offer deadline. What you do not see is the following:
- How many offers the demand has received
- Which companies have submitted offers
- Competing offers' prices, line items, delivery terms (Incoterm) and lead times
- Where your own offer ranks
- Correspondence between competitors and the buyer — not even whether such correspondence exists
That last point is deliberate: when you ask for a conversation that does not belong to you, the system does not say "you are not authorised" — it says "not found" outright. That way you cannot work out indirectly whether a competitor has engaged with the demand.
What happens in a split award
Instead of awarding a demand to a single supplier, a buyer may split the lines across several suppliers. In that case only your own share is shown to you: the lines assigned to you and the value of that share. The other winning companies, the lines that went to them and their amounts remain hidden. Your Approve or Decline decision is applied only to your own slice; it does not change the other winners' lines or amounts.
The buyer's identity is open to suppliers
Sealing applies to the offer side, not to the demand owner. While reviewing a demand on the marketplace you see the buying company's name, and you can click the company name to open the buyer's company profile. This lets you decide with full knowledge of who you are quoting.
"Why can't I see competitors' prices?"
You cannot, because we do not show them. This is not a fault; it is a founding rule of the platform. If everyone could see a competitor's price, offers would reflect undercutting by a notch rather than real cost. The sealed-bid process encourages you to put your best offer forward the first time.
"I can't find the conversation I'm looking for"
If you cannot find a conversation, it most likely does not belong to you. Every conversation is established between one demand and one supplier company. As a supplier you see only your own conversation; as a buyer you have a separate conversation with each supplier, and they are not gathered into a single list — you need to select the relevant supplier inside Messages.
What is open to everyone on a company profile
A company profile is visible only to users signed in to MarbleMap. The details open to the other party are:
- Company name, country and region
- The description in the About section
- Logo and cover image
- Selected stone categories (What they supply / What they source)
- Languages
- Capability tags
- Verification status (Verified business, Verification pending or Not verified)
- Masked VAT number (only the final digits are visible)
- The number of certificates on file
- Portfolio gallery images
- Year founded, employee count and the Main contact role
What a company profile does not share
The following is never shown to the other party:
- Phone number
- The full VAT number (only the masked form is visible)
- The contact person's name
- The certificate files themselves (only how many there are is visible)
- A website whose visibility is set to Connections only
Email addresses are never shared under any circumstances — neither on the profile nor on any other screen.
How contact is made
The only way to reach the other party is the Messages section on the relevant demand. Harvesting a phone number or email address from a profile and taking the conversation off-platform is not possible. This keeps the correspondence on the demand's record and keeps the sealed-bid arrangement intact.