Another holiday sales season has arrived, and you're feeling its severity. Perhaps a dip was caused by a decrease in income, more significant downtime, and the discovery of a new problem that is too expensive to fix. Now, there must be a fresh board meeting to re-platform the company.
So, how can you choose the most effective eCommerce RFP
platform and the most trustworthy business partner? It is essential to have an
RFP for e-commerce services. Consider a detailed questionnaire that will assist
you in selecting the best e-commerce platform conversion partner for your
needs.
Understand the RFP angle
A request for proposals (RFP) serves two purposes for your e-commerce site:
·
To offer you with the finest service, SaaS suppliers need to understand
your company's goals and objectives.
· An RFI (Request for Information) differs from a B2B e-commerce RFP, which requires comprehensive information about an agency and its operations before the RFP process can be completed. RFPs and e-commerce website specs, which are generated after an agency has been chosen and the features you want to see on the final site, differ significantly.
Use an e-commerce Website RFP to establish your project's
business-critical requirements and evaluate the vendor's ability to meet them.
In the RFP, you should include questions and requirements that are
particular to your project's goals. However open you are to vendor proposals,
your RFP should clearly define the strategy and objectives of your firm.
Proposals can be
submitted in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP)
The RFP approach
Every RFP process includes the processes of project planning, drafting, issue, and evaluation. Here are a few things you can do to obtain an excellent e-commerce RFP and put it to use.
The process of re-platforming begins with a fundamental question: Why?
Before you start looking for e-commerce platform providers, find out why you need to re-platform in the first place. The answers to these questions will determine the goals and objectives of your project. Make a list of everything that's wrong with your project. Consider all of the lost profits, downtimes, and poor customer experiences as proof of e-commerce re-platforming.
Talking to your peers about your objectives and areas for growth may be a great way to get your bearings in the workplace. Begin by describing your current scenario to yourself.
Set your objectives
You should be able to see where the re-platforming process is taking
you.. Alternatively, is it possible to enhance e-commerce software in order to
boost revenue? To enhance the performance and user experience of the site?
Create a minimum of four goals, each with three targets, and then rank them in
significance. Your RFP questions will be more effective if you employ a
targeted strategy.
The integrations and functionality of your website should be documented
Visit your IT department to find out what your e-store is integrated
with and what additional systems you wish to link. This will help ensure the
success of your re-platforming. After making a transfer to a new platform,
think about the third-party systems you want to keep and expand.
Identify the needs of your customers and users
The demands of your workers and your intended audience should already be known to you if you run an online business of any kind. Make a list of possible upgrades that may be implemented throughout the re-platforming process, such as a new CRM for your marketing team or a new tax system for your accountant.Keep these questions in mind while speaking with potential customers:
·
What they make a living doing.
·
The variety of ways and reasons they utilize your service.
· What changes they would recommend.
You may even run a little poll to get their opinions and suggestions.
Produce an RFP
Using the information gathered in the previous phases, compile a list of all the questions you intend to ask software suppliers. Start with the most general query you can think of about a company and work your way down to more detailed inquiries about their requirements.
If you want, you may use an RFP e-commerce tool or an Excel document to
create an RFP template. Companies are more likely to respond quickly in this
manner, and you'll have a comparable spreadsheet at your disposal.
Include the development of a timetable and criteria for evaluation
Setting a deadline for your RFP process can help you stay on top of things. As part of your B2B RFP, set a deadline for agencies to submit their RFPs and the length of the negotiation process when a successful bidder is selected.
It's also a good idea to set up RFP evaluation criteria. In order to determine a student's score, below are some examples:
·
Do you know what the most essential things are?
·
Is there a point at which we're ready to sacrifice security in order to
speed up deployment?
·
Is cost a factor in the decision-making process essential?
· In order to make the selecting process transparent and clear, an agenda and grading table are required.
Moreover, they will prevent you from building a project piecemeal and
will assist you in staying focused on the project's objectives.
Make sure you're working with the right vendor: Begin the process of soliciting proposals by putting together an RFP
Consider all of your options when it comes to using e-commerce. RFPs
should be avoided since you'll be inundated with submissions. Alternatively,
you may conduct some research and prepare a list of potential possibilities
that you can then compare to their replies. Your project's name and
specifications, as well as the submission date and key questions for an agency,
are all included in the RFP.
Analysis of reactions
The most crucial element of the RFP process is response evaluation.
Before delegating the project's funding and obligations to a third party, every
answer in the survey is analyzed against the goals, timetable, and criteria set
in the previous phases. Narrow the field to two or three candidates using the
RFP responses as a reference.
Decide for your organization
A face-to-face interview may take place during the second round of
talks. Any questions you may have concerning your e-commerce website RFP may be
answered by them and, if necessary, they may be able to provide a demo. Once
the price and details of the deal have been agreed upon, make a final choice.
Consider frequently Asked Questions for an RFP e-commerce template
An RFP for B2B e-commerce projects should also contain a list of
questions to ask an e-commerce platform supplier. To keep track of everything,
use a spreadsheet or a Word document. You may wish to construct a separate
scoring column for RFP e-commerce platform suppliers to examine the replies as
you move through them.
A word of caution: Although the answers to the questions below are general, they may differ from one business to the next.
Frequently asked questions to send vendors:
·
Is your business a sole proprietorship or a corporation?
·
Describe your company's products and services in detail.
·
In the event that you've worked with clients in our industry, we'd want
to hear from you about it.
·
Which of your workers would be allocated to our project?
·
What distinguishes you from your competitors?
·
Website design and development on the front end
·
It would be great if we could get some help from front-end developers or
user experience specialists.
·
Does the current design of our website allow you to make just minor/no
modifications to it?
·
Storefront design and layout options are available through your
e-commerce platform.
·
Using any theme from our collection will allow you to test out our
products without needing to buy them.
·
Mobile-friendly design is a need.
·
How do you handle code alterations before they are published in a local
development environment?
·
Are additions of programs and plug-ins possible?
·
Do you need to use a third-party system to integrate the CMS into the
solution?
·
Whether or if your e-commerce platform is multilingual is a question we
need to answer.
·
In a local development environment, can you then alter the design in the
browser?
·
What about dedicated servers, IT, and more?
·
Is it going to be on-premises, in the cloud, or through a third party?
·
How are the server's IT components' performance and capacity measured?
·
Do you know the maximum number of concurrent users that may visit a
single server?
·
It's vital to know how to keep track of the program's uptime and
performance.
·
If the number of users and transactions on your platform grows, how will
you handle it?
·
Ideally, your uptime data would be visible. During the recent holiday
season, Black Friday, and summer sales, what kind of uptime was there?
·
Updating and performing repairs might take a considerable amount of
time.
·
Do you offer these services on a regular basis?
·
What happens if the number of users and API requests spikes?
·
A typical client uses an average of how many different types of servers
when implementing new features?