Buyer Completes the RFQ Form
The RFQ button can be found on the main site header.
Guest Buyer
If the Buyer is a guest i.e. not logged in, it looks like this:
The form has one option for Invited RFQ which is Invited (Anyone). This means the Buyer can invite up to 5 Sellers from the platform to respond to the RFQ.
Registered Buyer
Whereas if the Buyer is a logged in as a registered user it will look like this:
The form has two options for Invited RFQ which is Invited (Anyone) and Invited (Favourites). Invited (Anyone) means the Buyer can invite up to 5 Sellers from the platform to respond to the RFQ. Invited (Favourites) means the buyer can invite up to 5 Sellers from their Favourites only.
Tip: If you have a panel or approved vendors you can save them to favourites to make sure your organisation uses the right Sellers.
Form Options
The Buyer can select if they want to start an RFQ for a Physical product, a Digital product or a Service. They can then start typing what they are looking for. They may get a match with something already on watersorted, or as is more likely, this will be for something not on the platform.
The Buyer must also select the payment gateway. The two options available are Stripe Connect and Bank Transfer.
Warning: Only sellers on our paid subscription plans can accept the Bank Transfer payment gateway.
Request For Quote Page on Buyer Dashboard
The RFQ can also be found on the Buyer Dashboard, under Orders/Request for quotes.
Sellers Receives RFQ
The invited sellers will get an email notification telling them an RFQ has been assigned. It will include the nominated payment gateway.
The RFQ details can be found on the Seller Dashboard/Sales/Request for quotes. A counter will show the number of RFQs that have not been responded to.
Note: Invited RFQ can be found under Sales/Request for quotes menu item since they are already assigned to Sellers. Open RFQ can be found under the Global request for quote menu item.
There are two action buttons. The eye icon allows the seller to see summary data on the RFQ.
Clicking on the list icon opens the RFQ response page. There are two key action buttons. The first is Respond. Clicking on respond opens up the RFQ offer form. The second is the Link Inventory button. In order to complete the RFQ process the Seller must either link to an existing inventory item or add the new required item to their inventory. This can be done now or after an offer has been accepted by a Buyer but it is required to complete the transaction.
The RFQ offer form has some mandatory fields (marked by red *) and some optional fields that can be completed. The offer quantity cannot be changed since this was set by the buyer. The seller has the option to overwrite the system shipping charges and add a custom shipping charge for this RFQ.
The Seller can also select whether or not the buyer is able to negotiate and counter offer.
The Seller can also add a file in the response.
Note: The offer cost price per field does not get seen by the buyer. It is viewed by the seller only and is am option if the Seller wishes to track cost price.
Once the Save button is pressed the offer is submitted to the buyer and the offer record is now shown on the offers page of the RFQ. At this point the seller can add further attachment(s) and/or message the buyer. The seller can also Edit the offer (since the buyer has not accepted the offer) or respond again. If the seller chooses to respond again they must offer a different number of items to make is a fresh offer. If the seller did not select custom shipping they can check the Shipping Rates that will be applied.
Warning: Each time a Seller responds to an RFQ it counts as an RFQ response. You need to have sufficient allowance in your subscription plan to be able to respond. If you have already used your monthly limit you will not be able to respond until the limit resets at the beginning of a new month. Alternatively, you can upgrade your subscription.
Buyer Receives Offer
The buyer receives an email notification saying that an offer has been made.
The buyer can also view the offer via the Buyer Dashboard/Orders/Request for quotes. This shows the details of the offer(s) and the buyer can view any attachments and/or messages.
In the example below one of the Sellers allowed the Buyer to negotiate and therefore a Reply option (Counter offer) is available on their offer, whereas and the other did not and thus there is no Reply option.
If the Buyer accepts one of the offers then a Buy now button will appear but it will not be available to click since the Seller has to also accept the offer.
Seller Receives Acceptance
The selected Seller will receive an email notification that their RFQ offer was accepted by the buyer. The other Sellers will receive an email notification saying that the Buyer has accepted a quote from another Seller.
On the offer page of the Seller Dashboard the Seller can approve the offer. However if the inventory is not yet linked the offer cannot be approved.
Clicking on the Link Inventory button opens a pop up form where the Seller can either match an item already in their inventory or they can add inventory (this requires adding a new product and then adding the inventory). Once this has been completed the Seller can accept the offer.
Buyer Completes Purchase
The buyer will receive an email notification that the Seller has confirmed the offer.
The Buy Now button is now active on the Buyers offer page. Clicking on this takes the Buyer to the checkout which will only have the Buyer nominated payment gateway available.
When the Buyer completes the transaction the RFQ becomes a placed order with the Seller. Order can be tracked on both the Seller and Buyer dashboards.