A Bid Request is a process in Unimarket whereby a Buyer creates a request stipulating goods/services they would like pricing and/or information on and sends the request to one or more suppliers. This process is a way for the customer to receive information from their suppliers that can then be reviewed and evaluated. Learn how Bid Requests work within Unimarket including how you can view and respond.
Before suppliers can respond to a bid request, they must Join and Accept the bid invitation.
First, by accepting the bid invitation via the link provided by their customer:
Review the Bid Request, by clicking on the Summary and Sections tabs. Once the supplier is ready to participate, click Join to initiate the supplier registration process.
To participate on any Unimarket bid, your company may need to be registered in Unimarket by creating a new profile with a username and password.
Select Already Registered? Login in the top right corner > Enter email address and password, associated with the Unimarket profile. Once completed, the new customer name will be displayed on Your Profile screen under Customers header.
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Note: For additional information about linking a new customer, refer to help article Linking A New Customer To An Existing Profile. |
Once you are ready to accept the RFQ, follow the below steps under header titled Accepting RFQ.
To register/create a new supplier profile, insert information in all required fields marked with a red asterisk details > check "I'm not a robot" box and > click Sign Up.
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Note: For additional information about registering as a new supplier, refer to help article Registering As A New Supplier In Unimarket. |
Once you are ready to accept the RFQ, follow the below steps under header titled Accepting RFQ.
| Note: If you need to set up additional users for your account see Create & Manage Users. For additional information about responding to a bid, refer to Bid Requests help articles. |
When suppliers are ready to respond to a bid, click Quotes on the left side panel > click View Bid Requests > select the desired bid > Click Create Quote or Decline in the top right corner.
By selecting Create Quote the step-by-step bid response process will begin.
At any time, suppliers can save response in progress, by clicking Save at the bottom of any tab.
The customer will not be able to view your quote until published by selecting Publish on the Publish tab.
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Note: For additional information about responding to a RFQ, refer to help articles below: |
The first tab of the bid request on the Create Quote screen, is the Overview tab.
The Overview tab provides a brief explanation of the bid request and important information about responding to the bid request.
Once the supplier is satisfied, select Continue at the bottom of the page (or select tabs) to begin.
At any time, suppliers can save response in progress, by clicking Save at the bottom of any tab.
The customer will not be able to view your quote until published by selecting Publish on the Publish tab.
On the Quote tab, key details of the quote will be auto-filled. If any of the information requires updating, the supplier can make edits.
This is an opportunity to enter an internal quote reference, in the Quote Reference field. The Expiry Date should default to six months into the future. Please ensure the quote does not expire within a month or less than the award date. Add any relevant attachments in the Attachments field by selecting Browse.
| Note: Suppliers may add the attachments on the Quote tab. However, it is possible the customer may have request documents to be stored on the Sections tab. |
Once completed, select Continue at the bottom of the page (or select tabs) to proceed forward.
At any time, suppliers can save response in progress, by clicking Save at the bottom of any tab.
The customer will not be able to view your quote until published by selecting Publish on the Publish tab.
The Sections tab is separated by Item for products and Questions for any questions required by the customer.
The customer may have listed:
Manually Enter Pricing/Question Response
To manually key information, select the encircled "i" to the right of line > click on +Add Quote to add pricing or Edit to edit product, or answer the question > select OK.
Once you have answered each line and you are ready to continue, click Continue.
At any time, suppliers can save response in progress, by clicking Save at the bottom of any tab.
The customer will not be able to view your quote until published by selecting Publish on the Publish tab.
Once the supplier is ready to submit the bid response to the customer, click Finish on the bottom right.
To amend any entered data before publishing, click Back or select the relevant tab.
If the supplier is not ready to publish the bid response, click Save at the bottom of the screen for a later return.
To review quotes submitted to customers, go to Quotes on the left side panel > select View Bid Requests.
Suppliers can customize the search by using the Customer field, Buyer, Created Date From and/or Created Date To fields. Once the desired quote is located, select the desired quote name.
Once completed, the desired quote screen will appear to review information on the Bid Request tab. Additionally, suppliers can view information on the Messages, Quote, Attachments (if attachment were included by the buyer) and/or Sections tabs. You will also be able to view your quote submission and any attachments was included at the time of submission.
Suppliers are able to edit your quote up until the response date or until the buyer checks out your submitted quote (whichever occurs first).
To edit quotes submitted to customers, go to Quotes on the left side panel > select View Bid Requests.
Suppliers can customize the search by using the Customer field, Buyer, Created Date From and/or Created Date To fields. Once the desired quote is located, select the desired quote name.
The desired quote screen will appear > select More Actions > click Edit Quote.
Once the update is completed, select Finish.
Supplier can withdraw the quote at any time, up until the due date/time of the bid.
To withdraw the bid, select Quotes on the left panel > click View Bid Requests.
The Bid Requests screen will populate to select desired bid under column Bid Request Name.
The desired bid screen will appear to select More Actions and click Withdraw Quote.
Insert the reason for withdrawal and > once completed, click OK.
Suppliers can check to confirm that the bid was successfully submitted to the customer.
To confirm, select Quotes on the left panel > click View Bid Requests.
The Bid Requests screen will populate to select desired bid under column Bid Request Name.
The desired bid screen will appear, to view the Published Date the bid was sent to the customer along with all information submitted.
Many Bid Requests will include a Questions due date. This is the requested due date, the customer would like all questions (related to the submitted bid) answered. Unless otherwise specified, all questions should be submitted the customer via Unimarket supplier profile.
The messages between supplier and customer are private. Meaning only the supplier and the collaborating customers can view them. The supplier's bidding competitors can not view your questions and the supplier cannot read the competitors.
Select Quotes on the left panel > click View Bid Requests.
The Bid Requests screen will populate to select desired bid under column Bid Request Name.
The desired bid screen will appear > select Messages tab > click +Add Comment to add a new message or question (there is a 2,000 character limit including spaces) and > click Send.
The Filter option allows suppliers to choose the following, by selecting the dropdown in Filter By field:
For additional information regarding Bid Request, refer to help articles below:
Bid Request - Joining and Accepting
Bid Request - Review, Edit, and/or Withdraw Quote
Bid Request - Confirming Bid Has Been Submitted
Uploading Bid Request Pricing/Question Responses (CSV File)
In addition to Unimarket allowing suppliers to manually key in pricing information and responses to questions on a bid request, they can also upload pricing and responses via a CSV file.
To upload Pricing, select Quotes on the left panel > click View Bid Requests.
The Bid Requests screen will populate to select desired bid under column Bid Request Name.
The desired bid screen will appear > click Sections tab > select Upload Pricing > the Upload Pricing pop-up box will appear to click Export Items to download a CSV file with all of the items needing to be entered on this Bid Request.
At any time, suppliers can save response in progress, by clicking Save at the bottom of any tab.
The customer will not be able to view your quote until published by selecting Publish on the Publish tab.
To upload Question Responses, select Quotes on the left panel > click View Bid Requests.
The Bid Requests screen will populate to select desired bid under column Bid Request Name.
The desired bid screen will appear > click Sections tab > select Upload Question Responses > the Upload Question Responses pop-up box will appear to click Export Questions to download a CSV file with all of the items needing to be entered on this Bid Request.
At any time, suppliers can save response in progress, by clicking Save at the bottom of any tab.
The customer will not be able to view your quote until published by selecting Publish on the Publish tab.
The following table explains the categories in the Pricing Upload template:
| Column | Description | Mandatory? |
| Section | This explains which section the product belongs to in the quote. The Section will be automatically populated for you. | Y |
| Line | This explains which line the product appears as in its section. The Line will be automatically populated for you. | Y |
| Requirement | This will be the name or description of the quoted product or service. The Requirement will be automatically populated for you. | Y |
| Delivery Date | The date the product will be delivered to the customer. | N |
| Allow Substitute | Whether or not the customer will allow a substitute product in the place of the described product. | Y |
| Base Required | Whether or not the customer demands you quote the original product when supplying a substitute. | Y |
| Type | Used to describe whether the product is a base product or a substitute. Use SUB or BASE in this field. All substitute files must be in the line directly below their base product. | Y |
| Name | Name of the product. | Y |
| Description | A short description of the product. | Y |
| Quantity | How many of the product you will be supplying. | Y |
| UOM | Unit of Measure. (i.e. EA = each) | Y |
| Unit Price | The price you will supply the product for. | Y |
| Note | Any additional notes you would like to include. | N |
| Manufacturer Part ID | Any necessary part IDs from the manufacturer. A part number or SKU will often go here. | N |
| Category Code | The UNSPSC code category for that product. | N |
| Image File | URL for your image or file extension is attached to upload in the zip file. | N |