Searching for a logistics service to support your eCommerce brand is a high-stakes situation. You need a 4PL or 3PL provider with demonstrated expertise in pricing, quality standards, and operational best practices, as well as a deep understanding of the logistics and warehousing industry.

The hunt for this ideal partner can sometimes feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but it’s easier with a request for proposal (RFP). Knowing he RFP process steps can help you identify the best option for a diverse suite of services, whether you need support for DTC fulfillment, omnichannel prep, B2B retail replenishment, or something else.

To find your brand’s suitable match though, you need to know how to run an RFP process — the right way.

What is an RFP?

An RFP is a questionnaire-style document that brands and merchants send to potential vendors to prepare to buy a product or service. It allows you to gather a wealth of vendor data in a standardized manner for easy comparison so you can make the best decision to fulfill your business’s unique needs and goals.

Running a formalized RFP process helps ensure you receive higher-quality bids with more innovative proposals, which ultimately translates to improved outcomes and maximized ROI. It also puts you in a position to boost your bargaining power, as you can better negotiate with potential vendors when you have a breadth of competitive information to arm yourself.

The crucial role of RFPs in logistics

For brands seeking 3PLs and 4PLs specifically, an RFP is fundamental to the decision-making process because it:

• Provides clarity: With a formal process leading your search and negotiations, you can make your requirements clear to prospective vendors from the get-go. This ensures you’re both aligned on goals, scope of work, etc., so you prevent misunderstandings down the line.
• Helps optimize costs: Reviewing multiple proposals at once makes it easier to understand the market at large, compare prices, and see where and how you can optimize costs.
• Mitigates risks: The RFP process gives you a comprehensive look at a variety of potential partners. It’s your chance to assess their operations, industry certifications, finances, track record, etc. With that level of scrutiny, you can avoid unwelcome surprises and minimize the risk of ending up with a bad partner.

What do good RFP process steps look like?

If you rush through the RFP process steps and try to cut corners, you’ll find yourself with an incomplete, insufficiently researched document that doesn’t adequately address your brand’s needs. A poorly written RFP will yield poorly written vendor responses, causing you to waste time and resources going back and forth in unnecessary rounds of questioning.

Meanwhile, a thorough RFP process is organized, well thought out, and strategic. Your RFP process should:

• Include a comprehensive list of your brand’s project objectives and requirements
• Encompass the diverse needs of all internal stakeholders
• Consider more than cost in the evaluation process

That detailed nature also makes it a lengthy and complex undertaking. To stay on track, it helps to view the process as the beginning of a prosperous partnership for both you and your vendor. This will guide you to meet short-term objectives on the path to fulfilling your long-term goals.

When should you run an RFP process?

Running a request for proposal helps brands make informed buying decisions, but it’s not necessary for every purchase.

Considering the length and intensity of the process, it makes sense to reserve it for large purchases that’ll kick off a long-term relationship with a vendor that’s critical for your business operations (e.g., Amazon FBA prep, eCommerce fulfillment, or logistics services).

For many companies, there’s a monetary threshold to cross to determine if running an RFP is necessary.

11 RFP process steps to follow

The RFP process can be cumbersome, but you shouldn’t rush through it. After all, with the right 3PL or 4PL provider, you can optimize your eCommerce logistics for the long term so you’re able to adapt and scale smoothly as the industry evolves.

The stakes are high, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. The process has a clear blueprint to follow that’ll connect you with the best partner for FBA prep services. Those 11 RFP process steps can be segmented into three overarching phases: preparation, evaluation, and action.

Phase I: Preparation

• Identify key stakeholders
• Conduct research
• Define the scope and specifications
• Determine evaluation criteria and processes
• Write the RFP document
• Select potential vendors

Phase II: Evaluation

• Distribute the RFP and provide support
• Evaluate responses

Phase III: Action

• Negotiate and implement the contract
• Notify unsuccessful vendors
• Debrief your team

1. Identify key stakeholders

Successful RFP processes require working with a cross-functional team. Begin by determining which groups will be affected by the choice of vendor. Bring in people from all departments as well to enrich the process by adding their diverse perspectives, experiences, and needs. In some cases, you may even choose to invite outside SMEs and consultants for further analysis.

Organize stakeholder interviews

Interview each concerned group individually so you can understand their unique pain points and needs. These groups will convene later on, but approaching them one-on-one first gives everyone the chance to voice their roles and requests clearly.

2. Conduct research

Next, you’ll need to carry out an internal audit. This entails gathering information about your company, including the state of operations, current paint points, goals, and problems that need to be solved, like managing DTC prep for cold storage items, for example.

You should already collect that information in your stakeholder interviews, but be sure to focus on the hard data too. Including accurate, detailed data in your RFP process will help you acquire stronger answers later from your potential vendors.

That being said, while data-driven action is important, there’s no point in referencing information just for the sake of it. Instead, consider what data actually reflects the problems you’re trying to solve. To continue the above example, that might be analyzing temperature fluctuations during shipment.

Perform market research

Besides assessing what’s happening internally, remember to look outwards to compare your brand to the greater market. You may consider:

• Industry trends and best practices
• Analysis of the vendor landscape
• Current technological capabilities
• Regulations and compliance requirements
• Sustainability practices

3. Define the scope and specifications

After conducting interviews and gathering research data from diverse sources and groups, bring it all together to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

Naturally, internal teams will have different perspectives, but you can’t start writing the RFP until everyone is aligned on overarching goals and desired outcomes. When working across different departments, this sometimes requires compromises.

Schedule an internal meeting that includes all relevant stakeholders. Together, you must agree upon:

• Specific goals and objectives
• Minimum requirements
• Budget
• Timeline
• Evaluation criteria

Establish KPIs to define success for your RFP process steps

Now is also the time to decide how you’ll determine whether or not you’ve achieved your goals. This is sometimes easier said than done, as it can be hard to identify the right KPIs to track (again, you shouldn’t measure data just for the sake of it).

To pinpoint the information that’s most important for your brand, try thinking in reverse. Consider the problems you want to solve, then work backwards to determine the data that points to them. For example, if one of your goals is to optimize shipping for increased speed, pay attention to average delivery time, delivery time variance, etc.

4. Determine evaluation criteria and processes

As you prepare to craft the RFP process steps document, you also need to decide how you’ll evaluate potential vendors’ responses. The rating system should be a collaborative process, so, once again, bring together diverse teams from each procurement department so everyone can contribute and share what’s most important to them.

When grading RFP responses, you should strive to be as objective as possible, so it helps to quantify your questions. This keeps the evaluation process transparent and fair.

Naturally, yes-no questions are easier to quantify, as are questions that call for a numerical response. For more qualitative queries, you can turn them into multiple-choice questions and assign each answer a numerical value for easier scoring. Be sure to determine how you’ll score any open-ended questions you want to include as well.

5. Write the RFP document

It’s finally time to write the document. There will be many details to cover, but you shouldn’t lose sight of the big picture. In a nutshell, your RFP should describe:

• Who you are
• What you need
• Your key requirements

Here’s a list of the different parts to include in your RFP document:

1. Executive summary
2. Project goals and objectives
3. Scope of work
4. Minimum requirements
5. Questions
6. Terms and conditions
7. Pricing
8. Deadlines
9. Submission process
10. Evaluation criteria

Executive summary

• Introduce your company: Give background information on your team and brand mission.
• Provide context: Explain why you’re issuing the RFP and what you want to achieve with it.

Project goals and objectives

• State your high-level goals: Think big picture. For instance, maybe your brand wants to streamline supply chain processes to reduce delivery times, improve inventory management accuracy, or enhance customer service.
• List specific, measurable objectives: Elaborate on your high-level goals with specific targets you want to hit (e.g., implement a new warehouse management system within six months to improve inventory accuracy by 80%, or increase your on-time delivery rate by 10% over the next 18 months).

Scope of work

Outline exactly what needs to be done. List all of the required work, including specific tasks and deliverables. The scope of work should also detail high-level information about your budget and project timeline, like key milestones and deadlines.

Above all, it’s important the RFP process includes all the relevant data potential vendors need to know to evaluate your business and craft a detailed offering. Without access to this data, vendors won’t be able to tailor solutions to your business’s unique situation, and you’ll end up with wildly varying responses.

For example, suppose the scope of work in your RFP includes DTC shipping and an SLA of same-day order shipment after 1:00 PM. If you expect 1,000 orders a day, a vendor may propose a solution operating out of one centralized warehouse, along with multiple clients. But if you expect 10,000 orders a day, they may propose a solution with dedicated space, across multiple warehouse locations, and/or with a more robust staffing plan. And all of this could be dependent on where your customers are and what they order, for example, so to provide an informed proposal, partners would need detailed order history for a period of time to reflect customer distribution, product and basket mix, seasonal trends, and more.

As you can see, data makes a difference.

In order to receive detailed, curated responses that are tailored to your operations, you must include specific data points in your RFP process. Depending on your scope of work, this data may include information like:

• Number of orders each month
• Average units per order
• Forecasts for the next X months
• Shipped order records for the past Y months
• Average number of units on hand
• And much more

Minimum requirements

These are your brand’s deal-breakers. Before you get into the heart of the RFP document, where you’ll scrutinize each potential vendor intensely, this section will allow you to immediately disqualify those who don’t meet your mandatory requirements.

Alternatively, some brands opt to issue an RFI prior to the RFP.  An RFI (request for information) is basically a shorter, less rigorous version of an RFP. You can send one before starting the RFP process to cut any vendors that fall short of your minimum requirements so you don’t have to waste your time or theirs engaging them in the longer RFP process.

Questions

Here’s where you’ll elaborate on your above-listed needs and requirements by translating them into questions for potential vendors to answer.

Yes-or-no and close-ended questions help you remain objective during the evaluation process and make it easier to quickly eliminate vendors that aren’t the right fit. Still, you’ll need to include some open-ended questions to give potential providers room to propose innovative solutions.

Remember, the goal of your RFP is to identify the ideal logistics service for your brand, so ask questions that cover information on aspects like:

• Company information

• • Who is the vendor?
  • What is their business history?
  • How big is the company?
  • Who is on their team?
  • What are their team’s qualifications and experience?
  • How high is staff turnover?
  • What kind of strategic partnerships do they have in place?

• Fulfillment networks

• • How big is their fulfillment network?
  • What is their geographical coverage area (e.g., inbound, B2B, and DTC)?
  • How do they optimize inventory allocation in their network to minimize transit time and costs?

• Order management and inventory fulfillment

• • What are their order management procedures?
  • What order management system do they use?
  • What is their Amazon fulfillment process?
  • How do they optimize their network?
  • What volume and frequency can they handle?
  • What initiatives, if any, do they have in place for environmentally sustainable practices?

• Shipping and transportation

• • What carriers and shippers do they work with?
  • What are their carriers’ shipping times and speeds?
  • What are their international shipping capabilities?

• Resources and capabilities

• • What is the size of their location?
  • How many physical locations do they have?
  • What is their capacity to scale?
  • What technology stacks do they use?
  • Are they compatible with your existing systems?

• Industry experience

• • What is their approach to relationship management?
  • What level of account management can you expect from them?
  • How many other similar-sized accounts do they have?
  • What differentiates them from their competitors?
  • What is their approach to risk management?
  • Are they willing to share examples of related projects they’ve completed?
  • What expertise do they have in compliance and quality control?
  • Do they have any accreditations, memberships, certifications, or awards?

• SLA performance

• • How will they measure success and your satisfaction with their work?
  • What are their SLAs for metrics such as order turnaround, delivery time, inventory, accuracy, and responsiveness?
  • What kind of reporting and visibility do they provide?

• Financial information

• • Have they experienced any significant financial events recently?
  • Have they been involved in any recent mergers or acquisitions?
  • Are they involved in any ongoing legal proceedings?
  • Can they demonstrate their company’s financial stability?
  • Can they provide information about their insurance coverage?

• Billing and terms of agreement

• • Can they provide a holistic view of costs, including a full pricing breakdown, insurance, cancellation fees, etc.?
  • What liability protection do they provide?
  • What are their contract terms and termination clauses?
• Customer successes
  • Can they provide case studies and reviews from clients with similar needs?
  • What is their customer service protocol?
  • Can they show testimonials from real-world examples of their services?
  • Can they share contact information for a list of references?

Terms and conditions

Leave space in the RFP document to list any confidentiality requirements your brand may have, as well as disclaimers like the right to reject any proposals. You can also outline important terms and conditions that’ll be a part of the final contract, such as the duration of the contract and noteworthy billing information.

Pricing

Provide a bid template for potential vendors to fill out. A standardized framework will make it easier for you to compare several bids later on.

Deadlines

This section should provide a timeline not of the ultimate project, but of the RFP process itself so potential vendors know what to expect. Include:

• Bid opening date
• Question due date (if you choose to include one)
• Deadline for submissions
• Deadline for second submissions (if you choose to run multiple rounds)
• When you’ll give notice to all vendors
• When you’ll select a vendor and begin final negotiations
• When the contract will start

Submission process

Carefully explain how potential vendors should submit their responses. If there’s a specific format you’d like them to use, outline it clearly so they know what to expect. You can even provide templates or an example to follow.

It’s vital you state explicit contact information and instructions about how potential vendors should get in touch with your brand to ask any follow-up questions. Include:

• A point of contact
• Specific email address(es) and phone number(s)
• Notes about preferred communication channels

Evaluation criteria

Lastly, you should inform all potential vendors how you’ll evaluate their proposals. Let them know what criteria you’ll use to score their responses. If you want to be very specific, you can even include information about how much weight each question will receive throughout the RFP document.

6. Select potential vendors

At this point, you choose who you’ll send the RFP to. If you already opted to send an RFI, that’ll make this decision easier, since you’ll already have a streamlined list of viable potential vendors. If not, conduct market research to build a list of qualified, experienced vendors that seem compatible with your brand’s mission and needs.

Tips for selecting vendors

• Conduct thorough market research: If you neglect research, you might miss out on some viable providers. As with any element of the RFP process, take your time.
• Limit the number of vendors: As with the number of questions, more isn’t always better. If you send too many RFPs and receive a mountain of responses, you’ll only have more work to do during the evaluation process. Conversely, sending too many RFPs can sometimes yield fewer responses; vendors may think the competition is too stiff and thus not bother sending a response at all.
• Don’t send too few RFPs either: Not everyone you contact will respond to your RFP, so if you fail to send enough documents, you risk shrinking your candidate pool to choose from.

7. Distribute the RFP and provide support

Finally, it’s time to send your RFP to your potential vendors. You can distribute your document through several channels, like email, a web-based portal, or specific RFP software. Some brands even print hard copies still and ship their RFPs through the mail.

Whichever medium you choose, make sure you clarify directions for vendors on how to respond and how to get in touch with your brand. It’s common for vendors to have follow-up questions, so elect a designated point of contact and prominently display their email and phone number(s) in the document. When providers do ask questions, send their answers to the entire list of candidates to ensure the process remains fair and everyone has access to the same information.

As the submission deadline approaches, you should give vendors a reminder so they submit their responses to you on time.

8. Evaluate responses

Once the submission deadline passes, you have to evaluate the collected responses. (You should have established the evaluation criteria before you sent out the RFP process steps documents.)

Here are the steps to follow for the RFP evaluation process:

• Gather all relevant stakeholders and experts: Bring together everyone who will participate in the scoring.
• Use your deal-breakers to cut unqualified vendors right away: These are the vendors who don’t meet your minimum requirements.
• Grade vendors based on predetermined criteria: Use the point system you created to help you score any open-ended questions.
• Create a shortlist of vendors: Rank vendors based on their differentiators, strengths, and weaknesses, to determine the top candidates.
• Request more information, if necessary: Reach out to the vendors on your shortlist for extra details to help you make your decision. Consider asking for demonstrations, meetings, interviews, presentations, etc. You may also issue them a formal second round of follow-up questions, if desired.
• Contact all references: Be diligent. Check all the reviews each potential vendor provides, read their case studies, and contact their references. This is your chance to gather concrete evidence of their reliability, responsiveness, and customer satisfaction.
• Analyze your shortlist: Be picky to whittle down your shortlist. To help you compare the final candidates, you can build an evaluation matrix, create a SWOT analysis, or even ask about any extra value-added services they offer.

To assist in making a final decision, it helps to set an internal deadline. These are some of the most important aspects to consider when finalizing your choice:

• Alignment with your brand’s objectives
• Scalability
• Adaptability
• Technological capabilities and compatibility
• Cost transparency and clarity
• Performance guarantees and metrics
• Customer service and support

9. Negotiate and implement the contract

When you’ve completed the evaluation process, notify the vendor you’ve chosen and begin contract negotiations. In some cases, you may opt to alert your top two or three leading contenders and open negotiations with them as well to secure the most beneficial contract.

Once you and the provider agree on the final terms, you can execute the contract and begin moving forward with operations.

10. Notify unsuccessful vendors

It’s just as important to notify the vendors you didn’t select as it is to notify the winner. It may seem unnecessary to send out formal rejections, but it’s an important step in the process.

Responding to RFPs takes a lot of time and effort, so vendors will want to know they weren’t selected so they can organize their administrative affairs. Also, after all the work they did putting together a proposal, it’s a professional courtesy to give them an answer. In your rejection, you may opt to include a brief summary of why they weren’t selected.

You can even offer to schedule debriefing phone calls, which many vendors appreciate. These provide an opportunity for both of you to give and receive feedback. You can hear their perspective on the RFP process and learn what you can do to improve your RFP process. It’s also a chance to build good business relationships for future projects and partnerships.

11. Debrief your team

Just as you’ve communicated with unsuccessful vendors to debrief them so they can close their administration affairs, it’s good practice to do the same internally.

First, collect the data and documents you’ve accumulated throughout the process and make sure they’re properly organized and archived. Then, hold a final meeting with all involved parties to gather feedback. Reflect on what went well and what can be improved in your RFP processes, then store that information for future reference.

How to format your RFP document

While the RFP process is typically uniform set of steps, you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to formatting.

In most cases, the information is best represented in a table. This makes it both user-friendly for potential vendors to fill out and efficient for you to review multiple responses simultaneously. However you organize it though, be sure to leave adequate space for vendors to respond to all questions sufficiently.

You can save your RFP document in a spreadsheet, PDF, Word document, PowerPoint, etc.

How long should your RFP document be?

When it comes to length, there isn’t a specific number of pages or word count to hit. However, remember that it’s not the quantity of questions that matters but the quality. So, focus on creating strategic, targeted questions that clearly explain your requirements and reflect your brand’s needs.

As a ballpark estimate, RFPs can contain anywhere between 50 and 200 questions.

What does a good RFP response look like?

Even if you’ve done your best to write a thorough RFP process document with well-crafted questions and a carefully curated evaluation process, it’s still hard to predict what kind of responses you’ll receive. It can also be overwhelming to evaluate them and narrow down your candidate list.

To ease that burden, here’s what you can expect from a solid RFP response:

• It’s thorough: It answers all the questions, addresses your brand’s requirements, and fills in every blank in the document. This is a clear sign the vendor didn’t take shortcuts and instead approached your RFP with care and attention.
• It goes into detail: You’ve likely included some yes-or-no and quantitative questions in your document, but pay special attention to the open-ended inquiries. Did the vendor answer your questions, provide clear, detailed responses, and exhibit their industry knowledge and expertise?
• It highlights relevant experience: A good RFP response should include examples of relevant past projects that display successful implementations.
• It offers innovative solutions: The vendor’s proposal should demonstrate a clear understanding of your brand’s specific needs and objectives, offering innovative solutions that are tailored to the pain points and goals outlined in the RFP.
• It proposes a realistic timeline and budget: Look for vendors whose estimated timelines align with your ideal scope. Their proposed costs, meanwhile, should fall within your desired budget range. If it’s on the higher or lower end, consider why that might be and if there’s any room for flexibility.
• It provides transparent pricing: Pricing shouldn’t be just a single number. A strong RFP response will include a transparent breakdown of all costs and pricing, with a clear explanation for different components like warehousing costs, dispatch packing, rates for receipting processes, etc.
• It includes references and testimonials: The references and testimonials should reflect similar projects in relevant industries to give you an idea of their compatibility with your brand. These materials should validate their capabilities and reliability, leaving little room for doubt.

What does a bad RFP response look like?

Sometimes, it’s easier to know what to avoid. If you’re comparing responses and don’t see any obvious reasons to cut vendors, try looking for these red flags in each RFP reply:

• It’s incomplete or missing information: Failing to answer all the questions fully (or skipping some entirely) is an immediate bad sign. Watch out for areas where vendors are vague or don’t provide enough detail to give you a complete understanding of their capabilities.
• It’s disorganized: If the vendor’s response doesn’t follow the format and templates (if any) you’ve provided, that’s a major red flag. It’s also alarming if the proposal is incoherent or difficult to understand. Above all, a vendor’s response should never leave you feeling confused.
• It doesn’t offer tailored solutions: Watch out for proposed solutions that seem like a generic approach to the broader industry rather than a strategy uniquely created for you. This indicates the vendor either doesn’t understand your brand’s needs and objectives or simply rushed through their response.
• It gives an unrealistic timeline or budget: Low costs are a tempting offer, but if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. While cost is, of course, an important factor in selecting your vendor, it shouldn’t be the sole driving force in your final decision.
• It includes an opaque pricing scheme: Pricing should always be clear, easy to understand, and up-front. If a vendor’s response gives vague or overly complex pricing, you might need to eliminate them from your shortlist.
• It doesn’t offer any references: An insufficient list of references, examples, and testimonials likely means the vendor lacks experience in your industry — or they haven’t delivered positive results in the past.

How to encourage well-crafted responses from vendors

The quality of your RFP responses is (usually) a direct reflection of your RFP document and process. To help ensure you receive high-quality replies that bring value to your operations, pay extra attention to the following three areas.

1. Make your needs clear

Don’t beat around the bush. Be up-front about your requirements. To yield good responses, you must provide potential vendors with an explicit and comprehensive list of questions that leaves no room for confusion or misinterpretation.

2. Encourage innovative solutions

Running an RFP is a waste of time if all you receive is a slew of generic proposals. To avoid that disappointment, include a detailed project overview in your RFP document with specific proposal guidelines and relevant sourcing data regarding your needs for costs, scalability, geographical coverage, etc. This gives potential vendors all the information they need to formulate innovative responses tailored to your brand.

3. Provide enough time for responses

If you’ve followed the RFP process outline, then you’ve likely spent a decent amount of time carefully and thoroughly preparing a quality document. To receive that level of quality in return, don’t expect vendors to turn around their responses in just a few days or even a week. Instead, give them sufficient time to prepare proposals — at least a month or even up to six weeks. It’s better to wait for quality responses than receive subpar ones quickly.

Challenges with RFP processes and how to overcome them

Running an RFP process for 3PLs and 4PLs is key to ensuring you find a partner with relevant expertise in pricing, quality standards, and operational best practices. With your business’s success on the line, there’s a lot of pressure to make the right choice for your brand.

Prepare for a successful RFP by learning the biggest challenges going in so you can proactively take action to prevent or overcome them:

• It’s time-consuming: Altogether, the RFP process takes several months. During that long process, it’s common for teams to underestimate how long they need to dedicate to the preparation phase.

Make sure you give yourself ample time to conduct interviews and research. The more thorough your preparation, the stronger the RFP document you’ll produce (and the better vendor responses you’ll receive).

• It requires a lot of stakeholder involvement: The RFP process is a major cross-departmental project that necessitates the collaboration of diverse teams. Some of the people you’ll want to participate may not be as eager as you hope.

Reposition the RFP process as an opportunity, not an obligation. Emphasize to different departments that this is their chance to express their needs and have their voices heard. Above all, stay organized with regular meetings and open lines of communication.

• It’s hard to stay objective during evaluation: We’re not robots, so it’s naturally difficult to retain constant objectivity during the evaluation phase.

To combat bias, it helps to make the majority of your questions quantitative. Another useful strategy is to review all vendor responses simultaneously, instead of one by one. Review their replies side by side, following each individual question. Then, score vendors relative to each other based on the questions — not on their profile as a whole — and total their final scores. This enables you to make objective comparisons more easily.

Common mistakes to avoid during the RFP process

To further aid your RFP process, be aware of these common mistakes so you can avoid them:

• Assuming vendors know your internal jargon: All companies are guilty of this, so be careful to avoid internal lingo as you write your RFP document. This jargon just causes confusion and will make it harder for potential vendors to understand and answer your questions effectively.
• Prioritizing short-term cost-cutting over long-term benefits: As you review RFP responses, don’t simply prize the lowest bid above all. View each vendor’s proposal as the potential beginning of a long-term partnership, rather than a simple project purchase decision. Consider the provider’s ability to pivot, adapt, and scale in line with your brand’s future goals. Assessing the state of their long-term relationships with other clients can also give you a good idea of their responsiveness, reliability, and dependability for the long haul.
• Lack of feedback loops: Shortcutting the RFP process by not taking the time to debrief and reflect will cost your brand later, as it limits your ability to gather insights and improve future RFPs. Instead, take care to conduct post-RFP evaluations and collect feedback from all internal stakeholders and participating service providers.

Wrapping up — Follow these RFP process steps for a successful 3PL switch

No 4PL can guarantee perfection 100% of the time, but a good partner can come close.

Running an RFP helps you zero in on your business’s mandatory requirements, high-level goals, and key objectives so you can find the best service to support your brand. With over 50 fulfillment centers spread worldwide and a history of proven experience in Amazon FBA prep, eCommerce fulfillment, and logistics services, MyFBAPrep can be that support.

We understand how important it is to nail your prep work, so we always take the time to develop tailored solutions that meet the unique requirements of each client. Reach out to us for a consultation and learn how we can optimize your eCommerce logistics.