The question of whether the ecommerce RFP is fit for purpose raised its head again recently.
I’ve received a few since the last post and have come to the conclusion that they have all entirely missed a rather large point, to paraphrase the intro from my first post.
I was asked a great question recently whilst at a breakfast networking event hosted by Clearwater LLP, a corporate finance advisory firm, who had been giving everyone an insight in to the previous 12 months’ M&A activities in the retail market.
We heard about the winners and losers, and Gareth Iley regaled us with possibly the most entertaining skirting board anecdote I’ve heard, illustrating the rise of the niche players.
Over coffee afterwards, he asked me a really interesting question, being: “What makes a good ecommerce business?”
I thought it would be a fun question to pose here, and I’ll start the ball rolling with my instinctive answer to him at the time.
When a retailer or brand decides it’s time to replatform their ecommerce website, many will opt to embark on an ITT process (Invitation to Tender).
This can involve two or three distinct phases: RFI (Request for Information) and RFP (Request for Proposal).