Bid Requests
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.
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Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
When you are invited to participate in a Bid, you may first receive an email notification or the customer could post a public link/URL to the bid. If you are invited via email, click the View the Bid Request link on the email to get started.
Join the Bid
Review the Bid Request by clicking on the Summary and Sections tabs. Once you're ready to participate, click Join in the top right-hand corner to initiate the Supplier Registration Process.
Supplier Registration
To participate on any Unimarket bid, your company will need to be registered in Unimarket and you will need a username and password. If you are not already registered in Unimarket, you can complete the initial registration details and click Sign Up. See here for more information on completing your registration.
If you are already registered, click Already registered? Login at the top right and sign in with your username and password (This will link the bid to your existing account). See here for more information on linking the new bid/customer to your existing account.
Accept Bid
To Accept the bid, click Accept in the top right-hand corner.
Note: If you need to set up additional users for your account see Create & Manage Users. Click Create Quote in the top right hand corner when you are ready to supply a response to the bid.
For additional information on Bid Requests see the articles below:
Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
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Responding To A Bid Request
Click Create Quote in the top right hand corner of your bid when you are ready to supply a response to the bid. You can save your in-progress quote at any time by selecting Save at the bottom of any tab. The Customer will not be able to view your quote until you officially publish it (Click Publish from the Publish Tab). The Create Quote tool will guide you through supplying a response step-by-step.
See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
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Bid Response - Overview Tab
Overview Tab
The first tab of the bid request is the Overview tab where you are given a brief explanation of what the bid request is for and important information about responding to the bid request. Once you are happy to continue select Next at the bottom of the page (or you can click directly onto one of the other tabs).
See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
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Bid Response - Quote Tab
Quote Tab
Key details of your quote will be auto filled on this tab. If any of the information needs to be updated you can make edits as needed. This is an opportunity to enter an internal quote reference and add any relevant attachments.
Note: The expiry date should default to six months into the future. Please ensure your quote does not expire within a month or less than the award date. Note: You may add your attachments on this page but it is possible that your customer may have requested your documents to be attached on the sections tab. See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
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Bid Response - Sections Tab
Sections Tab
Sections are separated by Item for products and Questions for any questions. The customer may have listed specific products that they would like you to quote prices for or questions they would like you to answer.
To the right of the item, you can click on +Add Quote or Edit to edit the product and add pricing or answer the question. Once you have answered each Line and you are ready to proceed, click Next.
See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
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Bid Response - Publish Tab
Publish Tab
Once you are ready to submit your Bid Response to your customer, you will got to the Publish tab and press Finish on the bottom right.
If you are not ready to publish your Bid Response, you can click Save and come back to it later. You can also amend any of the data before publishing by clicking Previous or simply clicking on the relevant tab.
See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
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Bid Request - Editing
Editing Bid
You can edit your bid response at any time up until the due date and time of the bid. You can do this by clicking into the bid and clicking on the More Actions menu on the top right and selecting Edit Quote. Make any necessary updates to your quote and when you are finished click on the Publish tab and press the Finish button to submit the new information to your customer.
See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
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Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
You can check to confirm that your bid was successfully submitted by clicking on the bid and then clicking on the Quote tab. Here it will show you the published date which is the date that your bid was sent to your customer along with any information that was submitted.
See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
Joining and Accepting a Bid Request
Bid Request - Confirming Bid has Been Submitted
Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
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Submitting Bid Questions & Messages
Many Bid Requests will include a Questions Due Date. This is the date that the customer would like all questions related to the bid submitted by to give them time to answer all questions. Unless otherwise noted, all questions should be submitted through your Unimarket account on the Messages tab for the Bid. These messages between you and the customer are private - meaning that only you and the collaborating customers can see them. Your bidding competitors can not read your questions and you cannot read theirs.
To ask a question, follow these steps.
- Log in to Unimarket and click into the Bid Request you would like to ask a question on.
- Choose the Messages tab.
- Choose +Add Comment to add a new message or question and click Send. (There is a 2,000 character limit including spaces).
Filter by
The Filter by option allows you to choose whether to view only the messages between you and the customer, or just notifications from the customer. A notification is often an alert sent to all suppliers included in the Bid Request. A common notification would be a date extension to allow more time to respond to the bid. You may also choose ALL to view both messages and notifications together.
See the articles below for additional information on Bid Requests:
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Uploading Bid Request Pricing (CSV File)
In addition to Unimarket allowing you to enter pricing information and responses to questions on your bid request in Unimarket directly, you can also upload responses via a CSV file.
Uploading Pricing & Question Responses
To upload Pricing you can take the following steps:
- Go to Tasks in the top right side of your portal and select Bid Requests.
- Select the Bid request for which you wish to submit a quote.
- Click Accept, then when ready click Create Quote.
- Fill in the Quote details and click Continue.
- On the Sections tab, click Upload Pricing and follow the instructions to export the template CSV template.
- Click Export Items to download a CSV file with all of the items needing to be entered on this Bid Request.
- Open the CSV file and populate the empty columns, and save it. See the list below for information regarding the fields that are mandatory.
- Either upload the CSV file directly if no images are used or,
- Create a ZIP file containing the CSV file and all the images referenced in the IMAGE_FILE column and upload it. Images larger than 640x480 pixels shrink automatically. The maximum zip file size is 10Mb.
- Repeat steps 6-9 for Upload Question Responses if questions are included.
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