B2B eCommerce RFP Template for IT VARs: What the RFP Should Actually Ask

What Is a B2B eCommerce RFP and Why IT VARs Need One

When an IT VAR ends up on the wrong platform, the evaluation usually looks fine. The demo went well. The requirements list confirmed every box. The problem showed up six months later. The distributor integration needed a custom build nobody had planned for. The RFP hadn’t asked the right questions.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is how you prevent this. You send it to vendors before any demo. Each vendor has to answer your specific requirements in writing. In a demo, every platform performs well. In writing, the real differences show. A vendor that can’t answer ‘how many PunchOut integrations have you completed?’ with a real number is telling you something the demo never will.

Standard eCommerce RFPs ask about features every platform has. An IT VAR eCommerce requirements checklist needs to ask the architecture questions that actually differ. The five sections below are what your RFP should include.

The process from start to shortlist

Here’s where each section of this guide fits:

• Step 1: Build your RFP using the five requirements below.
• Step 2: Send it to vendors. Give them 5 to 7 business days to respond in writing.
• Step 3: Score each response using the six-criterion matrix in this guide.
• Step 4: Run the three diagnostic questions to filter your shortlist.
• Step 5: Schedule demos only with vendors who cleared all five requirements.

What the RFP document should look like

• Cover section: your company name, the project scope and the response deadline.
• Requirements 1 to 5: the five sections below, with your vendor questions under each.
• Scoring criteria: attach the six-criterion matrix so vendors know how you’ll evaluate their answers.
• Response format note: tell vendors you need specific numbers, not general confirmations.
• Next steps: your shortlisting date, demo schedule and decision timeline.

Why IT VAR Requirements Are Different

Standard B2B eCommerce assumes you control your prices. You set the catalog, you set the rates, the buyer checks out. That works for a manufacturer. It doesn’t work for a VAR.

Your prices come from IT distributors. They shift with every tariff announcement, promotional window and stock movement. Your enterprise and government buyers use procurement systems like SAP Ariba or Oracle PeopleSoft. Without PunchOut, those buyers can’t place an order through your store at all. A standard checklist doesn’t cover any of this. It was written for businesses with different constraints.

Every platform on a standard shortlist will say yes to a generic checklist. The five architecture questions below are where the answers actually differ from one B2B eCommerce platform for IT resellers to the next.

If you’re an MSP, add these three questions to your RFP:

• When a service rate changes, does it update automatically across all active contracts, or does someone have to do it manually?
• Can service bundles be repriced by account tier without rebuilding the contract?
• Is recurring billing connected to the same pricing data as your storefront, or does it run from a separate rate card?

What Your RFP Should Include: 5 Requirements for IT VARs

For each requirement, ask vendors to respond with specific numbers. If the answer to any question is ‘yes, we support that,’ ask again. That’s not an answer.

Requirement 1: Real-Time Distributor Pricing via Live XML Feed

Ask your vendor:

• Do you have pre-built connections to the major IT distributors, without custom development for each?
• Is pricing pulled live at the exact moment a customer views a product, or from a file uploaded earlier?
• Can pricing and stock from all signed distributor agreements appear side by side in one interface, without separate logins?
• Does the platform recheck price and availability before an order is placed?

A daily file means your storefront price and your distributor’s actual price can diverge. You absorb that difference. It won’t show up as a pricing error. It shows up as thinner margin on deals where you expected better.

Requirement 2: PunchOut Catalog Support

Ask your vendor:

• How many PunchOut integrations have you completed, and with which procurement systems?
• What’s your typical go-live timeline for a new PunchOut connection?
• Do you support SAP Ariba, Oracle PeopleSoft, Coupa and Jaggaer natively?
• Can a buyer shop your full catalog from inside their own procurement system?

‘250 completed integrations, live within a week’ and ‘we support PunchOut’ are not the same answer. One means the feature exists. The other means it works.

Requirement 3: Configure, Price, Quote Inside the Same Platform

Ask your vendor:

• Does Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) live inside the same platform as the storefront?
• Does it read from the same live distributor data as the store?
• When a distributor price changes, does it flow automatically to quotes in progress?

When CPQ runs in a separate tool, your rep reconciles pricing between two systems on every complex deal. That’s where margin disappears across a quarter.

Requirement 4: Login-Based Pricing and Contract Catalog Management

Ask your vendor:

• Can each buyer see their own negotiated pricing automatically on login, without manual overrides?
• Can GSA rates, enterprise tiers and standard pricing run on the same storefront for different accounts?
• Can contract catalogs be restricted by account so buyers only see what they’re entitled to?

If pricing isn’t applied automatically on login, someone on your team fixes rates manually on individual orders. It’s slow, it creates errors and it doesn’t scale.

Requirement 5: Total Integration Cost, Not Just Monthly Subscription

Ask your vendor:

• How many of my signed distributor agreements are pre-connected without custom development?
• What would a custom integration cost for any distributor not on your pre-connected list?
• What’s the ongoing maintenance cost if a distributor updates their data format?

A lower subscription with $60,000 in custom integration work costs more in year one than a higher subscription with 50+ distributors already connected. Compare total cost of operation, not the monthly line.

Before any demo: Write down your signed distributor agreements, your top 10 accounts that need procurement access and your most complex deal type. Those three things tell you which requirements matter most to your business.

How to Score the RFP Responses: The 6-Criterion Matrix

When responses come back, use this RFP scoring matrix for eCommerce platform comparison to score each vendor. Rate from 1 to 5.

• A 5 means the requirement is met natively, with no custom build.
• A 3 means configuration work.
• A 1 means a significant build that you fund and maintain.

The difference between a 1 and a 5 on criterion 1 alone is often $60,000 and three months.