Harpy Glossary

RFQ (Request for Quote)

Amazon & D2C glossary · Harpy Media

RFQ (Request for Quote) is the negotiation channel on Amazon Business: registered business customers ask sellers for custom pricing on large-volume orders, bypassing standard posted prices and automated pricing tiers.

What is RFQ?

It is a different mode of selling. Consumer sales are transactional and price-set; RFQ conversations are procurement, where quantity, terms, and per-unit price are negotiable and the buyer is comparing your quote against others. Sellers who keep an eye on the quotes dashboard pick up orders that would never arrive through the normal funnel.

Why quotes are worth the attention

A single accepted quote can clear months of inventory in one transaction: several thousand units at an agreed price, with per-unit acquisition cost near zero because the buyer came to you. It also moves stock without permanently lowering your public-facing price, which protects your retail positioning while turning slow inventory into cash.

The catch is responsiveness. Quotes are time-sensitive: buyers typically solicit several sellers and decide within days, so a quote that is considered for a week is a quote that lost to someone who answered in a day. Reading the dashboard is the whole discipline.

Pricing a quote so it stays profitable

Never price from the retail price down — price from the floor up. Build the number from cost of goods, platform fees at the negotiated price, fulfilment on the actual order shape, and a margin you are prepared to accept for the volume. Percentage fees fall with the price; fixed per-unit costs do not, and on a large order those fixed costs are usually the friendlier side of the ledger.

Then check the shape of the order, not just the price: freight and labour on a bulk shipment differ from a consumer order, and a single consolidated consignment is usually cheaper to serve. And be prepared to decline. A quote that wins the order at a loss is not a win; it is a very efficient way to convert inventory into less money.

RFQ Net Margin = ((Negotiated Unit Price − COGS − Fulfilment Fees − Referral Fee) ÷ Negotiated Unit Price) × 100Calculated at the negotiated price, not the retail one — and checked against the actual order shape, not a per-unit average.

In practice

A corporate buyer requests 2,500 heavy-duty staplers at volume rather than the $15 retail price. The seller works the margin from the floor, replies through the business tools with a custom offer around $11.50, and the buyer accepts — turning a stalled line into a single five-figure transaction while leaving the public listing untouched.

⚠️ Watch out. Assuming posted business pricing is enough. A seller never opens the quotes dashboard, misses a request from a government buyer for thousands of units, and loses it because the quote expired unaddressed. Nothing was priced wrongly; the opportunity simply was never seen.

💡 Harpy tip. Check the quotes dashboard daily and answer inside a day. Price from cost upward with real fees and fulfilment, judge the order shape as well as the unit price, and be willing to decline — the point of a quote is margin at volume, not revenue at any price.

How Harpy Media helps

B2B selling is part of our commercial work: quote pricing built from true unit economics, order shapes assessed properly, and the response routine that wins volume deals without eroding retail price.

RFQ FAQ

What is an RFQ on Amazon?

Request for Quote — an Amazon Business feature letting registered business buyers ask for custom pricing on bulk orders. Sellers respond with a quote; the buyer accepts or takes it elsewhere.

Do quotes affect my regular listings?

They are separate negotiations. Accepting a quote for a large order does not require changing your public price, which makes the channel a way to move volume without repricing your catalogue.

How quickly should I respond to a quote?

Within a day. Buyers usually solicit several sellers and decide quickly, so response time is often as decisive as price. Treat unread quotes as lost revenue rather than as backlog.

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