A request for quotation, RFQ for short, is the document a buyer or a merchandiser sends to one or more suppliers asking for a price and terms on a named style. A merchandiser at a buying office uses this document every time a new style needs a price from more than one factory. Without a complete RFQ, each supplier fills the gaps with its own assumption: one prices a smaller trial quantity, another prices a different delivery point, and the two answers that come back are not answers to the same question at all. This lesson mainly teaches the information flow: what facts a buyer must put in writing before asking a factory to quote.
You need: the supplier-qualification steps from T13-C01, and the FOB and delivery-terms vocabulary from T01-C01 and T01-C05.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: why two complete quotes still differ once they arrive (lesson 2.2), adjusting quotes to a common basis (lesson 2.3), weighing price against lead time and quality (lesson 2.4), and building a full comparison sheet (lesson 2.5).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Request for quotation (RFQ) | The document a buyer sends a supplier asking for a price and terms on a named style, quantity and delivery. |
| Quotation | A supplier's written answer to an RFQ, stating its price and the terms that price is based on. |
| Delivery terms | The point named in a purchase order where delivery happens, such as FOB at a named port, and the date it is due. |
| Payment terms | The part of a purchase order stating when and how the factory is paid, for example letter of credit at shipment or open account. |
| FOB (free on board) | The factory delivers the goods on board the ship at its own port. Freight from there is the buyer's cost. |
| Target delivery date | The date the buyer needs the goods to reach the agreed delivery point, stated in the RFQ before any supplier quotes. |
A supplier cannot price what it has not been told. A request for quotation that leaves out a fact forces every supplier who receives it to guess that fact for itself, and different suppliers guess differently. A fair RFQ removes the guessing by stating six facts in writing: the style (with its own specification), the quantity, the fabric or material specification, the delivery terms (FOB, CIF or EXW, with the named point), the payment terms, and the target delivery date. Once all six are fixed and identical across every supplier asked, the quotations that come back answer the same question, and a price difference between them means something real.
| What can differ | The shapes you will meet | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| How the specification is attached | A buying office like Northline Apparel's attaches a full tech pack and fabric spec to the RFQ. A smaller domestic brand may describe the style in one paragraph and a sample garment. | A style described only in words, with no attached spec, is read differently by each supplier; a fair comparison needs the same written spec sent to all. |
| Which delivery terms are asked for | An export buyer usually asks for an FOB quote, since it arranges its own onward shipping. A domestic brand buying ex-factory, such as Cedar & Co., asks for an ex-factory or delivered price instead, since there is no port hand-over. | Asking two suppliers for different delivery terms on the same style produces two quotes that cannot be compared until one is converted to match the other (lesson 2.3). |
| How many suppliers receive the same RFQ | A buyer may send one RFQ to a single qualified supplier it already trusts, or to three or four suppliers at once for a genuine comparison. | Comparison only has meaning once at least two suppliers answer the identical document; one quote alone has nothing to be checked against. |
| Whether a target date or only a lead time is asked for | Some RFQs state a fixed target delivery date the goods must reach by. Others ask each supplier to state its own lead time and let the buyer work out the resulting date. | A target date lets the buyer compare offered lead times against one shared deadline; asking only for lead time still needs a starting point (the order confirmation date) before it becomes a real date. |
Sara, the buyer at Northline Apparel, has qualified two factories through the T13-C01 process, including Delta Garments. Before asking either one to quote Order A, she writes one RFQ document and sends the identical version to both.
| RFQ fact | What Sara states |
|---|---|
| Style | Basic cotton T-shirt, one colour, tech pack attached |
| Quantity | 15,000 pieces, size ratio S:M:L:XL 1:2:2:1 |
| Fabric/spec | Single jersey 180 GSM, Ne 30/1 combed cotton |
| Delivery terms | FOB, named port of loading, Alexandria |
| Payment terms | Letter of credit at shipment |
| Target delivery date | Week 16 from order confirmation |
A merchandiser under time pressure often copies the style specification carefully but leaves the commercial lines, delivery terms, payment terms, target date, blank, assuming every factory will quote "the normal way." Factories do not share one normal way: one assumes FOB, another assumes ex-factory; one assumes the buyer's usual 60-day terms, another assumes cash before shipment. The quotes that return then differ for reasons that have nothing to do with which factory is more competitive, and the buyer wastes a review cycle discovering this only after the numbers are in. The fix costs nothing more than filling in the same six lines every single time, on a template the buyer reuses for every style, rather than trusting memory on a document written under deadline pressure.
A request for quotation is the document that asks a factory for a price. It only works if it says exactly what is being priced: which style, how many pieces, what fabric, delivered where and how, paid for when, and needed by when. If any of these is left out, each factory fills the gap in its own way, and the prices that come back are not really prices for the same thing. Writing all six facts once, and sending the identical document to every factory asked, is what makes the answers worth comparing at all.
Sara wants a third opinion on Order A's price and sends the RFQ to a new factory quickly, reusing the style specification but forgetting to copy the delivery-terms and payment-terms lines from the template. The new factory returns a quote of USD 2.90 per piece with no note on what that price includes.
Here is the quotation Sara receives:
Can Sara compare this USD 2.90 figure directly against Delta Garments' FOB 3.20? Decide before opening the answer.
No, she cannot, yet. Two facts decide this.
First, an unstated delivery term is not the same as FOB. Without delivery terms written into the RFQ, the new factory has quoted on its own default basis, most likely ex-factory, which does not include moving the goods to the port. Comparing 2.90 against Delta Garments' FOB 3.20 as if both included the same hand-over would be comparing two different things.
Second, the gap was Sara's own RFQ, not the factory's answer. The new factory answered the document it was sent; since that document never named delivery terms, the factory is not at fault for defaulting to its own normal practice.
Sara must go back to the new factory and ask it to re-quote on the same FOB terms stated to Delta Garments, before either number can be placed in the comparison sheet.
Framed qualitatively, every fact missing from an RFQ that has to be chased afterward costs one extra round trip with the supplier, typically several days given time zones and factory workload, before a comparable number exists at all. On a 16-week timeline, a delay at the quotation stage eats directly into the weeks the buyer has left for approvals and fabric booking.
Writing the six facts once, into a template reused for every RFQ, removes this cost entirely.
Open the Quotation comparison sheet workbook linked below. Its "RFQ facts" tab lists the six facts this lesson teaches, with Order A's own facts filled in as the example. Fill in the yellow "Your order" column with the same six facts for your own style before sending your own RFQ to any supplier.
[Download the Quotation comparison sheet](../../templates/T13-C02-quotation-comparison-sheet.xlsx)
1. Which six facts must a fair RFQ state to every supplier asked to quote the same style?
2. A buyer sends the same style specification to two factories but does not name delivery terms in either RFQ. What is most likely to happen?
3. A domestic brand buying 3,000 pieces ex-factory sends an RFQ with a target delivery date but no stated payment terms. Why is this still incomplete?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Request for quotation (RFQ) | طلب عرض سعر (RFQ) | Demande de devis (RFQ) | Teklif talebi (RFQ) | The document a buyer sends a supplier asking for a price and terms on a named style, quantity and delivery. |
| Quotation | عرض السعر | Devis | Teklif (fiyat teklifi) | A supplier's written answer to an RFQ, stating its price and the terms that price is based on. |
| Delivery terms | شروط التسليم | Conditions de livraison | Teslimat şartları | The point named in a purchase order where delivery happens, such as FOB at a named port, and the date it is due. |
| Payment terms | شروط الدفع | Conditions de paiement | Ödeme şartları | The part of a purchase order stating when and how the factory is paid, for example letter of credit at shipment or open account. |
| FOB (free on board) | تسليم على ظهر السفينة في ميناء المصنع | FOB (franco à bord) | FOB (gemide teslim) | The factory delivers the goods on board the ship at its own port. Freight from there is the buyer's cost. |
| Target delivery date | تاريخ التسليم المستهدف | Date de livraison cible | Hedef teslim tarihi | The date the buyer needs the goods to reach the agreed delivery point, stated in the RFQ before any supplier quotes. |
You now know what a request for quotation must specify. The next lesson shows what happens when a buyer sends a complete RFQ to two factories and still receives two quotes that cannot be placed side by side without more work. Back to the course map