The Enterprise Shopify RFP Checklist
The best RFP makes proposals comparable without prescribing the solution before qualified teams have examined the problem. Use this checklist to expose assumptions, delivery risk, operating fit, and the people who will actually own the work.
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Start with outcomes, constraints, and decision rules
State why the program exists, what must change, what cannot be disrupted, and how the organization will choose. Include business outcomes, launch drivers, markets, channels, traffic, catalog scale, accessibility and security expectations, budget range, timeline constraints, stakeholders, and known dependencies.
- Current platforms, contracts, architecture, teams, pain points, incidents, roadmap constraints, and reasons for evaluating change.
- Success measures for conversion, speed, release velocity, operating cost, markets, B2B, retail, reliability, accessibility, and SEO.
- Decision criteria and weighting across platform fit, approach, team, proof, risk, schedule, commercials, and support.
- A clear list of known facts, open questions, assumptions vendors may challenge, and information available during discovery.
Ask for an approach to the whole enterprise system
A storefront proposal is incomplete when the business also depends on product, inventory, orders, finance, fulfillment, customers, content, search, analytics, and physical stores.
- Target Shopify organization, storefront architecture, content model, markets, B2B, POS, checkout, accounts, performance, and accessibility.
- Catalog, customers, orders, content, media, URLs, redirects, consent, loyalty, subscriptions, gift cards, and analytics migration.
- ERP, OMS, PIM, WMS, CRM, tax, payments, fraud, 3PL, customer service, data warehouse, and middleware ownership.
- Environments, testing, data rehearsals, launch runbook, rollback criteria, monitoring, hypercare, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
Evaluate the team behind the response
Request names, roles, location, allocation, seniority, and relevant experience for the people proposed—not only agency credentials. Ask what will be subcontracted, who owns architecture and QA, how decisions and risks are documented, and whether senior leaders remain accountable after the sale.
Reference requests should match your actual risk: source platform, catalog scale, market complexity, retail footprint, integration landscape, or traffic profile. A famous logo without a comparable problem is weak evidence.
Make scope and pricing comparable
Require assumptions, exclusions, dependencies, client responsibilities, deliverables, acceptance criteria, change control, rate structure, expenses, payment schedule, warranty, support, and licensing. Ask vendors to separate mandatory platform migration, optional redesign, and future roadmap work.
SDG can help an enterprise prepare the RFP, evaluate responses, run technical diligence, or respond as the delivery partner. Our discovery audit can also produce the requirements and architecture foundation before procurement begins.
Frequently asked questions
What should be in an enterprise Shopify RFP?
Outcomes, current state, requirements, constraints, architecture, data, integrations, SEO, delivery, testing, launch, support, team, proof, commercials, assumptions, and decision criteria.
Should an RFP prescribe Liquid or headless Shopify?
Usually not before discovery. Describe the experience, operating, performance, and integration requirements, then ask vendors to recommend and defend an architecture.
How do we compare Shopify agency proposals?
Normalize assumptions, scope boundaries, team allocation, deliverables, dependencies, platform and app costs, support, risk ownership, and evidence against weighted decision criteria.
Can SDG help write or evaluate the RFP?
Yes. SDG can establish requirements, architecture, TCO, evaluation criteria, and technical diligence, or respond as an implementation partner.