A request for quotation (RFQ) is the brief you send factories asking them to price a specific product. Its whole job is to make the quotes you get back comparable — same product, same quantity, same terms — so you are choosing a supplier, not decoding five different interpretations of what you asked for.
What every RFQ should contain
- Product specification: materials, dimensions, tolerances, finish, and any performance or compliance requirements. Attach a tech pack or reference sample where you can.
- Quantity: the order quantity you actually want, plus optional price breaks (e.g. quote at 1,000 / 3,000 / 5,000 units).
- Packaging: retail packaging, inner and master carton requirements, and any labelling (barcodes, country of origin, FBA labels).
- Target price and currency: a range is fine; it tells the factory whether the project is viable before they invest time.
- Incoterm and destination: FOB [port], CIF [port], or DDP [city] — the quotes are not comparable without this.
- Lead time expectation: your required ship or delivery date.
- Quality terms: the AQL level you expect and whether a pre-shipment inspection is a condition of payment.
Common mistakes
Leaving out the Incoterm is the big one — an EXW price and a DDP price for the same goods can differ by 20–40%. Asking for "your best price" without a quantity is another: the factory cannot price setup and materials without knowing the run size. And requesting a quote with no spec sheet invites the factory to quote on the cheapest interpretation, which is not the product you will get.
Once quotes come back, normalise them to landed cost per unit before comparing. The lowest unit price is often not the lowest total once freight, duty, and packaging are in.