Use cases
Describe concrete scenarios: SKU, brand, natural language, filters, zero-result searches, B2B and discovery.
Use cases →RFP
Ask suppliers for evidence on the same requirements.
A good RFP makes use cases, data, architecture and assessment method explicit in advance. This way you compare suppliers on the same reality rather than on different demos.
Product data
Provide catalog size, variants, attributes, languages, stores and update frequency.
Product data →Integration
Ask for catalog source, storefront, events, analytics, conversion and error handling.
Integrations →Relevance
Allow each vendor to review the same representative query set and explain differences.
Query test set →Governance
Lay down requirements for roles, stores, markets, merchandising and change management.
Governance →Operations
Ask how latency, availability, index freshness, monitoring and rollback are handled.
Operations →Analytics
Ask for KPI definitions, segmentation, data quality and exportability.
Analytics →TCO
Explicitly ask for license, implementation, support, management and expected internal capacity.
TCO →Pre-recording
Use the same score and proof standard for each candidate.
Make it clear which parts are knockout criteria, which are weighed and which are only informative. This way, the selection remains explainable.
CategoryEvidenceReview
RelevanceOwn query setFixed score
IntegrationOwn architectureFixed score
OperationsProcess + testFixed score
TCOEqual periodFixed score