Tender Description

Request for Proposal

for

Technical services of E-Commerce Sales Officer

RFP Number: TFCS-023-058

Issuance Date: 25/10/2023

Deadline for Offers 26/11/2023

For: Al-Haj Jabri Damra and Sons for Furniture Manufacturing and General Trade (Damra)

Point of Contact: Wafa’ Aburrob, Email: [email protected]

Location of Work Salfit, Bidya

Reporting Lines and Managerial Responsibilities: Waleed Jabri Damra, CEO of Damra company

Background

Al Haj Jabri Damra and Sons for Furniture Manufacturing and General Trade (Damra), acting for the Trade Facilitation and Customs Support Programme (Tasdeer), is soliciting quotations from eligible and responsible consultants for the position of E-commerce sales officer. The Trade Facilitation and Customs Support Programme (Tasdeer) is an official program of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Contract No. PO10054, and is being carried out in West Bank and Gaza. The objective of Tasdeer programme is to improve the Palestinian private sector competitiveness and the PA’s capacity in the fields of trade, customs, and import policy regulation and administration. TASDEER programme aims to increase sustainable private sector-led economic growth and job creation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the PA’s fiscal sustainability while ensuring equitable access to increased trade, and improved institutional capacity. Gender Equality and Social Inclusion are the main tools and objectives for Tasdeer to ensure the benefits of the programme are equally accessed by the diverse groups of men and women in the supply chain.

Suppliers are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received in accordance with the instructions stated herein. Failure to adhere to instructions described herein may lead to disqualification of a proposal from consideration.

Deadlines

Questions regarding the technical or administrative requirements of this RFP may be submitted by email to [email protected]. Questions must be submitted in writing; phone calls will not be accepted.

Offers must be received no later than 08/11/2023. Offers received after this date or time will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of the Company address.

Instructions for Submission of Offers

All offers and related documents must be sent by mail to: [email protected]. Please enter the following in the subject section:

“Technical services/ E-Commerce Sales Officer”

All offers must be prepared in English.

Terms of Reference

Company Background

Damra specialises in the manufacturing and marketing of wood furniture and decor. The company was established in 1991 as a small workshop which was expanded into a full factory in 1998, that was moved into a new facility in 2008 in Bidya, Salfit. The factory is fully equipped with all the necessary machinery for the different stages of furniture manufacturing, including computer numerical control (CNC) machines and a painting room. The company produces master bedrooms, children's bedrooms, dining room sets, TV furniture sets, office furniture and upholstered chairs. Bedrooms and TV furniture sets represent around 50% of the company’s production and sales. In addition, Damra occasionally produces custom kitchen designs and wood decor based on customers’ requests. Israeli market has been the main market for the company’s sales since its establishment, with limited sales in the local market. Yet, Israel is the only export market for Damra products. Majority of sales in the Israeli market is for the Arab communities through furniture show rooms. Few sales are done to the end customers directly based on Damra’s reputation and customers’ network. Furniture show rooms has been the main marketing channel for Damra products in the export market, hence, the company has been focusing on business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategy. Due to the high demand in the Israeli market, the company has spotted a great opportunity to expand in this market and is looking to increase their exports through starting online sales and focusing more on business-to-consumer (B2C) model. This model would provide the customers with the possibility to customize their selection of product’s colours, material, design, dimensions… etc. through an ecommerce website before placing the order.

Damra is working with Tasdeer program to enhance the company creativity and capacity to be able to compete in the international markets, through expanding the company’s marketing and distribution channels in their current export market through starting online sales (ecommerce website), developing their B2C model, targeting new customers groups in the export market, expanding in the targeted market, and increasing their exports. One of the key activities required towards achieving the desired growth of exports is establishing an ecommerce website to present the products creatively. This activity includes developing a new website, localization of the new website to include Arabic and Hebrew languages, and developing creative content that includes high quality photos, interactive virtual showroom/ tour, and description of the products (in the 2 languages). To achieve this, creative content is needed to present the products creatively with enough details on the ecommerce website.

Objectives of this assignment:

Damra Company with the support of Tasdeer program will hire a junior consultant to achieve the following objectives:

Preparing content for the e-commerce website, including products descriptions, specifications, customization options.
Following up with the IT company during the development of the e-commerce website and providing all needed information.
Work with the IT company on uploading all data to the e-commerce website before launching it online.

Scope of the assignment:

Damra Furniture Ecommerce Website:

Damra will start selling online by developing an ecommerce website to sell directly to the end customer. The website will be multilingual, in Arabic and Hebrew, to be accessible to the different customers groups in the target market (Israel) and in English to prepare for targeting international markets in the future. As an ecommerce website for furniture products, the website shall be designed as a virtual showroom for better product presentation. It will provide customers with the option of choosing the design, dimensions, colours, and materials they prefer. Hence, it will also facilitate customising the furniture items based on customers’ preferences. The website will also include shipment information and procedures and an e-payment gateway to complete the online purchase process.

To achieve this, an IT company was contracted to develop the website, and a junior consultant/ officer in e-commerce sales and websites managements will be hired under this assignment to prepare the content for the website.

Under this assignment the e-commerce sales officer is responsible for the following tasks:

Task 1: Content Preparation:
Meeting with the IT company to agree on the requirements related to the website content, in terms of type of content data per product, amount of data per product, and any other requirements that the IT company might specify.
Prepare the products category, list of products per category, products description, customization options for size, colours, materials, and the price. This task will be done in cooperation with the general manager to get the technical information. Then the officer is required to write the content based on this information and as specified in this point.
Task 2: Follow up and coordination on e-commerce website development:
Following up with the IT company during the website development and providing them with all needed information.
Testing the website during the development process and providing feedback to the IT company.
Coordinating with the IT company on content uploading. This task will be shared between the IT company and the officer.
Preparing special offers and posting them on the website and through social media.
Task 3: Other tasks:
Managing and activating the social media pages.
Preparing posts and Ads and post them on the social media pages.

Duration:

The expected duration of the consultancy services will be 4 months, starting in November 2023.

Type of the Contract:

Short term assignment

Deliverables:

Website content in Arabic and English languages, including products categories, list of products, information per product (product description, customization options for size, color and material, price).
Social media Ads and posts.

Technical proposal requirements

The Technical Volume should demonstrate a clear understanding of the work to be undertaken and the responsibilities of all parties involved, showing how their skills are fulfilling the needed technical skills for this assignment. The proposal should also provide examples of similar previous work and assignments, including links or screenshots from previously managed websites or content developed. CV of the consultant shall also be attached.

Qualifications, skills, and professional experience

The consultant shall have a university degree from an accredited college or university in business, marketing, or any other related field.
The consultant shall have a minimum of 2 years’ experience working in areas related to e-commerce, websites management, online sales.
Knowledge of e-commerce websites management and requirements.
Experience in e-commerce sales and online sales management.
Excellent writing skills in English and Arabic.
Good command of Hebrew language is a plus.
Preferred to be from Salfit.

All electronic copies of documents in the Technical Volume must be in PDF.

The information contained in the Technical Volume should not contain any cost- or price-related information.

Basis for Award

The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the RFP instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and is determined via a trade-off analysis to be the best value based on the application of the following evaluation criteria. The relative importance of each individual criterion is indicated by the number of points below:

Field of study and experience – 70 points in relevant field and corporate capabilities: This will include an evaluation of the capacity of the organization to perform the scope of work, a review of success stories of previous experience in similar jobs, and the ability to illustrate past successes in performing similar assignments.
Cost Proposal – 30 points: The overall cost presented in the offer.

Technical proposals that get score less than 55/70, the financial offer might not be considered.
Proposals short listed based on highest scores in the technical evaluation maybe required to make a presentation, after which the technical scoring will be adjusted for those short-listed proposals.

Best-offer quotations are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely based on these original quotations. However, Damra Company reserves the right to conduct any of the following:

May conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award.
May cancel this RFP at any time.

Cost Proposal

The Cost Volume must include a unit cost breakdown for every line item described in Annex 1, as well as a description of any other costs involved; see the Price Schedule in Annex 1 for the required format. The offer must preserve and clearly indicate the line-item numbers. All items, services, transportation costs, etc. must be clearly labelled and included in the total price. Prices must be quoted on a lump-sum, all-inclusive basis. No other costs, taxes, and/or fees may be added later.

Quotations must be fixed price, expressed in USD excluding VAT.

Payment Method

The payment of the contract is planned on an assignment completion basis. The number of payments is in accordance with the required deliverables expected by assignment completion.