Shopify Agency RFP Scoring Matrix for India in 2026

What is a Shopify agency RFP scoring matrix?

It's a simple table that lets you rate every agency that answers your RFP against the same criteria. Each criterion gets a weight based on how much it matters to you, each agency gets a score from 1 to 5 on each one, and the totals show who comes out ahead. It takes about an hour to set up and saves a lot of arguing later.

Most brands we talk to didn't use one the first time they hired an agency. They went with whoever was friendliest on the call, or whoever quoted lowest, and found out months later what that choice had cost them. A matrix won't make the decision for you, but it does force you to agree on what matters before a good sales pitch gets a chance to sway you.

What to put in your RFP

The RFP itself doesn't need to be long. Two or three pages is plenty, as long as every agency gets the same information and is asked to reply in the same shape.

Start with the basics about your business: what you sell, who buys it, roughly how many orders you get a month and where you ship. Then describe the project. Is it a new store, a redesign, a move from WooCommerce or Magento, or an upgrade to Shopify Plus? Say how many products and variants you have and whether you'll upload them yourself.

List the features you can't launch without. For Indian brands this often means COD, a gateway like Razorpay or PayU, GST-compliant invoices and pincode checks. Mention the tools the store has to talk to, such as your courier, accounting software, CRM or a POS in your shop, and add two or three stores whose look you like.

Two more things to include. First, your launch date, and whether it can move. A Diwali sale can't, a soft launch probably can. Second, a budget range, even a wide one like ₹1 to 2 lakh. Founders often skip this to keep their options open, but then the proposals come back so far apart that you can't compare them anyway.

Last, tell agencies exactly what you want back from them: the scope, who will work on it, a dated plan, an itemised price, payment terms, support terms and two client references. Give them a week to ten days and welcome their questions. What an agency asks you is often more revealing than what it sends.

The scoring matrix

The weights below suit a typical D2C brand building or rebuilding its store, and they add up to 100. Change them to fit your priorities, but settle them before you open the first proposal.

Scoring each criterion from 1 to 5 keeps things simple. Give a 5 when the agency clearly goes beyond what you asked and backs it with evidence, a 4 when it fully meets the need, a 3 when there are small gaps, a 2 when the answer is vague, and a 1 when it's missing altogether. For the final number, multiply each score by its weight, add the results and divide by five, which gives every agency a score out of 100.

Want this matrix as a ready-made Google Sheet? Message us on WhatsApp and we'll send you the template with the formulas already set up. Get the template on WhatsApp

A worked example

Picture a skincare brand in Chennai sending its RFP to three agencies. Agency A is the cheapest of the three, Agency B is a mid-sized studio, and Agency C costs more but has built plenty of integrations. After reading the proposals and calling references, the founder scores them like this.

Notice that the cheapest agency came last. A's quote looked great until you read the plan, which was thin, and saw that support stopped on launch day. That dragged it down to 50. C got 88, and while the founder still wanted a better price from them, they could at least see what the higher quote was paying for.

Keeping the scoring fair

If more than one person is involved, ask everyone to score on their own first and compare afterwards. Wherever your scores differ by two points or more, talk it through, because that's usually where someone spotted something the others missed.

Score what's written in the proposal or promised in the contract, not how the call felt. A charming account manager isn't evidence of anything.

Watch out for any single 1, especially on ownership or delivery. One very weak answer in an area like that can matter more than a strong total.

One last thing. The spreadsheet shouldn't pick the winner by itself. We'd shortlist the top two, get each of them on one more call about scope and price, and decide after that.

Questions brands ask us

Do small brands really need an RFP? Even a two-page brief helps. You stop repeating the same explanation on every call, and the quotes you get back actually line up with each other.

How many agencies should get it? Three to five works for most brands. Fewer than three gives you little to compare, and more than five turns the evaluation into a part-time job.

Should price carry more weight? Only if your budget truly can't move. A cheap build that needs fixing after launch often ends up costing more than a well-planned one.

Send your RFP to Amwhiz

We're happy to be scored against other agencies. Send us your brief and we'll reply with a clear scope, a dated plan, an itemised quote and live stores you can open yourself. Our contracts include a delivery date, and if we miss it, you aren't billed for the extra days.

Book a free consultation · Chat on WhatsApp · sales@amwhiz.com · +91 91500 65500

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