A proposal is a list of items that a supplier submits directly to a merchant/retailer partner through the fabric Dropship Platform. When one of your connected suppliers submits a proposal, you receive an email notification that a new list of items are submitted. You can then review the items before accepting and approving.

​
Proposal statuses

The status of a newly submitted proposal shows as Proposed. The following table describes the various proposal statuses.
StatusDescription
Requires ApprovalIndicates the supplier has submitted the proposal for the retailer’s review and approval.
Waiting for SupplierIndicates the proposal is sent back to the supplier for additional revisions to product data.
Needs Pricing ApprovalIndicates that the proposal requires an approval for pricing or product data.
Pricing ApprovedIndicates that the proposal requires a second approval before it’s ready for publishing.
Ready to PublishIndicates the proposal is approved and is ready for publishing.
CompletedIndicates that the proposal is complete.
DeclinedIndicates the proposal is declined, along with a reason. However,the reasons for declining may vary.

​
Proposal types

There are three types of proposals:
  • New item proposals: These proposals contain new items that aren’t currently available on your site.
  • Cost update proposals: Suppliers submit these proposals to update the previously approved wholesale cost of items.
  • Attribute update proposals: Suppliers submit these proposals to change product details, including images and descriptions, of already approved items.
All proposals are reviewed and approved with the same process outlined below.

​
Managing proposals

  1. To manage new item proposals, cost update proposals, and attribute update proposals, navigate to the Products page.
  2. Click Proposals in the Curate section of the Products page. The Product Proposals page is displayed.

​
Requires approval

On the Product Proposals page, click Requires Approval to pull up a list of all recently submitted proposals. The Requires Approval page lists all submitted proposals awaiting action. On this page, you can view the following details:
  • Proposal ID.
  • The name of the supplier who submitted the proposal.
  • The name of the proposal, which includes the department name.
  • The total items added to the proposal.
  • The date when the proposal was submitted.
  • The status of the proposal.
  1. To review a proposal from the list, click the proposal’s ID. The Proposal Detail page for that proposal is displayed in the Summary view.
  2. Using the left Proposal Menu, you can review the items on the proposal at both the product level and the item level.
    • To view items on the product level, click Products.
    • To view items on the item level, click Pricing.
    • To view compatibility results, click Compatibility.
    • To view problems with the proposal, click Issues.
    • To download all the proposal images, click Exports.

​
Approving a proposal

  1. On the summary screen of the Proposal Detail page, click Approve Products. The Approve Proposal window is displayed.
  2. Select from the following options:
    • Yes: select this option if you also want to publish the products in the proposal. Selecting this option moves the proposal directly to the Completed section in the Product Proposals page.
    • No, just mark this proposal approved: Select this option to approve the proposal without publishing the products in the proposals. Selecting this option moves the proposal to Ready to Publish in the Product Proposals page.
If you selected Yes from the Approve Proposal window, follow the steps below to complete the proposal process.
  1. From the Approve Proposal window, select a Platform. This is the platform where you want to publish the products such as Shopify or fabric.
  2. In the Template field, select a template.
  3. Click Approve.
  4. When a new product proposal is submitted, one of two things happens depending on your settings:
    • If manager approval is required for pricing: The proposal will appear in the Needs Pricing Approval section on the Product Proposals page. A Manager Approve option will also be available on the product’s detail page so your manager can review and confirm pricing before it moves forward.
    • If manager approval is not required: The proposal will go directly to the Ready to Publish section. From there, you’ll see an option to Mark as Complete!, making it easy to complete and publish the product.
  5. Click Mark as Complete!. The proposal is moved to the completed section on the Product Proposals page.
The products from the proposal are automatically added to your site and you can begin receiving orders for those items.

​
Removing Items

You can reject items or entire products from a proposal that aren’t relevant to the agreed upon assortment.
  1. Select the items or products under the designated view (pricing or products). An Actions dropdown appears.
  2. Click the Actions dropdown.
  3. Select Remove Items. The Remove Products window is displayed.
  4. In the Select Reason field, select a the reason you removed the products from the proposal.
  5. Click Remove Products.
If you remove products from a proposal, they cannot be restored. You must add the products to a different proposal.

​
Sending Items Back to a Supplier

If a supplier needs to revise a proposal, create an issue for each item, detailing the reason for sending it back and setting the expectation for the required changes.

​
Creating an issue

  1. Select an item or product under the designated view (pricing or products).
  2. Click Actions.
  3. Click Create Issue.
    • Add an Issue Title such as, Images.
    • Add an Issue explanation such as, images provided are broken, please provide new ones.
Once all issues have been created on the proposal, return to the summary screen using the proposal menu and click Return. The status is changed to Revised and the proposal is moved to the Waiting for Supplier section of the Product Proposals page.