Vendor Management Playbook

Purpose

• Manage key vendors across the commerce stack to protect revenue, margins, and customer experience
• Ensure vendor decisions are measurable, reversible, and aligned with security and privacy

Vendor categories

Payments

• Processors
• Fraud tools

Tax

• Calculation
• Exemption
• Filing

ERP and WMS

• Catalog
• Inventory
• Orders
• Accounting

CDN and media

• DAM
• Image and video pipelines
• Multi-CDN

Advertising

• Google and Microsoft
• Deliverability
• Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Search and reviews

• Site search
• Ratings and reviews
• UGC

Marketplaces

• Amazon
• eBay
• Jet and others

Analytics

• GA4
• Server-side tagging
• Dashboards

Vendor governance

Selection

• Run a light RFP process
• Capture requirements in 1-2 pages
• Compare 3 vendors
• Hold a 30-60 minute demo
• Use a security and privacy checklist

Contracts

• Define SLAs
• Define uptime credits
• Define data handling terms
• Define exit terms

Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs)

• Review a performance scorecard
• Review incidents and root causes
• Align on roadmap
• Check contract and SLA health
• Track action items with owners and dates

Change control

• Use integration guardrails
• Maintain rollback plans

Cost and performance

Optimization

• Negotiate rates
• Use committed spend ladders
• Use tiered pricing

Performance

• Track ROAS
• Track conversion
• Track latency
• Track approval rate
• Track SLA adherence

Sunset plan

• Replace or consolidate underperformers
• Set clear milestones and dates