Before GovShop, it was inconvenient and downright difficult to find the best government contractors for your customer requirements and solicitations. In listening to, and engaging with, over 15,000 government contracting professionals, we came to the conclusion that a dedicated platform for searching, finding, and contacting businesses who focus on the government marketplace would add value for our community and the public sector at large.
GovShop offers government contracting and program professionals an intuitive, modern search platform to begin the difficult process of market research. With over 180,000 suppliers (and new ones added daily) in our database already, Public Spend Forum is making it easier to find public sector suppliers quickly. Features such as an intuitive, modern search interface instantly deliver relevant contractor and supplier profiles based on your keyword and category search terms. Our shortlist function lets you save the best suppliers for later research and outreach.
Everyone will appreciate the simple to use interface and ability to search in multiple ways like keywords, category codes, and contract vehicles. No longer will you have to search multiple websites to find a supplier’s DUNS number or their set-aside status; GovShop shows it all in a “one stop shop” supplier profile. It’s free to use all of the basic features of GovShop, which gives you access to all parts of the website and as many companies as we can offer for your future endeavors. In this brief introductory tutorial, we will help you learn the four basic ways to search for government contractors on GovShop, demonstrate how easy it is to filter suppliers by relevant characteristics, and instruct you on how to create shortlists of suppliers for later research.
Getting Started: Four Ways to Find your Ideal Suppliers
From the GovShop homepage, you can perform four basic searches: 1) by keyword, 2) by product or service category, 3) by contract vehicle, or 4) by searching and filtering all suppliers.
- Keyword: Type any relevant keyword or supplier name into the search bar, and GovShop will show you matching results by product/service offering or by supplier name.
- Product or Service Category: Try a Search by Products/Services Offerings to filter suppliers by categories like PSC codes, NAICS codes, NIGP codes (coming soon!) and PSF Markets curated specifically by our research team.
- By Contract Vehicle: You can also search by contract vehicles like GSA Schedules to find suppliers of interest. We are bringing more multi-use contracts into GovShop with each new release, so if you have a vehicle that you would like to see represented inside of GovShop, let us know!
- By Filter: Our selection of filters makes it easy to perform strategic market research on products or services of interest, for example when determining the degree of small business participation in a given category or market.
Any of GovShop’s four search techniques will take you to a results page to further refine your search for the ideal supplier using our dynamic filters.
Filter Results Based on Your Market Research Plan or Strategy
Results pages show relevant government contractors whose profiles match your search term(s). You can then “filter” the results to narrow your search in accordance with your market research plan or strategy (don’t have a plan in place? Check out this great resource). For example, you can filter by business size and socioeconomic set-aside eligibility and then continue to filter those results by category or contract vehicle.
By using our search and filter functions, you can quickly narrow down thousands of supplier profiles into a manageable few for more effective government market research.
Create Shortlists of Relevant Suppliers
To facilitate your search for the ideal contractors and suppliers, GovShop lets you add relevant, qualified suppliers to a shortlist which automatically saves even after you exit a session. This can be helpful if you’re planning to contact these suppliers or conduct further research. Once a buyer creates a free account on GovShop, their shortlist will be maintained until they clear it out and create a new one. This helps buyers to conduct more relevant, impactful market research on the best suppliers to match their customer’s requirements.
Our Mission is to Connect Buyers & Suppliers in Public Procurement
GovShop is a continuation of Public Spend Forum’s mission to connect buyers and suppliers in the public sector to enable more efficient, effective procurement. It will always be free for government buyers and for suppliers who wish to claim their basic profiles. We are excited to offer this market intelligence platform to all of our colleagues in the government marketplace and hope that you will share any feedback with us.
Would you like our team to provide a demonstration of how GovShop can make your market research faster, easier, and more successful? Schedule time for a brief demo from our customer care team and we’ll have you on the path to better market research in no time!
