Become a Supplier on DLA’s eCommerce Platform.

FedMall is the redesigned successor of the DLA eMall program; a successful 20-year purchasing program. FedMall is an eCommerce platform which hosts millions of products that are available for purchase by authorized entities. It includes tools to assist both customers and suppliers with functions that allow for product catalog management, tracking purchases, and more.  FedMall is comparable to popular commercial and government eCommerce shopping sites, such as Amazon.com and GSAAdvantage.gov respectively, this online shopping center is made available to Government customers from Federal, State, and local agencies.

FedMall Suppliers can publish and modify awarded products in FedMall and maximize visibility to customers who purchase through this platform. DLA eCommerce option has a growing popularity in both the supplier and customer community, a FedMall contract could increase your sales and they now have a fully functioning platform that provides order life-cycle support.

How to get on FedMall

There are two options to registering to the FedMall.  To become a FedMall Supplier, you must have a long term federal contract that FedMall is able to support.

Examples of long term contracts may include:

• Long Term Agreements (LTA),
• Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA),
• General Service Administration’s (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule Contract,
• DLA’s Schedule contract program.

Very similar to the GSA Schedule, the DLA Schedule is a newer type of IDIQ contract that is able to provide the government customer with a discounted Commercial Off-the shelf (COTS) product.

FedMall MarketPlace – Pilot Program Currently Specific to Office Supply Vendors

Another option is only available to office supply vendors who must have NAICS 453210 in their profile on SAM.gov and requires no long-term contract as mentioned above. Office Supply vendors can register in the FedMall MarketPlace, but limits you to only selling up to the micro-purchase threshold for government purchase cards, currently at $3,500.00. The FedMall MarketPlace is an eCommerce, platform similar to FedMall, allowing vendors to provide “open market” options to customers. The MarketPlace is a pilot program that is only open to vendors offering office products, and the MarketPlace is looking to add more categories of products in the near future.

Additional Requirements to get on FedMall

Once a long-term government contract has been identified (you may add more than one), suppliers will also need to ensure that they have a valid System for Award Management (SAM) registration and also include a CAGE Code.  Suppliers will also have to obtain specified authentication certificates in order to access FedMall.  These certificates are obtained from third party sources at an additional cost and specific to an individual user.  FedMall currently recognizes CAC cards, PIV cards, and/or soft file certificates that are installed within web browsers.  Have a GSA Schedule and have access to GSA eMod?  You can also use your existing certificate to access FedMall!

The FedMall ordering process is only privy to authorized individuals and will require the supplier to have a secure method for accepting orders.  The currently recognized secure transmission types include secure email (PGP certificate installation), EDI 850 and cXML transfer methods.  PGP secure email set up remains the most popular order transmission method as it can be obtained rather quickly and is also available from trusted parties such as Symantec and Identrust.

Once the prerequisites have been met, contractors may begin registering the contract through the FedMall Supplier Portal.  Be advised that this platform is fairly new and has been experiencing a number of technical issues.  Vendors may experience technical issues and slow responses from the FedMall technical team. FedMall has been listening to the community and is exhausting every effort to roll out new updates as soon as they can.  FedMall hosts regularly scheduled town hall teleconferences and are open to discussing to issues that users are currently experiencing.

To find out when the next Town Hall teleconference will be, or to jump in and start your registration, visit the FedMall Supplier Portal at https://www.suppliers.fedmall.mil.

Agency customers requiring assistance are encouraged to visit the FedMall Customer Registration page at: http://www.dla.mil/Info/FedMall/FedMallBuyers/

Ready to begin, or need to know if you can qualify for FedMall?  Contact Coley GSC for more information if you are ready to begin. Our consultants can help if you need to know if you can qualify to becoming a FedMall supplier.

Julio Cardenas

Julio is a Senior Consultant with Coley GCS, LLC, a Government Contracts Consulting, Coaching and Training company. Julio has over 10 years’ experience helping companies succeed with their GSA schedules.