Website Request for Proposal (RFP) - Urban List Website

• Issued by: Urban List
• Project Name: New Era CMS
• Selected Platform: WordPress + Voxel Framework (Elementor for page building)
• RFP Release Date: 6 March 2026
• Proposal Due: 19 March 2026
• Primary Contact : Daniel Laforest, Product Manager – Platform & Innovation dlaforest@theurbanlist.com

1. Executive Summary

Urban List is undertaking a major digital transformation to modernise our publishing platform, streamline workflows, improve audience experience, and enable new commercial products.

We are seeking an experienced web design and development partner to redesign and rebuild the Urban List website on WordPress + Voxel, replacing the current ExpressionEngine CMS.

The redesign will be delivered within Urban List’s existing brand guidelines, with strategic input, direction, and collaboration from the Urban List team to ensure brand consistency while evolving the user experience and commercial performance.

The successful partner will deliver a modern, modular platform that supports:

• High-velocity editorial publishing
• Structured, reusable content components (“cards”)
• Multi-market, multi-vertical operations (20+ locations, expanding quarterly)
• Directories, marketplaces, and membership capability
• Commercial flexibility (ads, affiliate, sponsored placements)
• Data and integration readiness (CDP/CEP and data warehouse partners)

The delivery partner will collaborate closely with Urban List Product Manager and other stakeholders and also align with our appointed CDP/CEP partners to ensure the platform is integration-ready and tracking-ready.

2. About Urban List

Good life. Good company.

Urban List is a leading, independent, lifestyle publisher with a vision to be the #1 platform globally for culture seekers who live like it matters.

U:L is your friend with cred-the one you trust for real, insider intel on the places, people and policies shaping culture. We connect millions with the stories that matter: from the restaurants, destinations, and experiences you’ll love, to the movements and decisions that define where we head next.

We live to share the good stuff—tried and tested. Real stories and experiences that bring diverse voices to the surface, amplify community perspectives, and connect the dots between cities, culture and life. U:L was built on human connection and trusted recommendations.

The New Era is about scaling that trust—through tech, creators, and community—to become the go-to cultural platform globally for people who live like it matters. Locally trusted. Globally known. Wherever you land, Urban List feels like home.

3. Strategic Background: The New Era

Urban List’s New Era Strategy sets a clear ambition: to become the #1 global platform for culture seekers who live like it matters.

To achieve this, we must evolve from a traditional digital publisher into a scalable cultural platform-powered by modern technology that enables:

• Deeper, personalised audience engagement
• Diversified and recurring revenue streams
• First-party data ownership and intelligence
• Efficient multi-market operations
• Reduced reliance on third-party platforms and algorithms

Historically, growth has been heavily influenced by external distribution platforms. While these channels remain important, they do not represent owned assets. Sustainable enterprise value requires a shift toward:

• Logged-in, consented audiences
• Behavioural insight captured directly
• Direct engagement via email and on-site experiences
• Monetisable first-party segments

This strategic shift directly informs UX and product design. The future platform must:

• Incentivise registration and consent
• Surface personalised value to users
• Support dynamic content and commercial modules
• Enable cross-market scalability

Our current technology (legacy CMS, manual workflows, limited data infrastructure) constrains scalability, personalisation, and commercial innovation.

This initiative is not a feature upgrade. It is a full CMS replacement and platform rebuild. Modernisation is mission-critical. It is the foundation for Urban List’s next decade of growth and the shift from publisher to platform-a cultural utility that helps people discover, experience, and engage with the good life.

4. Project Objectives

The new platform must enable:

1. Scalability: Support expansion into new markets, verticals, and products.
2. Commercial Enablement: Enable memberships, paid listings, events, ecommerce, display and pre-roll advertising, affiliate products, sponsored products, surveys and polls.
3. First-Party Data Readiness: Provide structured metadata and event hooks for CDP/CEP activation.
4. Editorial Velocity: Enable modular components, approvals, scheduling, and workflow efficiency.
5. Performance & Reliability: Handle traffic spikes and deliver strong Core Web Vitals.
6. Integration Readiness: Support API connectivity across CDP, CEP, analytics, and ad-tech.
7. Governance & Brand Integrity: Ensure role-based permissions, audit trails, moderation, and template control.
8. Design Flexibility: Allow rapid iteration without heavy developer dependency.

5. Current State CMS

• CMS: ExpressionEngine
• Publishing Model: Location-based (20+ markets, 1-2 new markets per quarter)
• Commercial Campaign Mini-sites: Ceros
• Personalisation Stack: No CDP/CEP today
• Monetisation: Display (GAM), Linkby, Dailymotion

Urban List’s current CMS is structured primarily around location-based publishing. We operate across 20+ markets, with a minimum of two new markets launching each quarter.

Each market functions as a quasi-independent publishing unit, with its own secondary taxonomy, typically including:

• News
• Features
• Best Of
• Things To Do
• Food + Drink
• Health + Wellness
• Fam
• Pets
• Travel
• Local Escapes
• Business Directory

5.1 Content & Monetisation Framework

Most articles follow a standardised template, supplemented by:

• List-based formats (Listables)
• Shoppable content
• Directory-style pages

Monetisation currently includes:

• Branded content—articles, social and video
• Affiliate Articles (e.g. Airbnb)
• Display advertising (Google Ad Manager)
• Linkby integrations
• Video Pre-roll (Dailymotion)
• Infinite scroll placements

5.2 Commercial & Campaign Publishing

Branded and campaign-led mini-sites are currently built externally using Ceros, with recent examples including:

• Parallel Paradise
• Brisbane Redefined
• Christmas Gift Guide
• Note from the Goat

5.3 Data & Personalisation

Urban List does not currently operate a Customer Data Platform (CDP) or a Customer Engagement Platform (CEP). As a result:

• There is no real-time audience segmentation
• No unified customer profiles across touchpoints
• No behavioural personalisation layer on-site
• Limited identity-led experiences
• Minimal orchestration between content consumption and lifecycle marketing
• No automated, trigger-based engagement journeys

Email communications are managed via Campaign Monitor and operate largely independently of on-site behavioural data, audience identity, and commercial segmentation logic.

This disconnect limits our ability to deliver personalised experiences, optimise engagement, and unlock first-party data–driven revenue opportunities.

5.4 Current Platform Constraints

The existing CMS and architecture present signific ant limitations across:

• Scalability
• Content modelling flexibility
• Workflow efficiency
• Integration with modern martech and data infrastructure
• Commercial product innovation

The platform is not architected to support Urban List’s next phase of growth and requires full replacement to enable a scalable, modular, data-enabled publishing ecosystem.

6. Future State CMS (WordPress + Voxel + Elementor)

Urban List will transition from an article-centric model to a structured, asset-driven platform architecture powered by Voxel.

Content will be managed as reusable, relational “cards” (e.g., venues, events, products, experiences, quotes & testimonials, images and video) enabling dynamic assembly across:

• Articles, guides and itineraries
• Directory and marketplace experiences
• Maps, lists and faceted search
• Multi-market homepages and landing pages

Leveraging Voxel’s advanced custom post types, relational data modelling, and dynamic tags, every content element will exist once and be referenced everywhere.

This eliminates duplication and enables:

• Real-time article construction from structured assets
• Dynamic lists and map-driven experiences
• Relationship-driven presentation (venue > suburb > city > category)
• Reuse across editorial, directories, itineraries, and campaigns
• Structured data alignment for SEO and personalisation

The CMS becomes a platform engine , not just a publishing tool-modular, scalable, and commercially adaptable.

6.1 SEO, GEO & AI Overview Readiness as Architectural Requirements

The future CMS must be structurally designed to maximise discoverability across traditional search, geo-based queries, and emerging AI-generated search environments (e.g. Google AI Overviews).

Search visibility must not rely solely on plugin-layer optimisation. It must be embedded within the content model, taxonomy and database architecture.

The platform must be architected to support:

Search & Discoverability (SEO)

• Scalable, clean URL hierarchy (e.g. /sydney/bars/)
• Dynamic metadata management at template and asset level
• Automated, structured schema output (Article, Event, LocalBusiness, etc.)
• Canonical management for dynamic and faceted pages
• XML sitemap and RSS feed generation by content type and market
• Crawlable, performance-optimised architecture

Geo Architecture (GEO)

The CMS must support structured, hierarchical location modelling:

• City > Suburb > Region taxonomy
• Geo coordinates stored at asset level
• Market-specific landing hubs
• Internal linking driven by relational geography
• Indexable city/category combinations
• Multi-market scalability

Geo modelling must enable both organic growth and commercial use cases, including:

• Local advertiser segmentation
• City-based audience packaging
• Personalised location-aware experiences
• Market-by-market performance analysis

AI Overview & Generative Search Readiness

The CMS must support structured entity modelling to maximise eligibility for AI-generated search results.

This includes:

• Clear entity definition (venue, event, experience, category, location)
• Single-source asset management (no duplication across articles)
• Strong relational linking between entities (venue ↔ suburb ↔ city ↔ category)
• Consistent schema derived directly from structured data
• Authoritative, indexable city and category hubs
• Clean semantic hierarchy supporting entity recognition

Content modelling must prioritise entity clarity and structured relationships to ensure visibility in AI summarised results, voice search, and generative answer formats. AI search readiness is a structural requirement, not a post-launch enhancement. This architecture must ensure that Urban List maintains and strengthens organic authority as search evolves from link-based indexing to entity-based summarisation.

6.2 Example Use Case: Affiliate Publishing

The Best Japanese Restaurants in Sydney

Current State

To produce this article today, an editor:

• Writes the introduction
• Manually curates “editor’s picks” from multiple sources
• Copies and pastes venue content
• Sources and uploads images
• Rewrites or duplicates descriptions
• Adds individual “book online” links

This process is manual, repetitive, and disconnected from any centralised directory structure. Content is duplicated across articles, updates must be made in multiple places, and there is no structured data relationship between venues and lists.

Future State

In the future model, the editor:

• Writes the introduction
• Searches the structured directory
• Dynamically pulls the top Japanese restaurants
• Inserts a templated, short-form version of each listing (image, description, booking link, metadata)

Each venue exists as a single structured asset. The article dynamically references it.

Benefits include:

• Real-time article construction from structured data
• Faster publishing and reduced editorial overhead
• Automatic updates if a venue’s details change
• Consistent formatting and commercial placements
• Improved SEO through relational data
• Scalable reuse across lists, maps, and recommendation modules

This shift moves Urban List from manual list-building to modular, data-driven publishing-improving workflow efficiency, speed to market, and long-term content scalability.

6.3 Future State Monetisation

The future platform retains and strengthens existing revenue streams while unlocking new recurring models.

Existing (Enhanced Through Structure)

• Branded content
• Affiliate articles and shoppable content
• Google Ad Manager display
• Linkby integration
• Video pre-roll
• Infinite scroll placements

New Revenue Models Enabled

• Event Listings Marketplace
• Hospitality Marketplace (self-serve, tiered upgrades)
• Premium Business Listings
• Paid Membership (Insiders+)
• Sponsored placements and boosted listings
• Structured data products and audience monetisation (via CDP/CEP activation)

This future-state CMS establishes Urban List as a structured, data-enabled cultural platform -enabling audience monetisation, marketplace expansion, membership growth, and scalable editorial velocity in the New Era.

7. Scope of Work Overview

This CMS project involves designing and building a custom WordPress platform using Elementor and Voxel to manage editorial content, listings, events and member accounts, with paid memberships, claim workflows and city-based directories. All features will use native platform functionality.

7.1 Editorial & Content Framework

• Standard article templates (news, features, evergreen, guides)
• Listable and shoppable formats with affiliate integrations
• Partner advertorial templates with dynamic commercial placements
• CMS-native mini-site capability (replacing Ceros EOY 2026)
• Component-based page builder with reusable modules
• Built-in SEO fields and schema support
• Versioning, approvals, scheduling, preview environments
• Multi-market architecture (20+ locations with quarterly expansion)
• Automatic translation capability (with language toggle)
• Native support for embedding third-party media (e.g., Acast, Omny, YouTube).

7.2 Structured Content & Taxonomy

• Robust taxonomy and metadata framework
• Advanced tagging to support segmentation and personalisation
• Relationship mapping across all listing types
• Searchable directory assets embedded within editorial workflow

7.3 Directories & Marketplace

All listing products must be fully searchable and dynamically insertable within editorial workflows.

• Hospitality listings (self-serve + paid tiers+ premium visibility upgrades)
• Business listings (editor-curated base listing + claim + premium visibility upgrades)
• Event listings (self-serve + submission + approval + auto-expiry + premium visibility upgrades)
• Product directories (internal + affiliate)
• Map-driven experiences (e.g. Eater)
• Faceted search and filtering
• Boost/promote logic

7.4 Membership

• Insiders (freemium tier)
• Insiders+ (paid tier)
• Access-controlled content and perks
• Member dashboards
• Stripe subscription billing
• Renewal, expiry and failed payment handling
• Integration-ready for CDP/CEP orchestration

7.5 Commerce Capability

• Native checkout and payment gateways
• Membership, ticket, merch and digital product sales
• Coupon and promotional code logic
• Order history and dashboards
• Revenue and conversion reporting
• Extensible API for affiliate and partner integrations

7.6 Commercial & Advertising Integration

• Google Ad Manager slot governance
• Native support for affiliate networks (Linkby and partners)
• Sponsored and boosted listing logic
• Commercial placements across templates
• DSP activation readiness (DV360, The Trade Desk)

7.7 Integration Readiness

• CDP
• CEP
• Snowflake / data warehouse APIs
• GA4 + GTM (enhanced event tracking)
• Notion (workflow and publishing pipelines)
• Slack (alerts, publishing notifications, system logs)

8. Scope of Work - UX/UI & Design

The selected partner will be responsible for end-to-end UX and UI design of the new platform, aligned to Urban List’s existing brand guidelines while thoughtfully evolving the digital experience.

Design quality is a highly weighted evaluation criterion and will be assessed equally alongside technical capability.

Urban List is a culture-led brand. Visual design, typography, motion, layout hierarchy and editorial expression directly influence brand sentiment, engagement depth and credibility. The platform must reflect a premium, contemporary, editorial-first experience.

The selected partner must demonstrate excellence in both:

Experience Architecture (UX): intuitive navigation, content discovery, directory usability, membership flows and commercial placement logic.

Visual Design (UI): strong editorial hierarchy, typographic clarity, motion principles, layout systems and cohesive brand expression across a structured, content-rich environment.

The design must balance:

• High-density structured content
• Dynamic commercial modules
• Multi-market scalability
• Performance and accessibility standards

Design execution must:

• Extend brand guidelines thoughtfully (not mechanically apply them)
• Prioritise readability and content immersion
• Support dynamic modules without visual clutter
• Maintain consistency across markets and verticals
• Follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Vendors must provide examples of relevant editorial-led or content-rich platforms and clearly outline design accountability (including any external design partners, if applicable).

8.1 Discovery & Information Architecture

The vendor will deliver:

• UX audit of the current experience
• Sitemap validation and navigation model
• Directory and marketplace information architecture
• User journey mapping (editorial, lister, member)

8.2 Wireframing

Low- and mid-fidelity wireframes must be provided for:

• Homepage (multi-market variants)
• Location pages (Tier 1 / Tier 2)
• Article templates (Standard, Affiliate)
• Directory listing pages
• Membership and conversion flows
• Dashboard experiences

All layouts must be responsive across desktop, tablet and mobile.

8.3 UI Design & Design System

The vendor will deliver:

• A documented design system aligned to Urban List brand guidelines
• A reusable component library for modular templates
• Defined typography, spacing, interaction states and motion principles
• “Content card” and directory card frameworks
• Form and conversion UI patterns
• Accessibility-conscious design following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

8.4 Prototyping & Validation

• Interactive prototypes (Figma or equivalent)
• Structured stakeholder review cycles
• Iterative refinement prior to development commencement

8.5 Handoff & Governance

• Formal design sign-off prior to development
• Ongoing design alignment during build phase
• Documented component naming conventions and design system governance

9. Scope of Work - Configuration, Templating & Pages

Note: All functionality described is native to WP, Elementor & Voxel.

9.1 Core Platform Capabilities

Content & Editorial

• Editorial articles with dynamic content (news, guides, listicles, long-form)
• Category landing pages
• Location landing pages (city, suburb, region)
• Structured content types (venues, events, businesses, products)
• Dynamic content insertion (e.g. listings inside articles)
• Author profiles (bios + associated content)
• Video integration and featured video placements
• Image galleries and media library management
• Related content and recommendation modules
• Scheduled publishing and content workflows
• Content versioning and revision history

Structured Listings & Marketplace

• Hospitality listings
• Business listings
• Event listings
• Business-generated content (frontend submission)
• Business claim functionality (listing plans)
• Tiered listing plans (free / paid / premium)
• Boost / promote functionality for listings
• Sponsored listing placements
• Moderation workflow for submitted content
• Structured data modelling for all listing types
• Review capability

Membership & User Management

• Paid membership plans (Insiders+)
• Role-based content restriction
• Tier-based access control
• User dashboard (profile, saved content, submissions)
• Frontend post publishing by user role
• Saved collections / favourites
• Consent and preference management

Events & Commerce

• Ticket sales for owned events
• Event booking integration (third-party APIs)
• Affiliate link management
• Promotional placements within structured templates
• Payment gateway integration (Stripe, etc.)
• Subscription billing management

Search, Filtering & Discovery

• Filterable directories by listing type
• Faceted search (taxonomy-driven)
• Geo-based filtering
• Keyword search
• Map-based exploration
• Behaviour-driven content surfacing (future-ready)
• Dynamic homepage modules (Note: Final filtering logic and behavioural rules to be defined during the design phase.)

Monetisation & Commercial Controls

• Dynamic Call-To-Action placement in archives/directories
• Sponsored module insertion rules
• Listing tier visibility rules
• Boost prioritisation logic
• Integration with Google Ad Manager
• Linkby integration
• Video pre-roll capability
• Infinite scroll monetisation logic

SEO, GEO & Discoverability

• Structured URL hierarchy
• Schema automation
• City/suburb taxonomy modelling
• Canonical management for filtered pages
• Index control rules
• AI Overview / generative search readiness

Technical & Operational

• Multi-market, multi-vertical capability
• Role-based permissions
• API readiness for CDP / CEP integration
• Performance optimisation
• CDN compatibility
• Staging / production environments
• Audit logs and activity tracking
• Data export capability

9.2 Wordpress Configuration

• Set up Staging Domain
• Install Voxel, Toolkit & Ticketing
• Install Elementor Pro
• Set up Elementor Global Style Templates
• Create global style for posts
• Create editorial user roles

9.3 General Voxel Theme Configuration

• Complete Voxel Onboarding
• Set up of Keys (Stripe, Google, Recaptcha)
• Configure Paid Membership
• Configure Paid Listings
• Configure Listing Addons / Boost
• Configure Claim Listing Functionality
• Configure ProductTypes
• Configure Collections
• Create Custom Post Types
  • Editorial Posts
  • Listable Posts
  • Shoppable Posts
  • Business Listings
  • Hospitality Listings
  • Event Listings
  • Hotel Listings
  • Airbnb Listings
  • Product Listings
  • Collections (A built-in feature that allows users to save, organise, and manage content-similar to “Favourites” or “Saved Lists.” User-curated content groupings stored inside their profile.)
  • Profiles
• Create Core VX Pages
• Configure Visibility Rules for Members & Listers

9.4 Voxel Base Templates

• Header x 3
• Footer x 2 (with custom fields for individual socials)
• Global Pop Up Styles
• Login / Auth
• Current Plan
• Orders Page
• Cart Summary
• Stripe Connect Account
• Post Statistics
• 404
• Terms
• Privacy
• Restricted Content
• Saved Searches
• Create Page x 5
• Claim Listing Flow
• Pricing Page For Memberships (time based, content restrictions)
• Pricing Page For Paid Listings (per listing w expiry rules)
• User Dashboard for Content Management x 2

9.5 Voxel Post Templates

• Posts
  • Single Post x 3 (Standard, Affiliate, Itinerary)
  • Loop Item x 4
  • Admin Loop x 1
  • Archive w Search
• Business Listings (Claim, Boost, Add)
  • Single Post
  • Loop Item x 2
  • Admin Loop x 1
  • Archive w Grid
  • Archive w Map
• Hospitality Listings (Claim, Boost, Add)
  • Single Post
  • Loop Item x 2
  • Admin Loop x 1
  • Archive w Grid
  • Archive w Map
• Event Listings (Claim, Boost, Add)
  • Single Post x 2 (admin w tickets)
  • Loop Item x 2
  • Admin Loop x 1
  • Archive w Grid
  • Archive w Map
• Product Listings (platform products or external links)
  • Single Post
  • Loop Item x 1
  • Admin Loop x 1
  • Archive w Search
• Collections (user saved content)
  • Single Post
  • Loop Item x 2
  • Archive w Search
• Profiles (member profile, can hide archive)
  • Single Post
  • Loop Item x 2
  • Admin Loop x 1
  • Archive w Search
• Authors / Editors
  • Single Post
  • Loop Item x 1
  • Archive w Search
• Jobs (or another directory type)
  • Single Post
  • Loop Item x 1
  • Archive w Search

9.6 Voxel Category / Terms Templates

• Generic Terms Archive x 2
• Primary Category Archive
• Tier 1 Location Archive
• Tier 2 Location Archive
• Editors Directory Archive
• Terms Loop x 4 (text + image, image, icon etc)

Note: All term archives to include at least 2 block designs.

9.7 General Pages

1. Home
2. About Us
3. Why Join Premium (Insiders+)
4. Careers
5. Support Us
6. Subscribe Page
7. Advertising/Partnerships
8. Editorial Policy
9. Contact Us

9.8 Migration and Content Entry

Vendors will be required to complete one representative content migration (for example, a specific category or similar content set) to demonstrate the full migration process. This should include transforming the content into the structured model, validating it, and publishing it in the new CMS. The aim is to confirm the migration approach works in practice and that the resulting content structure, formatting and relationships meet Urban List’s expectations before full migration begins.

9.9 Excluded (unless agreed in writing)

• Full Migration and content entry
• Third-party platform implementation beyond native integration readiness (e.g. full CDP/CEP configuration).
• Additional customisation/development beyond native capabilities

10. Delivery Standards & Acceptance Criteria

Vendors must address the following:

10.1 Performance

• Core Web Vitals optimisation
• Performance testing prior to launch
• Caching strategy (including logged-in users)

The platform must be engineered to achieve “Good” Core Web Vitals scores across the majority of page templates under typical traffic conditions.

Vendors should indicate expected benchmarks for:

• LCP: ≤ 2.5 seconds
• INP: ≤ 200 ms
• CLS: ≤ 0.1

These benchmarks should apply across key page types (homepages, articles, directory listings, and search/filter pages).

10.2 Accessibility

• Follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Accessibility testing

10.3 Technical SEO Foundation

• Structured schema support (Article, Event, LocalBusiness, Product as applicable)
• Canonical handling
• XML sitemap management
• SEO-friendly URL structures

10.4 Tracking & Data Layer

• GA4/GTM-compatible event framework
• Documented event naming conventions
• Tracking hooks for memberships, listings, search, boosts, conversions
• CDP/CEP-ready data layer architecture

10.5 Governance & Moderation

• Role-based permission matrix
• Listing moderation queue
• Audit trails

10.6 Reporting & Export

• Internal reporting dashboards
• Partner-facing reporting capability (where applicable)
• CSV/API export readiness
• RSS Feeds

10.7 Warranty & Support

• Post-launch defect period
• Support SLAs
• Handover documentation and training

Formal acceptance will be subject to successful completion of agreed testing, performance benchmarks, and documented handover.

11. Hosting, Performance & Security (Optional Response)

If hosting is proposed, vendors must provide details of their hosting architecture and operational support model, including:

11.1 Infrastructure

• Development, staging and production environments
• CDN strategy
• Image optimisation pipeline
• Backup and disaster recovery plan (RPO / RTO)
• Security hardening and Web Application Firewall (WAF)
• Traffic surge handling and autoscaling
• Performance and uptime monitoring

11.2 Availability & Uptime

Vendors should specify their uptime commitment (e.g. 99.9%, 99.95%, 99.99%) and how availability is monitored and reported.

11.3 Operational Support & SLA

Vendors must outline their support model and service level agreements, including:

• Incident severity levels (e.g. P1, P2, P3)
• Response and resolution time targets for each severity level
• Escalation procedures for critical incidents
• 24/7 availability for production outages
• Primary contact and support channels for emergency incidents (e.g. website outage outside business hours) This should clearly describe who is contacted and how incidents are handled if the production website becomes unavailable outside business hours.

12. Proposal Response Requirements

Proposals must include the following:

• Company overview
• Relevant case studies
• Delivery methodology
• Team structure
• Detailed commercial breakdown (core vs optional scope & design & development as separate line items)
• Assumptions & risks
• Client references
• Proposed delivery timeline
• Target go-live window (Month/Quarter 2026)

13. Evaluation Criteria

Urban List will assess proposals based on:

• Understanding of platform vision
• Experience in WordPress + structured marketplace builds
• Demonstrated design excellence (editorial-fir st)
• Technical competence
• Governance and delivery maturity
• Transparency of pricing and assumptions

Design capability will be weighted alongside technical delivery.

14. RFP Timeline

• RFP Released: 6 March 2026
• Responses Due: COB 19 March 2026
• Shortlist & Interviews: w/c 23 March 2026
• Decision: 27 March 2026
• Target Commencement: April 2026

15. Submission Instructions

Please submit your proposal as a PDF to:

Daniel Laforest
Product Manager - Platform & Innovation
dlaforest@theurbanlist.com

Deadline: COB 19 March, 2026

Late submissions will not be considered unless prior written approval has been granted by Urban List.

16. Contact for Enquiries

All enquiries regarding this RFP should be directed to:

Daniel Laforest
Product Manager - Platform & Innovation
dlaforest@theurbanlist.com