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A bid is your formal response to a listing. When you see a listing that matches your needs, you submit a bid with your proposed price, volume, and delivery terms. The listing owner can accept your bid outright, reject it, or respond with a counter-bid — turning the interaction into a structured negotiation thread that replaces the back-and-forth of traditional phone and email trading.

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What Is a Bid

A bid is a conditional offer to trade that references a specific listing. Every bid is timestamped, attributed to your company, and tracked in the platform. The bid thread between two parties creates a complete, auditable negotiation record. When one party accepts a bid or counter-bid, Cibocom automatically converts it into a deal.

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The Bidding Flow

1

Find a Listing

Browse the market feed or use search to find a listing that matches your requirement. Review the product specifications, volume, price, Incoterms, origin, and validity period before proceeding.
2

Submit Your Bid

Select Place Bid on the listing. Fill in your proposed price, volume, preferred delivery terms, and an optional message to the listing owner. Submit the bid — the listing owner is notified immediately.
3

Await the Response

The listing owner reviews your bid. You receive a notification when they respond. The response is one of three outcomes: accepted, rejected, or countered.
4

Counter or Accept

If the listing owner counters, you receive their revised terms. Review the counter-bid and choose to accept it, reject it, or respond with your own counter. Each round of negotiation is captured in the bid thread. When either party accepts, a deal is created automatically.

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Bid Fields

When placing a bid, complete the following fields:
  • Price — Your proposed price per unit in the currency specified on the listing. You can bid above or below the listed price.
  • Volume — The quantity you are bidding on. Must fall within the minimum and maximum lot sizes on the listing if specified.
  • Delivery Terms (Incoterms) — Your preferred Incoterm, if different from the one on the listing. Changing Incoterms changes the landed cost, so be explicit.
  • Proposed Delivery Date — Your required or available delivery date. Align this with the listing’s stated delivery window or clearly note if you need different timing.
  • Message — An optional free-text field to communicate context, ask questions, or note specific requirements. Use this to build relationship context and give the listing owner confidence in your bid.

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Counter-Bids and Negotiation

If the terms of a bid are not yet acceptable, either party can counter rather than accept or reject. A counter-bid:
  • Replaces the previous bid in the active negotiation slot
  • Notifies the other party immediately
  • Carries a new expiry time (set by the party issuing the counter)
  • Maintains the full prior negotiation history in the thread for both parties to reference
There is no limit to the number of rounds of counter-bidding. However, keep negotiation rounds concise — repeated small moves without resolution reduce trading efficiency and can signal uncertainty to your counterparty.

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Accepting or Rejecting a Bid

To accept a bid: Open the bid thread, review the current terms, and select Accept Bid. Cibocom immediately creates a deal from the accepted bid terms and notifies both parties. The listing status changes to Closed. To reject a bid: Select Reject to decline without countering. The bidder is notified and the bid is closed. The listing remains active for other bidders.
When you reject a bid, you can include a brief reason. Providing context — for example, that you filled the volume with another counterparty — preserves the relationship and keeps the door open for future trades.

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Bid Status

Monitor the status of all your bids from My Bids in the main navigation.
Bids expire automatically if the other party does not respond within the timeframe set when the bid was submitted. If a bid is close to expiry and negotiation is ongoing, contact your counterparty directly through the platform’s messaging feature and submit a refreshed bid to keep the negotiation active.

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Multiple Bids on the Same Listing

A listing can receive bids from multiple counterparties simultaneously. As the listing owner, you manage each bid thread independently and can negotiate in parallel with several parties. Only one bid can ultimately be accepted — accepting one bid closes the listing and notifies all other active bidders that the listing is no longer available.
If you are bidding on a listing that is actively receiving other bids, act promptly. Listing owners can accept any bid at any time — waiting too long on a counter may result in the listing closing before your response is reviewed.