Abstract: A web-based service that facilitates communications and commercial transactions between buyers and suppliers, including the efficient distribution of a buyer's request-for-quotations (RFQs) to an audience of that buyer's preferred suppliers, and the automatic and efficient handling of supplier quotations in a variety of bidding formats that are communicated back to the buyer for selection of a winning bid. After selection of the winning bid, a server device generates communications for enabling the buyer and winning supplier to enter into a contract for completing the commercial transaction.