If the initiative to conclude a transaction belongs to the exporter, he can send a commercial offer (offer) to the prospective buyer. An offer is an offer addressed to one or more specific persons that is sufficiently defined and expresses the intention of the person who made the offer to consider himself to have concluded a contract with the addressee by whom the offer will be accepted.
The offer must contain all the necessary information regarding the essential terms of the contract. Essential are the conditions on the subject of the contract, the conditions that are named in the legislation as essential for contracts of this type, as well as all those conditions on which, at the request of one of the parties, an agreement must be reached.
(CC, art. 402).
The person who made the offer shall be referred to as the offeror. Acceptance of such an offer is called acceptance, and the person who accepted the offer is called an acceptor. The offer, which is made on the stock exchange or at the auction, is called a tender.
In commercial practice, an offer can be a transaction in letter or oral form. In the case of a written form of the offer, it must be written in the language of the addressee or in the generally accepted language of business communication of this region. Most often, the offer is made in English. Caution should be given to sending an offer in English to French- or Spanish-speaking countries.
Acceptance indicates acceptance of such an offer (offer). Of course, acceptance of an offer is recognized as an acceptance if it is received by the offeror within the time limits specified in the offer. A reply agreeing to conclude a contract on terms other than those proposed in the offer is considered as a new offer and is called a counter-offer.
According to some signs, the offer can be attributed to advertising, but it differs from the advertising project in the content of the specific conditions of the upcoming transaction (the procedure for settlements, delivery dates, price per batch of goods, etc.).
Offers can be made as:
1. A business letter or a set of documents consisting of commercial and technical conditions of the proposed transaction.
2. A standard offer indicating the usual conditions of sale of the seller.
3. Draft (pro forma) of the contract signed by the exporter and containing all the main (essential) terms of the transaction.
A skillfully drafted commercial offer arouses the interest of the buyer and, other things being equal, will lead to the conclusion of a transaction. The text of the offer should be as brief as possible, but at the same time extremely clear and should exclude the possibility of different interpretations. In commercial offers, it is unacceptable to use the names and titles of well-known companies for unseemly purposes. These violations are punishable by law.
As a general rule, a commercial offer (offer) must contain:
the exact and abbreviated name of the seller, his trademark and trademark (if any); the name of the goods, a brief, but sufficient characteristic of it; the proposed volume of delivery; minimum quantity of goods supplied in batches; Packaging information terms of delivery (more often according to INCOTERMS); price on the terms of delivery per piece and per batch; delivery time; payment procedure; discounts (if provided); details of the seller.
With commercial offers, prospectuses for products are usually sent, including “reference sheets”, i.e. a list of known buyers who are already using the offered goods.
In international commercial practice, there are two types of offers:
1. Firm offer.
2. Free offer.
A firm offer is a commercial offer of the seller for the sale of a certain batch of goods to only one possible buyer, indicating the period during which the seller is bound by his offer and cannot make a similar offer to another buyer.
The mechanism for concluding a transaction by sending a firm offer and accepting it is as follows: if the buyer agrees to all the conditions of the firm offer, he sends the seller a written confirmation containing unconditional acceptance. If the buyer does not agree with one or more of the terms of the offer, he sends the seller a response to the offer or counter-offer indicating his conditions and the deadline for the response, etc. until a full agreement is reached on all the conditions. Failure to receive a response from the buyer within the period established in the offer is tantamount to the buyer’s refusal to conclude a transaction on the proposed terms and releases the seller from the offer made by him. A free offer is usually made simultaneously for the same batch of goods to several possible buyers without a deadline for a response. The buyer’s consent to the terms of the offer is confirmed by a solid controference. The seller accepts the contraference of the buyer that he previously received, or the buyer with whom he prefers to conclude a transaction.