What is EDI? The Fresh Guide to EDI
Monday, April 29, 2019Eric Zegarski
EDI's Impact on Today's Modern Retail Landscape
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has been around for some time in the retail space, it even pre-dates Woodstock. We did our own research to see if a simple Google search could point us in the right direction about modern EDI definitions and solutions. We were not impressed with the search results, we found outdated blog posts, whitepapers, and FAQs from 5 years ago. Therefore, we set out on a mission to compile a guide about the impact EDI plays in today’s modern, multi-channel commerce space.
Who is This EDI Guide For
In today’s digital commerce space, there are now roles that did not exists 10 or even 5 years ago. Shout out to all the eCommerce Managers reading this! We kept that in mind when crafting this guide. Essentially, this guide is for anyone who themselves is a brand or a supplier or assists brands and suppliers with sales and distribution. If you are looking to sell in retail or online on channels like Amazon, then you can't afford not to read this.
Key topics covered:
- What is EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)?
- What organizations use EDI?
- How do you use EDI?
- Common EDI documents
- Popular retailers that require EDI
- How to get YOUR product listed
- Amazon EDI Requirements
- Additional resources
- Recommended next steps
The Benefits of Integrating Via an iPaaS
We go beyond just explaining what EDI is, we also highlight key benefits of integrating your retail EDI systems with your ERP via an iPaaS (integration platform as a service). These benefits include but are not limited to:
- Eliminating the need for manual entry
- Reduction of errors due to manual entry
- Automatic and instantaneous data transfer
- An environmentally conscious solution that limits paper waste
- Back office enterprise systems ready to handle large order volumes
How to Get Started Integrating Your EDI
We also explore how to go about choosing the right tech partner to help you with your EDI integration needs. There are many vendors out there that can do EDI integration. However, if you don’t choose the right one then your integration solution could be delayed and not function properly. Therefore, it is important to choose a vendor who has years of integration experience, has a universal integration platform, can ensure an uptime of over 99%, and ensure your data is secure via its cloud hosted platform.