EDI & B2B Retail

EDI overview: how ShipWave connects you to Walmart, Target, and big-box retailers

A plain-English intro to EDI, the 850/856/810 document types, and how ShipWave's SPS Commerce partnership eliminates the headache.

What is EDI?

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the language big-box retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco, and Wayfair use to send you purchase orders and receive your shipping confirmations and invoices. Instead of emailing you a PDF, they post a structured X12 document to your system; instead of you replying with another PDF, you post a structured response back. It's the same conceptual exchange as a normal e-commerce order—just over a 1970s protocol that hasn't been retired because too much retail volume depends on it.

Why it matters for B2B

If you want to sell to a national retailer, EDI is not optional. Walmart will not accept your products without an EDI connection capable of receiving 850s and sending 856s. Same for Target, Costco, Lowe's, Home Depot, Wayfair, and most large grocery chains. Compliance penalties (chargebacks) for missed or malformed documents can run $50–$500 per occurrence, and falling below a retailer's on-time-ASN threshold (usually 98%) can get you delisted. ShipWave handles all of this so you can focus on selling.

Our SPS Commerce partnership

ShipWave partners with SPS Commerce, the largest retail EDI VAN (value-added network) in North America. SPS connects to every major retailer once and offers a single normalized API for you. ShipWave plugs into that API on your behalf. The upshot: you don't manage AS2 certificates, FTP credentials, or X12 maps—you just plug in your retailer onboarding info and orders start flowing. See Connecting a trading partner for the setup process.

The document types you'll actually use

  • 850 Purchase Order – the retailer sends this when they're placing an order. ShipWave imports it as a normal order with the retailer as the customer.
  • 855 PO Acknowledgement – your response confirming you can fulfill it (usually within 24 hours).
  • 856 Advance Ship Notice (ASN) – you send this at ship time. It tells the retailer what's on the truck, with carton/SSCC detail. Required for almost every retailer; gating for compliance.
  • 810 Invoice – your bill, sent after shipment.
  • 940 Warehouse Shipping Order – if you use a 3PL, the retailer or brand sends 940s to instruct the warehouse to ship.
  • 945 Warehouse Shipping Advice – the 3PL's response confirming what shipped.

What ShipWave automates

ShipWave receives incoming 850s as orders, generates 855 acknowledgements automatically (within minutes), creates 856 ASNs at ship time with SSCC carton labels (see GS1 labels and BOL), and sends 810 invoices. For 3PL operators, ShipWave also handles 940/945 traffic with the brand. Every document is validated against the retailer's map before sending so malformed messages never go out. You see a clean dashboard of orders, shipments, and compliance metrics—not raw EDI.

FAQs

Do I need to learn X12 syntax?
No. ShipWave handles all parsing and serialization. You never see a raw EDI document unless you specifically request the debug view in the trading partner settings.
How long does EDI onboarding to a new retailer take?
Typically 2–4 weeks once the retailer's vendor packet is in hand. SPS Commerce runs sandbox testing with the retailer, then promotes to production. ShipWave's side of the work is usually a single day of mapping.
Is there an extra cost for EDI?
Yes. EDI is billed per active trading partner per month, plus a small per-document fee passed through from SPS. See your billing page for current rates. Compared to the chargebacks and lost sales of non-compliance, it's usually a tiny line item.

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