As you grow your online business, your ecommerce supply chain will only get more complex with inventory levels constantly fluctuating and having orders shipped across the world.

That’s why implementing the right systems, workflows, and technology is so important. As you build your business, having access to real-time data and insights will help manage your supply chain while also reducing costs and saving you time.

This requires a centralised ecommerce tech stack in which data is collected, recorded, and made available through a centralised system, known as “EDI fulfilment.”

What is EDI fulfilment?

EDI fulfilment is the process of optimising logistics operations using electronic data interchange (EDI) systems.

With an EDI fulfilment system in place, all essential forms, information, documentation, and communication is transferred electronically through a centralised system to save time and reduce paperwork.

EDI fulfilment is becoming the ecommerce standard

With EDI fulfilment, you can standardize and streamline how you exchange documents with customers and vendors.

EDI is especially important when working with multiple B2B customers since contracts and important information is involved. EDI fulfilment systems are essential to keeping B2B ecommerce accounts organised while also improving fulfilment and order accuracy.

Here is an overview of why EDI fulfilment is becoming the standard.

Time-saving integrations

EDI solutions integrate with your existing ecommerce stack, including supply chain management solutions such as an ERP inventory system, CMS, CRMs, and warehouse management system (WMS).

This minimises the challenging and time-consuming process of switching between multiple tools and platforms.

Shorter processing times

Paper-based transactions often take days to get processed.

With EDI fulfilment, your transactions can be completed in just a few hours since documents can be shared securely within minutes. 

Paper-free efficiency gains

Using EDI fulfilment, there are no paper transactions between you and your third-party partners.

That means you can skip the whole process of manually mailing documents, receiving them, entering them into your systems, and acknowledging receipts, which can take days to complete.

This allows you to maximise your time without having to be on top of other members of your supply chain.

Increased sustainability

Going paperless with your supply chain transactions is a big step to go green for your ecommerce operations.

As such, EDI fulfilment can improve your supply chain sustainability and promote social accountability.

Multichannel optimizations

EDI fulfilment systems allow you to optimise communication throughout your multichannel retail operations.

EDI solutions ensures all channels are operating through a centralised data system to ensure accuracy and consistency.

This allows all sales channels to pull accurate inventory levels to avoid backorders, stockouts, and overstocking. 

“Along with Chewy, we’re also fulfilling orders through Amazon, as they are the two biggest online pet sales channels in the US. We utilise ShipBob’s EDI solution that is connected to our 3rd party EDI platform SPS Commerce for our Chewy orders, and when we don’t ship directly to Amazon, we rely on ShipBob’s direct integration with Amazon for FBA orders. We’re even exploring additional channels that ShipBob supports, such as Walmart.com.

Being an omnichannel brand is critical for us, so we can reach more pet lovers from more places. We’re glad that ShipBob helps us keep up with demand from all the places we reach our customers.”

Stephanie Lee, COO at PetLab Co.

Grow your ecommerce business faster with EDI fulfilment

EDI fulfilment benefits onlines businesses in a myriad of ways from increased supply chain efficiency to healthier profit margins.

Here is how ecommerce business grow faster with access to an EDI fulfilment solution. 

Faster order processing and fulfilment

An EDI fulfilment improves speed throughout the process, staring with faster order processing. This enables a stronger customer experience by speeding up the order-to-cash workflow without compromising accuracy. 

For instance, ShipBob’s EDI fulfilment technology makes it easy to validate orders and have them sent to the nearest fulfilment centre to be picked, packed, and shipped. 

“ShipBob can process things more quickly than we could in-house and at scale. These time savings translate into cost savings as well.”

Sarah Chalos, Co-Founder and President, I Heart Keenwah

Easy stock purchasing

With real-time insights into stock availability across fulfilment centres, you’re able to replenish inventory based accordingly. This makes it easier to optimise inventory based on current inventory levels, as well as historical inventory data.

Many EDI fulfilment solutions offer a feature that allows you to automatically set a reorder point notifications to ensure you never run out of stock. Check out how it works with ShipBob’s technology here.

“ShipBob’s analytics tool is also really cool. It helps us a lot with planning inventory reorders, seeing when SKUs are going to run out, and we can even set up email notifications so that we’re alerted when a SKU has less than a certain quantity left. There is a lot of value in their technology.”

Oded Harth, CEO & Co-Founder of MDacne

Accurate demand forecasting

Having access to real-time insights and historical data provides all the information you need to accurately forecast demand.

For example, ShipBob’s technology provides access to insights and distribution metrics that inform business decisions, such as:

• How quickly products are selling
• Which items are slow-moving
• How many days of inventory you have until you are expected to run out
• Where your customers are and where you’re shipping from
• Profitability by order, how much you are spending on shipping, and the average order amount that customers are spending at your store
• And much more.

ShipBob: The ecommerce leader in EDI fulfilment

“Being an omnichannel brand is critical for us, so we can reach more pet lovers from more places.

We’re glad that ShipBob helps us keep up with demand from all the places we reach our customers.”

Stephanie Lee, COO at PetLab Co.

ShipBob’s B2B fulfilment suite lets you take your ecommerce business to the next level using robust EDI fulfilment solutions.

Integrated with market-leading EDI provider, SPS Commerce, ShipBob considers your unique compliance guidelines to automate your shipping and fulfilment. It comes with a retail dropshipping solution and an expanded B2B fulfilment solution to fit your needs.

Cloud-based

ShipBob is cloud-based, so you don’t need to worry about systems going down. This helps you ensure that your backend processes function smoothly without any risk of losing important data.

In addition, relevant business partners can easily access necessary documents from the cloud-based EDI solution, enabling better collaboration through automation.

EDI automation means data from a purchase orders will be automatically pulled into the ShipBob dashboard to create new orders, packing slips, and GS1 barcodes. 

Proprietary

ShipBob’s proprietary software allows customers to experience the best possible fulfilment system.

It comes with API capabilities so market-leading EDI providers like SPS Commerce can build integrations to make ShipBob a leader in EDI fulfilment. 

Trusted

ShipBob is trusted by top ecommerce businesses and has been for years.

From established direct-to-consumer brands to scaling subscription order services — many ecommerce businesses have entrusted ShipBob to automate fulfilment processes.

When it comes to EDI fulfilment, finding an industry-leading solution that easily integrates with all your existing systems can make all the difference.

ShipBob lets you optimise logistics operations while spending more of your time on product development, marketing, and customer experiences. 

“Our fast-paced, quickly growing retail relationship with Dick’s is not something we would have been confident about if we were still with our old fulfilment provider. We wouldn’t have said yes to this growth with Dick’s without the support and capabilities we’ve gotten from ShipBob. The ability to connect with Dick’s via EDI for seamless retail distribution with ShipBob fulfilling these orders has been instrumental for making this a success.” 

Courtney Trevino, VP of Finance & Ops at BRUCE BOLT

Outsource or keep EDI fulfilment in-house

To optimise EDI fulfilment, you need the right tech in place. ShipBob has a best-in-class warehouse management system (WMS) for brands that have their own warehouse and need help managing inventory in real time, reducing picking, packing, and shipping errors, and scaling with ease.

With ShipBob’s WMS, brands can even leverage ShipBob’s fulfilment services in any of ShipBob’s fulfilment centres across the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia to improve cross-border shipping, reduce costs, and speed up deliveries.

Request ShipBob’s WMS pricing here.

Learn how ShipBob has helped thousands of ecommerce businesses and how they can help you. Request a quote today.

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EDI fulfilment FAQs

Here are answers to the top questions about EDI fulfilment.

What is EDI?

EDI refers to “electronic data interchange.” It’s a combination of a system and processes that enable you to use a standard electronic format for exchanging documents and transactions with vendors, suppliers, and other business partners.

Is EDI standard in the ecommerce industry?

With many modern businesses already using some sort of EDI, EDI is now standard in the ecommerce industry. However, many ecommerce businesses are missing the opportunity to optimise their logistics using EDI-based fulfilment.

What is decentralized distribution?

Decentralized distribution brings the product closer to the end customer and further away from the corporate office. For instance, online brands often hold inventory in different warehouse locations based on where their customers live, so orders can be shipped out closer to their destination. 

Can an EDI solution help ecommerce businesses grow?

An EDI solution facilitates faster EDI order processing and accurate demand forecasting while letting you automate many aspects of your supply chain. This saves you time and improves efficiency, which is vital for ecommerce business growth.