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How to get more out of Salesforce with EDI Integration


This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.


At the end of a discussion we had with one of our contacts, who was inquiring about EDI, Salesforce and how to integrate it all together, I decided to write this article, in order to clarify and structure my arguments with the hope it can help other readers who might fall on this article having the same questions and concerns. I will start by defining some technical terms, prior to getting to the points.

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is one of the most popular cloud-based CRM. The company is based in California (USA), and it has thousands of users worldwide. We’ve already written an article that provides more about the product, which I invite you to read, and learn more about salesforce itself, and how Magic xpi can be the best integration platform with Salesforce.

What is EDI?

Electronic Data Interchange or (EDI) is fundamentally a standard that regulates the electronic exchange of business documents between trading partners. EDI contains a set of message types. There are many different EDI standards i.e. X12, EDIFACT, RosettaNet…used mainly in different industries and different parts of the world. In North America, the US standard ANSI ASC X12 is p predominantly used.

Some example message types are:

Help: What is EDI2XML as a Service?

EDI2XML as a Service is our popular translation and communication service offering to businesses of all sizes, from various industries. All conversions of EDI files are done on our end, leaving customers with no on-site installation of software or hardware and an EDI project that is on time and within budget.

Download our EDI2XML Translation Service Pricing Package here for more information

Why EDI Integration with Salesforce is Important

Companies of all sizes have different systems in place: i.e. ERP, CRM, Warehouse management…Some other companies might only operate their business using Salesforce.

It is a common situation that companies will have business partners requesting to exchange EDI (regardless of the standard), with them. The truth is that companies’ can NOT refuse such a request coming from a customer for example. They have to comply with such demand and become “EDI ready” or “EDI compliant”.

In a such scenario, the company running Salesforce will be receiving a Sales order (850 as an example) and sending back and invoice (810) for billing purposes, all in X12 standard (for example). What to do about this requirement? Companies need to take action.

Why You Need to integrate EDI into Salesforce

Given the above facts and considering that Salesforce “out-of-the-box” does NOT support any EDI standard, there is no choice for a company leveraging Salesforce, to escape the integration request.

Ultimately, businesses need to Integrate EDI into their Salesforce instance. By pushing EDI messages into their Salesforce instance in a near real-time basis, companies can achieve even more with the Salesforce system.

“Need Integration” Checklist

Each company is unique, and it can be a lot of reasons why your business needs Integrations. Following are the most common reasons a company might need to consider, in order to jump into integration projects:

– Your trading partner(s) is requesting to exchange data electronically

– Your company gets a lot of orders (200+ orders a month on average), this is being taped manually in different systems, thus taking lots of time of your employees, and creating inefficiencies.

– You are looking for a better experience with your customer. You need to get your inventory out that always exact, tracking numbers are received instantly after the merchandise is sent, etc.

– You do not have enough time to process orders. Your costumers need to wait for order processing.

– As third-party sellers, you are getting penalties from Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces for the reason that you are not shipping orders fast enough.

– Your company receiving negative reviews from your customers who shop online, because of slow service or erroneous orders processing.

What to do Next to integrate EDI and Salesforce

Integrating EDI with Salesforce, is a bit different from other types of integration projects, a company might go through. Due to the fact that EDI is very specific, it requires very specific expertise. Here are some of the important points to consider before going into EDI integration projects:

  • For EDI integration in general, work with an EDI provider, and NOT with VANS (Value Added Networks). VANs are more expensive and less into integration.
  • Make sure the EDI provider is “integration oriented”; meaning he is not only specialized in EDI, but in integration as a concept
  • Do NOT settle half-way with “file integration”, look for near “real-time” integration, directly into your system.
  • Do NOT settle with point-to-point integration”. Developing and “coding” integration points, is very expensive to maintain at long term.
  • Look for the best integration method: look for certified connectors from the manufacturer (salesforce).

Integrate EDI with Salesforce to drive your business

If you need more information or help in determining your need in EDI to Salesforce Integration, please contact our integration experts, and Feel free to request a free demonstration.

EDI Salesforce Integration

EDI compliance and integration with Burlington Coat Factory

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This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

Company Overview of Burlington Coat Factory

Burlington Coat Factory is an American national off-price department store retailer and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation. The company operated 592 stores located in 45 states and Puerto Rico, inclusive of an internet store and has approximately 40 000 employees.

As per the company’s website, the first store was opened in Burlington, New Jersey in 1972, selling principally coats and outerwear.  Since then company diversified product categories by offering an extensive selection fashion-focused, labeled merchandise acquired directly from nationally recognized manufacturers and other suppliers.

Burlington Coat Factory EDI Standards

For all communications with their suppliers, Burlington Coat Factory use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) including purchase orders, Advance Ship Notices (ASN), Invoices etc. The company is on EDI X12 v4010 standard.

Burlington Coat Factory EDI Specification

850 Purchase Order

Burlington Coat Factory sends 850 Purchase Orders via EDI, to inform their seller of a product request. A Purchase order 850 may be used to provide distribution requirements for receiving location(s), such as cross-dock, drop-ship, or direct to consumer as would be the case for the Burlington online store.

For each 850 Purchase Order, they indicate a purchase order number, a P/O date, the location of the ship to, provide a delivery time and product pricing.

856 Ship Notice/Manifest

Burlington Stores requires their seller to send an 856 Ship Notice/Manifest via EDI, to be advised of shipment information. The 856 transactions, includes order information, description of goods, types of packaging used, carrier information and more.

For a single purchase order, there can be or more shipments which would be followed by one or more 856 ASN Advance Ship Notice and possibly one or more 810 Invoices.

810 Invoice

The suppliers of Burlington Coat Factory have to comply with X12 810 Invoice to bill Burlington for products and services shipped to their stores.

Using an EDI 810 Invoice, permits Burlington to register payment-request information and update automatically their appropriate systems. The information included in the Invoice 810 provides automated cross-referencing of a purchase order and receiving information. This process is executed without manual intervention, thus eliminating further data entry.

824 Application Advice

Burlington Stores send 824 Application Advice via EDI, to notify the acceptance, rejection or acceptance with change of a trading partner’s transaction. The 824 transaction set contains information such as quantity and monetary amounts, dates, reference numbers, it also provides trading partner information, technical error descriptions in free-form text format.

852 Product Activity

The EDI message 852 Product Activity sent by Burlington to transmit product sales by location to the supplier. These messages inform a supplier about the items sold and items on hand at a store and its level. Burlington sends the EDI 852 message on a scheduled basis (e.g., weekly on Mondays) for input to a vendor’s sales and inventory management system.

997 Functional Acknowledgment

997 Functional Acknowledgment is required by Burlington, when sending or receiving EDI transactions. 997s, are an indication that a trading partner has successfully received a well-formed EDI message. The message Functional Acknowledgments 997 generated automatically for transmission back to the sending party.

Becoming EDI compliant with Burlington Coat Factory

EDI2XML offers full EDI integration with Burlington Coat Factory. From A to Z, a customer’s EDI requirements are handled by our team of EDI experts. We take care of EDI mapping, Trading Partner configuration, Standards maintenance, XML/CSV/TXT translation etc.

For more information Download our EDI2XML Translation Service Pricing Package here 

EDI2XML pricing packages

EDI converter: Benefits of converting between EDI and XML

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This post was updated  to reflect current trends and information.

 

Overview of EDI

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) – standardized message formats for the transfer of commercial information between business partners. The two most common documents exchanged using EDI are purchase orders (EDI 850) and invoices (EDI 810). To transfer the EDI data, companies are often using the Internet or VANs (Value Added Networks). EDIFACT is the most popular EDI standard in Europe and ANSI X12 is in active use in North America. In the global  supply chain,  the GS1 EDI  set of standards are predominant. In brief, EDI allows companies to communicate business and commercial information quickly and efficiently.

Read: What is EDI? (A technical introduction to EDI)

Understanding XML

 XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language that allows to standardize the data, in the form of text easily understood by users and computers. In other words, XML is a simple and flexible text format designed to meet the needs of electronic publishing.

XML has two main tasks:

  1. Provide a description of the data structure.
  2. Provide a common syntax for all other specifications.

Thus, XML does not specify how to display a document, it only describes its structure and content.

XML created in 1996 by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium); it is a subclass of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). XML was conceived to be a flexible format, at the same time as a formal metalanguage for use on the Internet. One of XML’s primary applications was in handling B2B and B2C data interchange.

From the beginning of XML implementation, its advantages over EDI were obvious. Simple and self-descriptive, structured, support of multi-lingual and Unicode (very important for international EDI transaction).

What is EDI2XML?

EDI2XML is a technology to transform incoming EDI documents (X12 EDI files) into XML. At the same time, converting an XML document to EDI X12 format. This process of converting edi to xml is due to the fact that our company took the time to create predefined xml schemas (xsd files) that respond to the business needs of almost 100 % of EDI consumers.

Read: How does EDI2XML work?

EDI2XML converter

The fact that we have over 20 years of experience in converting X12 EDI to XML gives us a competitive advantage over other EDI developers. We have already successfully implemented this converter in many companies of different sizes from various industries. We also helped IT consultants use EDI2XML in their EDI integration projects.

EDI2XML as a Service is our popular translation and communication service. All conversions of EDI files are done on our end, leaving customers with no on-site installation of software or hardware and an EDI project that is on time and within budget.

Read: EDI Integration of B2B e-commerce for small companies

If you would like to know more about the plans offered for EDI2XML (Free EDI Consultation), or would like to see it in action (live Demo), please do not hesitate to contact us.

Free Guide Intro to EDI

Related Posts:

Electronic Data Interchange: Key Information You Need to Know
ANSI ASC X12 Standards Overview
What Are the Differences Between ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT
A technical introduction to EDI

Bed Bath & Beyond EDI Integration, Compliance and Implementation

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This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

Bed Bath & Beyond – Company Overview

Founded in 1971 Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.  is an American-owned omnichannel retailer offering a vast selection of high-quality domestic’s merchandise and home furnishings.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB) has an e-commerce platform consisting of various websites and applications. The Company also operates established retail stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. As of 2021, the company has a total of 1 020 stores and 55 000 employees.

Bed Bath & Beyond purchases its merchandise from 10 800 suppliers, 85% of such purchases are provided by small and medium-sized enterprises. The company’s 10 largest suppliers accounting for only 15% of purchases.

BBB faces growing competition from online stores, such as Amazon. To strengthen its presence on Internet, Company makes acquisitions such as Decorist an online interior design platform. One Kings Lane Inc. – an online home goods retailer which offers an extensive collection of designers. PersonalizationMall.com – online seller of personalized gifts. Of a Kind, is an e-commerce website that offers limited edition items from emerging fashion and home designers.

Bed Bath & Beyond EDI Compliance

To be among the Bed Bath & Beyond suppliers, you must be able to send and receive documents electronically in accordance with x12 EDI standards.

As a supplier of Bed Bath & Beyond your company may be required to exchange the following EDI business document types:

At any time, we can add additional Bed Bath and Beyond compliant EDI transactions at a customer’s request.

Check up our EDI Document Library

EDI Service Providers for Small Business

EDI2XML offers EDI integration with Bed Bath and Beyond to allow businesses of all sizes to become Bed Bath and Beyond EDI compliant.

Even small companies can trade with Bed Bath & Beyond using our EDI2XML Translation Service. Our services cover all:
  • EDI Mapping
  • Partner Configuration
  • Translation Processing
  • Standards Maintenance
  • XML Translation
  • EDI communication with Trading Partners, etc.

We also work with your team to easily integrate your EDI process with all major ERP systems.

Read: Convert EDI to XML: The Winning SaaS Option

Best EDI for Small Business

With our EDI converter, B2B companies have the ability to exchange essential business documents via EDI without hiring in-house EDI/IT personnel. Our EDI2XML Translation Service is the best EDI solution for B2B. This service is great for any business looking to implement EDI at an affordable price, without any headaches.

If you’re looking to complete an EDI project, Contact us today for your  FREE consultation to evaluate your EDI project.
contact-us-today-to-connect-withbed-bath-beyond-and-other-business-partners

A must-have guide for a successful systems integration with EDI

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Introduction

The concept of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is still very abstract for a business owner up until today. More often, as soon as an SME (small to medium-size enterprise) is requested by an important partner to comply with electronic data interchange process or do EDI, everyone gets on a big pig panic inside the enterprise, and all reinforcements are being called to help with such project.

Why Integration projects are nightmare?

EDI IntegrationIn fact, large chains are extremely important customers for many small and medium size enterprises. It is therefore essential, even vital, for many of them to follow the requirements imposed by those major retailers. Actually, all the large chains use mainly EDI format to exchange business transactions with their partners.

However, it can be risky for a company to embark on EDI integration without carefully evaluating business processes and needs.

 

Recommendations and steps for a successful integration

More than any other IT solution, EDI technology can profoundly modify several business processes of the company. EDI integration projects, must be planned and executed, according to a coherent process. Here are the different steps:

Step-1 Preparing of an EDI implementation team

It is essential that senior management be involved in any EDI integration project and implementation, at least at a high level.

Ideally, the EDI implementation team should include representatives from different departments, such as operations management, sales and information services.

It is important for the team to design together a good flow of information, so everyone understands the issues, the scope, and the benefits of the project. A project manager, should be assigned to take charge of such a mandate.

Step-2 Setting a project timeline

The implementation team should set and ETA and develop a plan with a complete list of tasks, resources required, and delivery estimates.

Step-3 Choice of standards

While the choice of standard of EDI format and communication protocols is very limited, this phase consists on just reviewing and making sure all specs and documentations are in place for the kick-off.

Step-4 Choice of documents for EDI transaction

Often, trading partners specify the EDI standard and the type of documents they will send or accept. Sometimes partners use only a few of the possible documents such an Invoice EDI 810 form and purchase orders EDI 850 form.

Step-5 “On premises” or “cloud” based or EDI Web Sevice?

There are many ways to do EDI. It is depending of the anticipated transaction volume, or the size of the business. Going with a software solution deployed “on-premises” or adopting a “cloud based software” or maybe EDI Web Service

♦ The Cloud-based EDI Service is an excellent solution for Small and Medium-sized enterprises that do not have a budget for large EDI projects, and who do not have experienced staff with EDI exchange.

Learn more about EDI Solution as a Service for SMEs 

♦ The other way to get the most out of EDI, is by adopting a full EDI integration with your internal software management system like your ERP, CRM etc.

♦ EDI2XML Web Service, is for developers and businesses, interested in building their own EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) integration flows and programs. Normally, these individuals, are capable of interacting with external API and Web Services to translate EDI to XML and XML to EDI, and have the resources and expertise to work with Web Services and HTTP requests in order to achieve their goals. EDI2XML web service, is the premier choice for IT people as a reliable service to accomplish such integration projects.

Step-6 File Integration or direct system integration

When it comes to integration, the implementation should be decisive on how the integration to their CRM/ERP is going to happen: there are (2) methods to do such an integration; either through file integration, Where the ERP has already some built-in jobs to import data based on specific format, or direct integration. Obviously, this decision is also dependent on whether the software management system is a legacy system or a modern one, fully loaded with all kinds of API and programming interfaces. This part can be the most difficult and lengthy part, unlike what most people think…

Step-7 Integration project testing

Pilot projects are conducted both within the company and with external business partners. EDI test should be of a specified duration. They will help identify possible loopholes and establish a problem-solving plan. Technical employees should be trained in the technical aspects of EDI.

Step-8 Setting up

The implementation of the EDI system must be combined with several factors in order to be successful: adequate users training, proper implementation plan, and establishment of an emergency procedure.

For a small to medium-size enterprises, EDI integration is a good deal. An Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) capable enterprise retains an important customer or supplier and have a lot of opportunities to enter into new contracts with large companies.

For many years our EDI2XML service has been offering up-to-date integrated solutions at an affordable cost. We have been helping companies of all sizes, to optimize operations and improve their competitiveness.

cta_edi2xml

Becoming EDI Compliant with Amazon for a Seamless Integration

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This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.


As the Amazon Marketplace becomes people’s go-to for online shopping, I am asked about this successful eCommerce platform and why should e-retailers embrace EDI when selling on Amazon.com. Other great questions from business people include, “Why is it so important to go that route versus using Amazon Web Forms? What are the benefits to be on EDI? What are the steps that a company needs to follow, in order to become EDI-ready?”

To answer the above questions, I decided to write this article and share my experience. This can be helpful to a lot of business people such as executives and business owners and Amazon Account Managers, who most of the time have limited information about eCommerce integration and the use of EDI to simplify their business flow and processes.

What is Amazon.com?

Amazon.com is the pioneer in online retailing and now third largest retailer, behind Walmart and CVS. Amazon has truly come a long way: starting out as an online bookseller, this online marketplace now sells everything, from “A to Z”. In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.4 billion, which vastly increased Amazon’s presence as a physical retailer. The acquisition was interpreted by some as a direct attempt to challenge Walmart as a physical store (As per Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company) ). Amazon, as an eCommerce platform, has a presence everywhere (Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk, etc.) and is capable of delivering in almost every country. For more information, you can visit their site and learn more.

Here’s a bit more background on Amazon.com

  • Amazon is known to be “customer-obsessed”; they focus on selection, price and convenience to “build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Amazon’s Mission Statement)
  • They are solely an online eCommerce store (eStore)
  • On Cyber Monday in 2019, it was reported  Amazon sales of $9.4 billion in wider retail.
  • Amazon has acquired Zappos in 2009 and recently acquired Whole Foods
  • It owns 10% of North American eCommerce – which includes Office Depot, Staples, Apple and Walmart

There are 310 million active Amazon customer accounts worldwide, 90 million of which are Amazon Prime members, many companies are looking to sell their products on Amazon.com. Who wouldn’t want to when Amazon is the KING of eCommerce Stores with roughly 175 million monthly visitors or potential buyers – the largest online marketplace.

Creating an Account & Selling on Amazon.com

Selling on Amazon is quite simple and quick to achieve. It takes few moments to create an account on Amazon.com either personal or business account, setup your items and start selling. Amazon themselves provide a payment gateway solution and all kinds of logistics and assistance to make sure your products are sold and delivered to consumers. One thing for certain, every seller should work and respect Amazons’ own terms and conditions and pay the monthly subscription fee along with the selected program fees.

Managing your Profile on Amazon.com

Part of Amazon’s offering in the eCommerce platform is that they provide an easy “back office” interface, called Vendor Central (for 1P sellers), where brand administrators can add items to the platform, prices, stock availabilities, product descriptions and more. In this same interface, the admin can manage orders received from consumers, updates item statuses and shipment details.

What else is on Amazon Vendor Central?

One of the options provided by Amazon Vendor Central is the ability to set some type of integration between your business software system and your Vendor Central Interface using EDI. This is a very important feature offered at no additional cost to sellers, so that they can integrate their day-to-day orders received from their Amazon store into their Software Management System and vice versa.

Amazon Vendor Central vs EDI Integration

As highlighted in the previous section, the Vendor Central provided by Amazon allows you (as an account and eCommerce store owner) to manage every aspect of your store, manually. This process depends on human interaction and intense manual labour work.

The ability to transport and integrate your data between your software system and your Amazon account in both directions (in and out) is uniquely done through EDI. Meaning when you want to extract an order from Amazon and automatically integrate into your JDE, SAP, Sage or any other system, the only way to do so is using EDI integration. Whenever you need to push new Items, SKUs, pricing ….to your store on Amazon, EDI is the only way to do so without having to manual key in all of this data.

When should you embrace EDI with Amazon?

Selecting the EDI route and becoming compliant with Amazon is truly worth the investment, when the following criteria is met:

  • An overwhelming number of SKUs are being sold on the Amazon Marketplace
  • Your SKUs and items sold on Amazon are dynamically changing periodically which makes it very difficult and time consuming for a human to manage it all manually
  • Your number of orders generated on Amazon are exceeding 15 per day. Why is the magic number 15 orders? This is due to the fact that the window to ship those orders out to your customers is very narrow, about 24 to 48 hours. Therefore, managing this amount of daily orders manually can lead to a ton of human errors and in turn, penalties by Amazon.

What are the top benefits to be on EDI?

There are many benefits to be on EDI when selling on Amazon:

  • Reduced human errors in data entry
  • Increased capacity to deliver quickly and on-time
  • Increased response time when issuing advance ship notices for orders placed on Amazon
  • Increased scores/reviews and happy customers on Amazon
  • Ability to quickly and efficiently update your inventory status from your current software or ERP (i.e. JDE, SAP…) into your Amazon account without the need to even login to Vendor Central

Stay on the lookout for part 2 of this article where I dig deeper into the steps that a company needs to follow in order to be EDI compliant with Amazon. In the meantime, feel free to reach our EDI integration experts today to help you with your Amazon integration needs.

Amazon Integration

For more information on Amazon integration, please read these articles:

EDI Integration: Tips to better manage your online business

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This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

 

Purchasing tickets, gifts, clothes, equipment and even groceries can now all be done online. Due to its accessibility and convenience, most of us already buy products online, from anywhere at anytime, using a smartphone or laptop, so long as we are connected to the Internet. Simple user interface, quick actions and results: everything is so easy that it only takes a few minutes. This explains why the number of online shoppers is growing at a tremendous rate, year after year. For example, the number of online shoppers in the United States alone is estimated to be 230.5 million by 2021 as compared to 215.4 million in 2017.

Online shoppers USA

Source: The Statistics Portal “Statista”  

The above graphic displays statistics about online shoppers who browsed products, compared prices or bought merchandise online at least once during the corresponding year.  Notice an increase of online buyers year over year due to the active introduction of Omnichannel retailing.

What is the omnichannel retailing?

 

Omnichannel is a cross-channel business model that companies use to improve their customer experience. “Omnis” can be translated from Latin as “existing everywhere”. In our case, covering all channels of communication with customers: as physical locations, online store, social media, live web chats, mobile applications, and telephone communications. The customer accesses all products and services in the most convenient way for him, while being always visible to the retailer.

Setting up your online store

 

Opening an online store in today’s digital world is NOT difficult; however, running the operations of an online business is of course a little more challenging. Here are some of the undeniable advantages of running an online store:

  • There are no rental fees
  • You need fewer employees to operate the store
  • Companies can overcome geographical limitations
  • Best of all, it is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Use the best e-commerce practice

 

In order to not be left out of the e-commerce game, you should give great attention to detail and look for the best practices in operating your e-commerce business. On the Internet, there’s a ton of great advice for entrepreneurs who have started their online business already; it is about choosing an e-commerce platform, optimizing the page load speed, creating unique content, promoting the products, and the list goes on…

However, there isn’t much information out there that talks about the technical and logistical aspects of running an online store. Critical information that e-business owners should know are things like how to exchange documents electronically between your e-business and trading partners or transport companies. There’s also the important e-commerce practice of integrating your systems and electronic exchange of data (or EDI) in order to improve speed, accuracy, quality of information and overall business efficiency.

The role of EDI integration in logistics and e-commerce

 

The term “logistics” even in the traditional retail sense was not always so clear-cut and far from being obvious. Business logistics can be defined as:

Definition of business logistics

When running an e-commerce business, regardless of which supply chain management methodology you choose (Drop-Ship or other), you will have to face a substantial amount of business related documents that you need to exchange with your trading partners.

Now, let’s do a simple calculation: how much time do your employees spend on order entry, shipping advice, invoices, generating labels? What is the error rate? Maybe that’s why the rate of returns of online sold products is sky-high. Research about e-commerce product returns shows:

statistics online return

Online return reason

In my opinion, the statistics shown above reflecting e-commerce product returns looks frightening… Is it possible to reduce the above percentages?  Can your online business avoid those errors?

EDI integration improves the quality of the data by at least 30% to 40 % reduction in the transactions containing errors, by eliminating unreadable writing or typing errors, the losses of faxes/mail, transmission, and re-manipulation of errors.

Think and manage your online business better

 

The positive effects of EDI Integration will be measurable across all of the following services: commerce, production, logistics, and finance.

In sales:

  • Sales cycle and quality of the relationship with your customers are improved and processing times reduced (reliability and efficiency of exchanging orders, shipping advice etc. …)

In production:

  • Reduced production costs
  • Better management of your stocks
  • Short production times

In logistics:

  • Reduced processing times for shipments
  • Elimination of anomalies or errors
  • Elimination of paper documents
  • Strong improvement in the quality of information

In finance:

  • Reduced billing times
  • Reduction of disputes

In conclusion, moving forward with an EDI integration project gives a business the access to an undeniable competitive advantage; companies are able to reduce the costs of its products and services, improve business processes and meet the demand of customers and suppliers. What’s better than that?

Keep learning about EDI integration and the MANY benefits it has for your online business by visiting our website EDI2XML.com or contacting us directly today!

Free EDI Consultation

 

How EDI integration can boost your eCommerce Store

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This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

With the evolution of eCommerce in the last few years, EDI integration is getting more and more widespread in the e-retail vertical. This trend is due to the heritage of the traditional retail businesses. Why is this happening and how EDI is helping e-commerce retail stores?

According to Statista.com, in 2016, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 1.86 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 4.48 trillion US dollars in 2021. Online shopping is one of the most popular online activities worldwide.

Therefore, today, e-commerce sales is one of the segments of the economy with a huge development potential.

e-commerce-sales-worldwide-from-2014-to-2021

 

What are the most popular e-commerce platforms in 2019?

Plenty of e-commerce platforms are available on the Internet, but the most popular and most effective in 2019 market are the following:

Shopify  Shopify
Bigcommerce bigcommerce
Magento  Magento
WooCommerce  Woocommerce
Volusion  volusion

If you look at the comparative table in Google trends, you will see that Shopify is the leader in terms of how many businesses use this platform for their own eCommerce, versus how many they show interest in the other e-commerce platforms.

google-trends-e-commerce-platforms

 

How many Stores are using Shopify?

Launched in 2004 Shopify is one of the leading Canadian e-commerce platforms, trusted by over 500,000 businesses worldwide. As new shops are signing up every day, the real exact number is higher. For more information abut shopify, you can visit their website.

Fully Managed Shopify Integration Service

We at EDI2XML eliminate the need for manual data entry using Magic xpi Integration Platform, we automate the most important business processes, ensuring data exchange between Shopify/Shopify Plus and leading ERP and accounting systems. LEARN MORE>

Boost your company’s productivity with EDI

Business owners, including e-commerce store owners, are all always looking for a better way to improve efficiency, and customer service in a very well connected digital world.

In that direction, the Drop-ship concept has emerged to become one of the top delivery model adopted with major ecommerce retailers. With this concept, consumers have access to a large inventory of goods, delivered directly from the manufacturer (most of the time). This is delivering a smooth shopping experience that is secure, convenient and comfortable.

In order for the ecommerce owners to compete in this new reality, their offerings of products and services, should be built in such an efficient way, where their items’ prices, stock and inventory availability, are all up-to-date right from their manufacturer’s system, in near real-time.

Their delivery schedules are also a factor: eCommerce stores should be equipped with real-time calculation of delivery cost and ETD, again right from the shipping or transport company.

EDI integration between an eCommerce platform and the manufacturers, in the drop-ship world, is one of the best options to accomplish the above objectives. EDI helps streamline the Supply-chain management and improve efficiency.

To know more about the reasons why you should integrate EDI with your Shopify eCommerce store, read our previous blog called “Top 3 Reasons for EDI integration with Shopify”

Benefits of EDI

It’s no secret to anyone that the traditional methods of document management are outdated, they are quite costly and can impede the interaction between trading partners. This becomes especially noticeable when the business grows.

 EDI interchange has existed for more than 30 years. Over the years, EDI has been tested and proven to work, in North America and Europe. EDI has repeatedly and most importantly demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing human errors and improving quality of information.

EDI is a major helper for online stores

EDI service translates into electronic format (or messages), the entire interaction between the eCommerce store, the supplier and the consumer – from the order to the signature of delivery documents.

The exchange of information takes place directly between the systems of trading partners, therefore, the influence of the human factor, and errors are at its minimum.

If you want to know more about EDI2XML translation, read this article on our website

EDI significantly simplifies and speeds up the logistics work: ordering, packaging, shipping and delivery.

Comparing eCommerce store to a traditional outlet store, the latter will have more constraints and limitations on stock availability and delivery methods: with an online store having EDI integration in place, this problem does not exist. All availabilities are up-to date right from the supplier’s system. An eCommerce store owner, with integration capabilities will not worry about having an “empty shelf”…he does not have to worry about hiring more employees to answer customer service calls.

EDI integration, empowers eCommerce online stores with the capability to reduce their costs, increase efficiency, improve stock availability and customer service.

If you are interested to learn more about this topic or any EDI integration related issue, don’t hesitate to Contact us for a free Consultation and we will be more than happy to answer your concerns and questions.

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Top 3 Reasons For EDI Integration With Shopify

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.
EDI integration with Shopify

In short, Shopify is one of the leading Canadian eCommerce platforms offered to businesses and individuals, based on a monthly subscription fee. Anyone can subscribe and then begin to showcase their products online, to sell directly to the public. For more information about Shopify, you can visit their website here.

Who Uses Shopify?

Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform that can be used by individuals and businesses of all sizes to create and manage their online stores. Here are some of the types of people who use Shopify:
  1. Small business owners: Shopify is an excellent platform for small business owners who want to sell products online without having to deal with the technical aspects of building an e-commerce website.
  2. Entrepreneurs: Many entrepreneurs use Shopify to create and sell their own products online, whether it be clothing, beauty products, or digital downloads.
  3. Large businesses: Shopify’s scalability makes it a popular choice for larger businesses that need a platform that can handle high levels of traffic and sales.
  4. Dropshippers: Shopify’s integrations with popular dropshipping apps and tools make it an attractive option for dropshippers who want to sell products without having to hold inventory.
  5. Non-profits: Shopify offers special pricing and features for non-profits, making it an excellent platform for charities and other non-profit organizations to sell merchandise and raise funds online.

Overall, Shopify is a flexible platform that can be used by a wide range of people and businesses to create and manage their online stores.

A Word on Drop-Shipping

One important thing to emphasize here is that with the emergence of the online retail (or eCommerce) market, companies selling products through the Internet on platforms such as Shopify, are not necessarily carrying inventory of their products anymore.

More and more, once a company receives an online order from a customer (through the Shopify platform), these orders are then transferred to the manufacturing business partner(s) for shipping and delivery of the bought item(s), where they are told the “white label” the delivery package. This concept is called “Drop-Ship” (or Drop Shipping) in the retail and eCommerce world. Basically, the seller receives orders from their online retail store and is paid via the Internet (through PayPal or credit card) and then forwards the order to the manufacturer to then ship directly to the client. For many, there is now no need to hold inventory in a local warehouse.

What Does EDI Have To Do With eCommerce?

For those who aren’t very familiar with EDI (or Electronic Data Interchange), it is a set of standards and processes to exchange business documents electronically between Business (or Trading) Partners. Common business documents include Purchase Orders, Invoices, ASNs (Advance Ship Notice), Inventory Inquiry/Advice and more. This data exchange can happen in both directions – incoming and outgoing.

In the context of online sales over the Internet, on an eCommerce platform like Shopify as well as with the introduction of drop-shipping, EDI comes into play for several reasons;

1. Most major manufacturing and distribution companies will require a system-to-system integration through some sort of EDI. This speeds up processes and allows for greater efficiency in partner communication.

2. Shipping companies also require integration via EDI.

3. Today, consumers are very well educated and require to be informed on the status of their orders at every step of the way during the shipping process.

As you may notice, all of the above requires system-to-system integration between so many unrelated or diverse systems and platforms. At this point in time, most major companies and retailers are well equipped with EDI platforms and standards in which they have been investing in for many years now. Companies are now finding more ways to use their EDI to increase efficiency and are truly seeing returns on their investments.

Top 3 Reasons Why You Need EDI Integration With Shopify

The reasons may seem obvious to you at this point, but I will re-iterate the top 3 reasons for EDI integration with your Shopify store or any other eCommerce platform;

Cloud Services Provider If you are in the Drop-Ship business and you are selling online through Amazon, Wal-Mart, Cabela’s or Target, for example, chances are that these retailers will impose certain rules, and require that you go on EDI. If you are dealing with suppliers, they will also impose similar rules and require the use of EDI.

Cloud Services Provider If you are selling online through your own store via Shopify, and you have a high volume of clients that expect to the informed of their orders at any given moment, this is another big reason why you should have EDI integrated with your Shopify store.

Cloud Services Provider If you are dealing with shipping companies like FedEx, Purolator, UPS, etc., and you have a high volume of shipments on a daily basis, then you need to integrate your management systems AND Shopify with EDI.

The above are the main reasons for EDI integration but there are tons of other ways EDI can improve your processes and reasons to talk with an EDI consultant today.

How Can I Integrate My Shopify Store with EDI?

This integration is very feasible however you will most definitely need a team of system integrators with a high knowledge and expertise in EDI. With the right team like the EDI2XML team, there is no going wrong.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic or any other issue related to EDI integration projects, please contact us today and receive your free consultation.
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How To Successfully Complete SAP/R3 EDI Integration Projects Using iDoc

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Article written by Pierre Namroud, EDI Integration Specialist & Business Consultant

During my professional career as an integrator and EDI expert, I had the opportunity to work on several major integration projects. Some of them were in an Oracle environment while others had to do with integrating with SAP/R3. Other projects included integrations with different types of systems such as Salesforce, Shopify, Microsoft suites, etc.

In today’s EDI2XML post, I will share my experience as an ‘Integrator’ to lay down the basis of a successful integration project of EDI and SAP/R3. Please note, however, that I am not an SAP expert and during these integration projects I worked closely with SAP professionals and credit them for all of their efforts in completing the SAP portions of this type of project.

What is SAP/R3?

SAP/R3 is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solution produced by the well-known German company, SAP. This specific version,“R3”, has been renamed to ECC (ERP Central Component). SAP Business One is also a sub-set ERP software from the same Software Provider and it is designed for Small Businesses.

SAP ERP Solutions are widely present in corporate enterprises in North America, Europe and all around the world. It is one of the most popular corporate ERP software solutions.

Does SAP support EDI Integration?

SAP ECC (or R3), out of the box, does in fact support EDI integration. The EDI format that is currently supported by SAP is called iDoc. Simply put, iDoc format files or messages are proprietary to SAP and they are similar to, and based on, EDIFACT messages.

In essence, if an iDoc file is provided to SAP, it will get processed using some specific BAPI and it will turn the iDoc into an order, in SAP.

EDI Transformation for SAP Integration

Most integration projects that I have worked on involved integrating EDI X12 formats within the SAP system, in both directions (incoming and outgoing messages). Since X12 EDI format is far from the iDoc format, our team was tasked with handling the transformation and EDI translation from X12 EDI to iDoc format.

Checklist for a Successful EDI Integration Project with SAP

Now that the basics are defined, I will share my recommendations, in a checklist format, to help guide you through a successful integration project for SAP and EDI.

  • Make sure you know how to work with SAP backend. If you are not highly knowledgeable or an expert in SAP, make sure to most definitely include someone who is, as part of your team. This is a must.
  • Make sure you work in a Development SAP environment, rather than a Production environment when doing the work.
  • Make sure to use the appropriate SAP BAPIs or RFC, well identified for each point you plan to integrate with SAP. This is very important and it is crucial to be identified. Your SAP expert can take the lead in this area.
  • Make sure to equip yourself and your integration team with an efficient integration framework. The completion timeline and success rate of this project will definitely be better if you equip your integration team with an efficient integration tool.
  • To avoid getting into an unknown space, outsource the translation of the EDI X12 or EDIFACT (or any other protocol) to a reliable, knowledgeable Service Provider. By teaming up with an EDI partner, you’ll quickly notice the real value they will bring to the table since they will handle all of the complexities that an EDI project can bring. Their task will be to do the EDI transformations and create one single iDoc format of EDI for your integration flows to SAP.

Conclusion

I sure hope that I was able to expose some of the challenges and complexities surrounding a typical SAP integration project, with the above checklist, and properly explained my recommendations, from my own personal experiences.

If you are interested to learn more about this topic or any other issue related to EDI integration projects, please click on the image below and I will be more than happy to contact you for a FREE consultation.

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