EDI for Apparel Brands Moving Into Retail

Each retailer chooses which documents it requires and how they must be filled in. Its EDI requirements usually sit alongside its routing guide. See what EDI is for the basics.

There are usually three parties: the retailer, you, and your warehouse. Many brands also use an EDI provider that connects to each retailer and translates the documents.

• The purchase order comes from the retailer and needs to reach the warehouse with sizes, quantities, pack-out rules and ship window intact.
• The ASN is built from what the warehouse actually packed, carton by carton. This is where the warehouse matters most, because an ASN that does not match the cartons is a classic chargeback.
• The invoice is usually yours, built from what shipped.
• Inventory feeds need to reflect stock that is genuinely available, after allowing for your own website orders.

Ask any 3PL which documents it exchanges directly, which flow through your EDI provider, and how a purchase order becomes a pick in the warehouse. Get it in writing before the first order.

1. Get the retailer’s EDI requirements and routing guide, and send both to your 3PL.
2. Make sure every size and color has its own barcode in the format the retailer expects. See apparel barcodes.
3. Agree which documents your 3PL handles and which go through your EDI provider.
4. Run test documents with the retailer if they offer testing.
5. Plan the first order early, with stock allocated so it is not sold on your website.
6. Review the first shipment carton by carton against the ASN before you scale.

Moving into retail does not mean a second warehouse. OC3PL ships direct-to-consumer orders and wholesale purchase orders from the same inventory. One apparel brand on our results page grew from 500 to 5,000 orders a day over two years and moved into big-box retail without changing warehouses.

The work is in allocation and timing: holding stock for a purchase order, meeting a ship window, and keeping your website from selling the same units. See allocating stock between DTC and wholesale and retail chargebacks.

• Barcodes that do not match the retailer’s item records, so receiving cannot match the cartons.
• An ASN sent before the cartons were finished, so it lists what was planned instead of what shipped.
• Purchase orders keyed by hand into the warehouse system, with a size or quantity typed wrong.
• Ship windows tracked in someone’s inbox instead of a shared calendar.
• Website orders selling stock that was meant for a purchase order.

None of these is an EDI software problem. They are process problems, and they are easier to fix before the first order than after the first deduction.