EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is often viewed as a complicated and outdated system, especially for brands dealing with big-box retailers. If you’ve struggled with terms like 850s, 810s, and 940s, you’re not alone. At Luminous, we aim to simplify EDI, turning it into a seamless part of your inventory management system. Let’s break down how our approach can help you manage EDI more effectively, especially if you’re using a platform like SPS Commerce.
EDI is the process of electronically exchanging documents such as purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices between different systems. For many ecommerce brands, EDI is a requirement when selling to big retailers like Walmart or Target. While it’s essential, it often involves antiquated data formats and manual processes that slow down operations.
At Luminous, we embed EDI directly into our platform, transforming complex documents into standard sales orders, purchase orders, or invoices that you can manage like any other transaction. Whether it’s an 850 (purchase order), a 940 (shipping order), or an 810 (invoice), we simplify the process by converting them into a format that’s easier to work with.
With Luminous, you can:
Here’s an example of what EDI might look like if you’re using SPS Commerce to sell to a retailer like Walmart:
850 (Purchase Order): You receive an 850 document from the retailer through SPS Commerce.
940 (Shipping Order): You send the order details to your 3PL or fulfillment partner.
ASN (Advanced Shipping Notice): Once the order is shipped, you need to send the retailer a notification, often by manually copying details like the tracking number into SPS Commerce.
810 (Invoice): You generate an invoice in SPS Commerce and your accounting system manually.
This manual process is tedious, often requiring you to juggle multiple systems.
With Luminous, the 850 document is automatically received as a normal order. We then push it to your 3PL as a 940, or if you’re handling fulfillment in-house, it appears on your sales order page. Once the order ships, Luminous will automatically generate the invoice (810) and send it to both the retailer and your accounting system, such as QuickBooks, without requiring manual input.
Luminous also supports both dropship and wholesale EDI flows. The main difference between the two is in the invoicing process. For example, when invoicing multiple sales orders in a dropship scenario, Luminous can group them into a single 810 document, simplifying the invoicing process.
Luminous takes the hassle out of EDI by embedding it directly into your operations, turning complex documents into manageable transactions. Our system works with your existing tech stack, integrating with your 3PL’s WMS and accounting systems like QuickBooks, making your fulfillment and invoicing processes smoother. Book a demo today!