Glossary: Ordering

EDI

EDI (electronic data interchange) is a standard way for companies to exchange business documents, such as purchase orders, invoices and shipping notices, between their computer systems in a fixed machine-readable format, with no manual keying.

Reviewed by Hoa Nguyen, Senior Marketer. Last reviewed October 4, 2026
Last updated October 4, 2026

In detail

Large retailers, grocery chains and manufacturers use EDI. Instead of emailing a PDF purchase order, the buyer's system sends an EDI message that the seller's system reads and turns into a sales order. The two main standards are X12, used mostly in North America, and EDIFACT, used in Europe and much of the world.

Documents have standard codes. In X12, 850 is a purchase order, 855 a purchase order acknowledgement, 856 an advance ship notice and 810 an invoice. In EDIFACT the matching messages are ORDERS, DESADV and INVOIC. Each trading partner has its own rules for which documents it wants and how fields are filled.

EDI brings speed and fewer keying errors, and some large retailers require it from their suppliers. The drawbacks are set-up cost, an EDI provider or network, mapping and testing with each partner, and ongoing fees. Small and mid-size sellers usually use an EDI provider or an integration platform as the bridge between their store or ERP and the partner's system.

EDI is not the same as an API. EDI is a document standard agreed between trading partners, usually sent through a provider, while an API is a live call between two systems. Many sellers use both. If no large buyer asks for EDI, a quick order form, a CSV upload or a reorder page often covers the need.

Example

A grocery chain sends an 850 purchase order each week. The supplier's EDI provider converts it, creates the sales order in the supplier's ERP, and returns an 855 acknowledgement, then later an 856 ship notice and an 810 invoice, with nobody retyping anything.

On Shopify

Shopify's Help Center describes three ways to connect B2B to an ERP, CRM or other external system: direct integrations from the Shopify App Store, iPaaS providers and custom API-based integrations. The page does not name EDI as a method, and it lists PO numbers among the data an integration can sync.

Source: Shopify Help Center: B2B external integrations (read October 4, 2026).