Top EDI Providers for 3PLs

Questions about EDI providers

What does an EDI provider do for a 3PL?

An EDI provider moves standard business documents between a 3PL's systems and its trading partners' systems, in the format each partner requires. For a 3PL that usually means receiving warehouse shipping orders and purchase orders, sending ship notices and shipment confirmations back, and keeping inventory and invoice data in step with each client's retailers and ERP.

Which EDI documents does a 3PL exchange most often?

In the ANSI X12 standard used across North America, the core warehouse set is the 940 warehouse shipping order, the 945 warehouse shipping advice, the 943 and 944 stock transfer shipment and receipt advices, and the 846 inventory advice. Retail orders add the 850 purchase order, the 856 advance ship notice and the 810 invoice. Trading partners outside North America often use UN/EDIFACT messages instead.

What is the difference between managed EDI, web EDI and an EDI API?

With managed EDI, the provider handles mapping, partner setup and monitoring for you. Web EDI gives a smaller partner a browser screen to read and key documents without an integration of its own. An EDI API lets a development team send and receive documents in a format such as JSON while the provider translates them to and from each partner's EDI standard. Some providers offer more than one of these models.

What does it mean for a 3PL to be EDI capable?

An EDI-capable 3PL can receive orders and send shipment, receipt and inventory documents electronically in the formats a brand's retailers and systems require, either through its own warehouse management system or through an EDI provider. It matters most to brands that sell wholesale to large retailers, which set document and labeling requirements for every shipment.

How do I choose an EDI provider?

Start with the trading partners and documents you need to support. Then check whether the provider already connects to those retailers and to your warehouse management system, how partner setup and testing are handled, and how its pricing changes as partners and document volume grow.

Where is the full list of EDI providers?

Below the numbered picks, this page lists every EDI provider in the Fulfill.com partner directory from A to Z, each with a link to its profile. The numbered list is the short list our team keeps, not the whole category.