What are EDI Messages?
In 2016, of all UK eCommerce sales £274 billion were B2B sales via the exchange of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) messages.
What is an EDI Message?
An EDI message is essentially a business document that is transmitted electronically between companies using a standardised format that enables the trading partners’ computer systems to communicate with each other. You may also see them being referred to as EDI transactions, EDI files or EDI documents.
EDI messages streamline trading operations by increasing the speed and efficiency of the exchange of business documents.
EDI Documents
Some of the most common business documents exchanged as EDI messages are purchase orders, invoices and advanced shipping notices (ASNs).
You may also see EDI documents referred to as EDI transactions and files but essentially they all refer to the EDI messages that are exchanged between business partners, something which we examine in one of our EDI FAQs.
We also have the following FAQ’s that may be of interest to you:
- What is EDI and how it works?
Read more about what EDI is, including the four main components and how EDI works.
- What are the benefits and advantages of EDI?
Find out how you can benefit from EDI with an overview of the main advantages of EDI.
- How do you use EDI? / Getting started with EDI
Find out how you can get started with EDI.