If you sell to wholesale partners like Costco, or Rona, EDI isn’t optional—it’s required.
But just being “EDI compliant” isn’t the same as being EDI efficient. Wholesale suppliers often face unique challenges when trying to meet the digital expectations of large retailers while managing their own margins, staff, and systems.
This guide breaks down what wholesale EDI really means for vendors, where traditional systems fall short, and how to gain control, reduce costs, and simplify your EDI operations.
Traditional commercial EDI systems aren’t made for you; they were built in the 80’s and 90’s as an emerging technology. Large retailers adopted this technology as a way of streamlining the way they manage their supply chain across a wide range of vendors.
To start selling to a major retailer, you need to be EDI compliant. Typically, that means using the retailer’s chosen provider.
You’re usually given two choices:
Pay a monthly fee to access a web portal and manually manage orders
Build and test your own EDI system to meet their requirements
In both cases, you’re forced to adapt to their system. That means extra costs, complexity, and zero flexibility. As many wholesalers have told us, it often feels like you’ve lost control of your own sales process.
Traditional wholesale EDI isn't just inflexible—it's expensive.
You pay:
Monthly fees for dashboard access
Extra fees for features like shipping modules
Up to $1.25 per document submitted
Even more if your provider charges by the kilocharacter
Each EDI order involves 5–7 documents. That adds up fast, especially if you're dropshipping lower-margin products.
Let’s break down the hidden fees wholesalers face with traditional EDI systems:
$0.50–$1.25+ per document, across 5–7 documents per order
Monthly portal access fees per retailer
Add-on charges for carrier modules, label tools, or support
Kilocharacter fees based on document length
Plus: the cost of labor, IT setup, maintenance, and downtime.
It’s no wonder vendors often say: "We're doing the sales, but losing the margins."
Despite being "automated," traditional EDI workflows often require:
Logging into multiple portals
Downloading and manually entering orders into your ERP or WMS
Manually uploading shipping details and labels
Sending invoices separately for each order
Multiply that process across multiple trading partners and sales channels, and your team is spending hours managing orders instead of growing the business.
As you add more retail partners, the complexity multiplies:
New login portals for each partner
Different EDI standards and formatting rules
More staff training, more errors, more time wasted
Integrating even one EDI system into your ERP is a project. Integrating several? That becomes a full-time job.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Here’s what many wholesalers don’t realize:
You don’t have to use your trading partner’s EDI provider to be compliant.
As long as your system can pass certification and communicate properly, you can use your own EDI software.
Think of it like phone carriers: You don’t need to be on the same network as the person you’re calling. EDI works the same way.
OrderEase is a modern EDI and order management platform built for how suppliers actually work. We sit between your ERP or accounting system and EDI systems—automating everything from POs to ASNs to invoices.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
Your partner (e.g., Costco) sends an 850 PO.
OrderEase captures the order and sends it directly to your ERP or QuickBooks.
Shipping info syncs to ShipStation or your logistics tool.
OrderEase automatically sends an ASN (856) and later the invoice (810).
You never touch a portal. Your team spends time building the business, not retyping orders.
Instead of building a new integration every time you add a partner, OrderEase sits between you and the retailer’s EDI system. We handle:
Translation and transmission of documents (850s, 856s, 810s, etc.)
Mapping to your systems, not theirs
Real-time updates for your customers
Whether you're selling via Costco, Canadian Tire, or eCommerce platforms, OrderEase helps you scale wholesale operations without more portals, more staff, or more fees.
Wholesale EDI refers to the use of electronic data interchange to process orders, invoices, and shipping updates between wholesalers and large retail chains.
Traditional EDI systems often charge per document, per portal, or by data volume (e.g., kilocharacters). Costs can reach $1.25 or more per document, plus monthly access fees.
Yes. As long as your system passes certification, you're not required to use your trading partner's preferred EDI provider.
Modern EDI platforms automate workflows, integrate with ERP and logistics systems, and eliminate the need for manual portal management.
Retailers often control the EDI standard. Suppliers must adapt, but modern solutions give suppliers flexibility, visibility, and automation across partners.