In short
Retailer purchase orders arrive in four main ways: EDI, their own supplier portal, Excel or PDF files, and plain email. A fifth, a direct API connection, is still rare. Most brands selling to several retailers handle the four main ones at once. Whatever the format, every order goes through the same five steps: capture it, check it, enter it in your ERP, confirm it to the retailer, and plan the delivery.
Which ways do retailers send purchase orders?
A purchase order is the retailer's commitment to buy: which products, how many, at what price, delivered where and when. Once you confirm it, it becomes the contract for that delivery.
How it reaches you depends on the retailer's size and systems. Large retailers want orders to flow from system to system. Smaller accounts, and many retailers outside your home country, still send a file by email.
Whatever the format, the order then has to be uploaded into the brand's own system, generally the ERP, before anything can be picked, shipped or invoiced.
| Format | How it arrives | What your team does with it |
|---|---|---|
| EDI | A structured message sent from the retailer's system to yours, usually through an EDI provider | Checks it arrived and loaded correctly, then confirms |
| Supplier portal | The order is posted on the retailer's website for suppliers | Logs in, downloads it, then re-keys or imports it |
| Excel or PDF | A file attached to an email, often in the retailer's own template | Reads it, translates codes, types it into the ERP |
| Lines written in the body of the message | Reads it, asks for missing details, types it in | |
| API | Your system collects orders directly from the retailer's system, through an API connection | Checks the connection runs and orders load correctly |
EDI stands for electronic data interchange. In Europe, most retail EDI uses the EANCOM standard from GS1. The purchase order is a message called ORDERS, and each line identifies the product by its EAN barcode number. There is even a fashion version, built around one EAN per size and colour.
But EDI is less widespread in fashion than in other consumer goods, such as grocery, where it has long been the norm. In my experience, many fashion retailers still send orders as files or by email, especially smaller accounts and retailers abroad.
API connections are the newest route. Instead of messages sent through an EDI provider, your system calls the retailer's system directly to collect orders and send back confirmations. Few retailers offer this today. Amazon is the main example, through its Selling Partner API for vendors.
Excel and PDF orders look simple, but they are the hardest to process. Every retailer uses its own template, its own product codes, and sometimes its own language. See also which order formats Gatsbee reads.
Which retailers use which format?
There is no fixed rule, and it changes as retailers upgrade their systems. Some examples:
- Zalando (Germany and across Europe): wholesale suppliers see their orders in the Zalando Retail Center portal and confirm them there, with delivery windows, warehouse splits and prices.
- John Lewis (UK): UK department stores like John Lewis prefer, or require, suppliers who can trade by EDI. Purchase orders, delivery notices and invoices are the most common messages.
- Otto (Germany): trades purchase orders, order confirmations and invoices by EDI. Which messages you need depends on your agreement with them.
- Galeries Lafayette (France): uses EDI for orders, despatch notices and sales reports.
- Smaller department stores, independents and export accounts: mostly Excel or PDF by email.
In practice, a mid-sized brand ends up with a mix. At the lingerie brand I ran, roughly half of our orders came through EDI and portals. The other half came by email, mostly as Excel and PDF files.
What should happen to every order?
The format changes how the order arrives. It does not change what has to happen next.
- Capture. Get the order out of the inbox, the portal or the EDI system, with nothing missed and nothing entered twice.
- Check. Compare it with what you agreed: prices, product codes, quantities, delivery dates and delivery address. Check stock.
- Enter. Load it into your ERP, so the warehouse can pick it and finance can invoice it.
- Confirm. Tell the retailer what you will ship and when. Some retailers set a deadline. Amazon, for example, asks its direct fulfilment vendors to acknowledge an order within 24 hours, and treats any line not acknowledged as rejected.
- Plan the delivery. Book the slot, prepare labels and packing to the retailer's rules. Zalando, for example, asks suppliers to book a delivery slot and arrive on the confirmed day or in the booked slot.
Select a format to see what your team does with it.
In most brands, two people touch each order. The key account manager reads it first and checks that prices and quantities make sense. Then sales admin (or sales ops) re-types it into a format the ERP can take, checks stock in more detail, and uploads it. From there it goes to the warehouse.
The weak point is the time in between. Every day an order waits, stock moves, and the delivery date gets closer.
From the field
One order I remember had a price that did not match what we had agreed. While we went back and forth with the buyer, two things happened. The delivery date slipped. And the stock we thought we had was sold to other customers.
By the time the price was settled, we could not ship. It cost us tens of thousands of pounds of missed orders, and some credibility with the account.
From a European fashion brand
What should you check before you confirm an order?
Most errors are small and easy to catch, if someone has the time to look. Before confirming, check:
- Prices match the agreed price list and discounts
- Product codes match yours. Retailers often use their own codes, so each one needs translating to your style, colour and size
- Language and template are understood. Export orders often come in the retailer's language
- Quantities are realistic and available in stock today, not last week
- Size and colour lines are correct, with no swapped or missing sizes
- Delivery window is one you can meet
- Delivery address is the right store or warehouse, and the right unloading dock: some sites have several. Some retailers, like Zalando, may refuse deliveries sent to the wrong warehouse
- Order number is new, so the same order is not entered twice
- Labelling and packing rules for that retailer are known
There is a second check that often gets skipped: is this the right order? Did the retailer order enough of your best sellers, or too much of a slow style? Key account managers rarely have time to ask this when the order arrives. It tends to come later, when it is too late to change.
Do you need EDI from day one?
Not always. Many retailers will accept orders by portal or email at first, and some smaller accounts never move to EDI. Larger retailers may ask for it as a condition of trading, and the cost and set-up time vary by provider. A separate guide on EDI is coming soon.
What matters more on day one is having one clear process that every order follows, whatever the format.
Quick answers: Do small brands need EDI? · Orders by PDF or email · Getting orders into your ERP
Questions
What is an EDI purchase order?
An EDI purchase order is an order sent as a structured message from the retailer's system to the supplier's. In Europe it usually follows the GS1 EANCOM standard, where the purchase order message is called ORDERS and each line is identified by an EAN.
Do I have to use a retailer's supplier portal?
Usually yes, if that is how the retailer sends orders and receives confirmations. It is part of the supplier terms. Ask early which portal they use, and who in your team will check it.
How quickly should I confirm a retailer order?
As quickly as possible, and within any deadline the retailer sets. Some, like Amazon for direct fulfilment, ask for confirmation within 24 hours. Delays also mean stock can move before the order is secured.
What happens if an order is entered wrong?
It depends on the error. Wrong prices lead to invoice disputes. Wrong quantities or sizes lead to short or wrong deliveries. Wrong delivery details can mean refused deliveries or late-delivery fees.
What should I agree with a new retailer's operations team?
How orders will arrive, how often, and how to confirm them. Also the delivery rules: labelling, units per carton, hanging or folded, and how to book delivery slots. Labelling is often forgotten and is not standard from one retailer to the next.
Alexis
Co-founder, Gatsbee
15 years in wholesale. Former CEO of a European lingerie brand selling to retailers across the UK, France and Germany.
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