How to Create Opportunities to Work with Costco Using EDI

Here is how you get your products listed at Costco

Getting listed on shelves Costco may seem like a tedious task, but it can be split up into two phases. The first step is submitting your product for approval and the second is meeting their EDI requirements. Understanding these phases is curtail since this process does take a bit of time and retailers have strict regulations that you must abide by. Retailers have these regulations in order to be able to work with 100s or even 1000s of suppliers like yourself. EDI compliancy makes it easy for them to process and organize large amounts of data.

EDI is a key that can open doors

Having a reliable Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution in place makes a huge difference. Without EDI, Costco won’t even give them the time of day, let alone discuss a business relationship. Choosing an EDI service provider that has previous experience with Costco is valuable. Costco already have an idea of what it’s like for retailers to achieve compliance for the brand’s requirements. Having EDI in place, especially with an EDI provider with which the brand is familiar, could push a smaller retailer higher up in the priority list to connect with. Since EDI-based transactions are basically the same as traditional paper documents — except that EDI documents are sent and received in electronic form formatted according to EDI standards — it doesn’t sound like supporting EDI would be all that difficult. Especially since EDI is a "standard", which implies that if implemented for one retailer, it should be the same for all the others. Not so..

Step 1: Submit Your Product to Costco For Approval

Before you get listed, you must submit your product for listing review. Retailers are always looking for new and exciting products they can offer their customer base.

Step 2: Meet Costco EDI for Requirement

To be a supplier of Costco, you’ll need to transfer important business documents through a process known as EDI. Setting up EDI can be complex and confusing, and if you don’t get it right, Supplier’ll face costly chargebacks from Costco. Failure to business documents properly can result in you being delisted from the retailer.

Common Costco EDI Transactions

Following are some common retail EDI transactions both for large and small companiesEDI 879 Price Information: The 879 X12 EDI transaction set is an electronic version of a paper price information document. It can be used by the supplier, manufacture, agent or broker to provide the trading partner with pricing information. It is sent by a trading partner to another when pricing information is required or requested.

EDI 861 Receiving Advice/Acceptance Certificate: The EDI 861 X12 EDI transaction set an electronic version of a paper Receiving Advice/Acceptance Certificate document. It is used to report the receipt of shipments or as a formal acceptance of returned defective items. The 861 EDI document is used by a business receiving a shipment, and is sent upon receipt of the shipment.

EDI 864 Text Message: The EDI 864 X12 EDI transaction set an electronic version of a paper Text Message. It is used to transmit various text information messages, explanations, contracts, regulations, notes etc. to third parties. The 864 EDI document is sent by any business needing to transmit a text message.