Ask most ecommerce platform vendors about EDI and you'll get a confident yes. Ask them which EDI standard, which retailer-specific variant, and how invoicing, advance ship notices and point-of-sale data feed back into your ERP, and the confidence usually thins out. For FMCG manufacturers selling into major UK retailers, this gap between "the platform supports EDI" and "the platform supports your specific retailer integrations" is where ecommerce projects quietly go over budget and over time.

This is a deliberately narrow piece. It doesn't cover the full replatforming decision — that's in our vendor-neutral replatforming guide and, for FMCG specifically, our piece on ecommerce replatforming for FMCG brands. This article goes deep on one workstream inside that decision: ERP and EDI integration, and why it's consistently the most underestimated part of an FMCG ecommerce project.

Why ERP and EDI integration is different for FMCG manufacturers

Most ecommerce platforms are built with a B2C transaction model as the default: a customer browses, adds to basket, pays, and the order flows through to fulfilment. FMCG manufacturers selling into major retailers operate a fundamentally different model. Orders arrive through EDI from the retailer's own systems, in a format the retailer defines, often with retailer-specific variations even within the same EDI standard. Invoices, advance ship notices, and point-of-sale sell-through data all need to flow back the other way, usually into the ERP rather than the ecommerce platform itself.

This means the ecommerce platform is often not the primary system handling retailer trade at all — the ERP is. The ecommerce platform's job is to handle DTC and smaller wholesale accounts, while EDI traffic with major retailers bypasses it almost entirely and goes straight to the ERP. Any platform or replatforming decision that doesn't start from this reality risks solving the wrong problem.

The retailer compliance problem most platforms don't mention

Every major UK retailer has its own EDI compliance requirements, and they are not interchangeable. A connector that works for one retailer's EDI implementation will frequently not work, unmodified, for another's — different field requirements, different timing expectations, different penalty regimes for non-compliance. Retailer compliance penalties for EDI errors are commercially real; persistent non-compliance can affect a retailer relationship far more directly than a slow website ever would.

This is the detail that gets lost when EDI is treated as a single line item in a platform requirements document — "must support EDI" — rather than a retailer-by-retailer specification exercise. Before any platform or middleware decision, a UK FMCG manufacturer should know exactly which retailers it needs to integrate with, which EDI standard and version each requires, and which of its current integrations would need to be rebuilt rather than carried over.

Trade pricing, promotions and the ERP as source of truth

Trade pricing for FMCG is rarely static. Promotional pricing, retailer-specific terms, volume rebates and seasonal deals all need to be reflected accurately and on time, and the ERP is usually the system of record for this complexity, not the ecommerce platform. A common and costly mistake is allowing the ecommerce platform to become a second, parallel source of pricing truth — leading to discrepancies between what a retailer's EDI order expects and what the platform or fulfilment system actually processes.

The right architecture treats the ERP as the single source of truth for trade pricing, with the ecommerce platform and any DTC storefront reading from it rather than maintaining independent pricing logic. This sounds obvious stated plainly. It is very rarely how FMCG ecommerce platforms actually get built, because pricing logic is usually added to whichever system is being actively worked on at the time, rather than architected deliberately from the start.

What to ask before any ERP or EDI integration project begins

Before committing to a platform, an integration partner, or a replatform timeline, FMCG manufacturers should have clear answers to the following.

Which retailers, which EDI standards. A named list of every retailer requiring EDI, the specific standard and version each uses, and whether any retailer-specific customisation is already in place that would need to be replicated.

What the ERP needs to remain the source of truth for. Pricing, stock, and customer account data should each have an explicit, single source of truth defined before integration design begins — not discovered through inconsistency after go-live.

What happens to advance ship notices and point-of-sale data. Many EDI conversations focus only on inbound purchase orders and miss the outbound data retailers expect in return — advance ship notices, invoices, and increasingly, sell-through and point-of-sale data feeding back into demand planning.

Who owns the integration once it's live. EDI and ERP integrations require ongoing maintenance as retailers update their requirements. A project that ends at go-live, with no clear ownership of subsequent changes, tends to degrade until the next compliance failure forces attention back onto it.

Right Partners and ERP integration

Right Partners scopes ERP and EDI integration requirements as part of the commercial specification, before any platform or middleware vendor is selected — the same discipline we apply to the broader Replatform Impact Model™, which maps integration risk across the full ecommerce stack, not just EDI. For FMCG manufacturers specifically, this means a retailer-by-retailer EDI audit sits alongside the platform decision, not after it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does our ecommerce platform need to handle EDI directly?

Not necessarily. For many FMCG manufacturers, the more robust architecture routes EDI traffic with major retailers through the ERP or a dedicated integration platform, with the ecommerce platform handling DTC and smaller accounts separately. Whether your platform needs native EDI capability depends on how your specific retailer mix is structured, not on a generic best practice.

What's the difference between EDI and API integration for FMCG ecommerce?

EDI is the long-established standard most major retailers still require for purchase orders, invoices and shipping notices, with strict formatting and compliance rules. APIs are more flexible and modern but are not yet universal across UK retailers. Most FMCG manufacturers need to support both, depending on which retailers and systems they're integrating with.

How do we know if our EDI integration will survive a replatform?

This needs to be checked retailer by retailer, not assumed at the platform level. A connector or integration platform that handled EDI well on your current setup may not transfer cleanly to a new platform, particularly if any retailer-specific customisation was built informally over time rather than documented. This should be audited before a platform is selected, not after.

What happens if our EDI integration fails compliance with a retailer?

Consequences vary by retailer but can include financial penalties, delayed payment, or in persistent cases, review of the trading relationship itself. This is one of the reasons EDI compliance should be treated as a commercial risk item in any ecommerce or replatforming project, not purely a technical integration task.

Should ERP or the ecommerce platform be the source of truth for pricing?

For most FMCG manufacturers with significant trade and retailer business, the ERP should remain the source of truth for pricing, with the ecommerce platform and any DTC storefront reading from it. Allowing the ecommerce platform to maintain independent pricing logic alongside the ERP is a common source of discrepancy between what retailers expect and what actually gets processed.

Further reading

Ecommerce Replatforming for FMCG Brands · Should You Replatform Your Ecommerce Site? A Vendor-Neutral Decision Framework · FMCG Ecommerce Strategy for UK Manufacturers & Retailers · Replatform Impact Map

If EDI or ERP integration is the unresolved question behind your platform decision, talk to Right Partners. No platform agenda, no integration partner referral fee — an honest scoping of what your specific retailer mix actually requires.