Retail Industry:Document Standards
There are a number of key EDI document standards used within the retail industry:
- Tradacoms
Tradacoms was a very early EDI standard that was heavily adopted within the retail industry. Initiated in 1982, the standard was effectively rendered obsolete in 1995 when it was superseded by EDIFACT EANCOM. No further development has taken place on the standard. Unfortunately, someone forgot to inform the retail industry about this and the vast bulk of retail EDI traffic still uses Tradacoms. - Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Solutions (VICS) Association (now part of GS1 US)
The VICS association has worked to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the retail supply chain. VICS pioneered the implementation of the “quick response” (QR) standard to simplify the flow of product information for retailers and suppliers. VICS EDI handles the maintenance of the VICS standards including its supply chain collaborative, planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) standard. - eCOM
A group of standards that address common standards in the supply chain that are very well-suited to the retail industry. The vast majority of eCOM standards in use today are based on EDI. However, a new generation of XML eCOM standards are emerging–although market adoption has been minimal.
