EDI 846 Inventory Advice: Telling Retailers What You Can Ship

A retailer can only sell what it believes you have. The EDI 846 Inventory Advice is how you tell it. It is a message from supplier to retailer that reports what stock you hold.

What the 846 does

An 846 reports your available inventory, item by item. A retailer uses it to decide what to show customers and what to order from you. It is common in dropship programs, where the retailer does not hold the stock itself.

What it can include

What an 846 contains is set by each retailer, but it commonly carries:

• Item identifiers: such as the UPC or the retailer’s item number.
• Quantity available: how many units you can ship.
• Dates: when stock is expected, if the item is out.
• Location: which of your warehouses holds the stock.

The retailer’s mapping guide sets which of these it wants.

Who sends one

Mostly suppliers who ship on the retailer’s behalf, and those whose stock changes often. If you ship straight to the retailer’s own warehouse, you may never be asked for one. Check your retailer’s guide.

What a clean feed needs

• Accurate counts: the number you send should match what is on the shelf, less anything already committed.
• Timely updates: a stale feed is how you end up selling stock you no longer have.
• Matching item identifiers: an item the retailer cannot match to its catalog may be rejected.

Where it goes wrong

Inventory feeds fall behind when the warehouse system and the EDI system do not share data. Someone updates one and forgets the other. Our guide to dropship EDI and inventory feeds covers what happens when orders arrive faster than the feed updates.

Some retailers accept inventory through an API instead. Our EDI versus API comparison explains the difference.