EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the electronic exchange of standardized business documents between companies’ computer systems. It allows businesses to exchange information such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, and order confirmations without manually entering the data.

Common EDI documents in B2B commerce include:

• Purchase orders (POs) – Communicate products, quantities, prices, and purchasing requirements.
• Order acknowledgments – Confirm that an order has been received or accepted.
• Advance shipping notices (ASNs) – Provide shipment and delivery information.
• Invoices – Communicate amounts owed for supplied products or services.
• Inventory information – Share stock availability and related data.
• Shipping and receiving documents – Support logistics and fulfillment processes.

For example, a retailer can send an electronic purchase order through EDI to a supplier. The supplier’s system can automatically receive and process the order, send an acknowledgment, and later transmit an invoice and shipping notice.

EDI can help B2B businesses reduce manual data entry, improve processing speed, reduce errors, standardize communication, and automate transactions between trading partners. It is commonly integrated with ERP, procurement, warehouse, and eCommerce systems.

EDI implementations can use different standards and communication methods, so businesses need to ensure that their systems and trading partners use compatible formats and requirements.

Workflow automation is the use of software, rules, and automated processes to perform repetitive business tasks with little or no manual intervention. In B2B eCommerce, it can connect different systems and automatically move information or trigger actions when specific conditions are met.

Common B2B eCommerce workflow automation examples include:

• Order processing – Automatically sending new orders to fulfillment or ERP systems.
• Lead management – Assigning new leads to the appropriate sales representative.
• Quotation workflows – Routing quotations for approval when discounts exceed a certain limit.
• Inventory updates – Updating stock levels across connected systems after an order.
• Customer onboarding – Triggering account setup, emails, and approval steps for new business customers.
• Payment and invoice workflows – Sending invoices or notifying finance teams about payment events.
• Reorder reminders – Automatically contacting customers based on purchasing patterns.
• Support routing – Sending customer requests to the appropriate team.

For example, if a B2B customer places an order above a defined value, an automated workflow could send the order for internal approval, notify the sales team, and then release it to fulfillment after approval.

Workflow automation can help businesses reduce repetitive work, improve consistency, speed up processes, reduce manual errors, and connect business systems. Effective automation requires clearly defined rules, reliable data, appropriate permissions, and monitoring so that incorrect or unexpected actions can be identified and corrected.

Procurement integration is the process of connecting a B2B eCommerce platform with a company’s procurement systems and workflows so that purchasing information can move between them automatically. It helps businesses connect online buying with internal purchasing, approval, finance, inventory, and supplier processes.

Procurement integration can connect an eCommerce platform with:

• Procurement or eProcurement systems – For managing purchase requests and orders.
• ERP systems – For synchronizing products, inventory, orders, customers, and financial information.
• Accounting systems – For invoices, payments, and financial records.
• Supplier systems – For product catalogs, pricing, availability, and order processing.
• Approval workflows – For purchase limits and authorization processes.
• Punchout systems – Allowing business buyers to access a supplier’s catalog from their procurement platform and return the selected items to their purchasing workflow.

For example, a company’s employee could select products from a supplier’s online catalog through its procurement system. The purchase request can then go through the company’s internal approval process, with the resulting order and related information synchronized with the supplier’s eCommerce platform.

Procurement integration can reduce manual data entry, purchasing errors, processing time, and disconnected workflows while improving visibility across purchasing operations. The exact capabilities depend on the eCommerce platform, procurement software, ERP, APIs, and integration method used.