EDI for UK retail suppliers
FTP EDI receives, checks, translates and delivers your orders, ASNs and invoices for Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Amazon and more, then chases the acknowledgements so you do not have to.
No software to install · Live in days · UK-based support
A Lidl EDIFACT ORDERS message arrives at FTP EDI, passes the GTIN, depot, PO pattern and best-before checks, is translated into a clean order for PO 751715062601 to Lidl Mullingar RDC for 210 cases on 25 September, and is delivered to the warehouse. The despatch advice and GS1-128 pallet label go back to Lidl and a CONTRL acknowledgement confirms receipt.
Retailer
Lidl GB
AS2 · EDIFACT D96A
Platform
FTP EDI
Check · translate · deliver
You
Your warehouse
Clarus WMS · SFTP
PO 751715062601
Lidl Mullingar RDC
210 cases · Orange Juice 1L x 6
Deliver Thu 25 Sep
1 pallet · 210 cases · DN751715062601
(00) 3 5060133 900072517 0
Built for the documents your retailers demand
Retailer names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners and are shown to identify the EDI specifications FTP EDI supports. No endorsement is implied.
The problems
Every supplier we talk to has the same three headaches. FTP EDI is built to remove each of them.
One missing best-before date or a wrong SSCC and the ASN bounces, the pallet is refused at the gate and the fine arrives a week later.
How FTP EDI removes it
FTP EDI checks every despatch advice against the retailer's own rules before it leaves, fixes what it can and tells you exactly what it cannot.
You sent the invoice. Did they get it? Nobody knows until the payment run is short and someone has to dig through a mailbox.
How FTP EDI removes it
Every document is tracked from sent to accepted. If a CONTRL or 997 is late, you get an alert with the retailer contact, not a mystery.
Tesco moves to EPOD, Lidl changes its PO pattern, Amazon tightens 855 timing. Each one is a project for your IT provider.
How FTP EDI removes it
We maintain the retailer templates. When a rule changes, we update it, test it against your live documents and tell you what changed.
Product tour
Four steps, one screen. Here is what your team sees every day.
1 Receive and check
Orders arrive over AS2, SFTP or a VAN. Each one is checked against the retailer's rules the moment it lands.
2 Translate
EDIFACT, Tradacoms and X12 are turned into one canonical order, so your warehouse and accounts see the same thing every time.
3 Deliver to your warehouse
The order goes straight into Clarus or any WMS over SFTP or API. Despatch confirmations come back the same way.
4 ASN, labels and invoice back
The despatch advice, GS1-128 pallet labels and invoice are built from what actually shipped, then tracked until accepted.
A tour of the FTP EDI dashboard: Every order lands here already checked against the retailer's rules. EDIFACT, Tradacoms and X12 become one clean order your systems understand. Orders go straight to your WMS; despatch confirmations come straight back. The ASN, GS1-128 labels and invoice are built from what actually shipped.
Every order lands here already checked against the retailer's rules.
Under the hood
Translation, rule checking and acknowledgement tracking, running on every document, all day.
A retailer order in EDIFACT, Tradacoms or X12 is read segment by segment and translated into one canonical JSON order with the document number, buyer, ship-to, requested delivery date and lines with GTIN and quantity.
A Lidl despatch advice is checked against five retailer rules. SSCC per pallet, GTIN and depot GLN pass. The best-before check finds line 2 missing a date, FTP EDI applies the fix, the check passes, the delivery note length is confirmed and the document is ready to send.
Lidl GB · DESADV rules
Ready to sendDN751715062601
1 pallet · 2 lines · 270 cases
A despatch advice is sent to Lidl, delivered with an AS2 MDN, acknowledged with a CONTRL and accepted. In a second run the CONTRL does not arrive, FTP EDI raises an overdue acknowledgement alert by email after four hours, and the acknowledgement then arrives and the document is accepted.
Acknowledgement tracking
DESADV DN751715062601 → Lidl GB
Run 1
09:41:00
Overdue acknowledgement
alerts@ftpedi.com → ops@yourcompany.co.uk
Lidl DESADV 2026-09-25 — 4h without CONTRL. We have re-requested the acknowledgement from Schwarz IT.
How it works
Give us your retailers, depots and product list. We set up the templates, GLNs and rules for each one.
We connect your warehouse and accounts by SFTP, API or file drop. Most connections are live in a day.
We run test documents with each retailer, get your labels approved and switch you over one trading partner at a time.
Pricing
Pick a plan by document volume. Every plan includes all your retailers, the dashboard and UK-based support.
For suppliers with one or two retailers
£249 /month
2,000 documents included
For growing brands trading with the multiples
£749 /month
15,000 documents included
For high-volume suppliers and 3PLs
£1,990 /month
75,000 documents included
Compare everything on the pricing page.
We used to lose a day a week to ASN rejections and chasing Tesco for acknowledgements. Now the documents just go, and if anything is late we hear about it before the retailer does.
Questions
Most suppliers are live with their first retailer within two weeks. The retailer's own test cycle is usually the longest part; our side takes a few days.
No. FTP EDI is fully hosted. You use the web dashboard and we connect to your existing warehouse or accounts system by SFTP, API or file drop.
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Amazon, Boots, Morrisons and most other UK grocers and general merchandise retailers. If you trade with someone we have not met, we build the template as part of onboarding.
We connect to Clarus and any WMS or 3PL that can exchange files or call an API. Orders go in, despatch confirmations come back, and we build the ASN and labels from them.
From your despatch confirmation. FTP EDI assigns SSCCs, groups cases onto pallets, checks the retailer's rules and sends the despatch advice before the vehicle arrives, along with matching GS1-128 labels.
Plans start at £249 a month with a set number of documents included. There is no per-retailer fee and onboarding is included. See the pricing page for details.
Tell us who you trade with and what you ship. We'll come back with a plan, a price and a go-live date within one working day.
No software to install. Live in days. UK-based support.
