EDI 832: Price catalog / sales catalog (PRICAT) inquiry

by | Jun 26, 2018 | Retailers, Suppliers

Have you ever wondered how retailers get supplier item information to load into their Item Master File or populated to their website, or how they go about managing price or cost changes? For many, it’s an Excel spreadsheet filled with fields and fields of product details which are manually gathered and entered. There is a more efficient and scalable way to do this, however, and it’s called EDI document 832 for price catalog/sales catalog (PRICAT).

What is EDI 832 PRICAT?

The EDI 832 transaction contains the supplier’s entire sales catalog – including prices, sizes, specifications, colors, nutritional information, packaging details, and so on. Based on the industry you support, retailers, distributors, suppliers and vendors can integrate the EDI 832 documents (or 888, 879 and 889 EDI documents for grocers) into their item management system, populate the appropriate purchasing software and immediately start ordering products directly through an ERP system using an EDI solution.

EDI 832 transactions contain different details including the following:

  • Product item identifiers/services such as UPC/EAN/GTIN
  • Ordering attributes including product description details, unit of measurement and unit price
  • Discounts that are available for the products
  • Dates of transmission, reflecting the time at which the document is accurate

Many of these EDI documents contain this information every time, regardless of supplier, retailer, or product. However, some may also include additional information such as:

  • Core Attributes, like delivery lead times, item descriptions, color or size
  • Ordering attributes like case pack quantities
  • Logistical information such as product packaging configuration
  • Regulatory and compliance attributes, like Prop 65 compliance, HazMat indicators and Country of Origin
  • Extended attributes helpful with managing/including robust details on the website such as features and benefits, keywords or product images or videos

How is Price Catalog/Sales Catalog used?

General retailers use the EDI 832 or Price/Sales Catalog Transaction Set, while grocers use the EDI 888, 879 or 889 for the same purposes. These EDI item transactions can then be used to standardize the transmission of information between the supplier and the retailer, which can then be used to update online information.

As the supplier uploads new PRICAT details, the vendor can update their website with new items and updated product information. The vendor can also manage any publicly available data on their website, such as the product’s price and details, or even remove it from their site. Because this is all based on the supplier’s information, items can be changed automatically as the supplier makes updates, without the retailer needing to make these changes themselves, helping to reduce the customer service resources required to deal with customer calls.

The customer service representative (CSR) has the latest information provided by the supplier, and there won’t be any discrepancies between what the customer sees on the website and what the CSR sees in their inventory system.

To learn more about using an EDI 832 price catalog/sales catalog or any other EDI documentation, please visit the SPS Commerce website. You can learn more about EDI, get a free demonstration, or speak to one of our EDI specialists.

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Scott Bolduc
Latest posts by Scott Bolduc (see all)
pricat, sales catalog, price catalog, EDI 832, EDI, 832

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