Eco Style Corp LLC

• Urgent need for EDI 856 (advance shipment notice) compliance made this a critical requirement to avoid supply chain disruptions and lost business
• Mandate to improve efficiency and prevent failed transactions from disrupting invoicing, increasing costs, and impacting revenue

ECO STYLE (Estyle) has operated successfully for over 40 years and stands out as a beacon of innovation, sustainability, and quality in the beauty industry. In an ever-changing dynamic category, ECO STYLE innovates based on genuine consumer needs, ensuring its formulas are effective and timeless.

Understanding that environmentally safe products are a key concern for today’s consumers, ECO STYLE makes sustainability a thread that runs through its total operation, from its hybrid work environment and the focus on optimized shipping approaches, to its eco-friendly ingredients and formulas, and the recycling programs embedded in its manufacturing processes.

While innovation and sustainability drive ECO STYLE’s success, operational efficiency is just as critical. Managing stock and supply chains efficiently requires a robust electronic data interchange (EDI) system that can handle evolving trading partner requirements and changing market conditions. As ECO STYLE looks to expand globally, they understand getting EDI right is critical to their success.

EDI plays a vital role in how ECO STYLE works with retailers of all sizes to manage order processes, but strict formatting rules make it difficult to adapt to different retailers and international markets. Even within the same retailer (e.g., Walmart), EDI requirements vary between regions, creating complexity.

As Tony Baldwin, Chief Technology Officer at ECO STYLE, explained, “Our previous EDI solution, SPS Commerce, was too rigid to accommodate these variations. Many of our customers don’t use standardized GTIN codes but instead work with internal item codes. Mapping these unique codes to EDI standards was extremely complex and not well-supported by SPS. We use Oracle NetSuite as our corporate ERP solution, but because SPS lacked effective integration capabilities, manual intervention was often required to enter, correct, and validate order data.”

This lack of automation created inefficiencies that impacted both costs and revenue for ECO STYLE. A dedicated IT team had to check for errors every night because EDI transactions frequently failed. This manual process not only increased internal costs and tied up internal IT resources, but also directly impacted revenue, as failed transactions prevented timely order processing and invoicing.

Furthermore, ECO STYLE needed its EDI solution to provide structured support for 856 EDI documents, or advance shipment notices (ASNs). These documents tell retailers exactly what is in a shipment before it arrives, leveraging barcode labelling and automation. Major partners, including Walgreens, Walmart, and CVS, require an 856, and in the short term, shipments would be refused without it.

Without a reliable EDI solution that could manage 856 compliance, ECO STYLE risked supply chain disruptions, penalties, and potential loss of key customers. With these challenges mounting, ECO STYLE sought out an EDI solution that was flexible, automated, and scalable. Baldwin turned to implementation partner Codinix Technologies to explore the best path forward.