WooCommerce EDI integration

What WooCommerce does natively

WooCommerce has no X12 or EDIFACT translator. Its REST API, wc/v3, exchanges JSON, and the API reference has no EDI resource, checked on 3 October 2026. What core WooCommerce ships is the store side of an EDI flow, with four gaps an EDI partner notices.

A supplier that trades with a US retailer still needs the 850, 855, 856 and 810 in X12, with the retailer's version, qualifiers and pack hierarchy. That part runs outside WooCommerce. This page is the WooCommerce side of our EDI integration; the platform itself is covered under WooCommerce integrations.

How an 850 becomes a WooCommerce order

Unlike a cart-based API, WooCommerce creates an order with all its lines in one request. The diagram maps one line of PO 4500018236, the example used on our document pages.

The request for both lines, after the lookups:

{
  "customer_id": 52,
  "created_via": "edi",
  "status": "processing",
  "billing": { "company": "HARBOR RETAIL", "email": "" },
  "shipping": { "company": "HARBOR RETAIL DC 07", "address_1": "1200 DOCK STREET",
                "city": "COLUMBUS", "state": "OH", "postcode": "43215", "country": "US" },
  "meta_data": [ { "key": "_edi_po_number", "value": "4500018236" } ],
  "line_items": [
    { "product_id": 731, "quantity": 24, "subtotal": "300.00", "total": "300.00" },
    { "product_id": 744, "quantity": 12, "subtotal": "105.00", "total": "105.00" }
  ]
}

Line 2 carries 12 of the 16 ordered units of item 10499, because 12 were in stock, and the 855 confirms 24 and 12. The totals check by hand: 24 times 12.50 is 300.00, 12 times 8.75 is 105.00, and the order is 405.00, the merchandise total on the 810. created_via can only be set when the order is created, which makes it a reliable filter for EDI orders in reports.

The status is a decision. The default is pending, which reserves nothing. WooCommerce reduces stock when an order reaches processing, on-hold or completed, and the same move from pending to processing sends the Processing order email to the billing address. An EDI order created as pending leaves the stock untouched, so the store and the next 846 both oversell.

The technical reality of this pair

No published rate limit. The wc/v3 REST API documents no request limit; WooCommerce's own rate limiting covers only POST requests on the Store API and is off by default. Capacity is that of the WordPress server. A batch request holds at most 100 objects by default and returns HTTP 413 above that. A morning file of 120 purchase orders is 2 batch requests, 100 and 20, and each order in a batch returns its own result or error, so one bad order does not block the other 99.

Webhooks are a hint. WooCommerce delivers webhooks in the background through wp-cron and disables a webhook after 5 consecutive failed deliveries. The integration polls orders with modified_after (available since WooCommerce 5.8) as a backstop, so a cancelled order still reaches the partner when the webhook did not.

Stock for the 846. Core WooCommerce keeps one stock_quantity per product or variation. An 846 reports that figure, minus a buffer per partner when you set one. Stock per warehouse needs an inventory plugin or the ERP behind the store; see which stock counts.

Authentication. REST keys are bound to a WordPress user and stop working when that user is deleted, and the API needs pretty permalinks. An integration user that is removed in a cleanup stops every EDI order at once, so the integration raises an alert on the first 401.

What WooCommerce and X12 store differently

• Item identity. PO107 carries a UPC. WooCommerce needs its own product_id or variation_id; the SKU on a line is read-only, and a GTIN sits in a product field or meta key that differs per store. The integration keeps the lookup from UPC or case GTIN to product per partner.
• Units. A WooCommerce line has a quantity and no unit of measure. 2 CA with 12 per case is 24 units in WooCommerce, and the 855, 856 and 810 convert back to 2 cases. See units of measure.
• Addresses. WooCommerce has address_1 and address_2, a state as ISO code or name and country as ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. An N3 segment carries two lines of up to 55 characters, and N4 a state code. The retailer's location code, 0007, has no field and is kept in order meta data for the 856.
• Order number. number is read-only and is the order ID unless a plugin changes it. The 855 and 856 refer to the retailer's PO number from meta data, never to the WooCommerce number.

When it goes wrong

Every document has a status in the dashboard, with the raw file and the WooCommerce order it became or came from.

We build the integration to your WooCommerce store and your trading partners, host it and run it, for a fixed build price and a monthly fee. A new partner starts as a dry run that creates no orders and sends nothing, and you approve the first documents. The same model on other platforms is under Shopify EDI integration and Magento EDI integration; with an ERP behind the store, see WooCommerce ERP integration. Tell us which retailer asked you for EDI.