Page 191 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

1 84 Your Idea, Inc.

department to assist you if you need help. Here are two common
methods of using EDI:

1. The EDI is made available through the company itself and

costs nothing to join and has no monthly fee. Obviously,
this option is great, but it's rare.
2 . You use a third-party web-based EDI facilitator. These com­
panies provide all the software, forms, and support for a
monthly fee, a one-time set-up fee, and/or a flat fee for a
certain number of transactions or a cost-per-transaction fee.
The fees will vary from company to company, but you may
see an average of a $500 one-time set-up fee for the first
trading partner (you can add other retailers if required to
do so for $100) and a monthly fee of around $75 to $1 20,
including, say, 150 transactions.

A typical EDl transaction includes the PO, the invoice, and the
shipping information. Here are some companies that make using

ED! easy: www.covalentworks.com, www. truecommerce.com, and www
.inovis.com. Some companies will let you sign up on a month-to­

month basis rather than a long-term contract. Your online account
will alert you via e-mail if you have new purchase orders, so you
don't have to constantly check in to be sure that you don't miss
anything. You can process the documents online, by filling in the
blanks on the form, confirming receipt, and then electronically
sending an invoice back to your account upon shipping the order.

How to Deal with Buyers

If a buyer of a large chain store asks you if you are EDI compat­
ible, say "not at the moment, but we can certainly set that up right
away for you." (Keep in mind that it usually takes a week or so to
get set up and do the required testing by the retailer.) The next step
would be to register with a web-based EDI service. Sign up accord­
ing to the specifics from your retail partner.