EDI 852 Product Activity Data: Retail Sales and Stock by Store
The retailer’s report of your products’ sales and stock, often by store and week, used for replenishment and forecasting.
- Document
- X12 852: Product Activity Data
- Sent by
- Retailer
- Sent to
- Supplier
- In NetSuite
- No standard record; imported for reporting
(01)What it is
The 852 is a report from a retailer to a supplier: how many units of each of the supplier’s items sold, and how many are in stock, typically by store or distribution center and by week. Some retailers use it to let suppliers manage replenishment.
It is one of the most useful EDI documents for planning, and one of the least used, because the data rarely has a home in the supplier’s ERP.
Large retailers often offer the same data through a supplier portal as well. The EDI version is easier to load automatically, which matters once you sell to more than a couple of retailers.
(02)What it carries
- 01Reporting period, such as a week
- 02Items, by the retailer’s item number and UPC
- 03Units sold, on hand and on order
- 04Store or distribution center the figures apply to
In plain language. Each trading partner’s implementation guide sets the exact fields it requires.
(03)Where it fits
Documents usually exchanged before and after the 852.
(04)In NetSuite
NetSuite has no standard record for retail sell-through. Teams import 852 data into a custom record or a reporting database and use it for forecasts and reorder points, rather than into transactions.
(05)Common mistakes
- 01Receiving 852s for months and never loading them anywhere useful.
- 02Mixing the retailer’s item numbers with your own without a cross-reference, so sales can’t be tied to items.
(06)Questions
What is an EDI 852?
The EDI 852 is the X12 product activity data document: a retailer’s report of a supplier’s products sold and in stock, usually by store and week.
What is the 852 used for?
Forecasting, replenishment and vendor-managed inventory, where the supplier decides what to ship to the retailer based on sales and stock.
(07)More catalog & inventory documents
- EDI 846Inventory Inquiry/AdviceStock levels shared by EDI: how much of each item is available, so retailers and marketplaces don’t sell what you can’t ship.
- EDI 832Price/Sales CatalogThe supplier’s catalog sent by EDI: items, descriptions, identifiers and prices, set up before the buyer can order them.