From Sign-Up to Go-Live
Getting started with RetailReady follows a clear path. Each stage builds on the previous one, and RetailReady guides you through every step. Here is the complete journey from creating your account to sending your first real EDI document.
Step 1: Create Your Account
Register with your email address and password, or sign in with Google. You will start with a 14-day free trial that gives you full access to the platform so you can explore and practice before committing.
Step 2: Complete the Setup Wizard
After registration, RetailReady's setup wizard walks you through five steps:
- Company Information — Enter your company name, email, and phone number.
- Company Address — Enter your business address. This is used as the ship-from and remit-to address on your EDI documents.
- Select a Plan — Choose the plan that fits your needs (Starter, Growth, or Scale). Plans differ in the number of trading partners you can connect.
- Select Your Retailers — Choose which retailers you want to trade with (e.g., Walmart, Amazon, Target). RetailReady creates a trading partner connection for each one.
- Confirm and Complete — Review your selections and finish the wizard.
Step 3: Add Your Products
Before you can process orders, RetailReady needs to know your product catalog. Go to Products and add your items with their UPCs, descriptions, and pricing. You can add products one at a time or import them from a CSV file. Each retailer may use different identifiers for the same product — you can set up retailer-specific mappings so RetailReady automatically translates between your SKUs and the retailer's item numbers.
Step 4: Practice in Sandbox Mode
Each trading partner starts in Practice Mode (also called Sandbox). This is a safe environment where you can:
- Create sample purchase orders to see how orders look in RetailReady.
- Practice acknowledging orders, creating shipments, and sending invoices.
- Test the complete order-to-invoice cycle without affecting real retailer systems.
RetailReady includes a guided walkthrough that takes you through each step of the EDI cycle for the first time. Follow it to build confidence before going live.
Step 5: Pass Preflight Checks
Before you can move to the Certification stage, RetailReady runs preflight checks to make sure your connection is properly configured:
- EDI Receiver ID is set
- Outbound protocol (SFTP or AS2) is configured
- Connection credentials are filled in
- At least one successful sandbox test has been completed
- Connection has been tested successfully
All checks must pass before you can proceed. RetailReady tells you exactly what needs to be fixed if any check fails.
Step 6: Certification
Once preflight checks pass, your trading partner moves from Practice Mode to Certification. In this stage, your documents are transmitted to the retailer's actual EDI endpoint for certification testing. The retailer's EDI team reviews your documents to confirm they meet their specifications before approving you for live trading.
During Certification:
- Documents you send reach the retailer's real system for validation.
- The retailer verifies your document formatting, data accuracy, and compliance with their requirements.
- You may need to complete several test cycles until the retailer confirms everything passes.
Step 7: Go Live
Once the retailer approves your certification testing, you can promote the trading partner to Live. Real purchase orders from the retailer will start flowing into your dashboard. From this point on, every document you send reaches the retailer's production system.
Good to know: You can switch a trading partner back to Practice Mode at any time if you need to re-test your setup or troubleshoot issues. Go to the trading partner's detail page and click "Switch to Practice Mode."
What Happens After Go-Live
With your trading partner live, the day-to-day workflow begins:
- Purchase orders arrive automatically in your Orders dashboard.
- You acknowledge, ship, and invoice through RetailReady.
- RetailReady tracks your compliance and alerts you to deadlines.
- Payments and chargebacks from the retailer appear in your dashboard.
Check the Orders, Shipping, and Invoicing sections of this documentation for detailed guides on each part of the workflow.