Retail EDIFACT — Selver, Maxima, Rimi, Coop, Prisma

Estonian retail is concentrated around five chains: Selver (Tallinna Kaubamaja Grupp), Maxima Eesti (a VP Market Lithuania subsidiary), Rimi Eesti (ICA Sweden subsidiary), Coop Estonia (federation of local cooperatives) and Prisma Peremarket (S-Group Finland subsidiary). All run EANCOM 2002 S4 (the GS1 EDIFACT subset) for supplier B2B flows — ORDERS, DESADV, RECADV, INVOIC. Estimated volume: ~50 million EDIFACT messages per year.

History — from Selver 1995 to 2000s EDIFACT

Selver is founded in 1995 by Tallinna Kaubamaja Grupp, the historic Tallinn department store dating back to 1972. Competition follows quickly: Rimi (ICA Sweden) in 1997, Coop Estonia in 2002, Prisma Peremarket (S-Group Finland) in 2008, Maxima Eesti (VP Market Lithuania) in 2010. Estonian retail is, like the rest of the Baltics, directly influenced by Scandinavian and Lithuanian capital.

First EDIFACT EANCOM 2002 S4 connections start in 2005 at Selver, rolled out to other chains around 2010. The dominant VAN is Telema, founded in Estonia in 2001 and specialised in Baltic retail EDIFACT. The standard is contractually mandatory for suppliers: a supplier without EDIFACT simply does not get listed.

text estonia-retail-edi-timeline.txt

1995       | Selver founded by Tallinna Kaubamaja Grupp — first modern
           | post-independence Estonian supermarket.
           |
1997       | Rimi Eesti enters (ICA Sweden subsidiary), Swedish entry
           | into Estonian retail.
           |
2002       | Coop Estonia forms as a federation of local cooperatives
           | (Maakooperatiivid) — Scandinavian model.
           |
2005       | First EDIFACT (EANCOM 2002 S4 subset) connections between
           | Selver and its key suppliers, via Telema VAN.
           |
2008       | Prisma Peremarket arrives (S-Group Finland) — first chain
           | to be 100% EDIFACT from day one.
           |
2010       | Maxima Eesti, a VP Market (Lithuania) subsidiary, rolls
           | out EDIFACT for its ~80 stores.
           |
2015-2020  | Regional convergence: same EDIFACT operators across
           | Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Telema, Edisoft, Omniva).
           |
2022-2026  | Pilots of e-arve XML / PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 on certain
           | categories (fees, marketing) — EDIFACT remains dominant
           | for goods flows.

Governance — GS1 Estonia + Telema

GS1 Estonia (gs1ee.org) manages GLN (Global Location Number) codes for stores and GTIN-13 codes for products. Telema, the dominant VAN operator, provides routing, translation (CSV -> EDIFACT for smaller suppliers), validation, and legal archiving.

Each chain maintains its own supplier onboarding, with an EDIFACT companion document (often called "EDIFACT Implementation Guide") published on its B2B portal. Differences between Selver, Rimi, Maxima and Prisma are minor — mostly in promo codes and net price segments.

EANCOM 2002 schema — ORDERS / DESADV / INVOIC

The typical Estonian retail B2B workflow is the classic quartet: the chain issues an ORDERS, the supplier replies with DESADV (advance ship notice), receipt is RECADV, then the invoice INVOIC. Here is a sample INVOIC:

text selver-invoic-d01b.txt

UNB+UNOC:4+SELVERAS:14+ATEAR:14+260615:1014+SEL00009182'
UNH+1+INVOIC:D:01B:UN:EAN010'
BGM+380+2026/00917+9'
DTM+137:20260615:102'
DTM+35:20260615:102'
RFF+ON:PO-2026-00917'
NAD+SU+1234567890::9::SELLER_TALLINN'
NAD+BY+9876543210::9::SELVER_KESKLINN+SELVER AS::92:1'
CUX+2:EUR:4'
LIN+1++4710800000123:EN'
IMD+F++:::Piim 2,5% 1L'
QTY+47:240:EA'
PRI+AAA:0.85'
MOA+203:204.00'
TAX+7+VAT+++:::22+S'
UNS+S'
MOA+79:200.00'
MOA+124:44.00'
MOA+86:244.00'
CNT+2:1'
UNT+18+1'
UNZ+1+SEL00009182'

Chains comparison — Selver / Maxima / Rimi / Coop / Prisma

Chain	Parent	~Stores	Main VAN
Selver	Tallinna Kaubamaja Grupp (EE)	~65	Telema
Maxima Eesti	VP Market / Vilniaus Prekyba (LT)	~75	Telema + Edisoft
Rimi Eesti	ICA Gruppen (SE)	~95	Telema + Apix
Coop Estonia	Coop federation (EE)	~330	Omniva
Prisma Peremarket	S-Group (FI)	~10	Telema + Tieto (FI)

Adoption — ~50M messages / year

~50M EDIFACT messages / year in Estonian retail (ORDERS + DESADV + RECADV + INVOIC), 2024 Telema estimate.
~10,000 suppliers connected via EDIFACT to at least one chain.
3 dominant VANs on the Estonian side: Telema (~70% market share), Omniva (~20%), Fitek/Unifiedpost (~10%).
~95% of supplier flows go via EDIFACT — the residual is mostly very small local suppliers (artisans, farmers).

Common pitfalls

Confusing GLN and registrikood. GLN identifies a logistical point (warehouse, store) — not a legal entity. registrikood identifies a legal entity. Both are required in a retail INVOIC.
Bad GTIN-13. A wrong GTIN-13 (often a checksum-less copy-paste) triggers automatic reception rejection in-store and blocks payment.
EDIFACT is not e-arve. Retail B2B flows remain EDIFACT. e-arve XML / PEPPOL BIS 3.0 is used for non-goods invoices (rent, energy, marketing).
Uncoded promos. Without the ALC segment (allowance / charge), a promo is not recognised by the chain's receiving system and the invoice is rejected.
S4 vs S3. EANCOM 2002 S4 is mandatory at major chains since ~2015. Suppliers still on S3 must migrate, usually via their VAN.

Foundations

Standards

Flagship messages

Tools