EDIFACT in Spanish grocery retail

EDIFACT has structured for 30 years the flows between manufacturers and Spanish grocery retail. Under AECOC coordination (Spain’s GS1 member organisation), retailers — Mercadona, Carrefour Spain, El Corte Ingles, Dia, Eroski, Lidl, Aldi, Consum, Alcampo — exchange daily more than 600 million EANCOM 2002 messages, from the order (ORDERS) to the invoice (INVOIC), via dispatch advice (DESADV) and GS1-128 SSCC palletisation.

Retailers and their volume

Spanish grocery retail is more concentrated than France’s but less than Germany’s. Mercadona (family-owned group, headquartered in Tavernes Blanques near Valencia) leads the food market with ~22% national share. It is followed by multinational groups (Carrefour, Auchan, Lidl, Aldi) and cooperative players (Eroski in the Basque Country, Consum on the Mediterranean coast).

# Volumes and main message types per chain (est. AECOC 2024)

Mercadona              ~22% national food market share, 1,850 stores
  - EDI platform: AECOC VAN + EDICOM
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, PRICAT, CONTRL, APERAK
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S4 + FRESCO extension for fresh produce

Carrefour Spain        ~9%, 213 hypermarkets + 510 supermarkets
  - EDI platform: VAN Carrefour Global + WebEDI AECOC
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, REMADV, INVRPT, SLSRPT
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S5 (Carrefour France group alignment)

El Corte Ingles        ~6%, 90 department stores + Supercor + Hipercor supermarkets
  - EDI platform: VAN Telefonica BiSoluciones + EDICOM
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, PRICAT, PARTIN
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S4 + NEXUS extension for non-food

Grupo Dia              ~5%, 2,400 proximity stores
  - EDI platform: AECOC VAN + Voxel
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, PRICAT, INVRPT, GENRAL
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S4

Eroski (cooperative)   ~4%, 1,640 stores (Bizkaia hub)
  - EDI platform: VAN Bizerba + AECOC
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, COACSU
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S4 + Bizkaia adaptations (TicketBAI)

Lidl Spain             ~6%, ~640 stores
  - EDI platform: VAN Lidl Group (Heilbronn) + AECOC GLN
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S5 (German group)

Aldi Spain             ~2%, 390 stores
  - EDI platform: VAN Aldi Nord (Essen) + AECOC GLN
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S5

Consum (cooperative)   ~3%, 800 stores Mediterranean coast
  - EDI platform: AECOC VAN + EDICOM
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, PRICAT
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S4

Alcampo (Auchan)       ~3%, 60 hypermarkets
  - EDI platform: VAN Auchan Global + AECOC
  - Messages: ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, INVRPT
  - Format: EANCOM 2002 S5 (Auchan group alignment)

AECOC, GS1 Spain and the EANCOM 2002 subset

AECOC is the GS1 member organisation for Spain. It provides:

• GS1 prefix allocation — GTIN-13 prefix 84 (range 8400000 to 8499999) for Spanish manufacturers and retailers. GLNs (Global Location Numbers) are also administered by AECOC.
• Maintenance of the Spanish EANCOM 2002 subset — the localised version of EANCOM 2002 (the GS1 subset of EDIFACT D.96A, completed by D.01B). ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, RECADV, etc. messages are specified in Manuales de Implementacion (MI).
• FRESCO and NEXUS sectoral standards — extensions for fresh-produce chains (batch, BBD, traceability) and non-food (models, colours, sizes).
• Supplier certifications — AECOC issues fitness certifications (AECOC Verified) for vendors and integrators properly implementing the subset.

FRESCO and NEXUS: sectoral standards

Two sectoral extensions dominate in Spain:

• FRESCO (Fresh in Easy & Standardized COde) — adopted by Mercadona, Carrefour, Dia, Eroski and the fruit/veg/meat/fish chain suppliers. Adds to the EANCOM 2002 messages qualifiers for: lot number, slaughter date, size, variety, region of origin, organic certification (Euroleaf, AECOC organic). Enables the traceability required by EU directive 178/2002 (food safety).
• NEXUS — adopted by El Corte Ingles, Mediamarkt, Worten, Leroy Merlin, Carrefour non-food. Adds qualifiers for: model, colour, size, EAN-128 for serial items (appliances, telephony), warranty, brand (BAS Brand Allocation Schema). Enables returns and after-sales management with serial traceability.

Daily messages

The day-to-day of a manufacturer working with Spanish grocery retail involves 8-12 EDIFACT messages per trading pair. The main ones:

Anatomy of a Mercadona ORDERS

Below a simplified Mercadona ORDERS, compliant with the AECOC EANCOM 2002 S4 subset. Three order lines, unit prices, quantities in pieces, in plain English:

UNB+UNOC:3+8412345000007:14+8480000123456:14+260415:0900+MRC0000142'
UNH+1+ORDERS:D:01B:UN:EAN010'
BGM+220+MRC-VL-2026-000142+9'
DTM+137:20260415:102'
DTM+2:20260418:102'
RFF+CT:CTR-2024-MRC-AVL-742'
NAD+BY+8412345000007::9'
NAD+SU+8480000123456::9'
NAD+DP+8412345012345::9'
LIN+1++8410123456789:EN'
QTY+21:240'
PRI+AAA:0.89'
LIN+2++8410123456796:EN'
QTY+21:120'
PRI+AAA:1.45'
LIN+3++8410123456802:EN'
QTY+21:60'
PRI+AAA:3.20'
UNS+S'
CNT+2:3'
UNT+18+1'
UNZ+1+MRC0000142'

• UNB — transmission envelope. Buyer GLN 8412345000007 (Mercadona supply chain), supplier GLN 8480000123456.
• BGM — Mercadona order number MRC-VL-2026-000142 (Valencia platform).
• DTM — issue date 15/04/2026, requested delivery date 18/04/2026.
• RFF+CT — yearly contract reference CTR-2024-MRC-AVL-742.
• NAD+DP — delivery point: Mercadona Avila warehouse code 8412345012345.
• LIN/QTY/PRI — three lines: 240 units of GTIN 8410123456789 at EUR 0.89 ex-tax, 120 units of 8410123456796 at EUR 1.45, 60 units of 8410123456802 at EUR 3.20.

DESADV, SSCC and GS1-128 palletisation

DESADV is the logistic pivot. It announces to Mercadona, before the truck arrives, the composition of every pallet identified by its SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code, 18 digits, AECOC applicator). Mercadona scans the GS1-128 code at warehouse entry and automatically matches it against the received DESADV, with no manual data entry.

UNB+UNOC:3+8480000123456:14+8412345000007:14+260418:1430+DES000089'
UNH+1+DESADV:D:01B:UN:EAN005'
BGM+351+DES-2026-000089+9'
DTM+137:20260418:102'
DTM+11:20260418:102'
RFF+ON:MRC-VL-2026-000142'
NAD+SU+8480000123456::9'
NAD+BY+8412345000007::9'
NAD+DP+8412345012345::9'
CPS+1'
PAC+12'
PCI+33E+003848000012345600234:SSCC'
LIN+1++8410123456789:EN'
QTY+12:240'
LIN+2++8410123456796:EN'
QTY+12:120'
LIN+3++8410123456802:EN'
QTY+12:60'
UNS+S'
CNT+2:3'
UNT+18+1'
UNZ+1+DES000089'

• CPS — Packing Sequence segment, hierarchical structure pallet > case > consumer unit.
• PCI+33E — Package Identification: "33E" indicates an SSCC qualified GS1-128 AI 00. The SSCC 003848000012345600234 uniquely identifies the pallet.
• QTY+12 — delivered quantity (12 = actually loaded).

Coexistence with Facturae and Crea y Crece

Current EDIFACT flows carry only commercial INVOICs. Under the Crea y Crece mandate (upcoming, see dedicated page), the manufacturer will have to issue a structured electronic invoice in one of the accepted formats — Facturae 3.2.2, UBL 2.1 or CII D16B — uploaded to an interoperable hub.

Several strategies are possible:

• Dual emission — the manufacturer keeps the EDIFACT INVOIC for the logistic chain (lot by lot, real-time) and adds in parallel a monthly/weekly Facturae for Crea y Crece compliance. Favoured by large suppliers with mature ERPs.
• EDIFACT → Facturae conversion — the EDI platform automatically transforms EDIFACT INVOICs into signed Facturae, then sends them to the hub. The platform strategy (EDICOM, Voxel, SEDA-AECOC).
• EDIFACT obsoleted in B2B retail — hypothesis not embraced by AECOC: EDIFACT remains for logistic flows (ORDERS, DESADV, RECADV, INVRPT, SLSRPT) which are not invoices, and only the INVOIC migrates to Facturae.

Sources

• AECOC — ORDERS / DESADV / INVOIC EANCOM 2002 S4 and S5 implementation manuals
• AECOC — Estandar Comercial Espanol (ECE) v3.x
• GS1 Spain — GTIN allocation prefix 84 database
• Mercadona, Carrefour Spain, El Corte Ingles, Dia annual reports (market-share figures)
• Kantar Worldpanel — annual Spanish grocery retail market-share studies 2024

Cross-links

• Spain hub — full e-invoicing mandate overview
• Facturae — format for the final invoice
• Crea y Crece law — upcoming B2B mandate
• EDIFACT automotive — the other major Spanish EDI sub-sector
• France — EDIFACT retail (comparator)
• EDIFACT — message directory
• AECOC — official site
• GS1 — EANCOM 2002