Latvian retail EDIFACT — Maxima + Rimi + Top! + Mego + Elvi

Latvian retail is among the most concentrated in Europe, dominated by Maxima Latvija (Lithuanian VP Market group), Rimi Latvia (ICA Sweden subsidiary), Top! (Aibe Group, Baltic cooperative) and Mego (LaTS — Latvijas Tirdzniecības Sistēma). All run on EDIFACT EANCOM 2002 GS1 Latvija subset for ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, ORDRSP. The 2026 B2B eRēķins mandate will push INVOIC toward PEPPOL BIS 3.0, but the other messages (orders, shipping notes) will stay in EDIFACT.

History — Baltic retail EDI since 2000

Latvian retail EDIFACT starts around 2000, driven by Maxima (Lithuanian VP Market), the first major modern chain. Rimi (ICA Sweden) arrives in 2004 with the advantage of an already mature Nordic standard. The market consolidated around 4 banners — Maxima, Rimi, Top!, Mego — that capture most supplier flows. The Aibe Lietuva-Latvija cooperative pools purchases for independents. The invoice is now shifting to PEPPOL via the 2026 eRēķins mandate.

text edifact-retail-timeline.txt

2000-2003  | Maxima Latvija (Lithuanian VP Market) launches its first EDI
           | ORDERS + INVOIC flows with major suppliers.
           |
2004       | Rimi Latvia (ICA Sweden) deploys EDIFACT EANCOM 2002 —
           | benefits from the already mature Nordic standard.
           |
2006-2010  | LaTS (Latvijas Tirdzniecības Sistēma — Mego banner) follows.
           | Aibe Lietuva-Latvija (Baltic buying coop) pools volumes.
           |
2012       | GS1 Latvija accredited — national GLN registration office.
           |
2015-2018  | AS2 transport becomes dominant. OFTP2 remains residual in
           | the industrial B2B segment.
           |
2020-2022  | Top! emerges as competing banner to Aibe in Latvia.
           | Concentration intensifies: 4 main players (Maxima, Rimi,
           | Top!, Mego) + small independents.
           |
2024-2025  | 2026 B2B eRēķins mandate announced — progressive shift
           | INVOIC EDIFACT → PEPPOL BIS 3.0 for invoices
           | (orders + shipping notes stay in EDIFACT).
           |
2026-2027  | Coexistence EDIFACT (ORDERS, DESADV) + PEPPOL UBL (invoice).
           | No full replacement — supplier EDI stays central.

Governance — GS1 Latvija + retailers

GS1 Latvija (gs1lv.org) is the national registration office for GLN and GTIN under prefix 4751. Each banner (Maxima, Rimi, Top!, Mego) publishes its own implementation guide detailing qualifiers, mandatory segments and business rules. No unified Latvian standard — each banner keeps its specifics, with a common EANCOM 2002 base.

Schema — messages, identifiers, transport

ORDERS — supplier order issued by the retailer.
ORDRSP — acknowledgement / acknowledgement with discrepancies.
DESADV — shipping notice from supplier (SSCC pallets, GTIN, batches).
RECADV — receipt acknowledgement at warehouse.
INVOIC — invoice — migrating to PEPPOL BIS 3.0 from 2026.
SLSRPT — sell-out report (weekly) for some categories.

text edifact-maxima-invoic.edi

UNB+UNOC:3+5410012345006:14+4751001234007:14+260615:1432+REF-MAX-001'
UNH+1+INVOIC:D:01B:UN:EAN010'
BGM+380+LV-2026-001247+9'
DTM+137:20260615:102'
RFF+ON:PO-MAXIMA-2026-04-21' (Maxima purchase order reference)
NAD+SU+5410012345006::9++SIA Rīgas Tirdzniecība+Brīvības 100+Rīga++LV-1001+LV'
NAD+BY+4751001234007::9++Maxima Latvija SIA+Strēlnieku 1+Rīga++LV-1010+LV'
RFF+VA:LV40003123456' (supplier VAT)
RFF+VA:LV40003456789' (Maxima buyer VAT)
CUX+2:EUR:4'
LIN+1++4751234567890:SRV' (GTIN article)
QTY+47:120:PCE' (120 units)
PRI+AAA:1.250' (unit price EUR 1.25)
MOA+203:150.00' (line total ex-VAT)
TAX+7+VAT+++:::21+S' (VAT 21%)
MOA+125:150.00'
MOA+124:31.50' (VAT amount)
MOA+39:181.50' (total incl. VAT)
UNT+18+1'
UNZ+1+REF-MAX-001'

Comparison — EU retail concentration

Country	Top 4 retail	Cumulative market share	EDI standard
Latvia	Maxima, Rimi, Top!, Mego	~75%	EANCOM 2002
Estonia	Selver, Rimi, Maxima, Coop Eesti	~80%	EANCOM 2002
Lithuania	Maxima, Rimi, IKI, Lidl	~70%	EANCOM 2002
Finland	S-Ryhmä, K-ryhmä, Lidl, Tokmanni	~85%	EANCOM 2002 + Finvoice
France	E.Leclerc, Carrefour, Intermarché, Système U	~65%	EANCOM 2002 + INVOIC

Adoption — volume + coverage

~80M EDI messages/year estimated across Latvian retail (ORDERS + DESADV + INVOIC). Modest volume vs France (~1B) — reflects the market size.
Top 100 suppliers: 100% EDIFACT mandatory for Maxima and Rimi. Mego and Top! push adoption but still accept PDFs for the long tail.
SMB / long tail: coexistence of web portal (manual entry) + partial EDI. 2026 B2B eRēķins will align.
Dominant VANs: Tilde, Pagero (Swedish), B2Bnet (Aibe), local operators. Standard AS2 connections.

Common pitfalls

Migrating INVOIC to PEPPOL without aligning ORDERS. The 2026 eRēķins mandate targets the invoice. But if the order stays in EDIFACT and the invoice moves to PEPPOL, the ORDER ↔ INVOICE matching must be bridged on the ERP side — otherwise the retailer acknowledgement fails.
Confusing warehouse GLN and HQ GLN. Maxima Latvija has several GLNs (HQ, central warehouse, regional centres). An invoice for the warehouse routed to the HQ GLN is rejected.
Forgetting the SSCC on DESADV. A shipping notice without Serial Shipping Container Code breaks logistics traceability. Maxima and Rimi enforce this strictly.
UNOC vs UNOA encoding. EANCOM 2002 D.01B accepts UNOC (ISO-8859-1) or UNOA (ASCII). Mixing breaks ā, ē, ī, ū, ļ, ņ, š, ž characters.
Assuming all retailers accept PEPPOL in 2026. The B2B eRēķins mandate covers the invoice but retailers often keep their preferred EDI channel. Always check the retailer's onboarding pack.

Foundations

Standards

Flagship messages

Tools