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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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Tools

X12 885 — Retail Account Characteristics

The 885 transmits retail account characteristics — store cluster, demographics, format, opening hours — from a retailer to its suppliers for assortment and promo personalization.

Purpose

The 885 documents a store or cluster profile: format (small box, big box, club), geography / demographics, sales area, store hours, seasonal openings, refrigeration equipment. It helps suppliers tailor assortment, packaging, and promo.

It is used for category management and fact-based selling. Acknowledged by 997.

Envelope structure

The 885 travels within the three X12 envelope levels (ISA/IEA, GS/GE with functional group RA, and ST/SE). Didactic example in release 004010:

x12 example-885.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*RETAILER      *ZZ*SUPPLIER      *260515*1100*U*00401*000000885*0*P*>~
GS*RA*RETAILER*SUPPLIER*20260515*1100*1*X*004010~
ST*885*0001~
BFR*00*RA*RA-2026-1100*20260515~
N1*ST*ACME RETAIL STORE 042*92*042~
N3*123 MAIN ST~
N4*HOUSTON*TX*77001~
REF*ZZ*FORMAT-SUPERSTORE~
REF*ZZ*SQ-FT-185000~
REF*ZZ*DEMO-FAMILY-SUBURBAN~
SE*8*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000885~

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BFR (Beginning Segment for Footwear Registry — repurposed for characteristics).
  • Store — N1*ST, N3/N4.
  • Characteristics — repeated REF*ZZ (format, square footage, demographics).
  • Summary — SE.

Common pitfalls

  • Demographics staleness: an 885 demographic must be refreshed annually; an aged 885 makes the supplier plan on a wrong segment.
  • Cluster vs store: sending 885 store-by-store for 1500 stores is needlessly heavy; prefer cluster-level with exceptions.
  • PII and data: demographics must be aggregated, not attributable to individuals — an overly fine 885 violates CCPA / GDPR.

Documentation

The code 885 and the name Retail Account Characteristics are public and listed on x12.org/products/transaction-sets. The complete structure of loops, qualifiers and code lists is distributed by DISA via the proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3). ediverse.io covers only public concepts, the envelope and didactic examples.