What is EDIFACT?

EDIFACT is an acronym for Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport. It is an international standard for exchanging structured business data electronically between organisations, and a specific type of EDI.

The standard is maintained by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as "a set of internationally agreed standards, directories and guidelines for the electronic interchange of structured data between independent computerised information systems".

Its main building blocks are the syntax rules for structuring data (ISO 9735), a directory of data elements and segments, and standardised messages (UNSMs) such as ORDERS or INVOIC that let businesses in different countries exchange documents automatically.