What is SKU?

SKU is the short form of “stock keeping unit” which is a unique code number assigned to a single item of inventory. SKU is used to identify a product or its variants, locate it and track its availability in a store's inventory.

The SKU number is typically used in the format of a machine-readable barcode. SKU simplifies inventory management by identifying the smallest unit of a product with a unique code. A SKU is usually an eight digit alpha-numeric code with each alphabet and number representing some attributes associated with the item. These attributes distinguish the given item from other item types. 

A given SKU number can be used instead of complete product details to identify various attributes of the product like manufacturer, size, color, packaging, description, material, and more. 

SKU is not a regulated or standardized unit, and each business or online store can have its own SKU and its attributes.

What are the benefits of SKU for ecommerce?

SKUs are very important in catalog and inventory management of an online business. The benefits of having SKU numbers are: 

• Optimize your inventory and product catalog management by easily identifying product types through their unique code
• Help with product mapping when integrating with others marketplaces or other systems
• Effortless inventory tracking by identifying products down to individual variants, color, size, location etc.  
• SKUs make it easier to analyze sales levels and trends by identifying best selling items  
• Easy and fast to improve inventory flexibility based on demand for different stores, locations or channels
• Better visibility and understanding of items running out of stock and their timely replenishment
• Increasing overall fulfillment efficiency thanks to automated, real time updates of SKUs in the inventory
• Strategic planning by applying SKU insights for pushing products to customer

What are SKU best practices? 

Designing an efficient SKU system can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your fulfillment system. To make your fulfillment system more responsive, streamlined and quick you need to have a clear cut system to design your SKUs. 

Here are few best practices to follow while designing your stock keeping unit system:

• Keep the length between 8 and 12 characters
• Make your SKU number alphanumeric 
• Preferably start with a letter 
• Avoid zeroes and letter “O” as they can be easily confused for the other
• Represent different attributes of your product with different alphanumeric characters of your SKU
• Create your brand’s own SKUs for clarity and better product identification

Why is SKU important for ecommerce brands?

Stock keeping unit system makes storing, sorting and tracking your products faster and efficient. As an ecommerce brand grows, it becomes even more important to have a well designed SKU system as it helps in making data-driven decisions.

For designing an effective SKU system StoreHippo provides an automatic SKU generator. Ecommerce store owners can manually generate their own SKUs or use the ones provided by their vendors. 

Using the SKU generator setting, merchants can define their own SKU format from the admin and thereon the generator automatically generates SKUs for all the listed products and their variants. The automatic SKU generator generates unique numbers for products and variants based on the format defined in the admin.StoreHippo also enables brands to manually update the inventory or update inventory in bulk using the import functionality.

With the automatic SKU generator StoreHippo enables ecommerce brands to have an easy to use yet impactful tool that makes their fulfillment efficient and streamlined.