Stock Keeping Unit
Gist
Unique ID for merchants’ inventory items.
Full definition
Stock Keeping Unit (or SKU) is a unique identification code, assigned to products (or product variants) by merchants or manufacturers for inventory tracking purposes. SKUs help merchants manage their inventory more effectively, allowing them to track the movement of each item from the moment it enters their inventory to the moment it’s sold.
What are possible SKU formats
SKUs are often assigned internally by the merchants, so there isn’t a single, unified SKU format that will be found in all ecommerce stores. The format used will depend on the merchant’s preferences and their product’s attributes. For example, a merchant selling clothes can use SKUs to code item properties such as item type, size, color, and brand.
In this case, the SKU code could look like this: TH-BL-49137-RD-L, where
- TH is the code for the brand
- BL is the code for item type
- 49137 is the product ID
- RD is the code for color
- L is the code for size