What is a product SKU and why is it so important?

The inventories of the retail and wholesale sector have numerous goods that need to be stored. Knowing how to organize them in an intelligent way facilitates the daily flow routine and brings greater productivity. That’s what product SKU techniques are for.

The acronym stands for Stock Keeping Unit, or in Portuguese, Inventory Maintenance Unit. If you want to know more about its importance and how it works, read the text. It will help keep your products well organized and your business more efficient.

What is SKU?#

A product SKU consists of an alphanumeric code. This unique sequence of signals will allow the separation and storage by categories and groups, favoring the order of arrangement, with greater ease of location.

It can be used by physical stores, as well as by ecommerce platforms and marketplaces. In any type of business that has products in stock, in small or large quantities.

How important is it to create a product SKU?#

Product identification is the basis of the SKU and allows objects to be found more easily, allowing faster shipping to customers (if it is sold online), and service (if it is sold in person).

It also creates safety in the movement of products, with greater control of automatic entry and exit. It is easier to see the quantity of each product in stock, avoiding being undermined or selling a product that you don’t have.

The use of the code facilitates the integration with systems and the management of information between software and EPRs. In virtual stores, the detailed description of the object improves the positioning in the searches.

How do I create a product SKU?#

To create a SKU, you must maintain a logic. You have to form a line of reasoning and follow it when numbering all products to create a standardized coding.

The main characteristics of the products are used to generate the codes, so they will be customized and identified efficiently. This will also facilitate communication between employees, as everyone will know what these codes are about. Different than if they were random numbers that would not identify the product.

Information such as brand, model, size, color, material, etc. must be used. A very long code or the use of special characters must be avoided. For example, a jacket with code BBCC40SRPR means:

• BB is a reference for your brand
• CC means the hooded model
• 40 is the size
• SR reports the twill material
• PR refers to the color black

SKU and barcode differences#

The barcode is provided by the product manufacturer, consists of bar-shaped lines and requires an optical reader to be read. It is generated by a system that does not have a logic, whereas the SKU is generated by the company and is related to its internal organization.

You can see that there is no difficulty in creating the SKU of a product and that it facilitates the inventory routine, providing high performance in its movement. The biggest advantage is being personalized and following a logic created by the company itself.

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