Worst case… they find the product at another retailer. When customers can’t find the product they want, they may try to find a substitute.
Unique SKUs using a SKU generator make it easy to forecast based on past sales trends. Here’s an example of how a clothing retailer might use various information and codes to create a trackable SKU. Because a SKU is unique to your business, it’s important to generate SKUs with an architecture based on your needs and the most important indicators you want to track. This could be anything pertinent including:īecause SKUs are internal and unique to your business, they’re ideally used to help you analyze data around product performance, trends, and inventory control.
It’s also a purely numeric code.Ī SKU, on the other hand, is an internal code created and managed by the retailer (you) in an internal system specifically to identify product traits and differentiate products from one another.Ī well-designed SKU should provide the most critical information about a product. This code identifies the manufacturer or brand and then the item. The UPC (Universal Product Code) is a universal code established by the Global Standards Organization. It’s important to note that the SKU is not the same as a product’s UPC, though some retailers mistakenly use the UPC as the product SKU in their system.
Start your free trial nowĪ SKU (pronounced ‘SKEW’) is short for Stock Keeping UnitĪ SKU is made up of alphanumeric characters and is designed to be unique to a single product type. #cta-visual-pb#Build captivating pages for every productWhether your store has 1 SKU or 1 million, Shogun lets you create stunning, conversion optimized pages to inspire your shoppers. In this article we’ll look at how better SKU management can optimize inventory control and share SKU generation best practices for eCommerce brands. Using a SKU generator and improving your SKU generation process early on reduces the potential for errors. In 2017, 50 percent of the retailer and manufacturers invested in warehouse management, up from just over 40 percent in the previous year according to survey data shared by Statista.
That’s why so many brands are refining their processes for SKU generation as well as improving internal tracking systems. The more products you carry, the more likely you are to have mispicks and lost inventory along with a host of other problems related to your inventory.Īccording to PeopleVox, human error is the number one issue in 46% of warehouses.
If you’re not already using a SKU generator and an established process to track products internally you could be losing money. While growth is a good thing, rapid growth can lead to SKU proliferation. If you can meet the growing needs and demands of customers, you can capture more market share from your competitors. It’s a natural progression for eCommerce stores to increase the number of products they carry as business expands.