SKUs provide an easy, reliable reference your employees can use to find items within inventories or product catalogs. This is much better than trying to track sales based on a descriptor like “green deck shoes,” which may not always be recorded consistently in each sales record. With a SKU, you can analyze sales data using a short, consistent code. However, SKUs provide a level of consistency and efficiency that would be difficult to replicate. Technically, it's possible to accomplish these tasks without SKUs. You can also identify which items are most popular or most profitable and assess how sales performance for a specific product varies between seasons. Including SKU numbers in each order invoice or receipt makes it easier to automatically analyze how many items of a certain type were sold in a certain period. SKUs offer a convenient way to quantify sales information. If the SKU scan shows a mismatch between the number of items in inventory and those that were sold, it's likely some items are missing due to theft or misplacement. They are also helpful in locating a specific item, especially if a retailer organizes its inventory by SKU in order to keep track of inventory visually.Īdditionally, SKUs help to identify losses. Inventory management and trackingīy making it easy to determine how many items of a certain type exist within an inventory or how many were sold, SKUs increase the accuracy of inventory management and warehouse activities. SKUs play a key role in helping store owners perform several critical tasks related to inventory, sales analysis, customer service, and marketing activities. Numeric, 12 digits Why SKUs are important to store owners SKUs, as noted above, are alphanumeric, and they can vary in length - optimally between eight and 12 characters but may be much longer. UPCs are 12-digit codes composed exclusively of numbers. UPCs are also most commonly printed as barcodes on product packaging, whereas SKUs appear in a variety of other locations and are not usually translated as barcodes.Ī final major difference is the composition of the codes themselves. In contrast, retailers generate their own SKUs. Because of this characteristic, UPCs can be used to track the same product across multiple stores.Īnother difference is UPCs are designated by GS1 US, an information standards organization. In other words, the UPC for a particular item sold in one store would be the same as for the same item offered through another store or in an online channel. The main difference between UPCs and SKUs is that UPC codes are universal and shared across businesses. While UPCs and SKUs are similar in some ways, they are actually used for very different purposes. You may be familiar with the UPC barcodes that appear on the back or side of most product packaging. The SKU you assign to a particular item is not the same as the one another business uses for the same item.īy maintaining unique codes for each type of item you sell, you can simplify the movement and management of those items within your inventory and retail operations. Importantly, SKUs are unique to your own brand’s inventory. SKUs may appear in a number of places, ranging from physical tags attached or printed on your items themselves to listings inside your catalog. SKUs are alphanumeric, meaning they are composed of a combination of letters and numbers. Alternatively, you may choose to arrange everything by color or size. In your warehouse or on the sales floor, you may choose to place all shoes that begin with "CL" in the same area. The SKU CL-SAN-LT-8-BLU would indicate the manufacturer "Clarks," "sandals," "leather," size "8," and color "blue." These record-keeping units enable sellers to fulfill orders and manage inventory quickly.įor example, a shoe retailer will have a SKU for each style, which often includes individual attributes for said style. SKUs are also an important part of a merchandising structure, allowing merchants to arrange inventory in their stores or warehouses according to product SKUs.
Fishbowl inventory sku to sku conversion code#
A stock-keeping unit, or SKU, is a unique code that a seller assigns to every type of item it sells.
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