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SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

Product management11/27/2025Basic Niveau

A SKU is a unique alphanumeric code used by retailers to identify and track products and their variants within their inventory systems.

Wat is SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)? (Definitie)

A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is a unique alphanumeric code assigned to a specific product and its variants by a retailer for inventory management purposes. Unlike a universal product code (UPC) or European Article Number (EAN), which are standardized for external use, a SKU is internal to a business and can be customized. It typically includes information about the product's attributes, such as color, size, material, or packaging, allowing for granular tracking of stock levels, sales, and purchasing trends for each specific item variant. For example, a t-shirt available in 'red, large' and 'blue, medium' would have two distinct SKUs.

Waarom SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) Belangrijk Is voor E-commerce

SKUs are foundational for efficient e-commerce operations. They enable accurate inventory management, preventing overselling or stockouts. For businesses with extensive product catalogs and variants, SKUs ensure that the correct product is picked, packed, and shipped. They are also crucial for analyzing sales performance at a granular level, facilitating purchasing decisions, and optimizing product assortment. In a PIM context, SKUs serve as a primary identifier, linking product attributes, media, and marketing content to specific inventory items.

Voorbeelden van SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

  • 1A shoe store assigns 'AD-STR-BLK-09' to an Adidas Stan Smith, black, size 9, and 'AD-STR-WHT-09' for the white version.
  • 2An electronics retailer uses SKUs to differentiate between a laptop model with 8GB RAM and the same model with 16GB RAM.
  • 3A cosmetics brand uses SKUs to track different shades of lipstick and their corresponding inventory levels.
  • 4An online grocery store uses SKUs to manage quantities of fresh produce, ensuring unique identifiers for organic bananas versus conventional.

Hoe WISEPIM Helpt

  • Centralized SKU Management: WISEPIM helps organize and manage complex SKU structures across all product variants, ensuring consistency.
  • Accurate Product Data Linkage: Link rich product attributes, media, and marketing content directly to specific SKUs for precise product representation.
  • Streamlined Inventory Integration: Facilitate seamless integration with inventory systems by providing accurate and consistent SKU data.
  • Enhanced Data Governance: Enforce rules for SKU creation and management, reducing errors and improving data quality for all product variants.

Veelgemaakte Fouten met SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

  • Using inconsistent SKU structures: Not establishing a clear, standardized format for SKUs across the entire product catalog, leading to confusion and errors in inventory management.
  • Failing to ensure SKU uniqueness: Assigning the same SKU to different product variants or products, which causes severe inaccuracies in stock levels and order fulfillment.
  • Creating overly complex or long SKUs: Designing SKUs that are difficult for humans to read, remember, or manually input, increasing the likelihood of data entry mistakes.
  • Not integrating SKUs across systems: Managing SKUs in isolated silos (e.g., ERP, PIM, e-commerce platform) without proper synchronization, resulting in data discrepancies and operational inefficiencies.
  • Relying solely on manual SKU generation: For large product catalogs, manually creating SKUs is time-consuming, prone to human error, and difficult to scale, especially with frequent product updates.

Tips voor SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

  • Develop a clear and consistent SKU naming convention: Establish a logical, standardized structure for your SKUs (e.g., Brand-ProductType-Color-Size) to ensure consistency and ease of interpretation across your organization.
  • Ensure absolute uniqueness for every product variant: Each distinct product variant (e.g., a red shirt in size M vs. a red shirt in size L) must have its own unique SKU to prevent inventory discrepancies.
  • Keep SKUs concise and human-readable: Design SKUs that are short enough to be easily scanned and understood by warehouse staff, customer service representatives, and system users, while still conveying essential information.
  • Integrate SKU management with your PIM system: Centralize the creation, management, and distribution of SKUs within a PIM to automate the process, improve data quality, and ensure consistency across all sales channels.
  • Regularly audit and clean your SKU data: Periodically review your SKU database for errors, duplicates, or inconsistencies. Implement a process for data cleansing to maintain accuracy and efficiency.

Trends Rondom SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

  • AI-driven SKU generation and optimization: Leveraging AI to analyze product attributes and sales data to suggest optimal, consistent SKU structures and automatically generate unique codes, reducing manual effort and errors.
  • Automated SKU validation and data quality checks: Implementing machine learning algorithms to continuously monitor and validate SKU data across all systems, identifying and flagging inconsistencies or errors in real-time.
  • Enhanced integration for real-time inventory synchronization: Deeper integration of SKU data between PIM, ERP, and e-commerce platforms to provide real-time, accurate inventory levels, crucial for preventing overselling and improving customer experience.
  • SKU data for personalized customer experiences: Utilizing granular SKU-level data to power more precise product recommendations, targeted marketing campaigns, and personalized website content, leading to higher conversion rates.
  • Headless commerce architectures for SKU flexibility: Adopting headless commerce setups allows for greater flexibility in how SKU data is structured, managed, and delivered across diverse frontend experiences without being constrained by a monolithic system.

Tools voor SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

  • WISEPIM: A comprehensive PIM solution for managing, enriching, and distributing product data, including automated SKU generation, validation, and synchronization across all e-commerce channels.
  • Akeneo: An open-source PIM system that helps businesses centralize and enrich product information, including the creation and management of SKUs and their associated attributes.
  • Salsify: A Product Experience Management (PXM) platform that streamlines the collection, enrichment, and syndication of product content, essential for accurate SKU management and distribution.
  • Shopify: A popular e-commerce platform that relies on SKUs for efficient inventory tracking, order fulfillment, and managing product variants for online stores.
  • Magento (Adobe Commerce): A robust e-commerce platform designed for complex product catalogs, where SKUs are fundamental for managing product variations, inventory, and sales data.

Gerelateerde Termen

product-information-management-pimproduct-attributeproduct-feedproduct-data-quality

Ook Bekend Als

Stock Keeping NumberProduct Identifier (Internal)