{"id":95128,"date":"2024-01-16T15:15:51","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T15:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.huboo.com\/ecommerce\/how-to-turn-your-side-hustle-into-your-main-source-of-income-copy\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:22:07","slug":"skus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/huboo.com\/ecommerce\/skus\/","title":{"rendered":"eCommerce Article – Everything you need to know about Stock keeping units (SKUs)"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Everything you need to know about Stock keeping units (SKUs)<\/h1>\t\t\t\t\t

If you have already spoken to one of our experts, you have likely already been asked \u201chow many SKUs do you have?\u201d but what is a SKU number, how do you use them effectively and why do we need them?<\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t

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The term “SKU” can be found right across the eCommerce ecosystem, from the back end of your website and marketplace listings, through to supplier catalogues and even your warehouse. They are an important concept to maintain consistency across different systems and overcome some of the complexity of selling online.<\/h4>\n

We have compiled everything you need to know about SKUs in order to use them to their full potential and future proof your business answering questions like:<\/h4>\n

\u21d2 What is it a SKU?
\n\u21d2 What are SKU codes used for?
\n\u21d2 Who creates a SKU?
\n\u21d2 What\u2019s the difference between a barcode and a SKU?
\n\u21d2 EAN, GTIN, UPC, SKU: what\u2019s the difference?
\n\u21d2 Why is my 3PL asking me about SKUs?<\/h4>\n

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What is an SKU?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Every different item you sell needs to be easily identifiable to limit errors and maintain accuracy throughout your sales processes and systems. To do this, merchants and manufacturers use “SKUs”, which stands for Stock Keeping Unit<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n

This is a numerical or character code assigned to each unique product to ensure that you are always able to identify which product you are speaking about, regardless of how it is described, where its sold, or how much it is listed for.<\/h4>\n

It is therefore a unique code for each size, colour and type of product you sell, and can also be used for non-physical items such as warranties, or components of an item.<\/h4>\n

Example<\/strong>: If you have a small business selling 3 styles of short sleeved men\u2019s t-shirts for example you may be able to easily differentiate by colour. With this reasoning, you may think you have 3 SKUs \u2013 RED, BLUE, WHITE- but what about different sizes? What happens when you introduce a red long-sleeved t-shirt to your range? In fact, in this scenario, you would initially have potentially 12 SKUs.<\/h4>\n

RED-SHORT-S
\nRED-SHORT-M
\nRED-SHORT-L
\nRED-SHORT-XL
\nBLUE-SHORT-S
\nBLUE-SHORT-M
\nBLUE-SHORT-L
\nBLUE-SHORT-XL
\nEtc…<\/h4>\n

In order to future proof these codes and account for any unseen opportunities for confusion, these SKUs can also be numerical or alphanumerical. The benefits of this type of SKU code are discussed later on.<\/h4>\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\r\n
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What are SKUs used for?<\/h2>\r\n\t\t

As a main method of differentiating between products, SKUs have a range of benefits across your business and can be used in retail stores, online stores, marketplaces, catalogues, warehouses and 3PL centres. <\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t\t

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As you can imagine from the title \u201c stock keeping unit\u201d, the primary purpose of an SKU code is to assist in the inventory management processes. SKUs are important to ensure you can track exactly how much stock you have of each variation, and to automatically update this across your different sales channels.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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SKUs can also be used to simplify placing orders with suppliers, ensuring the correct items are requested. Especially if you use the SKU determined by the supplier.<\/p>\n

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SKUs are an essential element for matching products when you are integrating multiple tools, ensuring the data is correctly updating from each source. For example, syncing inventory levels across multiple sales channels, or automatically populating listings with product information.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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SKUs are also used to match products in a warehouse with the items ordered to make sure less errors occur, such as picking the wrong size or colour way. SKUs can also be used to communicate what is included in bundles and giftsets to warehouse teams to allow for items to be sold on their own as well as in other formats.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Unboxing is the first physical interaction that your customers have with your product. So it\u2019s vital that customers experience products and packaging as per your instructions and, crucially, without any damage or breakages. Sustainable packaging using protective insulation materials – such as Flexi-Hex – as well as appropriate sized boxes are all helpful when it comes to achieving this. Some fulfilment providers can even meet more targeted packaging requests so that your products arrive complete with a sample, branded note, or other marketing collateral of your choosing.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Who creates SKU Codes?<\/h3>\r\n

At its core, an SKUs can be any 32 character or less combination of letters, symbols and numbers as long as it is unique to all systems and stakeholders, as duplicates on any system will prevent any automations and from working.<\/p>\n

It is therefore usually the manufacturer of the product that creates the SKU when the product is first created as if you sell through Amazon, wholesale or are not the manufacturer of the product it is difficult to ensure that the combination is unique to all parties.<\/p>\n

8, 12 or 13 digit numbers used for barcodes, known as global trade identification numbers (GTINs), universal product codes (UPCs) or European article numbers (EANs), purchased from central agencies such as GS1, are often therefore used as SKUs to ensure this uniqueness. Similarly, a book\u2019s international standard book number (ISBN) can be used as a SKU.<\/p>\n

If it is for internal use only, such as if you manufacture and sell products on your own Shopify store, it can be decided by the store owner without the use of a central agency, as you can ensure that unique combination is not used anywhere else on your system when you allocate it.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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What\u2019s the difference between an EAN, UPC and a SKU? <\/h3>\r\n

In simple terms, the main difference is that while all EANs and UPCs can be SKUs, not all SKUs can be EANs and UPCs.
\nSKU codes that are not purchased from a central agency are for internal use only, while these other codes can be used across suppliers, marketplaces, and any external system. SKUs can also be made up of letters while EAN are primarily numerical only.<\/p>\n

Where do barcodes come into this?<\/h3>\n

Barcodes are simply a visual representation of codes that can be used with scanners to speed up and reduce errors within warehouse and retail spaces, just like a QR code can be used.<\/p>\n

Barcodes printed on products however are almost exclusively a EAN, UPC or ISNB to ensure they are not accidentally associate with the wrong product, which is why bricks and mortar retailers such as John Lewis will require you to label your products with a barcode that can be used in both the warehouse and point of sale.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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What\u2019s the difference between an EAN, UPC and a SKU? <\/h3>\r\n \r\n
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SKU best practice:<\/h3>\r\n

\u21d2 If you anticipate selling into retailers or marketplaces in future, consider using a unique code such as an EAN as your SKU from the outset<\/strong>. This will ensure your teams get used to them as soon as possible and implementation is quick and simple, and you can incorporate barcodes when needed.<\/p>\n

\u21d2 If creating your own code, keep to 32 characters maximum<\/strong> to ensure it is accepted by all systems.<\/p>\n

\u21d2 Don\u2019t re-use codes<\/strong> from discontinued products.<\/p>\n

\u21d2 Never start with a 0<\/strong> as this can cause difficulties if you export to an excel sheet for any reason.<\/p>\n

\u21d2 Keep to a standard format<\/strong> so its easily identifiable as the SKU and aren\u2019t confused with other codes such as model numbers.<\/p>\n

\u21d2 Try to avoid ambiguous characters<\/strong> such as I,L,0 if you are using a random combination of letters and numbers.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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SKU best practice:<\/h3>\r\n \r\n
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How does a 3PL use SKUs?<\/h3>\r\n

When you sign up to our services and configure your dashboard you will need to create listings for each product you are sending into our warehouse so that we can match against the products stored and ordered.<\/p>\n

Depending on the sales channel, this can be done automatically through the integration we have built with that channel. Shopify for example, is one of our most popular integrations that also supports the product sync workflow. The SKU shared with us must match the listing on the sales channel so we can ensure we are picking the correct item for the order.<\/p>\n

It is important to remember that SKUs are case sensitive! And more support can be found via our support page or through your onboarding specialist.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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How does a 3PL use SKUs?<\/h3>\r\n \r\n
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