What is SKU & SKU Review

SKU=Stock Keeping Unit, which is the unit of measurement for inventory in and out, which can be in pieces, boxes, pallets, etc. SKU is a necessary method for logistics management of large chain supermarket DC (distribution center). It has now been extended to the abbreviation of product unified numbering, and each product has a unique SKU number. Single product: For a product, when its brand, model, configuration, grade, color, packaging capacity, unit, production date, shelf life, use, price, origin and other attributes are different from other products, it can be called a single product.

composition

SKU codes can be up to 40 characters long and can be letters, numbers, or a combination of letters and numbers. A good way to set the SKU code is to combine the product's letters with the ISBN or UPC.

use

1. Do not use spaces, especially leading and trailing spaces, otherwise problems may occur when managing inventory.

2. Special characters such as !, @, # cannot be used, but underscores and dashes can be used

Example: Acme 02 is incorrect.

3. Media products need to use ISBN.

Features

Uniqueness: Each product is identified by a unique SKU code.

Mandatory: Products uploaded must have a sku. If the seller does not fill it out, the Amazon system will also generate it forcibly.

TOLL

When uploading a listing, if the SKUs of large-volume products exceed 2 million (non-media products), a fee of $0.0005 will be charged for each SKU exceeding 2 million.

Function

1. Usually printed on product labels in the form of barcodes.

2. Based on appropriate coding rules, product information can be quickly obtained by scanning.

3. Track product sales and provide after-sales statistics.

4. Reasonably adjust SKU based on sales situation.

5. It is the basis of digital warehousing management and logistics distribution.

Coding Rules

For example, for clothing: 8 digits for product style number + 3 digits for color + 3 digits for size code, a total of 14 digits.

concept

1. Item : SKU refers to a single commodity whose attributes have been determined. As long as the attributes of the goods are different, there will be different SKUs. There are many kinds of attributes, and the ones that are easy to understand are: brand, model, configuration, grade, color, origin, price, material, production date, shelf life, use, etc., because they can be distinguished intuitively. However, things like packaging capacity, unit, storage location, etc. are not so easy. In other words, as long as people have different ways of storing, managing, selling, and servicing the same product, its SKU is no longer the same.

2. Unit : SKU also contains information about the packaging unit of the product. For example: SKU#123 refers to 330ml bottled dark beer (in bottles); SKU#456 refers to 330ml bottled dark beer (in cartons, 6 bottles in 1 carton); SKU#789 refers to 330ml bottled dark beer (in boxes, 24 bottles in 1 box). Due to different measurement units (packaging units), they should be classified into different SKUs for business management needs. Of course, there can be a unit conversion algorithm to assist in converting SKUs. Another example: socks are a SKU in pairs. If other parameters are the same, but they are packaged in units (12 pairs) and sold in packages, they also belong to different SKUs.

3. Coding : SKU is just a coding. Different products (product names) have different coding (SKU#). This coding is associated with the defined products one by one, so that we can record and analyze inventory and sales according to the data of different SKUs. When you use WMS or ERP system, you will find that each SKU coding has precise product information.

SKU attribute management

1. Independent product management: SKU attributes are subordinate to products.

Advantages: Basically none.

Disadvantages: This is not a very reliable method because it will cause too much work. Although it can be slightly simplified by using the "copy" function, it is still not ideal. Therefore, it is basically not used.

2. Independent product association: that is, the SKU attributes are public. Each product is associated with several SKU attributes based on its actual situation, and then several options are selected to generate the product SKU.

Advantages: Flexible. After setting several SKU attributes and related options, the product can choose the relevant combination by itself.

Disadvantages: Too flexible and prone to errors. For example, for the SKU attribute of color, since it is public, dozens or even more will be defined, but for iPad, only two are needed. This management method cannot control the range of SKU attributes and options when adding products from the source.

3. Managed by attribute sets: that is, SKU attributes exist based on dependency sets, and there is no SKU attribute that can belong to multiple attribute sets.

Advantages: Easy to manage strictly and not prone to errors. For example, there may be multiple SKU attributes named "color" (different attribute IDs/codes), but for iPads, there are only two options (black and white), while for clothing, there are many.

Disadvantages: The workload of attribute set management will be slightly larger, which is suitable for systems with few attribute sets.

4. Associated through attribute sets: that is, SKU attributes are common and associated through attribute sets.

Advantages: This method has good reusability and will simplify the workload for those with many SKU options.

Disadvantages: Since the SKU attribute is public, the disadvantage mentioned in point 2 above will exist. However, we can also set multiple SKU attributes with the same name but different codes, such as multiple "color" SKU attributes, but with different options.

5. Create an independent SKU attribute set: that is, design an independent SKU attribute set entity, associate or directly manage SKU attributes. This method is also quite good. Because although the product characteristics of various product types may be quite different, the SKU attributes may not be very different. For example, for clothing and iPad, SKUs are distinguished by color, but iPad only needs 2 options (maybe fine-tuned to 3~4 in the future), while clothing has many options.