Why SKUs Are Important In Your eCommerce Store

It might appear unnecessary to use item numbers or stock keeping units (SKUs) for your eCommerce store. You might wonder if you really need it if your products are limited, or your warehouse is small. Is it worth it?

SKUs are really basic to making a difference in reaching your full sales potential, regardless of the size of your store, what you sell, or who it is you sell it to.

What Is An SKU?

An SKU is an identification code which is utilized to track a product for inventory and sales purposes. It may also incorporate some details about the item such as color, size and other variations. Even if you sell the same product with another seller, SKUs are unique to each product. An SKU makes a difference in numerous ways,  such as categorizing items effectively, measuring inventory levels, purchasing accurate items, and helping make communication smooth and efficient between you, the vendors and your customers.

If you want to create a system that's easier to work with and uses your own item numbers, here are some of our recommendations:

⚫ Make unique SKUs — Each SKU is unique to each product and in some cases, only differ slightly based on minor variations. 

⚫ Keep the SKUs short — SKUs usually have maximum of 30 characters. If it is longer than 30 characters, it becomes hard to interpret. Keep your SKUs short (between 7-12 characters are best)

⚫ Avoid spaces or special characters — To make it simple and easy for you to understand

⚫ Avoid using product title in your SKU and follow a format — Follow a format that is understandable and logical, which represents your product name, color or size. For example, for selling a blue pair of jeans the code can be 02-M-BLU-L (which means 02- casual wear department, M-male, BLU- blue color, L -Large size).s

⚫ Never start your SKU with a zero – Never use “0” in the beginning of an SKU as the Excel spreadsheet will remove the 0.

No matter the size of your product portfolio, what you sell, who your customer is, or what channel you sell through, each and every product should be identified with an SKU. 

Why SKUs are important in your ecommerce store?

So I bet you’re wondering why SKUs are right for you. Here are some of the reasons why SKUs are useful for eCommerce store:

Product Identification

No matter how many product variations you have, a strategically created SKU would help you to identify the products across all sales channels and systems. You can differentiate similar product types easily by the manufacturer name, price, color, size, etc.

Easy and Effective Inventory Management

It is much easier to do your inventory when you identify every item with an SKU. You may think it will be easier to identify the product using its name, title or description, but think about how many errors that could have produced in measuring your inventory. Your might not write down the same title or description everytime you do the inventory, or another employee might be doing the inventory and she/he might have a different idea about what the product could be called.

However, if you have a unique set of 7 characters that identify the product, it’s easier to put it in an excel file, and differentiate it from other similar items. 

Customers Search for Items by SKU

You also have the chance to use UPC codes as your SKU . If you are sourcing from other manufacturers, using these UPC codes as your SKU code is a fast, convenient option to help you reach your sales potential. Potential customers searching a specific item mostly search with UPC codes because of its ubiquitousness. By using your UPC as your SKU code, your store will appear in their search results, providing you the chance to sell to this potential customer.

Repeat customers can use SKUs to find and purchase products faster

Imagine a customer once visited your site and liked a product from your store. They want to comeback and find it again. What do you think is the fastest way for them to search for it?

They could type the item name or title into your store’s search box. But a faster way to go directly to the item they want would be to copy and paste the SKU from their email into search.

A SKU saves time for repeat customers who want to re-buy that item fast. Bonus: it’s extra convenient for mobile shoppers copying and pasting from those tiny keyboards.

Conclusion

There are multiple benefits to using SKUs in your eCommerce store.

Though it might seem annoying to think up and add SKUs to your products, as we’ve just shown you, there are good reasons for you to use these item numbers. SKUs don’t only make your life easier — they increase your earning potential, and help customers of all kinds find and purchase your products faster.

We hope this post has given you a little insight into why you should be using SKUs (if you aren’t already). Have any inquiries for us? We’re all ears. Contact us Now!