Foundry: SKU Management

In TrueCommerce, unique SKUs are required for all products and variants. This article talks about best practices for handling SKUs.

Katie Pilcher avatar
Written by Katie Pilcher
Updated over a week ago

Products: Pack & Ship, Storefronts, Marketplaces

What is a SKU?

It stands for Stock Keeping Unit. A SKU is a code consisting of letters and numbers, usually six to eight characters long, that you can use to search and identify an item. Each item must have a unique SKU. Why? This is how you'll keep track of your stock.

For successful TrueCommerce integration, your stores must have unique SKUs for each product and its variants. Taking steps to maintain the uniqueness of your product SKUs will ensure successful transmission of products and orders.

Below are the guidelines and requirements for doing business with TrueCommerce.

  • DO make sure every product and variant has a SKU.

  • DO make it unique. For effective tracking and sales reporting, each SKU needs to be unique. This is critical if you're connecting to other systems.

  • DON'T change your SKU after the initial implementation.

  • DON'T repeat a SKU across products. Do not assign a previously used SKU to a product, even if the old product has been deleted or is no longer active.

Click here for industry best practices regarding SKU management.

How do you build a SKU?

  • The first 2 or 3 digits or characters of SKU should represent a top-level identifier. The top-level identifier can be a department, your store category, or even a supplier.

  • Use the SKU’s middle numbers to assign unique identifiers or unique features like, category, subcategory, size, color; anything that goes well while organizing the product you sell.

  • Finally, for the last series of SKU number using sequential numbering like 001, 002, 003 makes setup simple and also helps you easily distinguish between the older and newer product line.

Examples:

Coffee table (small, black) - COF-S-BK

Jacket (size 12, white) - JAC-12-WH

T-shirt Fall 2020 season, leaf design, green, medium) - F20T-LF-GM

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