{"id":1537,"date":"2024-12-20T16:07:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T16:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shipbob.com\/au\/blog\/how-to-find-sku-number\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T19:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:02:38","slug":"how-to-find-sku-number","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.shipbob.com\/au\/blog\/how-to-find-sku-number\/","title":{"rendered":"SKU Numbers 101: How to Find & Track SKU Codes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Table of Contents<\/p>

** Minutes<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

What is a stock keeping (SKU) number? <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you find a SKU number? <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to create SKU codes for products <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are SKU numbers used within ecommerce? <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How ShipBob\u2019s SKU management works for retailers<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAQs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Whether you have 3 products or 300, SKU numbers are one of the most useful tools for your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so many benefits: they simplify inventory management<\/a> and control, increase visibility into inventory levels<\/a> and sales data, and even improve the customer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, there\u2019s no one-size-fits-all way to create SKU numbers \u2014 and when it comes to finding SKU numbers, you\u2019ll find that different brands use them in different ways. Without understanding their purpose, adopting a SKU system can get messy quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we will discuss what SKUs are and how they can be found, as well as everything you need to know about how to create SKUs for products missing them, the best way to manage SKUs, and how you can find the right fulfilment partner to help you seamlessly manage the entire process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a stock keeping (SKU) number?<\/h2><\/div>
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SKU (or stock keeping unit) numbers<\/a> are custom alphanumeric codes that merchants assign to every unique product or product variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SKUs are typically 8-10 characters long, with each character (or sets of characters) representing a particular feature of the product that SKU is assigned to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no standardized rules for creating SKU numbers. Rather, every business is free to create SKU numbers using whatever characters and referencing whatever features make the most sense for their operations. However, SKUs are most useful when they are simple and easy to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merchants typically print each product\u2019s unique SKU number on the product\u2019s label to help identify that product and track it through the supply chain.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SKU numbers vs. UPC codes <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Typically, as a merchant creates their SKU numbers, they will assign a unique barcode to each SKU number. However, these SKU numbers and their corresponding barcodes are not the same as Universal Product Codes (UPCs).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a UPC is also a numerical code and corresponding barcode assigned to a specific product, UPCs are used universally<\/em> across businesses and industries. This means that, if a particular product has a UPC, every business will use the same number and barcode to refer to it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A SKU, on the other hand, is unique to the business that creates and uses them. This means that each retailer has its own variant of SKUs.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Source: Square<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

SKU number examples<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As an example, let\u2019s say there is a small business that sells t-shirts, dresses, and shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After auditing their inventory<\/a>, the business decides that they want each SKU to communicate information about the following features:<\/p>\n\n\n\n