Be it any podium of sales, the significance of SKU numbers remains the same everywhere. In other words, they set building blocks of the retail sector. For some of the readers who are not sure about what SKU number is, here’s a quick answer.
SKU number, also known as Stock Keeping Unit is an alphanumeric code, which is used to identify various products for the purpose of inventory management.
Now, let’s take the next step and identify the problem statement.
Where’s the problem?
It is a known fact that managing a large number of products for any online business is a daunting task. Thus, a massive number of sellers avail the professional SKU generator services to keep their eCommerce product listing hassles at bay. It is a good decision indeed.
In this scenario, the SKU numbers are created by SKU generator experts who have proven record in their respective field. In a nutshell, it simplifies and accelerates the sales funnel, resulting in increased sales. Sounds good, right?
But, what about sellers who are heading small businesses and planning to implement the SKU concept in their product portfolio without even spending any money?
Here comes the good news for them! They can manually create SKU for their products, thus making it easier to manage and amplify the business productivity. However, it is a cumbersome task, which is better left to the professionals who render SKU generator services, but you should always be aware of the basics that are mentioned below:
The Right Format Pays Off for Long Time:
Setting up the right format for SKU numbers is very important while creating them. They are helpful in streamlining the entire business workflow and safeguarding it against the possible clerical errors in sales process. You can create customized SKU numbers according to your business requirements. But make sure that their format remains consistent for the entire array of products/services.
Refer to the template presented below, which is used by most of the SKU generator service providers:
[Manufacturer name/Brand name, Category identifier, Product name-color identifier-size identifier]
Explanation:
An “Adidas Backpack” available under “Gym Series”, which has “Red” color and “Medium” size can have the following SKU:
[A-BP-Gym-RD-M]
Try to Stay Away From the Confusing Letters:
It is one of the most crucial parts of this article. Yes! We are discussing the usage of confusing letters while creating SKU.
Let me add a real world scenario that I came across while travelling from Singapore to Malaysia, which is related to the importance of SKU. My passport number has a numeric value, “Zero” in it. Now, this particular digit was misunderstood by my travel agency, and they replaced it with an alphabet “o” by mistake.
Crazy, right? Not merely a mistake, it turned out to be a blunder for me.
This change not only spoiled my vacation, but also burned a hole in my pocket. I had to immediately pay those extra dollars to the immigration department to get an on-arrival visa.
Now, imagine if the same mistake would have happened during the order processing on your website, Amazon product listing, eBay store or any other sales channel.
This situation can be devastating for your overall brand value, resulting low seller rating owing to wrong order delivery, insufficient stock or any other reason. Hence, it is a good practice to create SKU numbers without these types of confusing letters.
Customization of Codes to Quicken the Work-flow Management:
If you are dealing in eCommerce arena, you must be dealing with an extensive range of products that vary in respect with their classifications. In other words, the permutation and combination of these classes is extremely complex, which can cause errors. Right? Well, this is the reason why large business owners choose to outsource custom SKU development services to qualified professionals.
For instance, the color red can be represented by the code “RD” or green color can be identified as “GR”. This way, you can create more meaningful SKU numbers, which not only helps your staff easily manage them but also elevates the user experience.
Inclusion of Key Identifiers Simplifies the Process:
Creating long SKU numbers can lead to poor customer experience and errors in your inventory management. Therefore, the next tip is to include only the key identifiers of the respective products in SKU instead of their complete details. It not only facilitates you to simplify their naming convention, but also helps you keep the SKU crisp and short, which is easy to understand.
In case, you want to automate SKU development process for a large enterprise, opting for a professional SKU generator service will be an excellent idea indeed. Hire SKU production service expert from QuikTek Info Service to aid your work-flow management. Write to us at [email protected] to get started.
