What Is a SKU?
A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is a number or code used in data management to uniquely identify each item, product or service for sale in a retail business. SKU’s allow retailers to track inventory within their stores and supply chain. SKU’s are also used in reference to the retailer’s database to attach pricing and product information to items, fees or services.
The most common examples of SKU’s are the Universal Product Code (UPC), the International (formerly European) Article Number (EAN) and the Price Look Up Code (PLU), but SKU can refer to any number of identifiers used by retailers. In some cases, retailers may use a standard SKU, like the UPC, attached in their database to their own unique SKU item number.
For example, if a retailer sold 10 brands of coffee and carried 10 flavors of each brand, that would be 100 SKU’s of coffee. If the same retailer sold 10 different sizes of each brand’s 10 different flavors, that would be 1000 SKU’s of coffee. Each distinct supplier, flavor and size would be identified with its own unique SKU.