What are some best practices for creating SKU's?

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) - creation:

 

Letter with Numbers is best option but it has to be short.

Give specific color for  Category & attributes/brand.

Three best practices for SKU as below:

1. Make them easily understandable

Always pay attention to color, size, type, and season variants -- these need to be incorporated into the SKU to aid in identification. Do not load the numbers used with meaning (eg. 1 is red, 11 is pink, 12 is magenta) because this can quickly turn into a confusing string of numbers. If you go down this path, you will have to keep a legend on hand to decode the meaning, and that is not an efficient use of your time. Ultimately, your SKU is a way to record important product information, so the more straightforward it is, the better it is for everyone.

2. Arrange words according to importance

Think of how you would describe a product (e.g Summer 2015, Flower Tee, Small, Red) -- what are its most important attributes? For example, you may have different Flower Tees for different seasons every year, so identifying the year and season will help you narrow down the search to the specific collection immediately, followed by less distinctive attributes like color and size.

3. Don’t use letters that look like numbers, spaces, accents or symbols.

This is pretty straightforward, but it’s always a good reminder. Always stay away from O because it can be easily mistaken for a 0. Also, using “/” can result in Excel formatting your SKU as a date instead, while other symbols like “>”, “<”, “*”, and accents (e.g. āăűȔ) can also have other unintended consequences. Sticking to alphanumeric SKUs and substituting “-” or “_” for a space is always the safest and best bet.

The SKU of a product should be the same across the whole chain, from manufacturer up to the final consumer; passing through transport providers, warehousing, 3rd and 4th. party logistics providers, customs, distribution centers, retail stores and points of sale.There are global efforts as to create and maintain a global database of SKUs that are indeed unique per product (item) on a worldwide scale, just to mention a few: GTIN (Global Trade Id Number), UPC (Universal Product Code), EAN and a few others. More info on this subject on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glo...Unless you are the creator or manufacturer of your own products, you should not be "creating new SKUs", so, the recommended practice would be to adopt the SKU already assigned by the product owner to its item and hopefully all the actors involved would do the same....  Unfortunately this is not the case, in fact, it is seldom fully complied with.  I must also say that many of the BIG retailer companies are the first ones to break this scheme because "their systems are programmed differently" (this is a real excuse we received from one of those huge companies!)On the other hand, if you are creating your own products and therefore its SKUs, some approach similar to what Claudia Satori describes above is fine.  The overall idea is for the SKU to be useful and make sense to ALL parties involved in handling your items.You need to assign one SKU to each and every variation of the same product, that is...if the only change is color, or size, then there is one SKU for the "red-small" and another for the "blue-small" and another SKU for the "red-medium"... you get the idea.

It is better to put the First 2 or 3 letters as Brand code. So that the brand can be identified from there itself. a combination and the size code or color code also can be added in the product code. 

Hello Team,

Item identification numbers (item numbers) are used to uniquely identify items that you carry in inventory. Some companies will call them “part numbers”, “model numbers”, “product codes”, SKUs, etc. But whatever you call them, item numbers are important for you and the systems you use. If you or your system can’t uniquely identify an item, you can’t effectively account for its activity and whereabouts within your inventory. Item numbers also serve as a shorthand for longer item descriptions. Instead of entering an entire name or description for an item, you can use a much shorter item number. This speeds up the process of data entry and inventory management.

Retail products and big companies often use long and complicated numbers for their item numbers. These are fine if you're operating a complex warehouse or retail operation. And if this makes sense for your operation, then you probably already have a numbering scheme and don't need to read much further. But 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.

Good Item Numbers Will Make Your Life Much Easier!

Tips on Creating Item Number Schemes

n  Unless you are forced to do so by something out of your control, never start an item number with a zero. Just trust us on this.

n  Avoid using letters that can be confused with numbers. The main culprits are O, I, and L. 

n  DO NOT use a manufacturer's serial number or part number for your part number. These numbers are often too long and cryptic. Plus, if you switch suppliers, or the manufacturer changes their number, it becomes meaningless to your organization. 

n  Keep item numbers short, but not so short that they could be mistaken for other numbers (i.e., quantities). 4 to 8 characters will suffice for most organizations.

n  Do not load item numbers with meaning; do not try to use the item number to describe your product. This will only make your numbers longer and more complicated. Save this information for the item description.

n  Consider using a few letters. Letters will help further distinguish your item numbers from other numbers, and they will greatly increase the number of possible item numbers you can have while keeping the overall item number length as short as possible.

n  Using a few letters from the beginning of your item description at the beginning of your part number will make it much easier to look up items in pick lists. For example, if you were creating an item number for “Sauce, Chocolate”, you might create the number “SAU101”, “Sauce, Caramel” would be “SAU102”, etc.

 

n  Do not use characters that might confuse people or software. For example, using a comma in your item number might make it look like a quantity or price. Using a "/" can result in Excel formatting your part number as a date. Symbols such as "<", ">", and "*" can have unintended consequences when moving data between Clearly Inventory and your spreadsheet program. Try to keep your item numbers simple and alphanumeric where possible.

Regards,

Saiyid

There's no best practices but if you mean inside warehouse I can say : by doing ABC anlsys or by natureles for the goods or by the cost of the goods and by physical of the goods ( palates or without)

agree with all the experts...

Thank you, Mr. Vinod manifested a wonderful answer

I have list down the best practices to create product SKU that help you make things much easier while creating SKU.

 

Make them understandable

 The main focus to create SKU is recording and tracking product information, so unique code should be straightforward and always pay attention to incorporate color, size, type with SKU for better understanding and easy tracking.

 

Know limitations:

 If you're selling products through third party marketplaces, know the limitation. Because some marketplaces limits the number of characters allowed in SKU. For instance, Amazon limits SKUs to characters

 

Dont use letters that seems like numbers or symbols

 Dont include numbers in your SKU that similar to letters. For example0 and1 that looks like o and l.

 

Don’t use manufacturers serial number

 Do not include manufacturer or part numbers in your SKU, as these can change, and then your SKU number no longer makes sense.

 

Make use of SKU generator

 Use of SKU completely cuts down man hour and can save plenty more. 

 

For more, click here .. How to Create product SKU

Enough explanations from the experts. Thank you. useful for me too

agree with all expert answers