What is a SKU? Stock keeping unit meaning and examples

The short definition, also called item, variant

One distinct product you can stock and sell, such as a particular flavour in a particular pack size. Two sizes of the same product are two SKUs.

Part of the topic: Guide: listed but unavailable

What a SKU means

Stock keeping unit says what the code is for: counting stock. A warehouse, a dark store or an app counts units of a SKU, not units of a brand or a product family. Every figure on availability, price or sales is built SKU by SKU and then added up.

A SKU is not the same as a barcode. A barcode such as an EAN identifies a pack across retailers; a SKU code is the seller's own reference, and each app keeps its own product id as well.

How to count SKUs

List every combination of product, variant and pack size you sell, one row each. Then record, for each app, which rows have a live listing, and for each pin code, which listings read in stock. The three counts answer different questions: what you make, what the app lists, and what a shopper nearby can order.

A worked example, with invented numbers. A biscuit brand makes 4 flavours in 3 pack sizes, so 12 SKUs. One app lists 9 of them. The dark store serving one pin code stocks 5, and 4 of those read in stock on the day. A shopper there can order 4 of the brand's 12 SKUs, a third of the range.

How SKUs show up on Indian quick-commerce apps

Dark stores hold a narrower range than a large warehouse, so a brand may have many SKUs listed nationally and only a few in a given store. Apps tend to carry the smaller packs that move quickest. A combo or multipack is often listed as its own SKU with its own MRP, which matters when you compare prices.

What a brand should check

• One list that maps each of your SKUs to its listing on every app.
• That the pack size, MRP and image match on each listing.
• Which SKUs each nearby store carries, not only what the app lists.
• Stock and price per SKU and per pin code, before adding anything up.

Common mistakes

• Averaging over a long tail of slow SKUs, which hides a problem on the bestsellers.
• Matching listings to SKUs by name alone, when two pack sizes share a name.
• Counting a multipack as the same SKU as the single pack.

Do not confuse with

• Barcode (EAN). A barcode such as an EAN identifies the same pack at every retailer. A SKU code is the seller's own reference for a product it stocks.