{"id":3642,"date":"2018-12-30T13:25:46","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T07:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligencenode.com\/blog\/?p=3642"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:24:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:54:00","slug":"how-to-optimize-skus-and-enhance-sales-with-online-merchandising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligencenode.com\/blog\/how-to-optimize-skus-and-enhance-sales-with-online-merchandising\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Optimize your SKUs and Enhance Sales with Online Merchandising"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is the SKU?<\/h2>\n

An<\/span><\/i> SKU or a Stock Keeping Unit is a vital part of retail inventory management. It helps retailers organize, optimize, and keep track of product information, accurately.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

SKUs and Their Relevance in Retail Merchandising<\/h2>\n

You sell a large number of products in your business. Even if you own a single small store, you still need to keep track of and manage several different products. <\/span>Add to this your online stores and tracking of individual products complicates further. <\/span>You will have a variety of information about the product stored in your database like the product name, manufacturer\/supplier, current stock, prices, etc. An SKU or a Stock Keeping Unit is a unique identifier for each product sold<\/a> in your shop. It is specific to your business and helps you keep track of various items in your inventory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever used a Walmart SKU specific inventory checker? These tools ask you to enter the SKU of the product<\/a>. You get accurate information about the stock availability, price, in which locations it is available, etc. The Walmart inventory checker tool does an SKU lookup on Walmart SKU data in the relevant location according to your zip code, to provide you <\/span>this information<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Designing Your SKUs<\/h2>\n

You can design your SKUs to help identify all key information about the product like its brand, category, type, color, size, etc. Stock Keeping Units can be as simple or as complex as you like.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are different from other general identifiers like UPCs and ISBNs because they are specific to your store or retail chain. UPCs and ISBNs are common across the retail landscape, they don\u2019t hold any data unique to your business.<\/span><\/p>\n

With SKUs, you can properly encode various information relevant to your store. It is entirely in your hands irrespective of who your suppliers are. You can then use an <\/span>SKU lookup<\/span><\/a> to seamlessly track and manage items in your inventory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Access<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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What Can You Encode into Your SKUs?<\/h2>\n

With an SKU, you can encode product category or department, product type, size, color, and <\/span>other relevant information<\/span><\/a>. For instance, if you sell clothes, you may have categories and variations within them:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Gender<\/b><\/td>\nCategory<\/b><\/td>\nType<\/b><\/td>\nSize<\/b><\/td>\nColor<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Male (M)<\/span><\/td>\nShirt (01)<\/span><\/td>\nCasual (1)<\/span><\/td>\nLarge (L)<\/span><\/td>\nBlue (BU)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Female (F)<\/span><\/td>\nPants (02)<\/span><\/td>\nFormal (2)<\/span><\/td>\nSmall (S)<\/span><\/td>\nBlack (BK)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Female (F)<\/span><\/td>\nSkirt (03)<\/span><\/td>\nParty (3)<\/span><\/td>\nMedium (M)<\/span><\/td>\nRed (RD)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Girl (G)<\/span><\/td>\nPants(02)<\/span><\/td>\nJeans (4)<\/span><\/td>\nMedium (M)<\/span><\/td>\nGreen(GN)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Boy (B)<\/span><\/td>\nPants (02)<\/span><\/td>\nJeans (4)<\/span><\/td>\nMedium (M)<\/span><\/td>\nGrey (GY)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So, your SKU for a blue jeans large size for a man may look like this \u2013 M024LBU008. A Red Casual Shirt for a woman, medium size, may look like this F011MRD003. A Girl\u2019s casual shirt, small blue may have this SKU \u2013 G011SBU005. These make an SKU lookup easier and more meaningful.<\/span><\/p>\n

The codes for gender, size, category, type, color, etc, once defined, may be used in different combinations to identify various garments. The final three numbers are just sequential numbers used to number the items in that category\/type\/size\/color for that gender\/age. This section can also help you keep track of whether the item is old or new if you number the stock as they come in.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may also choose to include more information like a brand\/manufacturer. For instance, you may have an encoding for brands like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

Levi\u2019s – X01 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Wrangler – X02 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lee Jeans – X03<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this case, you may identify a men\u2019s medium size Blue Levi\u2019s jeans like this \u2013 M024X01MBU453<\/span><\/p>\n

If your business is a retail chain, you may want to keep track of inventory and sales<\/a> by each store. So, you may have an encoding for your store locations like this \u2013 S01, S02, S03.<\/span><\/p>\n

In that case, you may identify an Allen Solly women\u2019s blue shirt, formal, large size, sold in your store location 3 as- S03F012X12LBU054.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using this type<\/span> of encoding lets you extract a lot of information about the item just based on the SKU, without doing an SKU Lookup in your database to retrieve more information. Just a visual SKU lookup lets you know in which store this sale was made, the brand, whether it was for a man or woman or a child, the type, size, color, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

SKU Format Best Practices<\/h2>\n

When designing your SKU structure, it is good to follow certain rules:<\/span><\/p>\n