Entry

What does SKU stand for and what is its purpose?

Aug 10th, 2000 10:16
C Walker, Leon Atkinson, Paul Ashton,

SKU stands for "Stock Keeping Unit". It's a common term among 
retailers. for specifying a particular variation of a item.
Here's an example:
Say you are selling books.  A particular title comes in both hardcover 
and softcover.  Instead of making two *items* with duplicate 
information, make one *item*, with two *SKUs*, one for hardcover and 
one for softcover.  Now you have one item with the information that 
applies to both the hardcover and the softcover: title, author, image, 
description, etc.  Each Sku can have a seperate name (ie Hardcover vs 
Softcover), price (ie $24.00 vs $8.00), shipping (ie $3.20 vs $2.00), 
and attribute/variations.  Not sure where attributes/variations would 
come into play with a book, but you get the idea about SKUs....