SKU (stock keeping unit)
A SKU is the unique code for one distinct sellable item, specific enough that two things a customer would consider different never share one. Size, colour, pack quantity and variant each need their own.
Also searched as: SKU meaning, product code
Updated July 2026
Getting SKU structure wrong is expensive and hard to reverse. Too coarse and you cannot tell which variant is selling. Too fine and you have thousands of codes nobody maintains, with the same physical item entered three times under different names.
The test is whether a customer would accept one in place of the other. If not, they are separate SKUs. A 40-inch television and a 43-inch television are different products even though the supplier calls both by one model family.
Businesses with heavy variation, tyres, batteries, fasteners, apparel, benefit from treating variants as attributes of a product rather than as unrelated codes, so reporting can roll up and staff can still find things.
