What is Stock Keeping Unit?

A Stock Keeping Unit (or SKU) is a number assigned to a product by a retail store to identify the price, product options and manufacturer of the merchandise. A SKU is used to track inventory in retail store. Stock keeping units are highly important and commonly used by retail stores, warehouses, and product fulfillment centers. Stock keeping units provide many key uses such as:

• Identifying a specific product
• Tracking inventory to know how many of a specific product is available
• Helping reconcile stock levels of products
• Identifying shrinkage in inventory
• Determining which products are the most profitable (through analysis)
• Helping identify reorder point for products
• Helping customers save time by allowing them to find products quickly