Shopify SKU: What Is It and How Do You Use It?

Shopify  ·  December 2022  ·  By Remis Jarmalavicius  ·  5 minutes of reading

Shopify SKU is an acronym that stands for Stock Keeping Unit and is used for various business efforts.

It is a unique identifier for products in Shopify. Every product in your Shopify store must have its own SKU.

In this blog post, we will discuss:

What does SKU mean on Shopify

SKU is an acronym that stands for “Stock Keeping Unit“.

For Shopify, it means a unique identifier that is assigned to each product in a store’s inventory.

It is used to track and manage inventory levels and is typically a combination of letters and numbers (eg. LT123456789).

The SKU can be used to help store owners quickly and easily locate a specific product in their warehouse (or other inventory storage) vs. digital catalog (Shopify).

How to create SKU numbers for Shopify

To create SKU identifiers for your Shopify Products, enter the Shopify admin area and from there, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the Products tab in the sidebar.
  2. Click on the name of the product for which you want to create a SKU.
  3. Scroll down to the Inventory section of the page and enter a unique SKU number in the SKU input field.
  4. Click on the Save button to save your changes.

If you are using some bookkeeping software, you can use whatever format suits your SKU entries.

But if you are not planning to use any system to track your product inventories outside Shopify, the make SKU easy to remember. For example, you might use a combination of the product’s name, size, and color to create a unique SKU number, such as “SHOES-SNEAKERS-42”.

How to enter SKU for Shopify Product
How to enter SKU for Shopify Product

Can two products have the same SKU

Yes, two products can have the same SKU on Shopify.

When you will create duplicate SKU – Shopify will tell you that it has been already used and will give products list.

To avoid any confusion or errors in your inventory, make SKU unique.

Using unique SKUs for each product can help you keep track of your inventory and ensure that the correct product is being sold to customers. It’s also a good idea to use a consistent naming convention for your SKUs, such as including the product name or a short description, to make it easier to identify products for your own goods.

How SKU are different from UPC

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is a unique identifier that is used by businesses to track their products for inventory and sales purposes.

UPC (Universal Product Code) is a type of barcode that is used to identify a specific product.

While a SKU is used by a business to track its own products, a UPC is a standardized code that is used by all retailers and suppliers worldwide.

SKU vs UPC in Shopify
SKU vs UPC in Shopify

How SKU are different from barcodes

Barcode is a visual representation of data that can be read by a barcode scanner.

While a SKU is a unique identifier assigned to a product by a business, a barcode is a standardized representation of that product’s SKU or other identifying information.

Barcode example
Barcode example

How to show product SKU in Shopify email

To show a product’s SKU in a Shopify email, you will need to use Shopify’s email templates and liquid variables.

To do that, follow these steps

  1. In your Shopify admin click on Settings.
  2. Open Notifications in the sidebar
  3. Select an email template, such as the order confirmation email.
  4. In the email template editor, insert the liquid variable {{ product.sku }} and in this place real SKU value will be displayed.
  5. Save your changes to the email template.
How to add SKU to Shopify Email
How to add SKU to Shopify Email

How to add SKU on Shopify invoice

To add a product’s SKU to a Shopify invoice, you will need to use Shopify’s invoice templates and liquid variables.

Follow these steps to add SKU:

  1. In your Shopify admin click on Settings.
  2. Open Notifications in the sidebar
  3. Select the invoice template that you want to edit, such as the default invoice template.
  4. In the invoice template editor, insert the liquid variable {{ product.sku }} and in the real email this variable will be replaced by a real SKU.
  5. Save your changes to email template.

How to make SKU visible on Shopify product page

To make a product’s SKU visible on its product page in Shopify, you will need to use Shopify’s product page templates and liquid variables.

Enter your Shopify admin and follow these steps:

  1. Click Settings in the sidebar.
  2. Select the theme that you want to edit, and then click on the Actions dropdown menu and select Edit code.
  3. In the template editor, find the file for the product page, which is typically called product.liquid or product-template.liquid.
  4. In the product page template, insert the liquid variable {{ product.sku }} and this text will be replaced by real SKU value.
  5. Save your changes to the template.

Conclusion

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is a unique identifier that is used to track and manage inventory in an e-commerce store. It does not need to be unique for Shopify, but highly recommended.

SKU is not a barcode or UPC, it is a business identifier used for internal reasons (for example inventory tracking).

You can inject SKU to email templates or product page by using Shopify admin and steps in this article.

Hope you found it useful and will check our other Shopify articles.

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