Amazon offers merchants the ability to create Amazon SKU numbers for every one of their products. This can be a huge time-saver, as it allows you to manage your inventory and orders from a single location.
Amazon currently has over 300 million active customer accounts and 1.9 million selling partners across the globe. This makes it one of the largest and most successful ecommerce platforms in the world.
However, with so many SKUs to manage, it’s important to ensure that you create and assign your SKU numbers correctly.
When paired with Amazon seller accounting software, you can use SKUs to track sales data, manage inventory levels, and streamline the ordering process. Let’s explore how to create and manage Amazon SKUs for your business.
One of the first words many new Amazon sellers learn is "stock keeping unit" or "SKU" (pronounced skew). Amazon SKU numbers are unique alphanumeric codes used to track a product for inventory and sales purposes.
Typically, it includes product attribution details such as size, color, and any other pertinent information that you can glean at a glance.
For those who have experienced self-checkout at the grocery store, you've most likely purchased produce where you had to type in a four-digit number to determine the cost. That four-digit number is a SKU.
Your purchase told the system which item you selected, and it recorded the sales information. Essentially, this is how Amazon's SKU system works as well. SKUs play an important role in your ecommerce growth, so it’s necessary to understand the basics.
One of the most confusing things for Amazon sellers is understanding the difference between a SKU and Amazon’s ASIN numbers.
Amazon uses ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) to identify products on their platform. ASINs are unique 10-character codes assigned individually to each product sold in the Amazon marketplace.
An ASIN simply means a product exists on Amazon for sale, but it is not the SKU you assigned. When listing products, configure your own SKUs, and don’t let Amazon configure them for you.
SKU attributes are the information you structure within your SKU. For example, when people buy a product, such as a TV, they’re looking for specific features or attributes such as brand, size, resolution, price, smart-capability, compatibility, etc. The right product attributes and variants can help you manage your inventory more effectively.
You can find your Amazon SKU using a variety of methods, such as reviewing the information listed on your product page or accessing Amazon Seller Central. Additionally, your customers can find the SKU on their receipts or printed on the product's packaging.
You can also find your Amazon SKU using your browser's URL bar. On your product's listing page, in the address bar, locate the SKU number listed just after the "dp" section of the URL. On that same page, every product has a SKU or ASIN listed under its product information along with its dimensions, weight, and seller's rank.
In addition, if you have access to your Amazon Seller Central dashboard, you can use the inventory report to search for SKUs associated with your products.
Simply put, SKUs help you keep track of your inventory. They provide valuable information at a glance, helping you save time and money. If you don’t use them, your system can become chaotic, and you’ll lose inventory efficiency.
SKU numbers make it possible for you to:
Using SKUs correctly leads to better inventory management in ecommerce and tracking sales more efficiently.
Many small businesses use a spreadsheet to track product SKUs. But it’s not the best way to manage your inventory.
Spreadsheets aren’t scalable and can become outdated quickly. Each SKU needs to be entered into your system of record, most likely your QuickBooks account.
To save time, ecommerce automation software can connect your Amazon store and your QuickBooks account so that you can sync inventory in real time.
If you sell on multiple marketplaces, it can use multichannel inventory sync capabilities to keep inventory counts updates across channels. This is where all the magic happens.
Simply, no. You should always create and manage your own Amazon SKU numbers instead of ASINs. Ideally, the SKU number in Amazon should be consistent across all your marketplaces and your QuickBooks account.
An Amazon integration with QuickBooks makes this easier to manage. Doing so will help you track profitability, calculate accurate margins, and recognize potential trends to grow your business.
Essentially, if you are selling on more than one Amazon store, Amazon will assign separate SKUs for the same products selling in different stores.
This can lead to confusion and chaos, not to mention a potential financial headache. So take the time to create your own SKUs for each product and store them in one central location.
Essentially, if you let Amazon create your SKUs for you, essentially, they’ll be meaningless to you. And they won’t specify the items you sell according to your preferences as a seller.
Your SKU format shouldn’t be random. It should reflect your inventory and how you want to organize and track it.
Create a SKU format that enables you to quickly gain information about your products and sales, pick orders quickly, and manage your inventory effectively.
Above all else, keep your SKUs consistent across your sales channels and QuickBooks account. Identical SKUs will all allow you to match, map, transfer, and update inventory across channels with a tool like Webgility.
Consider using the following Amazon SKU format suggestions.
Create SKU formats that represent warehouse locations, store locations, categories, etc. Build an architecture that your company will use for years to come.
However, keep in mind that you can’t exceed 40 characters in an Amazon SKU and that fewer characters are easier to manage.