{"id":1957,"date":"2012-03-09T14:17:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T14:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/stock-keeping-unit\/"},"modified":"2018-03-07T15:54:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T15:54:59","slug":"stock-keeping-unit","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku","title":{"rendered":"Stock-Keeping Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_stock-keeping_unit_mean\">What Does Stock-Keeping Unit Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A stock-keeping unit (SKU) is a code that consists of letters, numbers, symbols or any combination thereof that uniquely identifies a product or service.<\/p>\n<p>SKUs are used in inventory data management for distinguishing, sorting and recording a tangible or nontangible products.<\/p>\n<p>A stock-keeping unit may also be referred to as a product identifier, product number or item number. It is often referred to as a SKU number<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_stock-keeping_unit\">Techopedia Explains Stock-Keeping Unit<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A stock-keeping unit is one of the most essential identifiers implemented in the inventory management process. It provides an additional layer of uniqueness besides the name of a product or service. A SKU can be a randomly generated alphanumeric code, or it may consist of a unique company and product code.<\/p>\n<p>Although, there is no specific de facto standard for creating SKUs, each variation of the same product must have a unique code. For example; a computer&rsquo;s model number must be the same for all the similar units produced, but their SKUs will differ based on their color, geographical distribution channel or the different factories in which they were manufactured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Stock-Keeping Unit Mean? A stock-keeping unit (SKU) is a code that consists of letters, numbers, symbols or any combination thereof that uniquely identifies a product or service. SKUs are used in inventory data management for distinguishing, sorting and recording a tangible or nontangible products. A stock-keeping unit may also be referred to as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[231,232,245],"class_list":["post-1957","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-it-business-alignment","definitioncat-e-commerce","definitioncat-internet"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Stock-Keeping Unit and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stock-Keeping Unit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Stock-Keeping Unit and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-07T15:54:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Stock-Keeping Unit\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-09T14:17:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-07T15:54:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku\"},\"wordCount\":190,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1606\/stock-keeping-unit-sku\",\"name\":\"What is a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)? 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