A United States private company Varien, Inc situated in Culver City developed a software called Magento, an open source e-commerce. Simply by using in PHP. Magento released their first beta program on 31st August 2007. Whereas they released their first software on March 31, 2008. First Roy Rubin sold some share to eBay. But eventually acquired it later. Today we’ll discuss the Magento SKU – How to use Magento SKU to maintain inventory successfully.
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Secondly, they sold their company to Permira. Magento has brought new heights to user engagement, smoother navigation, improved conversion rates and revenue generation for store owners.
Why Magento SKU?
Magento SKU means stock keeping unit which is basically the item on sale. For example, as a product or service. Moreover, any other products associated with the same item type. It counts the number of products it has under the same SKU. For a store, it takes inventory as current stock. It refers to a code of a particular stock unit.
So for each new product, you will require to provide a stock keeping unit (SKU). To process the setting your inventory for Magento. First, before we start, it is always better to stick with a specific process. So, we need to decide that process first for generating Magento SKU on each product of store.
Second, if the schema is clear it will be easier to make quick decisions or actions. Simply it makes the life easier for the people involved in Inventory Management. Therefore, if the SKU is unique and manageable, it helps to understand the bulk changes.
How can you improve your Magento SKU:
1) Use patterns and abbreviations which are easier to understand at a glance. For example, if you want to use the word widget use ‘WDGT’. When abbreviating the names of colors, it is very easy to understand.
For example, Yellow and Violet can represent by “YLW” and “VLT”. Whereas we can also change the places of letter anyway later.
2) Important information should be provided first. First, lead with a sign the product is all about. Then add the necessary information depending on importance. Here understanding the fact of how a customer would search for your product. Which is very crucial. As it can help you to understand the order of importance.
After the main description, the color and size are the next important measures. For example, if you want to sell a product by color and brand. In that case, your schema should look like “BLK-WATCH-FSL” for Fossils black-watch.
3) Using dashes “-” or underscores “_’ in the middle of key features is also a good technique. Because random letters between the main feature only confuse your customers.
4) Sorting or reorganizing a spreadsheet is much easier. Only if Magento SKU can describe the relationship between the products groups. Hence, Magento products have a “parent” configurable and “simple” variant products. For example, “WNT-T-SHIRT-BLK-L” for black winter t-shirt size large.
Therefore, variant SKU fully describes the product is available in inventory. At the same time gives an idea about size, color & feature in the first look. As a result, using a particular pattern like this becomes very important for Magento inventory management. On the other hand, it is also important while integrating the site with a third party service.
5) Different manufacturers use the same MPN to describe their products. But if Magento SKU is unique for a particular store. In that case, it will benefit the store more as it leaves no confusion between manufacturers. Or even your own custom products. The default bulk change import requires the SKU to correctly identify a product. As a result, it is important to maintain unique SKU’s in Magento system. So, using unique SKU’s reduces the pressure of extra work too.
Things you should not do with Magento SKU
1. There are many things which can lead to confusion while working with Magento SKU. For example, do not use space and some special characters such as “!”, “< or >”, “*” ,etc. Like using Space in between makes difficult to understand and also adds confusion in reading SKU.
2. If you use only numbers in SKU it won’t be clear enough to represent anything. Like what is the product or what it is about? If you have no option and have to use numbers only. In such cases, at least avoid using “zero” at the beginning. As almost every spreadsheet program remove zero by default. Which can also lead to a huge confusion. If you use “08945” the program will read “8945”. So it is essential not to start the date with the number zero.
3. Next, you don’t have to describe each and every detail about your product in the SKU. SKU is used as a trailer for the products. If you want to distinguish products based on model, size, and color. Only then SKU can deal with it. If you need to put in more details in your SKU then keep the codes short.
4. Always start the SKU with letters. As it is easy to keep them stand out with other products. Also, avoid letters which can sometimes confuse with numbers. For example, the letter “I” which creates confusion with the number “1”. The staff members can make a mistake because of such letters. So, you should try those letters which are easier for your inventory management team.
For all retailers, Magento SKU is very important and an essential technique to maintain inventory. It makes the life easier for inventory management. Consequently, it is easy to keep track of the products with the help of Magento SKU. As well as, keeping track of the inventory and making smart decisions. Today every manufacturer use their own SKU since using only the barcode won’t help you that much. Because the barcode is not very useful without a scanner. Simply, Magento SKU does not need a scanner. Whereas, Magento SKU is unique for every company. As a matter of fact, the same can’t be said about barcodes. Because they are not unique. Magento SKU is better for the description of the product. So, there are lots of variations in Magento SKU. As it is also very important for future growth and management. So, any well-managed format can be used for Magento SKU but it is just to follow a certain pattern.