What Is Seller SKU On Amazon?

Many new sellers take a lot of time to understand Amazon’s processes and requirements. In this regard, today we will discuss the common terminology related to the question: what is seller SKU on amazon?

No matter whether you go for a private label, wholesale, dropshipping, handmade retail, or online arbitrage, SKUs are a requirement. You might be thinking what is seller SKU and how it will help you in your business?  So, let’s see

What Does Seller SKU Meaning On Amazon?

SKU stands for “Stock keeping unit” it’s a short term used to describe the barcode. Amazon Seller SKU is a unique combination of letters and numbers that is assigned to each product. This means that SKUs are not optional. Therefore, every product on Amazon is required to have an Amazon SKU number.

Now that you know what is seller SKU in Amazon let’s discuss

Why Is SKU Is Necessary For You

1. Improved Product Tracking and Inventory Control
2. Enhanced Productivity and Efficiency
3. Accurate Record Keeping and Reporting
4. Better Organization and Management of Stock
5. Increased Sales and Profitability
6. Streamlined Order Processing and Fulfillment
7. Reduction of Stock Management Errors and Overhead Costs
8. Improved Customer Satisfaction and Experience”

Why Do You Need Them?

Selling on Amazon is really a hard thing, every year Amazon brings 100,00 new sellers to its platform which means more and more products. To run the system smoothly SKUs were developed. Basically, SKUs help you in inventory management. At Amazon, there are millions of products from which many of them are the same. Therefore, to differentiate and manage every similar product Amazon uses this simple step to add SKU to the shipping label before they send it to the Amazon fulfillment center.

SKU is a merchant product identifier that helps to identify certain information about the product. For that reason, Amazon requires every seller to assign a SKU to every product and its variation. In return, Amazon will use these SKUs to associate your products with the appropriate product detail page in their catalog. You cannot change or re-use the existing SKU until you delete the previous one from the catalog.

Structure of a SKU

SKU is a mixture of characters and numbers separated by a hyphen or dashes. SKU should not exceed more than 40 characters. You can include the following information in your SKU

• Product name
• Product category
• Product condition
• Cataloging
• Attributes or features
• Season
• Cost
• Batch number or sequence

SKUs are printed in a form of a barcode on product labels so they can be easily read by the barcode reader.

What is The Best Seller SKU Format to Use?

After knowing what is seller SKU on Amazon FBA it’s important that you should know what is best SKU format to follow.

• Start With The Supplier

Start the SKU by the supplier or source name in two to three characters code.

For example, if you are sourcing products from AliExpress or Alibaba you will use the AE or AB respectively on your SKU.

• Mention Product And Its Category

Now if you selling shirts, pants, ties categorize them whether they fall in formal wear or casual wear, and then write code according to that.

For example, SH for shirts and FW for formal wear.

• Add Attributes And Condition

Insert the color, size, material, and condition of the product. Use two letters for color, one for size, one for condition, and two for material

For example, YW-S-N-LT will be a Yellow small-sized new leather product.

• Add Price

Add the cost of the product in the SKU in 3 to 4 characters.

For example, 10D or you can say 10 dollars

Your SKU format will like

       AE-FW-SH-YW-S-N-10D

It’s an 18-character SKU that will unpack the information as discussed above.

How To Get Seller SKU On Amazon?

The seller itself generates a SKU while listing a product however if the seller does not enter any SKU then Amazon will generate a SKU for the product itself.

FAQS

Q1. What is The Seller SKU On Amazon?

Ans. Seller SKU is a mixture of alphanumeric characters that is a seller used to differentiate and manage the inventory system.

Q2. Can You Change The Seller SKU On Amazon?

Ans.  You cannot change the SKU until you delete the listing associated with that SKU and then have to recreate it if you want to change the SKU.

Q3. Is SKU And ASIN Are Same?

Ans. No SKU and ASIN are two different things. SKU is used by sellers to manage inventory and is not visible on the listing whereas ASIN is used by Amazon for product identification and is visible on the listing. You can say that SKU is used internally whereas ASIN is used externally.

Q4. What Is The Difference Between SKU And FNSKU?

Ans.  FNSKU stands for “Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit” is a barcode that is generated by Amazon itself to track its inventory.

Q5. Do I Need SKU To Sell On Amazon?

Ans. Yes, Amazon required every seller to have SKU on every product they list if they don’t create one Amazon will create generate one for them.

Conclusion

Whether you are an Amazon FBA or FBM seller inventory management is very important and SKUs are the first step towards it. Therefore, if you want to maintain your inventory start adding SKUs on your listing.

Note: In case if you have any queries regarding Amazon selling, fulfillment process, business strategy, choosing the best management and analytics application for your E-Commerce business, FBA vs FBM, or really anything related to the world of Amazon, feel free to post your queries on Amazon Seller Forum, and let our community of E-Commerce experts help you out.