How to name SKUs

Why the structure matters

A consistent SKU pattern lets you scan a purchase order or a stock report and know what you are looking at without clicking into the product. It also makes forecasting and reordering easier, because tools that work per variant (like reorder forecasting) rely on each variant having one stable, unique code that never gets reused.

What to put in the code

Use short abbreviations for category, product name, and variant attributes like size or color. For example TSH-BLK-M for a black t-shirt in medium, or MUG-CRM-12OZ for a 12oz cream mug. Avoid encoding information that changes, such as price or supplier, since that forces a rename later. Avoid encoding the vendor's own part number only, since many vendors reuse numbers across unrelated products.

Keep it consistent across variants

Every variant of a product should share the same root code and differ only in the variant part. This matters most when you are tracking sales and reorder points per variant, since mixed naming patterns make it hard to tell which rows in a report belong to the same parent product.

Avoid changing SKUs later

Once a SKU has sales history attached to it, renaming it breaks that history for any tool that forecasts from past sales. If you must fix a bad SKU, do it once, document the mapping, and expect the sales history to effectively restart for that variant.

Step by step

1. List your product categories and give each a 2-4 letter code.
2. Add a short code for the product name or style within that category.
3. Add variant codes for size, color, or other options, using consistent abbreviations (S, M, L or BLK, WHT, etc).
4. Join the parts with hyphens, for example CAT-PRODUCT-VARIANT.
5. Check the full list for duplicates before you save anything.
6. Avoid spaces, slashes, and special characters that some systems reject.
7. Once SKUs are live and selling, treat them as permanent and avoid renaming.

Worked example

A store sells candles in three scents and two sizes. They set the category code CND, then a scent code (LAV, VAN, CTR), then a size code (SM, LG). The lavender small candle becomes CND-LAV-SM and the vanilla large becomes CND-VAN-LG. Six variants, six clear SKUs, no overlap with any other product line like their CND-LAV-SM diffuser, which they instead code as DIF-LAV-SM.

How SteadyShelf helps

SteadyShelf forecasts and reorders per variant SKU, so a clean, unique, stable SKU per variant directly improves the accuracy of its suggested order quantities and order-by dates. It does not rename, clean up, or manage your SKUs for you, so the naming work itself is still on you, done in your store admin.

$29/month flat, unlimited products and suppliers, 30-day free trial. Run the numbers now with the free reorder point calculator.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related guides

• How to negotiate better payment terms with suppliers
• How to negotiate lower minimum order quantities
• How to negotiate price breaks with suppliers
• How to move supplier data out of Stocky

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