SKU Generator

About the SKU Generator

A SKU (stock keeping unit) is your own code for one sellable variant: this T-shirt, in this size and this colour. Good SKUs are short, readable and unique, and the same rule builds every one of them. List the attributes your products vary by — category, brand, style, size, colour, a variant such as material — with their values; set the order, how many letters each code has, a separator, a prefix and running numbers; and the generator gives every value a code that is unique within its attribute and every combination its SKU: TS-CN-M-BLK for a black crew-neck T-shirt in medium.

Or open a product list (CSV or Excel from your shop or spreadsheet) and every row gets a SKU from its own values, written back as a new column. The generator avoids the letters O and I, which read like 0 and 1, and checks the result for duplicates, codes that differ only by look-alike characters, and codes a spreadsheet would turn into a date or a number.

Without a pass, the free preview shows how many SKUs there are and every check, with the first SKUs of the list; the code of every value, the CSV and the copied list need a Pro pass. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

Common uses

• Coding a new collection of clothing in every size and colour before it goes on sale.
• Adding SKUs to a shop export that has none, as a new column for the import.
• Cleaning up a catalogue where staff made codes by hand and some clash.
• Making short, scannable codes for shelf labels and pick lists.

How a value gets its code

• A code you type after the value (Navy Blue=NVB) is always used, and no other value of the attribute gets it.
• Sizes (XS to XXXL, 2XL, 3XL; One size becomes OS) and values with digits (500 ml, 42, 20 l) are kept whole, without spaces.
• Short words (Red, Tan with 3-letter codes) are kept as they are.
• Other values get letters in their own order, starting with the first: the initials of several words (Crew neck → CN), or the first letter and the consonants (Black → BLK, Brown → BRN, Yellow → YLW). When two values would share a code, the later one takes the next readable combination; a number is added only when none is left.

Checks that save trouble later

• Duplicates: two combinations or rows with the same SKU.
• Look-alikes: SKUs that differ only by O and 0, or I and 1, which people misread and mistype. Made codes never use O or I while this is on.
• Leading zero: a SKU that starts with 0 loses it when a spreadsheet reads the column as numbers.
• Spreadsheet changes: 1-12 becomes a date and 1E5 a number in many spreadsheets; long runs of digits lose their last digits. Keep the SKU column as text, or change the code.
• Length: set the longest SKU your shop, marketplace or barcode labels accept, and longer ones are flagged.

A good SKU scheme

Start with what groups products (category, then style), end with what changes most (size, colour); keep codes short and the same length within an attribute; use one separator; and never reuse a SKU for a different product, even after the old one is discontinued. SKUs are yours alone: a barcode (EAN, UPC) is a different number, issued by GS1, and the barcode generator draws it from the number you have.

Limitations

• Codes come from the values as you write them: “Grey” and “Gray” are two values and get two codes.
• Made codes use the letters A to Z and the digits 0 to 9 (accents are dropped: Crème → CRM): a value written only in another script gets a numbered code (X2, X3 …) unless you type its code after it (value=CODE).
• A matrix makes up to 10,000 SKUs at once, and a product list codes up to 10,000 rows.
• The generator does not know the SKUs already in your systems: check new ones against them before you import.

Privacy

On this device; its files download once

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Downloads the spreadsheet reader from this site the first time a product list is opened; your products never leave this browser.