SKU Scheme Builder
A SKU is a key, not a name: unique, stable, readable in a warehouse and sortable in a spreadsheet. Improvised schemes work for the first variant and collapse by the third season.
A SKU is a key, not a name: unique, stable and readable in a warehouse. Never encode price, season or campaign — those change, the SKU must not.
Fill the fields — the SKU list builds here.
Your inputs stay in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.
How it's calculated
The scheme has a fixed part (brand, category, model) and a variant part (colour, size). The tool generates every combination — four colours by three sizes is twelve SKUs, and hand-typing them is where the errors come from.
Non-ASCII characters are transliterated and everything is uppercased. Not for looks: many marketplaces, ERPs and barcode systems reject or mangle anything else.
Collisions are checked. Two variants on one SKU silently corrupts stock counts and takes weeks to notice.
Output comes as a plain list and as CSV with the variant name alongside, so nothing gets lost on import.
What people most often forget
- Never encode price, season or campaign. Those change, and a changed SKU severs sales history, stock records and listings.
- Nor the supplier. Change suppliers and the code starts lying about a product that didn't change.
- No spaces, slashes or accents. All three break in CSVs, URLs and barcodes.
- A SKU isn't a barcode. The SKU is yours; a GTIN is a purchased global identifier. Marketplaces want both.
- Set the scheme even with one product. Retrofitting it at product two costs far more than doing it now.
Scope, sources and freshness
This builds a coding scheme; it does not create GTINs or validate marketplace catalogue rules. Test a small batch before a bulk upload. Your inputs stay in the browser.
Sources last reviewed: 16 August 2026
Frequently asked
What is a SKU?
Stock Keeping Unit: your internal code uniquely identifying each sellable variant, and the key linking stock, orders and accounts.
What's the difference between a SKU and a barcode?
A SKU is yours to define; a GTIN is a purchased, globally unique identifier. Marketplaces usually want both.
Can I change a SKU later?
Technically yes, but it's expensive: history, stock and listings all hang off the old key. Build the scheme from things that won't change.
If your product is ready, let's talk about the rest.
A free 30-minute call about your market, your product and the first 90 days. No pitch — just a clear roadmap.