{"id":8015,"date":"2026-10-25T14:44:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/glossary\/sku\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T14:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:44:54","slug":"sku","status":"publish","type":"mona_glossary","link":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/sku\/","title":{"rendered":"SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A SKU (stock keeping unit) is a code a seller creates for each product variant to track stock and sales. One shirt design in 3 colors and 4 sizes is 12 SKUs, because each color and size combination is counted separately in the warehouse.<\/p>\n<h2>What is a SKU?<\/h2>\n<p>GS1 US, the barcode issuer in the United States, draws a clear line: a GTIN is a global identifier issued by GS1, while a SKU is a flexible internal code a business creates to track its own inventory. Several retailers can sell the same item with the same GTIN, but each one assigns it a different SKU (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gs1us.org\/upcs-barcodes-prefixes\/what-is-a-gtin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GS1 US, What is a GTIN, accessed October 2026<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Because you make it up yourself, a SKU does not need to be registered anywhere. What matters is one code per variant, and never reusing an old code for a different item.<\/p>\n<h2>How to build a SKU code<\/h2>\n<p>A simple pattern: [Category]-[Model]-[Color]-[Size]. For example, TS-BASIC-BLK-M is a Basic T-shirt in black, size M.<\/p>\n<p>Avoid:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Accented characters or spaces (&#8220;Black tee M&#8221;). Google Merchant Center recommends ASCII letters, numbers, underscores and dashes, 1 to 50 characters, for product IDs.<\/li>\n<li>Changing the code when the price changes. Google states that changing an ID overwrites the product and its performance history in Merchant Center and Google Ads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>SKU vs barcode vs GTIN<\/h2>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<th><\/th>\n<th>SKU<\/th>\n<th>GTIN (EAN, UPC barcode)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Who assigns it<\/td>\n<td>The seller<\/td>\n<td>The manufacturer, through GS1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Scope<\/td>\n<td>Inside one business<\/td>\n<td>Global<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Format<\/td>\n<td>Any letters and numbers<\/td>\n<td>Digits: 12 (UPC), 13 (EAN), 14 (ITF-14)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>A barcode is the GTIN printed as bars for scanners. You can print a SKU as an internal barcode too, but it cannot replace a GTIN when a marketplace or Google asks for one.<\/p>\n<h2>SKUs on marketplaces and in Google Merchant Center<\/h2>\n<p>On Shopee, each product can have up to 2 variation groups, and each variation gets its own price and stock (<a href=\"https:\/\/banhang.shopee.vn\/edu\/article\/12888\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shopee Seller Centre, Listing products in the Shopee app, accessed October 2026<\/a>). The attribute update tool lets sellers search by &#8220;product SKU&#8221; or &#8220;variation SKU&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/banhang.shopee.vn\/edu\/article\/2406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shopee Seller Centre, Attribute update tool, accessed October 2026<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Google Merchant Center recommends using the SKU as the ID [id] attribute; customers do not see it, but you use it to look up products, place bids and check performance. For products with variants, the parent SKU goes in item group ID [item_group_id] (<a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/merchants\/answer\/6324405?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Google Merchant Center Help, ID [id], accessed October 2026<\/a>). For GTINs, Google says to submit one only if you are sure it is correct, and never to guess or make one up (<a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/merchants\/answer\/6324461?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Google Merchant Center Help, GTIN [gtin], accessed October 2026<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h2>Reading ad reports by SKU<\/h2>\n<p>The Products tab in Google Ads shows how each Merchant Center product performs across <a href=\"\/en\/glossary\/performance-max\/\">Performance Max<\/a>, Shopping, Video, App and Demand Gen. Since June 2026, Google has extended these metrics to all Performance Max networks (<a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/google-ads\/answer\/17035334?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Google Ads Help, About Product Reporting, accessed October 2026<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Hypothetical example: a campaign spends VND 10 million and brings in VND 40 million, a <a href=\"\/en\/glossary\/return-on-ad-spend-roas\/\">ROAS<\/a> of 4. Split by SKU, SKU A spends 5 million for 30 million in revenue (ROAS 6), and SKU B spends 5 million for 10 million (ROAS 2). The total hides that SKU B is dragging results down. The same logic applies when choosing which products go into <a href=\"\/en\/glossary\/gmv-max\/\">GMV Max<\/a> on TikTok Shop.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Do SKU codes need to be registered?<\/h3>\n<p>No. A SKU is an internal code the seller sets. GTINs are issued by GS1.<\/p>\n<h3>What is the difference between a product SKU and a variation SKU?<\/h3>\n<p>The product SKU covers the whole design; the variation SKU identifies one variant, such as a color and size. Stock and reports should run on variation SKUs.<\/p>\n<p>If you need to read marketplace ad performance product by product, see Adtek&#8217;s <a href=\"\/en\/solution\/brand-commerce\/\">Brand Commerce<\/a> page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SKU (stock keeping unit) is a code a seller creates for each product variant to track stock and sales. One shirt design in 3 colors and 4 sizes is 12 SKUs, because each color and size combination is counted separately in the warehouse. What is a SKU? GS1 US, the barcode issuer in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_title":"SKU: What a Stock Keeping Unit Is, SKU vs GTIN","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"What is a SKU? A stock keeping unit is a code sellers set per product variant. 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