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Stock keeping unit

inventory management identifier

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ399757 ↗
Source-derived summary

In inventory management, a stock keeping unit (abbreviated as SKU, pronounced es-kay-YOU or SKEW) is the unit of measure in which the stocks of a material are managed. It is a distinct type of item for sale, purchase, or tracking in inventory, such as a product or service, and all attributes associated with the item type that distinguish it from other item types (for a product, these attributes can include manufacturer, description, material, size, color, packaging, and warranty terms). When a business records the inventory of its stock, it counts the quantity it has of each unit, or SKU.

SKU can also refer to a unique identifier or code, sometimes represented via a barcode for scanning and tracking, which refers to the particular stock keeping unit. These identifiers are not regulated or standardized. When a company receives items from a vendor, it has a choice of maintaining the vendor's SKU or creating its own. This makes them distinct from Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), which are standard, global tracking units. The Universal Product Code (UPC), European Article Number (EAN), and Australian Product Number (APN) are special cases of GTINs.

Meaning in software

SKU is also used in software and software as a service (SaaS), including cloud computing. Cloud service providers such as Google Cloud Platform present different purchasable variations of the product or service as SKUs.

See also

Part number

Price look-up code

Catalog number (commercial products)

Amazon Standard Identification Number

References

External links

Stock Keeping Unit – SKU at Investopedia

SKU at the Encyclopædia Britannica

hasStockKeepingUnit at the GoodRelations ontology.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Stock keeping unit” as inventory management identifier. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 261-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Stock, keeping and unit can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as inventory management identifier. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q399757. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stock keeping unit”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stock keeping unit primary sources, Stock keeping unit archive and Stock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stock keeping unit”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Stock keeping unit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.