What’s a SKU number?

Generally speaking, a stock-keeping unit (SKU) is a bar code – a string of numbers and/or letters – that can be used to search and identify particular products in a system. In the context of Printify, a SKU number is one of the ways in which your store product is linked to Printify.

While it is true that the print-on-demand business model doesn’t require keeping track of stock (since it’s essentially limitless), it can be very helpful to have a clear SKU system in place, which you can use to find specific product variants more easily and which also allows you to identify the most popular variants in your store.

Best practices for custom SKUs

Edit the product SKUs from the Printify side

We strongly recommend setting up custom SKUs by editing the SKU number from the Printify side and republishing the product. This will ensure that the custom SKU is the same in Printify and in your store, and eliminate any human errors that might otherwise occur.

Make your SKUs easy to understand

It is best practice to create custom SKUs that include the easily identifiable parameters of a product variant. What is more, it can be useful to arrange the product details in order of importance.

Pay attention to the following aspects of a product and use them in your custom SKU:

• Color

• Size

• Type

• Collection

• Design

For example, let’s say you have a “2023 Summer Collection Ice Cream Tee” in your store.

In this case, for the Yellow / Large variant, a good custom SKU might be “S21T_ICE_Y_L”, where:

• “S21T” stands for “Summer Collection 2023 Tee”

• “ICE” stands for the “Ice Cream” design

• “Y” and “L” stand for color and size variants, respectively

Please note: The SKU number of each product variant must be unique.

Don't use letters that look like numbers, spaces, or symbols

• Avoid using the letter “O”, which can be mistaken for “0”

• Avoid using the capital 'i' and lower case 'L' ('I' and 'l' respectively)

• It is not possible to use spaces when setting your customs SKUs in Printify; therefore, we suggest substituting spaces for “-” or “_”

How can I set up a custom SKU?

1. Reach out to our Support team by clicking on the chat bubble and request to have the custom SKU feature enabled for your account.

2. Once the feature has been enabled, choose a product and click on the product card to open its details.

3. Scroll down to the “Pricing” section and click on each individual variant to open the SKU field. Input the custom SKU.

4. Proceed to publish the product to your store, while making sure that “Colors, Sizes, Prices” box is checked. The other product details can remain unchecked.