You may not realize how many differences there are in you products. From sizes to colors, to even the amount of units, these are all different. Some people assume they can just eyeball this sort of thing, but that’s not the case.
The more extensive the product line is, the more options there will be, and having proper, comprehensive inventory and the management of this is important. This is organized through stock keeping units, which help to manage the availability of stock, and the way the products are different.
What is SKU Tracking
SKU tracking is assigning a specific code that’s alphanumerical and using that to make sure that the stock is maintained with this. While it doe involve more time than just upfront inventory planning. Tracking of SKUs makes inventory management a whole lot easier in the long haul, in order to expand on the distribution and the business too.
So how do you track this? Well, it’s usually done through retail fulfillment, and of course flow through the supply chain as well. There are differ ways to use this and are tracked in a variety of means.
You can track this based on tracking orders that are delivered to your customer, and it’s one of the easiest ways to track an item once it’s left the facility. This of course allows for you to see how many items got processed within each stage, and the items that are ordered, along with in transit.
Another way is to track it in the supply chain. This is done through understanding your own inventory pipeline, giving you insight of the inventory and when it’ll be received, in order to ensure that the future orders are fulfilled. This also offers a way for you to forecast inventory. Finally, it’s done in warehouses, which help give a real-time look at the inventory levels, along with the SKUs in the warehouse too.
Why Track SKUs

There are a few reasons for you to track your SKUs right now, and we’ll go over them here. First and most obvious is inventory tracking and doing it correctly. This improves the accuracy of the inventory, and also makes it easier for end-of-the-year inventory tracking. When you’re able to account for this, you’ll be able to look at what you have left, and it makes it a whole lot easier when doing end-of-the-year pulling and whatnot.
It also can forecast the sales. When you do proper inventory forecasting, you can understand how you can properly stock up on the inventory that’s there. For example, if you have an online fashion brand that you’re passionate about, you may want to see what pants are bought more, allowing you to determine the variations and whether or not a product was oversold or undersold. If you sell the sweater with different colors, you may learn that one of them isn’t selling well compared to the others, letting you get rid of the excess of inventory either through a sale or otherwise.
It also prevents dead stock too. This can mean old stock that’s not sellable too and being able to see the visibility of this offers better costs, better logistics, and better tracking of time and investment.

Finally, it prevents stockouts, which means that the product is out of stock. While overstocking is something that’s best prevented, having tracking of the real-time levels of inventory, it lets you see which items are selling like hotcakes, and also what’s getting low in stock. That way, you can replenish it before it sells out fully.