SKU Management

CODES THAT HELP ALL OF THE PEOPLE IN THE ORGANIZATION. The online store MUST use SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) to identify each item. The store, of course, needs items numbers but the SKUs can provide information to anyone inside the organization. In the best case we work backwards from the furthest possible goal of an item in the store. In the LWCO case the it may be desired that the ‘product’ SKU can point all the way back to an individual making the product. It is almost certain that customers will want to learn at least some information about individual schools. If they want to know about that school–shouldn’t they be able to see the products that came from there?

The SKUs should identify as many things about the what where who of the item as possible

• organize items in the store by the type of product: cards, swatches, pre-sized panels for quilts, anything that the students choose to try selling.
• Identify styles of items to organize the store’s presentation from the perspective of the buyers: black, blue, white…
• Identify Sources so that purchasers can know where their product was made

The LWCO SKU Scheme should identify the following items.

Product Type —  Color — Style — Village — School Name –Name of producer — Sequence Number

DATA ENTRY. Yes, someone somewhere will have to type product codes into the online store. The highest level of accuracy is letters, not numbers. Numeric Systems have the highest rate of data entry errors. Everyone that works with the products in LWCO needs to have access to some simple charts that list out how to read the SKU system.

APR-WH-FLR-FAI-FAI-KC-0034