How can I easily generate SKUs for my products?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Generating SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) for Shopify products and how to do it at scale.

  • OP wants an easy way to create SKUs for all products and notes barcodes are different from SKUs.
  • Guidance: In Shopify, SKUs are added manually per product/variant in the Inventory section. Use a simple, unique alphanumeric scheme. Shopify does not enforce SKU uniqueness, so consistency and a custom numbering system are recommended.
  • Conflicting claim: Another reply states you can select a product, enter the desired code, and click a “Generate SKU” button to create a unique SKU. (No consensus on a built-in auto-generator.)
  • Tool suggestion: A newly released third-party app, “SKU Manager,” is recommended to automate and manage SKUs, with ongoing feature updates.

Outcomes/next steps:

  • Practical paths include manual entry with a consistent scheme or using an app for automation.
  • Key open point: Whether Shopify itself provides a one-click “Generate SKU” feature remains unclear from the thread.

Status: Unresolved; multiple approaches proposed without a confirmed built-in automatic solution.

Summarized with AI on December 19. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi there,

Im tyring to generate SKU’s for all my products, I have generated barcodes, but both are very different. Is there a simple way to generate it via shopify or has someone done this before.

2

Yes, you can generate SKUs for your products in Shopify. Here’s a step-by-step process to follow:

  1. Log in to your Shopify store and go to the Products section.
  2. Click on the product that you want to generate an SKU for.
  3. Scroll down to the Inventory section and click on “SKU”.
  4. Enter a unique identifier for the product in the SKU field. This can be a combination of letters and numbers, but it’s recommended to keep it simple and easily understandable.
  5. Repeat the process for all of your products.

Keep in mind that Shopify does not enforce unique SKUs for all products, so it’s important to choose a system that makes sense for your business and ensures that each SKU is unique. You can also use a numbering system to generate SKUs automatically for new products.

3

Hello @tavpacific

Shopify makes it easy to generate SKUs for products. All you need to do is select the product from your Shopify store, enter the desired SKU code, and click “Generate SKU”. This will create a unique SKU for the product which you can then use to track inventory and market the product.

I hope the above is useful to you.
Best regards,
GemPages Support Team

4

Highly recommend the app, SKU Manager. It came out a month ago, but its constantly adding new features and it wants to add way more.

EDIT: linked app