SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) are the unique internal codes you assign to every product and variant so you can identify, track, and report on inventory cleanly. On BigCommerce, SKUs do double duty: they uniquely identify each sellable variant (a specific size/color combination, with its own weight, image, and price) and they are the backbone of inventory tracking and low-stock alerting. Getting your SKU and inventory setup right early prevents a class of expensive problems later — overselling, miscounts, and reporting you cannot trust. Here is how to do it properly in BigCommerce.
Design a SKU scheme before you create any
The single most important step happens before you touch the admin: decide on a consistent SKU format. A good SKU is short, human-decipherable, and built from stable attributes — commonly a product/category prefix plus manufacturer, then variant attributes like color and size, often a part number. For example, a black medium cotton tee might be TEE-BLK-M. The rules that keep a SKU scheme usable for years:
- Encode attributes that do not change. Color and size are stable; "summer-sale" is not. Never bake temporary or pricing information into a SKU.
- Keep it consistent and parseable. A scheme a human can read at a glance ("BLK-M" is obvious) speeds picking, packing, and audits.
- Avoid ambiguous characters and reuse. Steer clear of characters that collide with spreadsheets or barcodes, and never reuse a retired SKU for a different product — it corrupts historical reporting.
- Make it scalable. Choose a structure that still works at ten times your current catalog, not just today's.
An inconsistent, improvised SKU scheme is one of the hardest things to fix retroactively, because it is woven through orders, reports, and integrations — spend the time here first.
Adding SKUs to products and variants
To add a SKU to a simple product, open Products in the control panel, edit the product, enter your code in the Product Code/SKU field, and save. For products with variants (different colors or sizes), an option must be applied first; then, under the product's Options & SKUs tab, you can either create each variant SKU manually or use the SKU Generator. The generator lets you select which option values (color, size, etc.) to include and how they are formatted, then produces a SKU for every variant combination at once — far faster and less error-prone than hand-typing dozens of variants. Review the generated pattern before committing; the generator is consistent, but only as good as the format you give it.
Setting up inventory tracking
Once SKUs exist, enable inventory tracking from the product's inventory settings. BigCommerce can track stock at the product level or, more usefully for stores with variants, at the individual SKU/variant level — track at the variant level whenever a product has options, otherwise you cannot tell which size or color is actually low. Enter current stock for each item via the Options/SKUs tab or the product list. Then set a low-stock threshold: when a SKU drops to that number, BigCommerce emails an alert so you can reorder before you stock out. This single setting prevents the most common and damaging inventory failure — selling something you cannot fulfill.
Advanced inventory settings worth configuring
Under the store's inventory settings you can control behavior that materially affects the customer experience:
- Out-of-stock handling. Decide whether out-of-stock products are hidden, shown as unavailable, or allow back-orders. Each is a deliberate merchandising choice, not a default to ignore.
- Display stock levels. Showing "only 3 left" can create genuine urgency — but only enable it if your counts are accurate, or it backfires into broken trust.
- Notification recipients. Set the email addresses that receive low-stock and out-of-stock alerts so the right person actually acts on them, not an unmonitored inbox.
- Automatic stock decrement. Confirm stock reduces correctly as orders are placed and is restored on cancellations/returns, so counts stay truthful over time.
Why this matters beyond tidiness
Accurate SKUs and inventory are not back-office housekeeping — they directly affect revenue and trust. Overselling forces cancellations that damage customer relationships and marketplace standing; phantom stock hides products customers would have bought; unreliable counts make every demand forecast and reorder a guess. Clean SKUs also make any future integration — a marketplace channel, an ERP, a 3PL — dramatically easier, because every other system keys off the SKU. The discipline you put in now compounds as the store grows.
A worked SKU example
Abstract rules click faster with a concrete model, so here is one. Suppose you sell apparel. A workable scheme is [CATEGORY]-[STYLE]-[COLOR]-[SIZE]. A men's classic crew tee in black, medium becomes MTEE-CLS-BLK-M; the same style in white, large is MTEE-CLS-WHT-L. Notice the properties this gives you: a warehouse picker reads "black medium classic men's tee" directly off the code without a lookup; every variant of one product shares a stable prefix so they sort and report together; and adding a new color next season is a clean extension, not a redesign. Now contrast a bad scheme: sequential numbers (10231, 10232) carry no meaning, force a lookup for every action, and make reporting opaque; codes that embed price or "SALE" break the moment price changes; reusing a retired code for a new product silently corrupts every historical order and sales report that referenced the old one. The cost of a bad scheme is not visible on day one with 50 products — it surfaces at 5,000 products and three integrations, when it is enormously expensive to unwind because orders, analytics, and external systems are all keyed off it. This is precisely why the format decision belongs before product creation, not after: it is the cheapest possible time to get it right and the most expensive thing to fix later.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a good SKU? Short, consistent, human-readable, built from stable attributes (no pricing or seasonal data), never reused. Design the scheme before creating any.
Manual SKUs or the SKU Generator? Use the generator for any product with multiple variants — it is faster and consistent. Reserve manual entry for one-off simple products.
Should I track inventory at product or variant level? Variant level whenever a product has options; product level only for single-variant items. Otherwise you cannot see which specific variant is low.
How do I stop overselling? Enable inventory tracking, set realistic low-stock thresholds with alerts going to a monitored inbox, and verify stock decrements automatically on order and restores on returns.
Looking to get started with or clean up BigCommerce? At 1Digital Agency we are experienced BigCommerce partners and can help with everything from design to development and inventory setup. Contact us to learn more.