SKUGen - SKU Generator for Shopify

SKU is short for Stock Keeping Unit, is made up of alphanumeric characters and is designed to be unique to a single product. It’s important to note that the SKU is not the same as a product’s UPC (barcode).

If you are selling products it is important to set up your inventory correctly and one of the most important parts of this process is setting up the product SKU.

Benefits

Save the time fighting Excel sheets to generate SKUs for our products.

Speed - Create SKUs with ease for all your products in minutes.
Consistency - You will be sure that all the SKUs are created using the rules that you set.
Make SKUs unique - Using the app options you can ensure that the generated SKUs are unique.
Automatic generation - Generate SKUs automatically when a new product is created or when an existing product, without SKU is updated.
Custom codes - Define custom abbreviations for product options (variants), product types and product vendors

Watch a short video guide.

Installation

The application is available on Shopify App Store.

The app includes a free to use plan which lets you create simple SKUs for all your products. Try it now!

Pricing

Free plan

With the free version of the app, you can generate SKU for all products in your store, using a Prefix, Suffix, Auto number and '-' as delimitter.

You can also preview the SKU generated using all the other app features.

Advanced options plan

For only $9.95 one-time fee, you can use advanced features to manually generate SKUs, as long as the app is installed on your store.
Automatic generation and Custom Codes are not included.

Automatic Generation

For only $0.99 monthly, the app can generate SKUs automatically. Learn how Automatic generation works.
This feature works with the free features as well as with the upgraded features. However, if you have not upgraded the feature set, it will only generate using the free set of options.

Custom Codes

For $1.99 monthly you will get Automatic generation and the posibility to define your own codes (abbreviations) for product options, product types and product vendors.

It also enables variant position code in Specials category.

Frequently asked questions

1. Can I tell the app to only make SKUs for products that don't already have a SKU?

Yes, you can! The app allows you to choose if you overwrite the existing SKUs or generate only if the SKU is missing.

2. Can the app generate SKUs for all my products?

Yes, it can! The app does not limit the number of SKUs, it will only take longer. Our record to date, is 60.000 SKUs generated for one store.

3. Can the app generate SKUs automatically when I create new products?

Yes, it can, if you activate the Automatic generation feature.

4. Does the app generate unique SKUs?

Yes it does. However, not all combinations of options will generate unique SKUs. For example, if you choose to deactivate the auto-number option, the generated SKUs might not be unique.

5. Does the app check if the existing SKUs are unique?

No, the existing SKUs are not checked. We recommend to generate SKUs for all your products with our app, to ensure uniqueness and consistency.

6. Can you add one more feature to the app?

We might do it. Please get in touch with us and we'll analyze your request.

7. Can I define my own codes for product options?

Not only for product options. You can do it for product types and product vendors, too. Please read about the Custom codes feature.

Features

The app allows you to create SKUs by choosing a combination of codes created automatically, based on your product’s data or on the data you enter in the app.

Prefix - It can contain only letters and numbers and is up to 7 characters long. It can be empty, if you don't want to use it
PTA (Product title abbreviation) - It creates a product abbreviation from the product's title, taking either the first 3 letters or the initials of the first 3 words of the title. This option is available only for the paid version.
POA (Product options abbreviation) - It creates a code from the name of the products options (product variant names). You can use one of the Coding types described below.
PTA (Product type abbreviation) - It creates a code from the products type. You can use one of the Coding types described below.
PVA (Product vendor abbreviation) - It creates a code from the products vendor name. You can use one of the Coding types described below.
Auto number - It ensures that the created SKU code is unique for each run of the generator, unless you manually reset it. After each generation run it is incremented with the number of SKUs generated, so that the codes do not overlap. It also works with zero padded numbers like 001. The app does not check the unicity among all the products in your store.
SPE (Special code) - A code can be created using a product tag or metafield
Suffix - Same as the prefix, it can contain only letters and numbers and is up to 7 characters long. It can be empty, if you don't want to use it

Layouts

You can arrange the components of the SKU code in different ways using the pre-defined Layouts. More layouts can be created on request.

Title-Options-Type-Vendor-AutoNumber-Special
Title-Type-Vendor-AutoNumber-Options-Special
Title-AutoNumber-Type-Vendor-Options-Special
Title-AutoNumber-Options-Type-Vendor-Special
Type-Title-Vendor-AutoNumber-Options-Special
Vendor-Title-Type-Special-Options-AutoNumber
Title-Vendor-Type-Options-Special-AutoNumber

Code types

These code types are used for product options, product type and product vendor abbreviation.

First character - Creates a 1 character code using the first character of the given name. This type of code does not ensure the unicity of the SKU. If two names start with the same letter, the same code will be generated.
First 2 - Creates a two-character code using the first two characters of the name. It still may not be unique, since there are many words starting with the same two letter, but it's better than 1-char code
First 3 - Creates a three-character code using the first three characters of the name.
First 4 - Creates a four-character code using the first four characters of the name.
Code 2 - It creates a two-digit code for each name, starting with '01'. The code is unique for each name. If you generate SKUs for two collections, one after the other, both with products with type 'Shirt', for example, they will get the same code for the type 'Shirt'. You should use this if you have less than 100 unique names in that category (options, type or vendors).
Code 3 - It creates a three-digit code for each name, starting with '001'. The code is unique for each name and works in the same way as 'Code 2'. You should use this if you have more than 100 unique names in that category (options, type or vendors).
Product Code 4 - Creates a 4 digit code for products - the code is unique for a product and once it is created it remains unchanged if you choose to re-generate SKUs or add variants to that product - you will always get the same code for a product.

Special codes

Tag - Creates a code from a product tag. The tag must start with a prefix which can be defined by the user, clicking on the Edit button which follows the Tag option.
Metafield - Creates a code from a metafield. The metafield can be at product or variant level and can be defined clicking on the Edit button which follows the Metafield option.
Variant position - This is a two-digit numeric code representing the order of the product variant in the list of product variants. This option is available only with the Custom Codes plan.

Custom codes

Custom codes feature allows you to define what abbreviation to use for each option (variant title), product type or vendor.

This will help you define better codes, choosing the most appropriate abbreviation for each title, which is not always possible with an automatic abbreviation.

For example, if you have color options, like GREEN and GREY you will not be able to create distinct 3-letter codes selecting the first characters, but with custom codes you can define codes like GRN for green and GRY for grey.

Each abbreviation can be up to 7 characters long.

Generator Target

You may create SKUs for all your products in one go or you may choose to create the SKU codes one collection at a time.

If you select to create the codes for a collection, you could use the Prefix or the Suffix to create a coding specific to that collection.

Also, you can generate SKUs for a set of products selected using the powerful search of Shopify admin. Search the products that need SKUs, select them and click Actions / Generate SKUs menu, to send the products to the SKU generator, as in the image below.

The collection and product list filters are available for the paid version of the app.

Other options

The Set only missing SKUs checkbox allows you to generate SKUs only for variants without SKU, leaving the rest of the SKUs untouched.

Remove spaces - when codes are made from the first N letters it may include spaces; if this is checked, all spaces in the generated SKU are removed.

Options first chars - This applys only if Product options uses one of the following: First character, First 2, First 3 or First 4.

Any - All characters in the variant option are used to create the code
Only letters - Only letters from the variant option are used to create the code
Only numbers - Only numbers from the variant option are used to create the code

Buttons

The Save settings button will save the current SKU template settings without generation any SKU.

The Generate button will generate SKUs, for the targeted products, using the current template settings. It also saves the settings.

The Generate button is disabled if you are using the free version and you've selected an option which is available only in the paid version.

SKU Preview

This section lists 10 products, from the selected collection if you choosed to target a collection, to provide a preview of how the generated SKU will look like.

You can see, side by side, the existing SKU of a product (variant) and the SKU which will be created by the app, in real time, as you change the generator's options.

Automatic SKU Generation

For only $0.99 per month the app will automatically generate SKUs when you create a new product or when you update it.
If this feature is activated, when a new product is created, the app will generate the SKU using the last used template.
The automatic generation is temporarily disabled when a manual generation process is running.

Settings

Overwrite existing SKUs, for new products - Check this if you want to overwrite SKUs of newly created products. For example, when a product is created as a duplicate of an existing product, the SKUs are copied and not overwritten by the app if this is not checked.
Fill SKUs on product update (save) - If checked, SKUs will be generated when products are updated, only if SKU is empty.

Initially, both these options are disabled, to avoid accidental replacement of existing SKUs.

When you create a new product or update an existing product, please allow few seconds to have the SKU generated automatically. The generation is done in a background process. You have to refresh the product page to see the generated SKU.

The app intercepts all new products created or updated, done manually in the Shopify admin or by any other application.

Please read the application's privacy policy here.