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What Is the Difference Between SKU and Barcode Shopify?

Last updated on October 1, 2022 @ 6:00 pm

There are a few key differences between SKU and barcodes, which are important to understand when setting up your Shopify store.

SKU stands for “stock keeping unit” and is a unique identifier for each product in your inventory. Barcodes, on the other hand, are used to track sales and can be scanned at the point of sale.

Barcodes are generally assigned by the manufacturer, while SKUs are assigned by the retailer. This means that if you’re selling products from multiple brands in your store, each product will have its own unique SKU.

Barcodes can be either linear or 2D. Linear barcodes, such as the Universal Product Code (UPC), can only be read one line at a time. 2D barcodes, such as the QR code, can be read in any direction.

SKUs are typically longer than barcodes and can contain letters and numbers. Barcodes are always numbers only.

When setting up your Shopify store, you’ll need to decide which type of barcode you want to use for each product. UPC codes are the most common type of barcode in North America, while QR codes are more common in Europe and Asia. You can also use other types of barcodes, such as the European Article Number (EAN) or International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

PRO TIP: Barcodes and SKUs are two ways to uniquely identify products in your inventory. Barcodes are typically used to identify products at the point of sale, while SKUs are used to track inventory in your back-end system. While you can use either barcodes or SKUs to track inventory in Shopify, we recommend using SKUs.

The main difference between SKU and barcode is that SKU is a unique identifier for each product in your inventory while barcode is used to track sales. Barcodes are assigned by manufacturers while SKUs are assigned by retailers.

Morgan Bash

Morgan Bash

Technology enthusiast and Co-Founder of Women Coders SF.