Creating Products and SKUs
Please provide an Excel document of ALL products in your eComm and their corresponding SKUs. We will use this to create products in your OMS. If you do not have SKUs for your products already, it is important to create these for each product and enter them into each corresponding product page in your eComm. Without SKUs entered in both your eComm and ShipEdge, your orders will get caught in errors.
- What is a SKU?
Standing for ‘Stock Keeping Unit,’ a SKU is a designated number or series of letters that references a specific product within a business system. This can be anything from ascending numbers as you add items to your catalogue, or abbreviations of the items themselves, or a combination therein (I.e., 123456, KWVD, or KWLA21). These designators are specific to your personal store, so it is important that they are clear, or easy to read. This helps to prevent potential issues in the future of incorrect items being ordered or having things received under the incorrect SKU- leading to inventory discrepancies.
- What is a Synset?
Synset stands for ‘synonym set,’ or, a set of synonyms. Much like a SKU, it is a designator for products that are grouped to be sent together rather than requiring customers to select multiple items. This can be used easily with sales and deals, or when it comes to kits involving products that could otherwise be sold separately.
- What is the difference between a SKU and a Synset?
Though these two terms are similar, there are some particularly crucial differences to note. While a SKU is a singular item (be it a bottle, a vitamin, or otherwise), a synset is a group of SKUs (such as a kit, a bottle and dropper or other combination, or a bundle). A SKU will tell the system to pull one particular product from inventory, but a synset can do that for multiple products in one automatically, rather than needing to ensure that customers included the proper items and quantities.
- How do I create a SKU?
>In the upper left-hand corner of your screen, there is an Inventory tab- click this
>When on the Inventory page, select the +Add SKU button
>Once selected it will bring you to a new page where you can input all necessary information for the new product SKU, as seen below:
The only required information for this is the SKU designator, as well as the product description. If these are not included, the SKU will not be saved. The product description can be changed at any given time, as well as all other information, but the SKU itself cannot be changed once added.
In the above example, the new SKU is Test2, with a description of Test Item (60 Capsules). The Declared Value, or Retail price, is marked at 30.00 (the system automatically reads this in USD), while the wholesale, or ‘Cost,’ is set at 15.46.
Below the Cost there is a section that can designate if this SKU is to be dropshipped from another location, or if it will be homed in the Kaerwell Warehouse (DC1). This is useful when utilizing more than one fulfillment company, or if filling some orders or products out of your office. If a product is marked Dropship, the system will ignore that SKU and handle the order as if it does not exist in it.
UPCs and other information can be added on inbound delivery scan, or after the SKU is created.
>When all information is inputted, simply click ‘Add,’ and the new SKU will be created!
- How do I create a Synset?
>On your Inventory page (where your product SKUs show), there is a button on the upper right side near the ‘Logout’ button called ‘Synsets.’ Click this.
>When selected it will bring you to a page that shows all of the Synsets already created in your system, as well as what SKUs are in them.
>At the top, click ‘Add SynSet’ to create a new Synset
>This will bring you to a page as seen below:
The designated SKU for the Synset must match what will be imported from your eCommerce site, otherwise the system will read it as an API error. The description can be what you would like it to be called, much like a Product name.
>Once this information is added in, click ‘Continue’ to move to the next page, seen blow:
>At this point you can add or remove any existing SKUs into this Synset to be grouped together under the Synset SKU. This can be done by clicking ‘INSERT’ next to any of the SKUs desired.
>If you want more than one unit of a single product added into the SynSet, simply click ‘Edit’ and adjust the quantity as needed.
>When alterations are complete, hit ‘Submit.’ That’s it!
- What happens if I don’t create a SKU or a Synset for a product I am selling in my eCommerce?
If a product or service is sold through your eCommerce website that is not mapped to a SKU or Synset within Shipedge, it will be stuck in what is called an ‘API error.’ An API error will prevent the order from flowing into the system fully until the error is addressed, rectified, and re-checked. If this is not done, the order will not go through, and therefore cannot be fulfilled.