Stef wants me to think about Stock Keeping Units.
I realise that Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) are not, on the face of it, a subject that belongs on a site about creative self-expression. But the shop itself is an act of self-expression – a deliberate choice to sell my work directly, without a platform taking a cut or an algorithm deciding who sees what.
If I’m going to do that properly, I need systems that fit the way I actually work. So here, for better or worse, is my SKU convention.
That said: unless you have a powerful, nerdy interest in how I’m setting up my shop, please look away now.
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For my purposes, the main thing is that when an order lands in my inbox, I can tell at a glance exactly what someone has bought. And if I ever need to check what I have in stock, or look back at what sold well in a given season, a consistent naming system makes that possible without having to rely on memory or open every article individually.
After thinking through the range of products I’m likely to sell – art, books, courses and possibly digital downloads – I’ve settled on a SKU convention that should scale without becoming unwieldy.
A SKU identifies a product, not an individual item. So every A4 limited-edition print of the same picture shares one SKU; the numbering on the print itself (3/100 etc) is a fulfilment detail, handled by my printer.
Art
ART-[SERIES]-[PICTURE]-[TYPE]-[SIZE]
ART-MAG-EVNG-LTD-A4– Evening on Fortune Green Road, Magnolia series, limited edition, A4ART-MAG-EVNG-ORI-A3– Evening on Fortune Green Road, original, A3ART-MAG-GLDHR-LTD-A3– Golden Hour, Magnolia series, limited edition, A3ART-MAG-GLDHR-ORI-A2– Golden Hour, original, A2ART-CHROW-ORI-40X50– Church Row, Hampstead, standalone, original oil on canvas
PICTURE codes are kept short and memorable – EVNG, GLDHR, RAIN etc – enough to be recognisable at a glance when an order arrives. TYPE codes: ORI (original), LTD (limited edition), OPEN (open edition). SIZE follows standard paper sizes: A6, A5, A4, A3, A2. I aim not to offer more than one size of a given print simultaneously – so when a size sells out or the offer closes, I can open a different size as a new product with its own SKU.
Books
BK-[SERIES]-[TITLE]-[FORMAT]-[VARIANT]
Where there is no series, SERIES is omitted: BK-[TITLE]-[FORMAT]-[VARIANT]
BK-SPECCY-BRKDWN-HB-LTD01– A Speccy Man Has a Breakdown, hardback, first limited edition of 50BK-SPECCY-BRKDWN-HB-LTD02– second limited run or editionBK-SPECCY-BRKDWN-PB– paperback when it appearsBK-SPECCY-ARTHIST-HB-LTD01– A Speccy Man’s History of Art, first limited editionBK-PSALMS-PB– Psalms for the City, standalone, no series
VARIANT only gets added when I need to distinguish between versions. Until then, the SKU stays clean.
Courses
CRS-[TITLE]-[FORMAT]-[COHORT]
CRS-MICROMEM-LIVE-SP25– Micro-Memoir, live, Spring 2025CRS-MICROMEM-REC-AU25– recorded version, Autumn 2025
The cohort code (SP25, AU25 etc) matters because the same course run twice is not quite the same product – different dates, possibly different material.
General conventions
All caps. Hyphens as separators. Series, picture and title codes kept short and memorable. New codes added only when complexity demands them – the aim is to stay readable at a glance, so that when an order arrives in my inbox I know immediately what has been bought without having to look anything up.
For books, SERIES is included where a book belongs to a sequence of related titles. Standalone books omit it. If a standalone book later gains a sequel, the series code can be added retrospectively without disrupting existing SKUs.
For art, every picture in a series gets its own short PICTURE code, so that two prints from the same series at the same size and edition type remain distinguishable. As with books, SERIES is omitted for standalone works and can be added retrospectively if a piece later becomes part of a group.
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