What is sku? Should I use it?

Question

Can I defined SKU in this way:

let's say I got a lot of M&M chocolates products, all the same chocolates product, and they got different bar code. Can I say that the sku works like the bar code, it's unique for every products with different ID??

But I can't seem how SKU will helped on tracking products, should I export the whole product list?? I mean when I want to track a products, I just input the products title to search it, right? If I want to search the certain specific product, it means I need to have specific SKU to search it, it this the function of SKU??

Answer 1

SKU means Stock-Keeping Unit and this is unique identifier so you can define it any way but must be unique.This helps to track your products with any number of store you have defined. If you have different products having same name at that it is very difficult to find the products what you want so you can find it by using sku.
Yes, you can define product sku on bar code.

Answer 2

SKU (Stock-Keeping Unit) is a unique, alphanumeric identifier available to customers that is used to track inventory. For example: T-COT-MED-BL.

Normally, a SKU includes a set of abbreviations indicating the distinguishing characteristics of the product. SKUs are very important to effectively track and manage inventory, so setting them up correctly is critical for e-commerce.

SKUs generally help online sellers identify the most important product characteristics such as: size, color, price, material etc.

The SKU is generated by the seller, normally based on the product name and attributes for marketing or internal tracking. e.g. A blue, cotton T-shirt, size medium: T-COT-MED-BL. The SKU may be changed by the seller if required.

The maximum SKU length is 64 characters. A SKU longer than 64 characters causes import to fail.

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Product IDs are different than SKUs. The Product ID is sequential series of numbers that are used internally to identify products and are not available to customers.