If you have ever uploaded products to Etsy, you have probably seen the SKU field before.
And most people probably think this:
“SKU? Isn’t that for factories?”
“There’s no asterisk (*), so I guess I can leave it blank.”
Naturally, every SKU field in my shop was completely empty.
For over 14 years, I ran several Etsy shops — mostly small hobby-sized businesses that I kept open quietly over time. To me, SKU was just one of those mysterious little boxes on the screen.
I assumed it was only for large companies managing warehouses and inventory.
And honestly, nothing bad happened.
At least not at first.
Last year, I started taking my jewelry business more seriously and downloaded Etsy’s data files for the first time.
I wanted to know:
- Which products actually sold best
- What my real income and expenses looked like
- How to prepare properly for taxes
So I downloaded all seven Etsy data files and decided to build something fancy in Excel using Power Query.
(I had heard somewhere that Power Query was amazing. Haha.)
Then I realized something.
None of the data connected properly.
At first, I thought Order IDs would solve everything.
But Order IDs identify orders — not products.
One order can contain multiple items and variations, which meant I still could not clearly track which products were actually selling.
So I started organizing data by product names instead.
Big mistake.
Because I had changed my product titles constantly for SEO.
Same earrings.
Five different names.
(I was working very hard, apparently.)
That was when I noticed one long, empty column in the spreadsheet.
SKU.
Everything suddenly made sense.
SKU is not just a random code.
It is the permanent identity of your product.
Titles change.
Photos change.
Descriptions change.
But SKUs stay the same.
I tried to clean up years of inconsistent product names. I even used AI to help organize everything.
It was exhausting.
Eventually, I gave up trying to perfectly fix the past and decided to focus on building cleaner data moving forward.
So I finally started using SKUs.
And honestly?
I wish I had started much earlier.
Because SKUs are not something you add later.
You add them when you have 3 orders.
Not when you have 300. 😇
