SKJ is a product position identifier used in trade to create and track statistics on goods or services sold. This abbreviation appeared in Russian as a reading of the English designation SKU - stock keeping unit, in translation - "warehouse unit".
Range of values
UCC in commerce initially denoted a material unit of production - both sold and still in stock. In the future, with the development of the service sector and the expansion of sales of intangible goods, for example, licenses for the use of programs or online training courses, UCC began to be used to indicate any positions that were implemented.
In a modern interpretation, this term is also deciphered as an article - a combination of numbers and symbols from which you can get certain information about the characteristics of the product. Any sold thing or service receives an individual UCC - this is the code that distinguishes it from everyone else. This designation facilitates the calculation of distribution.
Features of the assignment of UCC
The slightest difference in the characteristics of two similar commodity units entails the assignment of different identifiers to them. For example, 1% yogurt in a 0.5 liter plastic bottle and 2.5% in the same container will be given different SKUs to track their movement in the warehouse and displayed on store shelves.
The identifier may include both the numbers under which the product is encrypted, and symbols indicating the color, size and other versions of the product. SKU of clothes, household appliances, furniture, stationery is often formed using a combination of numbers and letters (for example, 123-SIN). In the appropriate stores it is convenient to track sales statistics taking into account colors, sizes and other related characteristics.
UCC in assortment policy
Each accounting unit is involved in inventory management in the enterprise. Organization and ordering of deliveries take into account the movement in each UKJ. Most sales are carried out at the expense of only 20% of the total number of positions, but, as trading practice has shown, it makes no sense to abandon all the remaining 80%. For the most part, buyers prefer to choose future acquisitions where the largest number of UCC is presented, and not where only the most popular goods are concentrated. For successful trade, you need to offer the population more quality varieties of products than average demand requires.
Along with the increase in the range of goods or services offered, it is necessary to monitor the market oversaturation. If a particular company exceeds the required quantity of products too much, the least popular varieties become noticeable, and the range has to be reduced due to unjustified costs of production and storage.
Formulating the assortment policy, the company is obliged to take into account the characteristics of the paths and sales channels of each product group. According to the degree of demand and the volume of shares in the sale of the product, UCC are divided into:
- the main ones - with consistently high demand and steady sales;
- priority - the most popular, key products of the group;
- additional.
Identifiers are classified into groups using ABC or XYZ analysis.
Retail and warehouse unit
Retailing in large volumes with a wide range of goods cannot do without UCL. This is necessary because in the presence of hundreds and thousands of warehouse units, control over the receipt and consumption of products passes from the accounting plane to the logistics plane. For each SKJ product, it is required to keep a balance. High-quality control over the unsold volume of products and the calculation of the quantity that needs to be ordered, gives the key to the rational use of each meter of retail space and increases the total profitability of the enterprise.
However, in practice, difficulties arise with the correct consideration of UCC. These are situations where a large number of products with complex identifiers are at the disposal of the enterprise, for example, Bolt M30 GOST 15589-70 and Bolt M30 GOST 7805-70, there is a risk of confusion between these positions. Erroneous data may appear about the absence of one UCC and an overabundance of another. To prevent such situations, each company should take care of creating its own transparent coding system for goods, avoiding duplication of designations.