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[AtticPup]

Oops! In my post just above when I say sku I didn’t mean the ebay sku. I call the inventory numbers I create my sku’s. Sorry for the confusion.

[AtticPup]

Hi All! First time to the forums, but been listening since almost the beginning & not bored yet! 🙂 Jay & Ryanne make podcasting seem easy. And they’re brilliant on trouble shooting customer service. Invaluable!
My DIL & I have what we find to be a very easy system that I’ll pass along. She gets most of the credit, btw.

Our inventory numbers (sku’s) are:
the date processed/the assigned 2 digit item#/Location.
Example: 170224-01-bA (YYMMDD-item#-Bin A)

What makes it easy:
> no lists of available/unused inventory #’s to manage
> no need to keep track of last # used on a previous day
> human error aside, no duplicate numbers
> location of item is within the inventory number
> not necessary to keep like items together
> should be (hopefully!) easily tweaked to fit most ppl’s needs
> putting the inventory # in the ebay listing description is brilliant, if I may say so myself.
> since a date is used, you have a good idea how long the item has been in your inventory.

Here’s the details:

-Have storage organized with some kind of location identifier.
We have bins labled A-Z & some shelving units also A-Z. Well, A-H so far. For the inventory number (sku), if item is located in bin R I’ll show it as bR, or sD for shelf-unit D. This could be refined by numerically labeling each shelf of each unit (or a stack of bins) Ex: sD3 (shelf-unit D, 3rd shelf)

The SKU YYMMDD-item#-location
-The date used depends on your own way of doing things. I like using the date processed rather than date listed because I want to be done with physically handling an item asap and assign the SKU. “Processed” being the point the item is ready to be stored in its place, pics taken, item info recorded & waiting to be listed and/or sold.

The order of “YYMMDD”/item#/location may be important to you. When inventory numbers are used at the beginning of your personal file names, your computer will automatically keep everything in order I think this will make Ryanne happy 🙂 Hence, Jay will be happy 😀

The date could be shortened to month/day or year/month but you could run into problems with duplicating numbers or have to keep track of where you left off on the item #’s. In the long run, using YYMMDD is the most efficient.

-Now, about those item numbers. I always use 2 digits and number the items 01-??, where ?? = how many items I processed that day. Then tomorrow I’ll start over again using item # 01.
Over a 2 day period where on day one I process 3 items and on day two I process 2 items and things are to be stored in bin A or on shelf-unit D, I will have generated these inventory numbers:

170223-01bA
170223-02bA
170223-03sD
170224-01sD
170224-02bA

The last steps in this system are:
-Labeling the inventory # on the item.
I use painter’s tape because it’s least likely to leave a residue & tape (vs tag) is least likely to fall off. You may be able to skip this step, but it’s a godsend for clothes folded in a polybag or anything boxed up.
AND:
-Keeping a record of the item with it’s inventory number.
I put the number at the bottom of my ebay listing in my description. When it sells, it’s right there, no hunting in files & I can go straight to the location & grab it.
Putting it in ebay note is good too but it adds a step at the time of listing & I’m more likely to miss doing this than putting it at the bottom of the description (red font) at the time of listing. However, the note saves the step of clicking & scrolling down the listing at time of sale.

If you work from computer files, the inventory # can be a part of the file name or included in a spread sheet and if set up right, make finding it in your records fairly easy.

I hope this is helpful. I’ll be glad to follow up if there’s any questions.

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