Productnumber

Productnumber is a generic term used in product data management to refer to the unique identifier assigned to a specific product within a catalog, inventory, or sales system. It serves as the primary key for product records and is used to distinguish items that may share a name or description.

In practice, the concept encompasses several types of identifiers. Retailers often use stock keeping units (SKUs) as internal productnumbers. External identifiers such as Universal Product Codes (UPC) in the United States or International Article Numbers (EAN) in other regions may also function as productnumbers. The broader category includes Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), of which UPC and EAN are variants, and ISBNs for books. In some databases, productnumber is a designated field that can hold alphanumeric values and variants of the same product.

Characteristics of a productnumber include uniqueness, scope, and stability. A productnumber is expected to be unique within its system or dataset. It may be immutable or versioned for product variants. It is commonly used in barcodes, RFID tags, and ERP or e-commerce platforms to support search, ordering, fulfillment, and analytics.

Best practices for managing productnumbers include using a stable identifier that does not change with product updates, maintaining consistent formatting, and aligning internal identifiers with external standards where possible to facilitate data exchange with suppliers and retailers. Document the definition of the productnumber field, including its allowed character set and length.

Examples illustrate the range of productnumbers. A retailer might assign a SKU such as RED-SHOE-001, while a barcode might be 012345678905. For books, an ISBN such as 9780306406157 serves as the productnumber in many catalogs.

See also: SKU, UPC, EAN, GTIN, ISBN, product data management.