SKU identifiers

Sellers may associate a SKU (Stock-Keeping Unit) value to an item when creating/revising/relisting that item. This SKU value is associated to the item through the Item.SKU field. SKUs are defined by sellers and often are used to track complex flows of products and inventory. It is logical that the seller use unique SKU values for each item/product, but this is not enforced by eBay, except in the case of multiple-variation listings, where each product variation within the listing should have its own SKU value. In the case of multiple-variation listings, the SKU values for each product variation are defined in the distinct Item.Variations.Variation.SKU fields, and not in the Item.SKU field, as each product variation should have its own SKU value. In the case of multiple-variation listings, the FixedPrice family of calls must be used since those are the only listing calls that support multiple variations. Once a SKU value is added to a listing (or multiple SKU values in a multiple-variation listing), this value is returned in GetItem and other Get calls that return the Item object.

Item tracking by SKU

In an AddFixedPriceItem or RelistFixedPriceItem call the seller has the option of setting the Item.InventoryTrackingMethod to be SKU rather than the default method of ItemID. This will allow the seller to pass in SKU values in their requests to:

• Retrieve an item or order line item using:
  • GetItem
  • GetOrderTransactions
  • GetSellerList
  • GetSellerTransactions
• Revise a listing using:
  • ReviseFixedPriceItem
  • ReviseInventoryStatus
  • ReviseItem
• Relist an item using:
  • RelistFixedPriceItem
  • RelistItem
• Preview/verify a listing using:
  • VerifyAddItem
  • VerifyAddFixedPriceItem
  • VerifyRelistItem
• Send an invoice using SendInvoice
• Manage pinned notes using SetUserNotes

Argument: Item.SKU

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