What’s the Difference Between a Product Id and SKU

An sku (stock keeping unit) is a unique product Id, which encapsulates all the attributes associated with the item variant, and which distinguishes it from other variants, e.g. each color and size of the product will have a unique sku.

A productId in Qubit’s data collection context is an Id for the product. It’s typically the same for all product variants, e.g. all sizes and colors.

productId can be different for different colors if it makes sense to do that. For example, if a site typically presents different colors of the same product as distinct items on the product listing page or linked product carousels, it makes sense to have a different product Id for same product with different colors.

Products might have other Ids such as UPC, EAN, GTIN, Item Group Ids, but that level of detail is not required. It is perfectly acceptable to only capture the productId and sku.

Here’s an example dataset that shows how the same product of 2 colors, Bettle Blue and Lipstick Red, has 2 distinct productIds for each color and 4 distinct skus for each color/size combination:

It would be OK to use SB1799B in the above example as well but you should be aware that this will affect which products show up in the Aura feeds. If you share the same Id across all colors, we will only show one color of that product in the feed. If you use different Ids for each color variant, we’ll show each of the product’s color variants in the feed.