when a customer buys an item at the point of sale pos the sku is scanned and the pos system automatically removes the item from the inventory and records other data such as the sale price 
skus should not be confused with model numbers although businesses may embed model numbers within skus businesses create unique skus for their goods and services vendor benefitsskus vs upcsbecause companies internally create skus to track inventory the skus for identical products vary among businesses different skus help retailers design advertising campaigns without interference from other vendors for example if a company provides the sku to advertise a certain discounted refrigerator shoppers cannot easily view the same refrigerator at other sellers using the sku this stops competitors from matching advertised prices and poaching customers in contrast universal product codes upcs are identical regardless of which business sells the items 