Every time a cashier types “lcd” and gets 40 near-identical results, the shop pays a small tax: ten seconds of squinting, an occasional wrong pick. Multiply by hundreds of searches a day, across years — the product naming standard turns out to be one of the most consequential decisions a shop makes, and it’s usually made by accident in week one.
The core principle: names are built to be SEARCHED, not read
The question isn’t “is this a nice name?” — it’s: what will the cashier type when hunting for it? People search by the device model — so the model belongs in the name. The pattern that proves comfortable:
[Part type] [Device model] [Variant/Grade] — e.g. LCD A52 OEM, LCD A52 ORI, BATT X10 ORI, TG A52 CLEAR.
Three supporting rules: one consistent direction (always type-then-model; never mix “LCD A52” with “A52 LCD”); official shop abbreviations (decide once: BATT, not sometimes “battery” sometimes “bat”); grade always written (original/OEM/salvaged) — because two items of different grade are two products with two prices, not one confusing product.
SKU, category, unit: the three underrated columns
The SKU is the identity that survives name edits — the key for imports, barcode labels, and supplier conversations. Make it human-readable: LCD-A52-OR beats P00123.
Category & subcategory decide how reports group and how eyes browse. Practical rule: category = broad kind (Parts, Accessories), subcategory = part family (LCD, Battery, Connectors). Don’t go deep — three levels is already too many for a repair shop.
The unit looks trivial until “pcs”, “Pcs”, and “pc ” become three different units in your reports. One spelling. Period.
Different grade = different product (never merge)
The greatest temptation in product setup: merging “similar” items to shorten the list. Original and OEM screens become one product, price “adjusted at the register.” Two damages follow: the sale price becomes improvisation, and the cost price becomes untraceable — two items with very different costs sharing one stock card.
Let the product list be long but honest. Good search doesn’t fear long lists — it fears inconsistent names.
Salvaged parts: their own lane
Don’t mix pulled parts into regular products as “LCD A52 (used?)” — they have their own place with the source unit’s identity. Same principle as this whole article: items of different nature never share a label.
Apply it now, before the list grows
A product standard is cheapest applied today — every week of delay adds rows that will someday need cleaning. If legacy data is already messy: write the standard first (one page: name pattern, abbreviations, units), tidy category by category starting with the most-searched, and make sure the next import already follows it. The tooling lives in spare parts inventory.