Deleting & Deactivating SKUs
Clear out discontinued items and unwanted imported listings — one at a time or in bulk — without losing your history.
Deleting a SKU means deactivating it
In Carpe Inventory IQ, removing a SKU deactivates it rather than erasing it. This is deliberate: a SKU is tied to your past orders, inventory ledger, and cost history. A permanent delete would orphan those records and break your historical reports. Deactivating keeps everything intact while getting the SKU out of your way.
It disappears from your default views. The SKUs page shows active SKUs by default, so deactivated ones stop cluttering your list.
Your history stays put. Past sales, costs, and ledger entries remain available for reporting.
It’s reversible.Made a mistake? Reactivate the SKU and it’s back exactly as it was.
When to deactivate a SKU
Discontinued products — Items you no longer sell. Deactivating them clears the clutter from your day-to-day views while keeping their past sales and cost history intact.
Imported listings you don't manage as inventory — When you connect a marketplace, the import brings in the listings it finds. Parent or grouping listings that aren’t individually buyable — only their child variations are — can be deactivated so your registry shows just the SKUs you actually stock and sell.
Duplicates and test SKUs — Leftover test products from onboarding, or duplicates created before you set up SKU mapping.
Bulk-remove discontinued SKUs
This is the fastest way to clear out a batch of SKUs at once — no spreadsheet required. Filter to the SKUs you want gone, select them all, and deactivate in one step.
Narrow the list to what you want to remove
On the SKUs page, use search plus the Type and Status filters to show just the SKUs you’re removing — for example, search a discontinued product family, or filter to a single type.
Select the SKUs
Check the box on each SKU you want, or use the checkbox in the table header to select every SKU on the current page.
Select all matching (optional)
If your filtered results run across more than one page, a banner appears: “Select all N matching SKUs.” Click it to select every SKU that matches your filters, not just the ones on screen.
Click Deactivate in the action bar
Once one or more SKUs are selected, a bulk action bar appears at the top of the table. Click Deactivate (the red button).
Confirm
A dialog confirms how many SKUs will be marked inactive. Confirm to apply. They all drop off your default list at once and can be reactivated later.
Deactivate a single SKU
Just removing one? Do it straight from its row.
Open the SKUs page
Go to the SKUs page from the main navigation.
Find the SKU
Use the search field or the Type and Status filters to locate the SKU you want to remove.
Click the delete (trash) icon
On the SKU’s row, click the trash icon. A Deactivate SKU confirmation dialog appears.
Confirm
Click Deactivate. The SKU is marked inactive and drops off your default list. It can be reactivated later at any time.
Deactivating requires a role with permission to remove SKUs (for example, Owner or Manager). If you don't see the trash icon, your role may not include it.
Removing imported parent listings
When you connect a marketplace such as Amazon, the import brings in the listings it finds. If only the child variations are individually buyable, the parent listings don’t need to live in your registry.
To Carpe Inventory IQ these are ordinary SKUs, so you remove them exactly like any other: filter or search to find the parent listings, select them, and deactivate — individually or in bulk using the steps above. Nothing else depends on the parent records, so removing them is safe.
Not sure which imported SKUs are parents versus buyable children? Our support team can help you identify a batch and clear them out — get in touch.
Can I delete SKUs by CSV?
SKU CSV import is for creating and updating SKUs — it doesn’t delete or deactivate. For removing SKUs, the bulk-select flow above is built to do exactly that, and it’s usually quicker than preparing a spreadsheet: filter, “select all matching,” deactivate. If you have a long, specific list you’d rather hand off, contact support and we’ll take care of the batch for you.
Reactivate a SKU
Because deactivation is reversible, bringing a SKU back is a quick three steps.
Show inactive SKUs
On the SKUs page, change the Status filter from Active to Inactive (or All Statuses). Deactivated SKUs are hidden by default, so this reveals them.
Select the SKUs to restore
Check the box on each SKU you want back, the same way you selected them to deactivate.
Click Activate
In the bulk action bar, click Activate. The SKUs return to your active list. (To restore just one, you can also open it and flip the Active toggle.)
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