Track where weight and dimensions came from
A product's shipping weight and dimensions drive what a carrier charges you and how a marketplace classifies your item. But a number you typed in from memory and a number someone measured on the packing bench look identical on the screen — so you can't tell a rough guess from a verified figure, and an inaccurate guess costs you money every time that item ships.
This guide shows how to record the source of a product's weight and dimensions — Estimate, Vendor, or Measured — so everyone can see at a glance how trustworthy each value is, and how to build a worklist of the products that still need to be checked.
Why it matters
- Carriers bill on the larger of actual and dimensional weight, and re-weigh at the hub. When the label disagrees with what they measure, the adjustment lands on your next invoice. A value marked Estimate is a flag that you're exposed.
- Marketplaces re-measure and reclassify. A size-tier change driven by someone else's measurement can raise your per-unit fees without warning. Knowing which of your figures are only estimates tells you where to look first.
- Trust and onboarding. Warehouse and support staff can see which catalog data is reliable without hunting down where a number came from.
Before you begin
| Requirement | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
| Permission to edit products | The source, "measured by", and the weight and dimension values all save from the product's Shipping section, which is gated by the products edit permission. |
| A product with weight or dimensions | A source describes a value, so it's most useful on products that actually carry a weight or a set of dimensions. A product with neither shows an empty state rather than a badge. |
The three sources
Each product tracks one source for its weight and another for its dimensions, because the two often come from different places — you might weigh an item on your own scale but still carry the dimensions from the vendor's catalog.
| Source | What it means | Badge |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate | A rough figure — typed from memory or left at a default. The honest starting point for every product. | Grey, dashed outline |
| Vendor | Taken from the supplier's catalog or specification sheet. | Blue |
| Measured | Physically measured. You also record who measured it — your own warehouse, a fulfillment partner, or a sales channel — and the date is stamped automatically. | Green |
Estimate is never shown as an error. It's a neutral "not verified yet", not a problem to fix in a panic — just a signal of where a real measurement would help most.
Set the source on a product
- Open the product and go to its Shipping section.
- Select Edit on the Product Dimensions card.
- Enter or confirm the Weight and the Length, Width and Height.
- For the weight, choose a Source. If you pick Measured, a Measured by box appears — choose Own warehouse, Fulfillment partner, or Channel.
- Do the same for the dimensions — they have their own Source (and Measured by when measured), so you can mark the weight as measured while leaving the dimensions as from the vendor.
- Select Save.
The Shipping section now shows a badge next to the weight and another next to the dimensions. Hovering (or focusing) a badge shows the full story — the source, who measured it, and when, for example "Measured · Own warehouse · Sep 21, 2026".
Editing a value doesn't change its source
Correcting a weight — fixing a typo, switching the unit — leaves the source exactly as it was. A figure you marked Measured stays Measured until you choose a different source yourself. So you can tidy up a value without downgrading a verified measurement back to a guess.
A value with no number
If a product has no dimensions yet, the dimensions show No dimensions yet rather than a badge — there's nothing to vouch for until a value exists. Its weight, if set, still shows its own badge.
See every product's source at a glance
The products list carries a Measurement Source column with one badge per product — a roll-up of the weight and dimension sources together:
- If either the weight or the dimensions is only an Estimate, the product reads Estimate — the least-confident value sets the tone.
- When both are Measured, it reads Measured.
- When both come from the vendor, it reads Vendor.
- When the two genuinely differ — say the weight is measured but the dimensions are from the vendor — it reads Mixed, and its tooltip breaks down which is which.
A product that has no weight and no dimensions at all reads Estimate — there's nothing measured to show.
Build a worklist of what to measure
To find the products that still need a real measurement, use the Measurement source filter in the products list filter row and choose Estimate. The list narrows to just the products whose weight or dimensions are still a guess — your worklist to send to the warehouse or the fulfillment partner to be measured.
You can filter to Vendor, Measured, or Mixed the same way to answer the opposite questions — "what have you verified yourself?" or "where do your figures and the vendor's differ?"
Include the source in an export
When you export your products, the file includes a Measurement Source column carrying each product's roll-up (Estimate, Vendor, Measured, or Mixed) — so you can review coverage in a spreadsheet or hand a measurement worklist to someone outside SKU.io. See Export products for how to run and download an export.