Metafields let you store additional, structured information for which Shopify does not provide its own input fields by default. When you use Pickware, specific metafields are automatically added to your Shopify Admin. You can easily recognize these fields by the suffix (Pickware) after their name. You can manage all metafield definitions centrally in the Shopify Admin under Settings → Custom data. You will find the corresponding input fields directly on the respective records for orders, customer accounts, or products.
Metafields for orders
External order number
The external order number is used, for example, for transaction references or marketplace order numbers and can be output in the Order number field in the DATEV payment export or document export. Please make sure that in the Pickware Admin under Settings → Extensions → DATEV → Posting record, you have selected either the option External order number or External order number, if empty order number in the Order number field so that the information is included in the export. You can find more detailed information on this here.
Invoice comment
In this field, you can enter a comment that will then be printed at the bottom of the invoice.
Picking instruction
You can store individual picking instructions for each order, which are then displayed on the picklist or in the WMS App. You can also have the field filled in automatically via Flow. You can find more information on the picking instruction here.
Packing instruction
Similar to the picking instruction, you can store an individual packing instruction for each order. It is displayed in the packing or shipping flow of the WMS App — only the packing instruction appears there, not the picking instruction. This field can also be filled in automatically via Flow.
Metafields for links to invoice and invoice correction
Within the so-called unstructured metafields, you will find pickware.pickware_invoice_url and pickware.pickware_invoice_correction_urls. These store the URLs of the invoice and invoice correction, which allows you to pass them on to connected marketplaces or use them within emails. You can find an example here in which the metafield for the invoice URL is used in an email template.
You can find the unstructured metafields under Settings → Custom data → Orders via the More actions menu.
Tracking codes of return labels
If you create a return label for an order in Pickware, Pickware stores the tracking codes of the active return labels in the metafield pickware.pickware_return_label on the corresponding Shopify order. The field contains a JSON list of all currently active (not canceled) return tracking codes of the order – each with carrier and tracking number:
[{ "carrier": "DHL", "trackingNumber": "00340434161094023456" }, { "carrier": "GLS", "trackingNumber": "GL123456789DE" }]
The value is updated automatically as soon as a return label is created or canceled. If there are no (more) active return labels, the metafield is removed.
This way, you can read out the return tracking codes via Shopify Flow and pass them on to connected marketplaces – for example to Otto via marketplace apps such as magnalister, ChannelEngine, Tradebyte, or Channable, which already expect the return tracking with the shipping confirmation.
The metafield is not directly visible in the order, but it is still maintained. If you still want to read the field, you can do so after creating a return label via Metafields → Show all → Show unstructured metafields.
Metafields for products and variants
The picking instruction can be maintained either on the product or on the variant.
If a product has no variants, you will still find both the variant metafield and the product metafield in the product details, since the product technically counts as the main variant here.
The product metafield always has the highest priority. If a value is stored here, only this picking instruction is transferred to Pickware. A picking instruction additionally maintained in the variant metafield is ignored in this case.
If the product metafield is empty but a picking instruction is stored in the variant metafield,
the picking instruction from the variant metafield is transferred to Pickware instead.
If a product has variants, you will find the product metafield for the main product and the variant metafield for each variant in the product details.
The picking instruction is maintained in the variant metafield. This way, each variant can have its own picking instruction.
If a picking instruction is also stored for the main product, it is transferred to Pickware but not shown on the picklist.
On the product, you also have the metafield Packing instruction (Pickware) available. It is displayed in the packing or shipping flow of the WMS App.
Here you will find an overview of where to find the picking instructions for products in the Pickware Admin and how they are displayed on the order documents and in the WMS App.
Metafields for customers
You can find metafields for customers in the customer account. Pickware provides the field VAT ID of the B2B customer here, which is hidden by default. As soon as you pin it once, it is visible in all customer accounts. To show it, proceed as follows:
In the customer account, scroll to the Metafields section and click Show all. | |
Double-click the name of the field to go to its settings. | |
Click Pin definition here and save the change using the button at the very top. |
VAT ID of the B2B customer
Here you can enter the VAT ID for business customers if you do not use Shopify Plus. The VAT ID in the customer account (under Tax details) cannot be read by Pickware, which is why the metafield is needed. With Shopify Plus, the VAT ID is managed directly via the company. If you have maintained the VAT ID both via the company details (via the Shopify Plus feature) and via the Pickware metafield, the field in the company details will be overwritten by the metafield.
If you capture the VAT ID via third-party apps, you can transfer it to the Pickware metafield using a Flow. You can find further details on this here.
Using metafields in Shopify Flow
To use structured and unstructured metafields in Shopify Flow, you need to specify the fields in the format namespace.key. The namespace for all metafields coming from Pickware is always pickware. You can find the full name in each of the metafield definitions:
Here you will find an overview of all metafields, each with its technical name:
Name | Full name |
Picking instruction (Pickware) [Products] | pickware.pickware_wms_product_picking_instruction |
Picking instruction (Pickware) [Variants] | pickware.pickware_wms_product_picking_instruction |
Packing instruction (Pickware) [Products] | pickware.pickware_wms_product_packing_instruction |
VAT ID of the B2B customer (Pickware) | pickware.pickware_shopify_customer_vat_id |
External order number (Pickware) | pickware.pickware_external_order_number |
Invoice comment (Pickware) | pickware.pickware_erp_invoice_comment |
Picking instruction (Pickware) | pickware.pickware_wms_picking_instruction |
Packing instruction (Pickware) | pickware.pickware_wms_packing_instruction |
- | pickware.pickware_invoice_correction_urls |
- | pickware.pickware_invoice_url |
- | pickware.pickware_return_label |
In Shopify Flow, you can manually create your own flows from scratch, choose from existing templates, or use the AI assistant to create flows by describing what your flow should do:
Then click Preview and check the result. If everything looks right, click Turn on workflow in the top right.
You can find further information on Shopify Flow in the official guide.