Adding Shelf & Bay location to inventory

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
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1

Hi, one of my customers have asked to add Shelf number & Bay number to their packing slips. So their staff can find each item easier but doesn’t show on customer side.

i thought this would be easy create a variant meta field for inventory location, with single line test (eg bay 5, shelf 2) & put script to display meta field inside packing slip template

but no matter what I do, script comes up blank. I added & run a debug to list every meta field and says none found. But clearly there is both product & variants meta fields filled in.

I was going to try to add a 3rd party app, if I can’t get the code to work, can anyone recommend a free one ? Or low cost.

thanks

2

@jamest5764

To add Shelf Number and Bay Number to packing slips without displaying them to customers, your current approach using variant metafields is correct. However, the Shopify packing slip template (via Order Printer) has limited access to certain objects—not all product or variant metafields are accessible by default in that context.

Why Metafields Show as Empty in Packing Slips:

Shopify’s Order Printer or packing slip templates do not have access to variant metafields directly when rendering the document. That’s why even though you’ve defined metafields, they’re returning empty (nil or blank) in the template.

Recommended Working Alternatives:#### Use Line Item Properties Instead (Manual for Now)

If the shelf and bay info is consistent per product, you can:

  1. Add line item properties at the cart level.

  2. Have them auto-filled via Shopify Scripts or JavaScript for internal orders (not for customers).

  3. Modify the packing slip template to include line item properties:

    {% for property in line_item.properties %}
  {{ property.first }}: {{ property.last }}
{% endfor %}

Use a Free/Low-Cost App (Best for Internal Logistics)

Here are solid options:

  • Order Printer Pro by FORSBERG+two

    • Free for development, $10/month for live stores.

    • Supports full access to metafields.

    • Link

  • Vify Order Printer

    • Free plan available with limited features.

    • Supports custom fields and metafields.

    • Link

Better Solution (What I can do):

I can add a custom script to your packing slip that reads hardcoded metafields using a workaround, or can migrate to an app like Order Printer Pro and display shelf/bay data properly. I’ll do it for free and quickly — just share your store URL and collaborator access code.

Let me know the theme you’re using too in case you want frontend-related changes later.