I have figured out how to make Meta Fields and found an APP that can import them in mass for products without variants but I can’t figure out how to do this for products with variants. The APP I have been using Easy Custom Metafields wants a product handle to use as the product key for imports. But variants do not have a product handle. How is everyone handling this and Bin Locations in General? How can Shopify be used for fulfillment without Bin Locations? Am I missing something?
Hey @paul127 using meta fields on variants can be tricky unless you are always planning to have that product variant in a single bin field. The meta fields you assign to those variants are tied within the inventory level as a whole for that warehouse location.
One possible solution with this is to just use the single product method for each meta field that way each product can hold inventory in bin locations for that product. This is assuming you have one inventory location within Shopify. Much of what you are looking for is part of a warehouse management system that would track each of your Shopify products and variants to their respective bin locations. One such app that might work for you here is SKUSavvy that visualizes each bin location on a map of your warehouse and can be used during picking to find all your products easily.
Another method that I’ve seen is to use a combination of SKU matching and meta fields. For instance the SKU would contain the general bin information since it is held at the variant level, and at the product meta field could be your aisle definition. This does get slightly cumbersome with many SKUs of course.