Metafields for variants

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

Issue: Variant metafields exported via Matrixify appear blank, even though values were copied into each variant and display on the storefront. Changing variant order doesn’t affect this; the supposed “blank” variant still shows metafield data. The poster wonders if blanks occur because the values are identical across variants.

Context: Manufacturer setup where most variants only differ by SKU for internal tracking and have no customer-facing options. They’re considering a consolidated “series” product where variants (e.g., by speed) would need different metafields and variant-specific copy for SEO.

Key terms: Metafields = custom data fields; Variants = option-specific versions of a product; Matrixify = import/export tool for Shopify data.

Open questions:

  • If variant metafields contain different values, will Matrixify export and preserve them correctly?
  • Are blank exports an expected behavior when variant metafield values duplicate others (e.g., product-level or across variants)?
  • Can variants have their own body HTML distinct from the product’s body_html for SEO and content differences?

Status: Unresolved; seeking clarification and best practices.

Summarized with AI on December 11. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi,

I am using Matrixify to import and export product information, including metafields.

When I export my products, including variants, the metafields are blank for the variants.

The majority of my variants are only differences in SKU (we’re the manufacturer) because we track changes to product (material changes, factory made at, etc.). These don’t concern the customer, so there’s no choices on the product front.

I have copied and pasted all the metafields to each variant line (model number, specifications, etc.). I upload all the variants, with the information filled in, but when I export back again, all the metafields are blank for the variants.

When I switch the order of my variants for the model, and put the variant with “blanks” first, the metafields still display for the variant. Are these appearing as blank because they are the same?

In this case, that’s fine, since the only difference is the SKU, which is immaterial. However, if I wanted to use variants and make one “series” product that uses variants for each model in the series (say based on speed as a variable). Now because of this, some metafields would be different, as well as the variant body copy, as describing the applications for the different speed versions would make you want to write different copy for SEO purposes.

If I load different values into the variant metafields, will those then carry over? Can variants have their own body HTML?

Thanks!

Pete