Shopify released a few weeks ago a long waited update by many merchants. Now it’s possible to build automatic collection conditions by using product metafields. Previously the next best thing was product tags, but they had multiple limitations and problems.
If you are new to Shopify metafields then you could check one of our previous posts on what metafields are and how they could be useful for you.
Let’s dig into it and see how you could use product metafield definitions with collection conditions.
How to enable metafield for collections automations?
If you are already using product metafields then they will not show up automatically under collection conditions. You have to manually enable product metafield definition in order to use it as a condition for automatization.
Here’s a way how to enable a metafield for collection condition.
Go to your store admin Settings→Custom data→select “Products”→select a metafield→select “Automated collections” under Access options.
Adding metafield condition to the collection
Now after you added Automated collections access to product metafield it will become visible under collection conditions. You can either change old collections automated conditions or make new collections in your store.
Here’s a small video guide on how to create collections with automated conditions based on product metafields.
How to bulk edit metafields data?
There is a simple way how to change product metafields data fast that not many Shopify store owners know about.
It is possible to change Product metafields in the Shopify bulk product edit view. You can even drag the same metafield value to multiple products like in excel. Check the next video on how to find bulk product edit and change multiple product metafields.
Let us know if you have questions regarding Shopify metafields or would like us to help with your Shopify store development project.
is it not possible to make the type of the field a collection rather than a single line of text? That would be much more intuitive because instead of writing the condition once in the collection and each time in the product, one can just include the collection with the checkboxes
Thank you for the question. You could also use True/Flase product metafield and automatically include all products with a “True” value in the collection. For example, if a store sells seasonal products, then the store admin might want to add the “Summer season” True/False metafield and mark all Summer Season products as True.
Another question, how to use the same metafield to have multiple values in it? So that I can add a single product to multiple collections via using only 1 metafield?
Yes, you can add multiple values to the same metafield and add the product to mutable collections. You would need to select “Single line text” metafield type and then choose “List of values” instead of “one value”. This will allow you to write mutlibe single lines to one metafield as a list. (maybe I should improve the blog post with these examples)