One of the most powerful differences between using the POS Custom Fields app and standard order notes, is that data is attached to orders in a structured, reliable way.
POS Custom Field's applies the field value as an order attribute or line item property
This means that it is easy for other apps and integrations to detect the data, and that many different attributes can be applied to the same point of sale order safely.
Shopify Flow is a fantastic eCommerce platform built by Shopify to let you automate tasks within your store. Using POS Custom Fields + Shopify Flow you can automatically run actions when an order is created, such as:
- Tagging an order based on a field that has been added. For example, tagging orders with an engraving message as “custom” so that they can be held before shipping
- Emailing a staff member when a certain field is added. For example, emailing a supplier when a “bespoke” field is applied to the POS order
- Building better reporting for instore. For example, using a custom field to track how instore customers heard about your business, and using Flow to tag those orders for future reporting.
- Setting up alerts to staff members, or to other systems using Flow’s HTTP Action.
To get started:
- Make sure you have the POS Custom Fields and Shopify Flow apps installed
- Create your field
- Open up the Shopify Flow app and create a workflow
- Select a trigger. Order Created is useful trigger that will run the Flow when the order is first created
- Add your condition
- Add any follow on actions and save
Custom fields applied to the order will be available as order attributes. Using the key, we can look for a specific field. Here, we are applying the membership number that was added as a custom field, and applying it to the customer as a tag.
For custom fields applied to individual line items within the cart, Flow can look over each line item in the order and check if it has the relevant field based on the field's key. In this example, we are adding a tag to the order to notify staff that certain products need attention.
