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Shopify Bin Locations: Set Up Metafields for Faster Picking

If your pickers know what to grab but not where it lives, they waste half their time hunting shelves. A Shopify bin location fixes that by tagging every product with the exact spot it sits in your stockroom — and once that data is on your products, a pick sheet can be sorted in walking order.

The good news: Shopify already gives you a place to store bin locations using a metafield, no extra system required. This guide explains what bin locations are, why they speed up picking, and exactly how to set one up. We build Picksort, which groups a pick sheet by that bin-location metafield, so we'll show how the pieces fit together.

What Is a Bin Location?

A bin location is a short code that identifies a physical storage spot — a shelf, bin, or slot. Think A1, B-03, or Aisle2-Shelf4. It answers one question for a picker: where do I walk to find this item?

Bin locations are independent of what the product is. A candle might live in bin C2 today; if you rearrange the stockroom, you change the bin value and everything still works. The code is just a map reference for your space.

There's no universal format. Pick a scheme that matches how your shelves are laid out and stay consistent. Common patterns:

• Aisle-shelf-bin: 02-04-A (aisle 2, shelf 4, bin A)
• Zone-slot: B12
• Simple sequential: A1, A2, A3…

The best scheme is the one that, when you sort products by it, produces a natural walking path through your space.

Why Bin Locations Speed Up Picking

Without bin locations, a pick list is in whatever order the software happens to output — usually by order number or SKU. That order has nothing to do with where items physically are, so a picker zig-zags: front shelf, back corner, front shelf again.

With bin locations, you can sort the pick list by bin so it follows the shortest sensible path through your stockroom. The picker walks in one direction, grabbing items as they pass each shelf. Fewer steps, fewer missed items, faster picks.

The payoff grows with:

• Catalog size — more SKUs means more places to hunt without a map.
• Team turnover — a new hire can pick accurately on day one just by following bin codes.
• Order volume — every saved step multiplies across a full day's orders.

It pairs naturally with batch picking, too: sort a merged, quantity-per-SKU list by bin and you get a single walk that collects every unit you need. That's the core idea behind grouping Shopify orders by SKU, vendor, or bin, and it's one of the most effective ways to reduce picking errors in a small warehouse.

How to Store a Bin Location in Shopify (Metafield Setup)

Shopify doesn't have a built-in "bin location" field, but metafields let you add one cleanly. A metafield is a custom field you attach to products. Here's the setup, step by step.

1. Create the metafield definition

1. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Custom data → Products.
2. Click Add definition.
3. Name it something clear like Bin location.
4. Set the namespace and key — for example custom.bin_location. Note this exact value; apps need it to find your data.
5. Choose the type Single line text (a bin code is just text).
6. Save the definition.

2. Add a bin value to each product

1. Open a product in Products.
2. Scroll to the Metafields section near the bottom of the product page.
3. Enter that product's bin code (for example A1) in the Bin location field.
4. Save.

If you have many products, you can fill bin values in bulk by exporting your products to CSV, adding a metafield column, and re-importing — or use a bulk-editor app. For a first pass, start with your highest-volume SKUs; those are the ones pickers grab most.

3. Keep it consistent

• Use one format across all products.
• Update the bin value whenever you move stock, not the product name or SKU.
• Leave it blank for items without a fixed home; a good pick tool will simply list those separately.

That's it — your bin locations now live on your products, ready for any app that reads the metafield.

How Apps Use the Bin-Location Metafield

Once the bin value is stored, a pick tool can read it and organize your list around it. This is where Picksort comes in.

Picksort reads your open, unfulfilled Shopify orders and merges them into one quantity-per-SKU pick and pack sheet. When you choose to group by bin location, it pulls the value from your bin_location product metafield and orders the sheet by bin — so the list follows your shelves. Switch grouping to vendor or SKU and the quantities re-tally instantly.

A few things that make this practical for small teams:

• Optional, not required — bin grouping uses the metafield if it's there; if you haven't set bins up yet, group by vendor or SKU instead and add bins later.
• Read-only by design — Picksort only reads your orders and products. It never writes to the metafield or edits, fulfills, or deletes anything, so your data stays exactly as you set it.
• Zero setup inside the app — no field mapping or templates; once the metafield exists on your products, Picksort finds it.
• Printable and mobile-ready — big quantities and checkoff boxes, single-column on a phone, so a picker can walk the bins from their pocket and print for packing.

Picksort keeps things deliberately simple: it won't scan barcodes or generate labels. If you want a heavier system with barcode-verified bin picking, look at something like iPacky — we cover the trade-offs in our iPacky alternative comparison. If you just want your merged pick sheet sorted by bin, that's exactly what Picksort does, at $9/month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Shopify have a built-in bin location field?

Not directly. Shopify doesn't include a dedicated bin location field on products, but you can add one using a product metafield — for example a single-line-text metafield named bin_location. Apps and exports can then read that value.

What format should I use for bin locations?

Any consistent scheme that matches your shelves. Common formats are aisle-shelf-bin codes like 02-04-A, zone-slot codes like B12, or simple sequential codes like A1. The goal is that sorting products by bin produces a sensible walking path.

How does Picksort use bin locations?

When you group a pick sheet by bin, Picksort reads the bin value from your product's bin-location metafield and orders the sheet by it, so picking follows your shelf layout. It's read-only, so it never changes the metafield — it only reads it.

Do I have to set up bin locations to use Picksort?

No. Bin locations are optional. Without them you can still group your merged pick sheet by vendor or SKU. Add the bin metafield whenever you're ready, and bin grouping becomes available with no other changes.

Want your pick sheet sorted in walking order? Add a bin-location metafield, then start a free 30-day trial of Picksort to merge your open Shopify orders into one quantity-per-SKU sheet grouped by bin, vendor, or SKU. It's $9/month, read-only, and installs in seconds — see the tutorial or FAQ for the details.