Shopify: Write custom shipping notes

Why you should set up the additional_shipping_information metafield

When you use Zipchat, one of its key features is: it automatically checks an order’s shipping status in Shopify and communicates to the customer what’s happening.

But sometimes an order isn’t shipped yet and Shopify there's no status update. In these cases, without any extra information the customer is left in the dark.

By adding a custom metafield like custom.additional_shipping_information, you can proactively add a human-readable note (for example: “Shipment delayed because of X, expected to ship on Y”), and Zipchat can detect it and show it to the customer instead of showing “no update.”

In short:

• This provides better transparency and customer experience.

• It reduces support tickets (“Where is my order?”) because you’re telling customers the reason and expected timeline.

• It enables Zipchat to function more intelligently — fallback from “no shipping status” into “custom note exists → show that note.”

---

How to set up the additional_shipping_information metafield in Shopify, for use by Zipchat

1. Create the metafield definition

1. In your Shopify Admin go to Settings → Custom data (or Metafields & Metaobjects).

2. Select the resource you want this metafield to apply to — in this case: Orders (since you want the note attached to an order).

3. Click Add definition (to create a new custom metafield) because you’re storing data that isn’t captured by Shopify by default.

4. Fill in the fields:

   • Name: Additional Shipping Information - if you pick a different name, make sure you update the key to be correct

   • Namespace and key: Set namespace = custom and key = additional_shipping_information. When combined this results in custom.additional_shipping_information. This is important because your Zipchat integration will look precisely for this key.

   • Content type: Type: One > Multi-line text field

   • Optionally: add a description like “Enter shipping-delay or shipping-note for Zipchat to display to customer when order hasn’t shipped yet.”

5. Save the definition.

2. Populate the metafield value for a given order

1. Go to your Shopify Admin → Orders → open the specific order that has not yet shipped (or you anticipate a delay).

2. Within that order record, scroll down till you find the Metafields section (sometimes you might need to expand “Show more” or scroll to bottom).

3. Locate the metafield you just defined: custom.additional_shipping_information.

4. Enter the shipping-note value, e.g.:

   “Shipment delayed because of X; the order is expected to ship on Y.”

5. Save the order.

3. Zipchat reads the metafield and performs its logic

• When Zipchat queries Shopify for the order status, if it detects that custom.additional_shipping_information has a value, Zipchat will present that value to the customer (e.g., “Your order is delayed: Shipment delayed because of X; expected on Y”).

• If there is no value in that metafield, Zipchat will fall back to the normal status-update route (or maybe say “no update yet”).

---

Quick reference table for merchants

Item	Value/Setting
Definition name	additional_shipping_information.
Namespace + key	custom.additional_shipping_information
Resource (applies to)	Order
Content type	Multi-line text (or single line if simpler)
Purpose	Enter shipping delay note or expected ship date when no shipping update exists
Outcome	Zipchat shows the note to the customer as fallback when no shipped status

---

Connect your ERP or custom apps

Because the metafield is created by you, this allows other apps to also write inside of it. This can be useful if you want to automatically add shipping notes like "expected shipment", etc