Native Product Routing

Native Product Routing lets you send selected Shopify products that were added outside POS Cafe to your existing receipt printers and Fresh KDS prep areas. You choose exactly which products are included, and the feature is disabled until you turn it on.

Before you start

Make sure that:

  • Your prep areas have been created in POS Cafe.
  • Your receipt printers and/or Fresh KDS devices are connected to the correct Shopify locations and prep areas.
  • The products you want to route are active and available on the sales channels where you plan to sell them.
  • The POS Cafe tile is installed on the Shopify POS home screen if you use saved carts or draft orders.

Recommended: pin the Prep Area metafield

We recommend pinning the Prep Area metafield. Once it is pinned, it appears directly on each product edit page in Shopify admin, making it much quicker to view or change a product's prep area.

  1. From Shopify admin, go to Settings → Metafields and metaobjects.
  2. Select Products.
  3. Find Prep Area and click the pin icon beside it.
Shopify product metafield definitions showing the pin icon beside Prep Area
Pin Prep Area so it appears automatically on product edit pages.

Configure the products that should route

Repeat these steps for every Shopify product that you want POS Cafe to route:

  1. From Shopify admin, open Products and select the product.
  2. Add the exact product tag poscafe_route.
  3. In the product's metafields, set Prep Area to one of your configured POS Cafe prep areas.
  4. Click Save.
Shopify product edit page showing the poscafe_route product tag
Add the exact poscafe_route tag to each product that should route.
Shopify product edit page showing a selected Prep Area metafield
Select the POS Cafe prep area that should receive the product.

Validate and enable routing

  1. In POS Cafe, go to Settings.
  2. Under Admin Settings, select Native Product Routing.
  3. Click Validate and enable.
  4. Wait for validation to finish.
  5. Check the Active routing configuration table and confirm that each product shows the correct prep area.
The POS Cafe Native Product Routing page showing enabled status and configured products
Review the saved product and prep-area assignments before taking orders.

POS Cafe checks a maximum of 250 tagged products during each validation or refresh. Products without the routing tag are not included in that configuration.

Optional: include native Online Store orders

Native Online Store routing has its own opt-in and is disabled by default. To turn it on:

  1. On the Native Product Routing page, select Include native Online Store orders.
  2. Choose a Default online preparation location.
  3. Click Save online settings.
The Native Product Routing Online Store settings with a default preparation location selected
Online Store routing must be enabled separately.

POS Cafe chooses the preparation location as follows:

How preparation locations are selected for online orders
Order method Preparation location
Local Pickup The pickup location assigned by Shopify.
Local Delivery The delivery location assigned by Shopify.
Standard shipping The Default online preparation location selected in POS Cafe.
Non-shipping items added through POS Cafe online ordering The location selected by the customer in POS Cafe online ordering.

Which orders are supported?

Completed Shopify POS sales
Configured products route to the printers and KDS devices for the current POS location.
Saved carts and draft orders
Configured products route when the cart is saved. If more items are added later, only the additions are sent.
Online Store orders
Configured native products route when the separate Online Store option is enabled.
Existing POS Cafe orders
Continue to use the existing POS Cafe printer and KDS workflow.

Refresh after changing products

POS Cafe does not continuously scan your products. After adding or removing the tag, or changing a Prep Area value, return to Native Product Routing and click Refresh routing.

Until the refresh succeeds, POS Cafe continues using the previous active configuration. This prevents an incomplete product edit from unexpectedly changing live routing.

Stop routing a product

  1. Open the product in Shopify admin.
  2. Remove the poscafe_route tag.
  3. Save the product.
  4. Return to Native Product Routing and click Refresh routing.

To stop all native product routing, click Disable routing. Existing POS Cafe products will continue to route normally.

Troubleshooting

Confirm that the product has the exact poscafe_route tag, has a valid Prep Area value and has been saved. Then click Refresh routing.

Correct every product listed in the warning. A tagged product normally needs a Prep Area that exactly matches one of the prep areas configured in POS Cafe. Your previous valid configuration remains active while you correct the issue.

Confirm that the POS Cafe tile is installed and visible on the Shopify POS home screen, the product appears in Active routing configuration and the POS device is using a Shopify location connected to the required printer or KDS. Staff do not need to open the POS Cafe tile before saving the cart.

Check that Include native Online Store orders is enabled, a Default online preparation location is selected and the product is in the active routing configuration. Also confirm that the resolved Shopify location is connected to the required printer or Fresh KDS device in POS Cafe.

Product changes do not apply automatically. Click Refresh routing after removing the tag. The existing saved configuration remains active until a refresh succeeds.

Product and order safety

Validation and refresh only read the tagged products and their Prep Area values. They do not create, edit or delete products, and they do not change your tags, metafield values or inventory. During order processing, POS Cafe sends the required ticket information to your configured printer and KDS destinations; it does not fulfil, cancel or delete Shopify orders. You remain in control of which products are included by maintaining the tag and metafield in Shopify admin.

Back to Order Tickets & KDS