Native Product Routing

Native Product Routing sends 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 stays disabled until you turn it on.

Note

Existing POS Cafe products continue to print and appear on KDS normally, whether Native Product Routing is enabled or disabled.

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.

Tip

Shopify displays pinned metafields directly on the relevant admin pages, so you won’t need to open the full metafield list each time you edit a product.

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.

Caution

A product without the poscafe_route tag will not be included. If any tagged product has a blank or unrecognised prep area, POS Cafe will reject the entire update and keep your previous working configuration active.

Validate and enable routing

1. In POS Cafe, go to Settings.
2. Under Admin Settings, select Native Shopify Products. The Native product routing page opens.
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.

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. You need to enable native product routing first. To turn it on:

1. On the Native product routing page, in the Online Store orders card, select Include native Online Store orders.
2. Choose a Default online preparation location.
3. Click Save online settings.

POS Cafe chooses the preparation location as follows:

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.

Note

If Shopify asks you to approve an additional read-only permission when enabling Online Store routing, follow the prompt and then return to save the setting again.

Which orders are supported?

Order type	How it is routed
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.

Caution

Removing an item from an open draft after it has already printed or appeared on KDS does not send a void or cancellation ticket. Let the preparation team know about removed items using your normal cancellation process.

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 Settings → Native Shopify Products 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 Settings → Native Shopify Products and click Refresh routing.

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

Troubleshooting

A product doesn’t appear in Active routing configuration

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

The refresh says that the configuration needs attention

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.

The page says “Webhook setup is incomplete”

Your saved product configuration is still available, but Shopify is not currently subscribed to deliver matching orders to POS Cafe. Click Repair webhook (it replaces Refresh routing while this warning shows) before relying on native product routing.

A saved cart or draft order didn’t route

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.

A native Online Store order didn’t route

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.

I removed the tag, but the product still routes

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.