Field types

Each field has a type, and the type decides both what customers can enter and how the answer is saved in Shopify. Dates, numbers, yes/no answers and choices are saved with their own metafield types, so customer segments, Shopify Flow conditions and email templates treat a date as a date and a number as a number, not as text.

Available types

• Text - A short free-text answer, such as a company name
• Number - Whole or decimal numbers, such as 42 or 7.5. Customers who type something else see an error and the answer isn't saved.
• Dropdown (one choice) - Customers pick one of your choices
• Choices (several) - Customers tick as many of your choices as apply
• Yes / no - A yes or no answer. "No" is saved as an answer too.
• Date - Any date, entered as YYYY-MM-DD
• Birthday - A date that can start a Shopify Flow workflow on the customer's birthday (Pro)
• Anniversary - A date that can start a Shopify Flow workflow on the anniversary, such as the day they joined your loyalty club (Pro)
• Phone number - A phone number saved as text

Dropdown and choices fields take up to 50 choices, one per line.

One birthday and one anniversary per store

Each store can have one Birthday field and one Anniversary field. They work like any date field on the Profile page and in your admin. On Pro, they also power the Customer birthday and Customer anniversary Flow triggers.

If your store already has one, saving a second shows "Your store already has a field of this type". Use a plain Date field for any other date you want to ask for.

Changing a field's type

Once a field is saved, Shopify keeps its answers in a fixed format, so you can only switch to a type that format can hold. Types that can't are disabled in the Type menu. For example:

• A text field can become a phone number or dropdown field, and back
• A date field can become a birthday or anniversary field, if your store doesn't have one yet
• A text field can also become a number, date or yes/no field, but its answers stay saved as text, so segments and Flow still see them as text. See Legacy text fields and the storage upgrade.
• A Choices (several) field can't change to another type, and no other field can become one

To ask the same question with a different type, add a new field and remove the old one. The old answers stay on your customers in Shopify.

Using answers in Shopify

Answers are saved on each customer as customer metafields that belong to Customer Profiles. You can:

• Build customer segments from them, for example customers whose birthday is in March
• Use them in Shopify Flow conditions
• Show them in email templates and other Liquid
• Download them all with the CSV export