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Combining Alternate Templates with Metafields

Before diving into this guide, we recommend reviewing our articles on:

These two powerful Shopify features—alternate templates and metafields—are often seen as separate tools. But when used together, they unlock a flexible, scalable, and maintainable way to customize your store.

🤔 When to Use Templates vs. Metafields?​

A common point of confusion is:

“Should I create a new template or use a metafield?”

Here’s a simple rule of thumb:

ScenarioSolution
Sections differ (e.g., one product needs specs table, another needs a demo video)➡️ Create alternate templates
Sections are the same, but content varies per product➡️ Use metafields

✅ Best practice: Combine both for maximum flexibility and efficiency.

🧵 Real-World Example: Office Computers vs. Office Sofas​

Imagine your B2C store sells two very different product categories with distinct presentation needs:

💻 Office Computers​

  • Show standard product info (price, images, description)
  • Display a unique “技术规格” for each model (e.g., CPU, RAM, SSD capacity)—different for every SKU

🛋️ Office Sofas​

  • Show standard product info
  • Include a “Space matching suggestions” video that’s identical for all sofas (e.g., a 60-second video showing how the sofa fits in a modern office)

✅ Ideal Setup:​

1. Create Two Alternate Templates​

  • product.office-computer → includes:
    • Default product section
    • A rich text section (to display technical specs)
  • product.office-sofa → includes:
    • Default product section
    • A video section (with a fixed styling video)

Assign the correct template to each product in the Shopify admin.

2. Use Metafields Only Where Needed​

  • For Office Computers:

    • Create a product metafield named technical_specs (type: Rich text)
    • In the product.office-computer template, connect this metafield to the rich text section
    • Now each computer model can show its own detailed specs—no extra templates needed!

  • For Office Sofas:

    • Since the video is the same for all, just upload it directly in the product.office-sofa template
    • Updating the video once updates it for every sofa

🚫 What Not to Do​

❌ Creating a separate template for every computer model (e.g., computer-dell-xps, computer-lenovo-thinkpad, etc.) just to change the specs.

Why this is bad:

  • Leads to template bloat (dozens or hundreds of templates)
  • Makes store management slow and error-prone
  • Increases risk of inconsistencies during updates
  • Violates Shopify’s best practices for maintainability

🔁 Remember: Templates define structure. Metafields define content.

💡 Key Benefits of This Approach​

  • ✅ Only 2 templates for 2 product categories—clean and scalable
  • ✅ Dynamic, per-product content without code
  • ✅ Easy to update: change a video once, or edit specs per product
  • ✅ Future-proof: add new computers or sofas without touching templates

🛠️ How to Implement​

  1. Create metafields (Shopify Admin > Settings > Metafields > Products)
    • Name: Technical Specs
    • Type: Rich text
  2. Create alternate templates via Theme Editor
    • Name them clearly: office-computer, office-sofa
  3. Connect the metafield in the computer template using the 🗃️ database icon
  4. Assign templates to products in the Shopify admin

📘 For detailed steps, refer to:

🌟 Final Tip: Use templates for layout differences, and metafields for content variations. Together, they give you enterprise-level flexibility—without a single line of custom code.