Setting Up Global-E Product Identifiers in Shopify for EU Compliance

Part of the EU Customs Reform - Product Identifiers (PID), please read for overall regulation context and requirements.

From 1 November 2026 you need to add two pieces of product data in Shopify. Your SKU already reaches us and needs no action.

You can provide the data in either of these ways (or both):

• Recommended - Shopify variant Barcodes - see Option A below
• Alternative if unable to use barcodes - Global-e variant metafields - see Option B below, only used if Shopify barcodes are empty

Already using the metafields? You do not need to migrate to Barcodes right now. We keep reading the metafields but recommend moving to Shopify new standardised barcode fields in the future.

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What you need to provide

For what each identifier is, see The three identifiers on the overview page.

Data is set per variant, not per product. A barcode belongs to a specific sellable item - a size M black t-shirt has a different barcode from a size L. Use product-level fields only if the product has a single variant, or if the value is genuinely identical across every variant.

What we need	Barcodes type (Option A)	Metafield (Option B)
NS-PID - manufacturer / supplier product code (required)	NS-PID (non-standardised product identifier)	globale.mididentifier
S-PID - standardised barcode when you have one. If there is still no S-PID, we treat the product as having no standardised barcode	GTIN, EAN, UPC, or ISBN	globale.standardcode

Do not enter placeholder values. Never use NA, N/A, 0, -, a blank space, or similar.

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Option A - Shopify Barcodes

Shopify lets you add more than one barcode per variant, each with a type.

Use the bulk editor, CSV, or Admin API to perform changes on multiple products/variants.

In Shopify Admin:

1. Open Products → choose a product → open a variant.
2. In Barcodes, add an entry and choose the type:
   • NS-PID → for NS-PID (manufacturer code, model number, supplier SKU, or your own style code)
   • GTIN, EAN, UPC, or ISBN → for S-PID when you have a real barcode
3. Save the variant.

Legacy single Barcode field: Shopify is moving that value into Barcodes. We can use it where it maps to S-PID. You still need NS-PID in NS-PID.

If you already have barcode values on a variant, Global-e picks your S-PID (standardcode) from that variant’s Barcodes list using the first match below.

1. A Custom (or untyped) barcode that passes Shopify’s GTIN format checks
2. The first barcode typed GTIN
3. The first barcode typed EAN
4. The first barcode typed UPC
5. The first barcode typed ISBN
6. A Custom (or untyped) barcode that did not pass GTIN checks at step 1

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Option B - Global-e metafields

What to do - three steps

Step 1 - Create the two metafield definitions

Navigate to Settings → Metafields and metaobjects → Variants → Add definition and create both of the following.

After entering the metafield name, click custom.standardcode to change the namespace:

Change the default custom namespace to globale:

Name	Namespace and key	Content type
standardcode	globale.standardcode	Single line text
mididentifier	globale.mididentifier	Single line text

Enter these exactly as shown. Changing the name, the namespace and key, or the content type will stop Global-e from reading the values, and your orders will be submitted without the identifiers.

Step 2 - Populate the metafields on your variants

You can edit values individually, or in bulk using the Shopify bulk editor, a CSV import, or the Admin API.

• standardcode - set per variant. It normally differs across sizes and colours.
• mididentifier - required on every variant. Often identical across all variants of a product, so it usually bulk-edits cleanly.

Step 3 - Keep metafields in your product-creation process

New variants added after go-live will not inherit these values automatically. Re-check coverage after any catalogue migration, PIM change or bulk update.