---
title: The InventoryItem resource now indicates whether it requires shipping instead of the Product Variant - Shopify developer changelog
description: Shopify’s developer changelog documents all changes to Shopify’s platform. Find the latest news and learn about new platform opportunities.
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---

[Back to Developer changelog](https://shopify.dev/changelog)

February 12, 2019

Tags:

* API

# The InventoryItem resource now indicates whether it requires shipping instead of the Product Variant

The [InventoryItem](https://help.shopify.com/en/api/reference/inventory/inventoryitem) resource now includes a field `requires_shipping` to indicate whether the item requires shipping, deprecating the corresponding field on the [ProductVariant](https://help.shopify.com/en/api/reference/products/product-variant) resource.

***

### Who is affected by this change?

Any app that reads `requires_shipping` off of the ProductVariant.

### How do I prepare for this change?

Start consuming and reading checks for `requires_shipping` on the InventoryItem resource instead of the ProductVariant.

### What happens if I do nothing?

As the ProductVariant equivalent for `requires_shipping` gets deprecated, any app that consumes that field will no longer be able to.

### Where can I learn more?

[InventoryItem](https://help.shopify.com/en/api/reference/inventory/inventoryitem) [ProductVariant](https://help.shopify.com/en/api/reference/products/product-variant)