Whether you are moving to a new hosting or recovering data after being under attack, you need to import WooCommerce Products to your store. In this article, we will share with you three ways to Import WooCommerce Products CSV:
- Use the built-in product importer of WooCommerce;
- Use a third-party plugin;
- Use an extension.
All these three options are just as quick and easy to import products to WooCommerce.
But before we hop into that, you need to have a WooCommerce product CSV file first or export Products from WooCommerce to a CSV file. After having a product CSV file, you can start to import WooCommerce products CSV to your store within one of the three methods below.
- Import WooCommerce Products CSV Using the Default WooCommerce Tool
- Import WooCommerce Products CSV Using a Plugin
- Import WooCommerce Products CSV Using an Extensions
- Wrapping up
Import WooCommerce Products CSV Using the Default WooCommerce Tool
Once you have the CSV file WooCommerce, follow the steps below to import the product to your WooCommerce store using the built-in feature.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard, then click on the Products tab.
After that, click on the ‘Import’ button at the top of the page to start the process.
Click on the ‘Choose File‘ button. A popup will appear for you to locate your CSV file on your computer. Once you find out your file, double-click the file to upload it to the server.
You can check the box ‘Update existing product‘. The importer will update the existing product details with new information, like changing a tax class or putting a sale price.
Once you have done, click the ‘Continue‘ button to come to the new page.
The next step is mapping the columns. Actually, WooCommerce already tried to match the column names in the CSV file to its existing field. Most of the time, it works pretty well. But to make sure, you should double-check them.
If you find out any wrong matches, click on the related box on the right side and choose the right field. You can even not import a field entirely by selecting the ‘Do not import’ option.
Once you have done, click the “Run the importer” button. Wait a moment for your products to be imported.
Import WooCommerce Products CSV Using a Plugin
With the built-in importer, you only can do some basic adjusting. If you want more flexibility, like WooCommerce import products with variations; you need to use a WooCommerce product import-export plugin. There are a lot of plugins for importing WooCommerce products, you can take a look at this article to explore what they are.
In this article, we will use 2 plugins to demo: using Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin and WP All Import plugin.
How to import products using Product Import Export for WooCommerce?
Step 1: Install the plugin
From your dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New, searching for it, and clicking on the Install Now button.
Step 2: Import WooCommerce products
Once you activate it successfully, a new tab will appear under the Product tab as ‘Product Im-Ex‘. Click on it to go to a new page to start the process.
From here on, the step is quite similar to using the built-in WooCommerce import CSV.
First, you need to switch to the ‘Product Import‘ tab.
- Click the ‘Choose File‘ button and upload your CSV file onto the server.
- You can check the ‘Update products if exists‘ box. It works like the box ‘Update existing product‘ in the built-in importer.
- Then you need to choose the right delimiter. In most situations, the comma delimiter works just fine as it is the default one when you export your products. If any errors occur, you can try to choose the other options.
- If you check the ‘Merge empty cells‘, empty attributes will be added to products with no value. You should not check it if you do not have any acknowledgment about this.
When you have done, click the ‘Proceed to Import Mapping‘ to go to the mapping step.
At this step, your work is exactly the same as when you use the built-in Woocommerce CSV import. The plugin will try to match product fields with column headers from the CSV file for you.
Although it works very well, you should double-check it and change CSV column headers if needed.
Once you are sure everything is correct, click the ‘Start Import‘. Now, wait a moment for the plugin to import all your products.
How to import product with Import any XML or CSV File to WordPress plugin?
This is a WooCommerce add-on for WP All Import, which makes it easy to bulk import your products to WooCommerce in less than 10 minutes. Please follow the steps below to import WooCommerce products.
Step 1: Install the plugin
To use it, you need to have it on your online store first, of course. Just find the plugin and install and activate it like any other plugin.
Step 2: Create a new import in WP All Import
After activating the plugin, you need to create a new import in WP All Import. To do that, navigate to All Import > New Import. Here you can not only upload a CSV file but also an XML file, or move to the Download from URL tab to download the file you want to import. But this plugin just supports Dropbox and Google Sheets/Google Drive files. Or You can also use an existing file that you have already get on your site.
In this tutorial, I am downloading a Dropbox file including a collection of new items that I would like to import into my WooCommerce store.
For new products, click on the New Items button, then select WooCommerce Products, and keep going to Step 3.
Step 3: Mapping the product data to import fields
The next step is to drag and drop the imported elements from the right sidebar into the respective product fields. Start off with the title and content/description, then scroll down to the WooCommerce addon that offers all of the same features as the WooCommerce plugin. It can make the importing WooCommerce products process easier for those who are already familiar with it. Below are some parts you need to focus on.
General
In this area, you can import SKUs, pricing, sale prices, and more in this section. Simply drag and drop the elements into the fields you wish. You can also alter prices by a percentage or a fixed amount, as well as set sale prices.
Inventory
Under Inventory, you can begin manually entering stock amounts and setting the stock status of your product. Or you can set the stock status automatically for all your imported products. In this section, you can also manage your backorders.
Shipping
In this step, you can set up shipping weight, dimensions, and shipping class for your products.
Linked Products
You can import cross-sells and up-sells in this area. Both cross-selling and up-selling are the techniques to promote WooCommerce grouped products and the higher quantify of products than the one they are looking at. You can use SKU, title, and ID to match products.
Attributes
In this tab, you are allowed to update your product attributes, such as color, size, and price. The plugin will essentially find all the products with the same specified element and create a dropdown with all the different variations for that particular product. WP All Import will match existing attribute terms and use them to find out all of the items that have the same specified element and produce a dropdown with all of the different versions for that product.
If the existing ones aren’t found, and you can enable the auto-create terms option to have the plugin automatically create them for you.
Advanced
In this section, you can enable the reviews section for customers to leave feedback, set the Featured status and the Catalog visibility.
The WooCommerce Add-On supports all built-in WooCommerce product types, including variable products and variations. It can also auto-create global attribute terms or use existing ones, depending on your choice.
All WooCommerce product types, including variable items and variations, are supported by the WooCommerce Add-On. With WP All Import, you can also use existing attributes or create global attributes, depending on your preference.
Step 4: Importing Product Images and Galleries
After setting up all product information, you now should import your images. The All Import plugin for WordPress allows you to import images via URL, the Media Library, or existing images on your site.
The images section work in a similar way to what we’ve seen in the attributes section above. The rest of the product variations will be grouped together in subsequent photos for the same product.
You can also set the plugin to scan through post content and import images wrapped in <img> tags.
Then, you should preview and check if your images are well displayed in your store.
After that, you should add your image metadata and assign them to the respective images by navigating to the SEO & Advanced options section.
Step 5: Import Product Categories and Tags
The WP All Import plugin can simply assign imported products to WooCommerce Product Categories and Tags once you’ve established the settings in your XML or CSV file.
When possible, the plugin will look for existing phrases and use them. If no existing terms are found, it will do the work for you and come up with new ones. Custom taxonomies, as well as hierarchical and nested categories, will be fully supported.
Step 6: Choosing the import settings
The next step is to select your import settings before starting importing your WooCommerce products. The plugin allows you to automatically detect the unique identifier for your products.
WP All Import will use your preset options to determine what to do with each product record when importing the data into WordPress. You can choose whether to generate new items, update current ones on successive runs, or remove products from the file afterward.
If you’d like the plugin to run automatically in the future, you can create an automatic schedule. However, this only works in case you choose the import using the Download from URL or Use existing file options in the first step.
Step 7: Run the import and view products
Once scheduling your import process, you’ve successfully finished your settings and start import all your product into your WooCommerce store.
After that, you can see all WooCommerce products that you have imported before by going to Products > All Products
Import WooCommerce Products CSV Using an Extensions
Our final solution to import products from a CSV file WooCommerce comes from the ‘Product CSV Import Suite‘ that is a WooCommerce extension created for advanced store owners.
With this paid extension, you can upload, create, or update thousands of products at once. You can even WooCommerce import variable products.
With out-of-the-box compatibility with other WooCommerce plugins, such as:
- Product Vendors,
- WooCommerce Brands,
- WooCommerce Subscriptions,
- WooCommerce photography,
- WooCommerce Composite Products,
- WooCommerce Bookings,
- Google Product Feed,
In short, you have the tools to sell any products or services the way you want.
To start, go to WooCommerce -> CSV Import Suite. Then click on the ‘Import Product‘ button.
- Like the other ways, you need to select ‘Choose File‘, then upload a file from your computer or wherever your CSV file is placed.
- The delimiter is the factor that separates the values. In most cases, the comma will work fine.
Once you have done it, click the ‘Upload file and import‘ to get to the next step.
Before starting the WordPress import products process, you need to make sure that the column headers in the CSV file are mapped to the correct field in WooCommerce. Double-check the list to ensure that everything is in the right place.
When you are happy, click the ‘Submit‘ button.
Now, your products will be imported. Besides, you will be presented with a real-time view of what products are successfully imported and, if any, fail.
Wrapping up
Importing products is a must-have step that all WooCommerce online store need to do. No matter what solution you choose, all your products will be imported within a few minutes and ready to be shown on your online store.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions about WooCommerce Import Products CSV; we will be happy to help you solve the problems.