What’s the first thought that comes to mind when you think about moving your WooCommerce store to a new hosting provider?
I guess how long it will take to back up your entire store and export all these products. How to export all your products, product variants, pictures, customer details, comments, blog posts, well, your entire store.
this article will guide you through the whole process of exporting WooCommerce products quickly and easily.
if you want to create a WooCommerce store from scratch, you can also take a look at our article: how to build a WooCommerce website with Elementor and Astra themes. In addition to transferring
to a new hosting provider, you may need to update your products in batches or even keep backups of all products, just in case.
‘s article will show you how to do this.
this article will show you how to export your WooCommerce product in two foolproof ways.
in the first approach, we will use the default WooCommerce system. In the second approach, we will take advantage of a WordPress plug-in. Although
has several plug-ins available, both free and paid, we will use the “Product import-export for WooCommerce” plug-in.
Product import-export for WooCommerce is one of the most common plug-ins to help you manage WooCommerce products.
before we move on to how to export WooCommerce products, we need to be familiar with CSV files, because both methods of exporting from WooCommerce require them.
We recommend two ways to easily export WooCommerce products, manually exporting and using plug-ins, both using CSV files.
- what is a CSV file?
- method 1: how to use the default WooCommerce tool to export products
- method 2: how to use plug-ins to export WooCommerce products
- how to use CSV files to import WooCommerce products
- to help you export WooCommerce products plug-ins
- summary
what is a CSV file? The
CSV file, or comma-separated values file, is a simple text file that contains a list of data. These files are used to exchange data between different applications.
for example, applications with large databases usually support CSV files. You can export data from one application to a CSV file, and then import it into another application, which is also a CSV file.
these files often use comma characters to separate data. Therefore, the term is called a comma separated value (CSV) file.
for example, suppose you have some products in your WooCommerce database and you export them as CSV files.
you will get a file containing text like this,
product name, type, manufacturing, size
Polo T-shirt, clothing, ABC,S/M/L
, which is the true meaning of the CSV file.
, of course, contains a lot more data than I’ve shown here, but you’ll see that
once you export the CSV file, you can access it through a text editor of your choice, such as notepad.
however, due to the large amount of data in the CSV file and without any text wrapping, it can be difficult to view the file, let alone edit it.
I suggest you open the file with a spreadsheet. You can use Microsoft’s Excel, or even upload files to the Internet and use Google forms.
now that you know what CSV files are, let’s see how to use them during the export process.
method 1: how to use the default WooCommerce tool to export product
in this first method, we will use the default WooCommerce tool, which has a built-in product CSV importer and exporter. You can import, export, or even update products in your WooCommerce store through a CSV. The
tool supports all types of products, namely simple products, group products, external / ancillary products, and variable products.
before we begin, I assume that you already have WooCommerce installed on your WordPress website.
in this article, I have installed WooCommerce in my store and used the Astra startup template-“Simply Natural”. You can choose an Astra Starter template that you like. After
successfully installs WooCommerce and your startup template, there will be several sample products in your store. To export these products,
continues to click on “Export” at the top.
you will find yourself on the following page.
you can now select the columns, product types and product categories you want to export.
, by clicking on any field, you will get a drop-down list, as shown in the following figure.
if you want to export all the fields and data, whether there is data in it or not, just leave it as it is and click “Generate CSV”.
if you have data in only a few selected fields, you can select only those options you want to export.
, for example, my store only has data for the “Cactus” product category. The product type is’ Simple product’, I only have the data in the ‘Stock” and ‘Categories’ fields.
I will only select these fields, as shown above.
if you have installed a plug-in and add additional information to your product through any meta-plug-in, you can also check “Export custom meta?” Field.
once you have completed these steps, click ‘Generate CSV’.
Once the export is complete, your CSV file will be downloaded. The file name of the CSV file may contain a date.
for example, ‘wc-product-export-13-11-2020-1605232625008.csv` is the file I downloaded when I was doing this.
if you want to know if you can customize the file name, I’ve thought about that, too. Well, it’s a little technical.
you must access the “abstract-wc-csv-exporter.php” file under “woocommerce & gt; includes & gt; export” in your website control panel and edit the following section.
WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite
you may have noticed that the default options provided by WooCommerce have some limitations. One of the limitations of
is the export of complex product changes. Especially if you have multiple attributes of variable products (for example, color and size, if your store sells clothing).
in addition to multi-SKU products, if you want to export custom data from bookings, product vendors, or create and update thousands of products at once, you can consider WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite.
, however, this is a paid option.
uses WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite, which allows you to include complex products, standard items such as batch updates of prices and descriptions, and custom data such as reservation availability and resources.
for a complete list of features, check out the WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite page.
once you have downloaded WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite, you will find a link to ‘CSV Import Suite” under WooCommerce on the dashboard.
under ‘CSV Import Suite’, you can select’ Import Products’ ‘and’ Export Products’, as shown in the following figure.
clicks the “Export Products” tab.
you can choose to export the product itself or export changes to the product.
is the same as the default WooCommerce system, you have several export options.
you can set a limit on the maximum number of products you want to export. For example, if you set “Limit” to 100 and “Offset” to 200, you can export 200 to 300 products to your CSV.
“Limit to parent ID (s)” applies only to changes in the product. If you want to export only one specific parent product change, you can mention the ID of these products, separated by commas.
for example, if you sell shirts with variants such as color and size, you can choose the specific variants you want to output.
under the “Columns” option, you can select the specific columns you want to export.
you can select “Include hidden metadata” if you want to display custom metadata information such as custom booking orders and customer information for your product and / or product variants.
once you have completed the above steps, choose ‘Export Products’ or’ Export Variations’ according to your request. Your CSV file will be downloaded.
method 2: how to use plug-ins to export WooCommerce products
in the WordPress fraternity, there is a common saying that there is a plug-in for everything. Yes, there are several plug-ins that can be used to export your WooCommerce products.
although we will introduce some recommended plug-ins later in this article to help you import and export your product, we will install such a plug-in here. Product Import Export for WooCommerce plug-in. Or you can install the WP All Import WooCommerce product export advanced plugin.
WooCommerce’s product import and export is a very popular plug-in. There is a free version and a professional version that provides more features and benefits.
Free Edition only allows you to import and export simple products. For products with changes, you will have to consider the professional version. Some of the features of
Pro include importing and exporting all types of products, such as simple products, team products, external products and variants, exporting products by category, importing and exporting product reviews, and so on.
go ahead, search for the plug-in, install and activate it. After
is installed, you will see a new menu option under WooCommerce’s product. Click Product Im-Ex’ under Products’.
under the default ‘Product Export” tag, you will notice that ‘Offset” and ‘Limit’, also have several fields under the column.
is just like the WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite we introduced earlier, you can set a ‘Offset” and a ‘Limit’ number.
recalls that if you set “Limit” to 100 and “Offset” to 200, you can export 200 to 300 products to your CSV. The next set of fields for
is Columns.
you can use the check box to select the various fields you want to export. You can also choose to customize your column headers to appear in your CSV file.
once you have selected the desired options, click “Export Products” and your CSV file will be downloaded.
if you have purchased an advanced version of this plugin, you can choose to export ‘Variable Products’.
you have some additional options in addition to ‘Variable Products’, such as export and import product reviews, bulk export, and more plug-in settings.
the Batch Export tab is especially useful when you have a large number of products and want to set a limit on the number of products exported per batch.
as shown in the figure above, setting the “Batch count” limit can help overcome the memory limit or low timeout interval of WordPress. Once
is set up, click “Start Export” to download your CSV file. How
uses CSV files to import WooCommerce products
We now know how to export WooCommerce products. The next obvious question is, how do we import the product into the new store?
Although I am confident that you have guessed how to import the product, when we talk about exporting, I will continue to explain how to import your CSV file.
goes to “Product & gt; All Products”.
the program is the same whether you start a new store or add a new product to an existing store. The picture above on
is if you have an existing product in your store and you want to add a new product. Just click “Import”.
if you do not have a product in your store and want to add a new product, the following page will be displayed.
, click ‘Start Import’.
whether you have an existing product in your store or not, the rest of the steps are the same. The first step in
will be ‘Upload CSV file’.
in this article, I will continue to upload the same CSV file I exported earlier, namely ‘wc-product-export-13-11-2020-1605232625008.csv’.
, after selecting your file, click ‘Continue’.
in the current interface, the ‘Column mapping’,WooCommerce system will automatically put the column name “maps” in your CSV into the field.
when I previously exported the CSV file, I only selected the ‘Stock’ and’ Categories’ fields. So this is what you see under “Column name”, on the left. If you select another field, it will also be displayed under “Column name”. The
WooCommerce system automatically maps column names to their respective fields. As shown in the figure above, under ‘Map to field’,’ Stock’ is automatically mapped to ‘Stock’. Similarly, ‘Categories” is mapped to ‘Categories’.
you can use the drop-down menu on the right to adjust the fields accordingly.
if there is a situation where you do not want to import a specific field, under ‘Column name’, you can select the’ Do not import’ ‘option on the right. After
completes these steps, click “Run the importer”. Once the import of
is complete, it will display ‘dialogue.’ Screen.
as shown in the figure above, six products have been imported.
updates an existing product
for example, you want to update an existing product, such as tax, or location, with some additional information. Although this process is similar to what we just talked about, a key factor to note is the ID of the product.
if you move your mouse over any product, you will notice “ID”. In the above example, you will notice that ID is 3733. Similarly, each product has a unique ID.
when creating your CSV file, you must include the ID of the product. This will allow the WooCommerce system to automatically map the product to the corresponding product ID and update it.
for example, I have moved forward and exported a new file.
this time, I exported additional fields and, most importantly, included / exported the product ID. The screen below
shows the exported CSV file opened in Google Table.
now, I will include a new column. For example, I will include a new column “Location”.
I have entered some false values under ‘Location’ and renamed the file to include’ modified”in the file name. The next step of
is still the same, that is, click ‘Products & gt; All Products” Import’, to select the file you want to import.
in this case, it is a CSV file with a “modified” after the file name. The only difference for
this time is to check the ‘Update existing products” option. The
click on the ‘Continue’,’Column mapping” screen will be displayed.
you will notice that all the fields under ‘Column name’ have been mapped accordingly, except for the field we just included, namely’ Location’.
you can choose “Do not import” or select the option corresponding to your field. When the
step is complete, click ‘Run the importer’.
your product has been successfully updated.
, how do you check if the product has been successfully updated? The easiest way is to export products and check to see if they have been updated.
now that we have shown how to import and export WooCommerce products using the default WooCommerce system and the ‘WooCommerce product import and export plug-in’ plug-in, let’s introduce some additional plug-ins you can consider.
helps you export the plug-in
for WooCommerce products. OK, let me remind you. If you buy an advanced version, most of the plug-ins mentioned here provide the best features and functionality. If you only want to get basic export and import functions, WooCommerce’s built-in import and export functions should be sufficient.
features such as exporting and importing product variants, bulk products, product reviews, custom booking details, customer details, and so on, are available only in the advanced version.
some of the following plug-ins specialize in specific tasks, such as import and export. Some can do more.
1. WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite
WooCommerce Product CSV Import Suite this is my first choice to help you import and export WooCommerce products. We have also introduced this point in the previous article.
you can even test this extension before you buy it. Click the try and Buy button, which is just below the Buy button now. A demo site will be created for you to test the extension.
for a complete list of features and consider this extension, visit the product CSV import kit page.
2. WP All Import
WP All Import is another popular plug-in that helps you import and export your product in a few clicks
you can try the’WP All Import’ plug-in for free for 7 days. Visit the “WP All Import” product page, create a sandboxie (demo website), and give it a try.
3. Another very popular plug-in for Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce
, which we use in this article, is the Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce plug-in. The
plug-in is available free of charge in WordPress’s plug-in library. As we have found, the options for this free plug-in are limited. To explore extended features, you can consider using the advanced version.
to view the features of the advanced version and to purchase the plug-in, visit the WooCommerce Product Import and Export plug-in page.
4. WooEXIM
my last recommendation is WooEXIM. In addition to helping you import and export your WooCommerce products,
can also use the WooEXIM plug-in to import and export data such as customers, orders, coupons, etc. You can also arrange your export at a convenient time. For a detailed list of
‘s features and demos, please visit the WooEXIM product page.
Summary
if you are running a WooCommerce store, exporting products will soon become second nature. In addition to exporting WooCommerce orders, creating backups, updating your product information, and even migrating to a new website, you may also need to export product data for inventory accounting.
‘s default WooCommerce system has a fairly decent set of tools to handle the import and export of your products. However, some solutions on the market provide better features and functionality than the default WooCommerce system.
‘s article on how to export WooCommerce products should have given you fair instructions on what these export plug-ins can do and how to export your products.
, do you use any of these plug-ins? Do you know of any better tools to import or export WooCommerce plug-ins? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
