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Product categories are the heart of a well-organized WooCommerce store. They not only help customers quickly locate what they need, but also allow you to display your inventory in a logical and appealing way. As your store grows, you might need to reorganize or update these categories for dozens or even hundreds of products.
As your WooCommerce store expands, keeping your products organized can become a bit more challenging. With more inventory comes the responsibility of keeping everything sorted, from prices and descriptions to images and categories. Among these, product categories are key for ensuring smooth navigation and boosting your SEO.
But what do you do when it’s time to update or reorganize categories for dozens or even hundreds of products? Doing it manually, one by one, is a huge time sink. That’s where WebToffee’s Product Import Export Plugin comes into play. It provides a smart and efficient way to bulk update product categories, saving you hours of work while keeping your store well-structured.
In this article, we’ll explore how you can use the Product Import Export plugin to bulk update product categories, along with helpful tips to make the process smooth and error-free.
Key Takeaways:
- Well-structured product categories help customers find what they need faster and improve your store’s visibility in search engines.
- As your store grows, updating product categories individually becomes impractical and eats up valuable time.
- WebToffee’s Product Import Export Plugin lets you efficiently bulk update categories, streamlining your workflow and keeping your store organized with minimal effort.
Manually editing product categories one by one is fine when you’re dealing with just a handful of items. However, as your WooCommerce store expands, this approach becomes increasingly inefficient. Bulk updating isn’t just a convenience; it’s a necessity in many real-world scenarios.
Let’s take a closer look.
When Do You Need to Bulk Update?
- Seasonal Changes
Running a holiday sale or launching a seasonal collection? You might need to assign products to new promotional categories like “Winter Deals” or “Summer Clearance.” Doing this manually for dozens of items is tedious. Bulk updating makes it quick and seamless.
- Store Restructuring
As your store evolves, you may decide to reorganize your product categories for a better user experience. For example, you might split a broad “Clothing” category into “Men’s Clothing” and “Women’s Clothing.” Bulk editing helps you reassign products efficiently during this kind of restructuring.
- Adding New Product Lines
Introducing a new line of products often means assigning them to one or more categories. If you’re importing products in bulk, you’ll want to apply categories in bulk as well, ensuring they’re discoverable the moment they go live.
- SEO Improvements
Product categories can impact your site’s SEO by helping search engines understand your store’s structure. Updating categories to include relevant keywords or improve hierarchy is a common SEO tactic, and bulk updates make that process much easier.
Why It’s Worth It
Saves Time – Instead of editing products one at a time, you can update hundreds in a matter of minutes using a structured CSV file or import tool.
Reduces Manual Errors – Bulk operations minimize the risk of inconsistencies and typos that often happen during repetitive manual updates.
Ensures Consistency – Uniform product categorization improves the shopping experience and keeps your store’s structure clean and professional.
Managing WooCommerce product data in bulk doesn’t have to be a hassle, thanks to the WebToffee Product Import Export Plugin. Whether you’re reorganizing categories, adjusting prices, or moving data around, this plugin offers a user-friendly and reliable way to get it done.
Here’s how it makes managing categories a breeze:
Key Features for Category Management
The plugin is designed to handle complex product data tasks effortlessly. When it comes to managing product categories, here’s what stands out:
- Bulk Edit Capabilities: You can update existing categories or assign new ones to multiple products at once.
- Category Replacement or Merge Options: Choose whether to replace the existing categories completely or add new ones while retaining the old.
- Hierarchical Support: The plugin supports parent-child category structures, allowing precise and organized categorization.
- Category Slug & Name Mapping: Recognizes both slugs and display names to ensure accurate import/export.
Compatibility with Custom Taxonomies & Product Types
Beyond default WooCommerce product categories, the plugin is also compatible with:
- Custom Taxonomies: Useful for stores using advanced filtering or plugins that introduce new product types or classifications.
- Variable Products & Product Variations: Update categories across both simple and complex product types.
- Grouped, External/Affiliate, and Downloadable Products: Ensures full compatibility across all product configurations.
This means whether you’re running a standard store or one with highly customized product types, the plugin can handle it. Now, let’s look at how to bulk update product categories using this plugin.
Bulk updating product categories in WooCommerce is simple and efficient with the WebToffee Product Import Export Plugin. This plugin lets you easily assign products to multiple categories and subcategories or update existing ones in just a few steps.
Here, we’ll be using the free version to demonstrate how to perform these updates. If you require more advanced features like custom filtering options, additional file format support, or scheduled imports and exports, you may consider upgrading to the premium version for greater flexibility and control.
Let’s examine these steps in detail.
Export Products with Existing Categories
To begin the bulk update process, you’ll first need to export your current product data, including category assignments, into a CSV file. This provides a comprehensive view of how your products are currently categorized.
Quick Note: Before proceeding, take stock of your current product inventory and check whether they have proper categories aligned. Then, proceed to update their categories as described below.
To get started, install and activate the free Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin.
For detailed, step-by-step instructions on installing the plugin, you can refer to this installation guide.
Step 1: Select Product as Post Type for Export
After installing the plugin:
- Navigate to WebToffee Import Export (Basic) > Export.
- Select Product as the post type to export.
Step 2: Choose Advanced Export Method
- Next, select the Advanced export option.
While Quick export exports all products with default fields in one click, Advanced export lets you filter products, choose specific fields, and customize the export.
Step 3: Filter Product Categories
Use the available filters to control which products are included in the export.
- To update specific categories, simply use the Product Categories filter to export products from specific or multiple categories.
You can also apply other filters to limit the number of products, skip the first few, or filter by tags and other criteria.
Step 4: Map & Reorder Product Columns
Choose which product fields to export, rename column headers, and rearrange column order using drag-and-drop.
Once done, proceed to the next step.
Step 5: Export Products and Categories
Set a file name (or leave it blank for auto-generation), define the batch size, and choose a CSV delimiter (comma, semicolon, etc.).
Once everything’s set, click Export to generate and download your file.
Once the export is complete, a CSV file will be downloaded to your system.
The next step is to open and edit this file to update the product categories as needed.
Also Read: How to Export Products from WooCommerce?
Edit the Product Categories in the CSV File
Open the exported CSV file using a spreadsheet editor like Excel or Google Sheets. Locate the “Product Categories” column in the file.
Add new categories for the relevant products:
- Use the | (pipe) symbol to separate multiple categories.
- Example: Clothing | Sale | New Arrivals
- Use the > symbol for hierarchical category structures.
- Example: Clothing > Men > T-Shirts
- Double-check for consistency and typos to avoid creating unintended new categories.
- Save the updated file in CSV or Excel format, ready for re-import.
Quick Tip: Use ChatGPT to bulk update or modify product categories in your CSV file — a simple way to save time and speed up your updates!
Import the Updated File to Bulk Update Categories
Now that your CSV file is ready, it’s time to import it back into your store to apply the category updates.
Step 1: Select Product as Post Type to Import
- Go to WebToffee Import Export (Basic) > Import
- As a first step, you need to choose the post type as Product.
Step 2: Select Advanced Import Method
- From the available import options, select Advanced Import.
- Upload the edited CSV or Excel file containing your updated product categories.
Proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Map & Reorder Import Columns
Select which columns to import if you want to exclude any specific fields. If you’re importing all columns as-is, you can skip this step and proceed to the next one.
Step 4: Set Advanced Options for Importing Products
This step lets you configure advanced import options. Since we’re updating product categories, this is the crucial step where you’ll choose how those updates are applied.
- In the “If product exists in the store,” option, choose Update.
- Click on Import.
Once completed, your WooCommerce store will reflect the updated product categories across all selected items based on the data in your import file efficiently and accurately.
Did You Know? With the Pro version of the plugin, you’ll get access to advanced filtering options, more flexible import settings, and even the ability to schedule product category imports automatically, saving you time and effort on repeat tasks. It’s perfect for stores with larger inventories or frequent updates.
Yes. During import, you can choose to replace existing categories with the ones specified in your CSV file.
If the category field is left blank and you choose to replace categories, it will remove all categories from those products.
Yes. You can export just the essential columns (e.g., Product ID or SKU and Categories), make your changes, and import only those fields.
Yes, the plugin supports all product types, including variable products and variations.
While not mandatory, it’s highly recommended to back up your database before performing bulk updates, especially on live stores.
Conclusion
Bulk updating product categories in WooCommerce doesn’t have to be a time-consuming or error-prone task. With the WebToffee Product Import Export Plugin you can efficiently assign, update, or reorganize product categories across hundreds of items in just a few simple steps.
And while we’ve focused on category updates in this guide, the plugin offers much more. From handling bulk edits of product data like prices and stock to managing orders, customers, and reviews, it’s a powerful all-in-one solution for WooCommerce data import/export tasks.
So go ahead — simplify your workflow, keep your store organized, and unlock even more possibilities with WebToffee’s plugin. Explore our product page to discover how it can benefit your WooCommerce store.
