How to import and export WooCommerce Products

While migrating to a new WooCommerce website, the absolute important thing that you need in your website are the products. Including all the products in your new website or adding each product’s information manually, can be dawdling!. Import Export Suite for WooCommerce Plugin helps you to export a CSV/XML file that includes all the WooCommerce product’s data and import the same to the website much quickly. 

To export WooCommerce products:

• Click on WebToffee Import/Export(Pro) > Export.

As a first step, you need to choose the post type as Product.

Choose from the below options to continue with your export:

•  Quick export from DB
•  Based on a pre-saved template 
•  Advanced export

Let us have a look at each of these export methods:

Quick Export

• exports the basic/standard fields of the respective post type.  
• To include fields from Taxonomies, Meta(custom fields), Attributes and Hidden meta select the respective group’s checkboxes.
•  Click the Export button to complete the action or proceed to Step3 for advanced options.
• Navigate to Step 5 to know more about Advanced options/ Batch export/ Scheduling.

Pre-saved template

• exports data as per the specifications(filters, selective column, mapping.. etc) from the previously saved file.
• By selecting this option, one can choose a previously saved template from the Export template drop-down.

•  Click the Export button to complete the action or proceed to Step3 to filter data.
• Navigate to Step 3 to know more about filtering options.

Advanced Export

•  This option will take you through a detailed process of filtering/column selection/advanced options that may be required for your export. 

• Click on Step 3, to view the following window where one can filter data on the basis of:

1. Total number of products to export : The actual number of products you want to export. e.g. Entering 500 with a skip count of 10 will export products from 11th to 510th position.
2. Skip first n products : Specify the number of products to be skipped from the beginning. e.g. Enter 10 to skip first 10 products from export.
3. Product types : Filter products by their type. You can export multiple types together.
4. Products : Export specific products. Key in the product names to export to export multiple products.
5. Exclude Products : Use this if you need to exclude a specific or multiple products from your export list.
6. Product categories : Export products belonging to a particular or from multiple categories. Just select the respective categories.
7. Product tags : Enter the product tags to export only the respective products that have been tagged accordingly.
8. Product Status: Filter products by their status private/draft/pending/future.
9. Sort Columns: Defaulted to Ascending. Applicable to above selected columns in the order specified.
10. Sort By: Sorts in Ascending/Descending order.

• Click on Step 4 to proceed further.

The column names appearing in this section can be edited if required. The preferred names and choices that were last saved can be viewed on choosing a pre-saved template. One can also move the columns to reorder the arrangement.

• Here, one can map and reorder the export columns under the following 5 fields:
  1. Default fields
  2. Taxonomies
  3. Meta(Custom fields)
  4. Attributes
  5. Hidden meta

• Click on Step 5 to proceed.

• On reaching Step 5, the following window will appear, from where one can:
  1. Export children SKU of grouped products: Exports children of grouped products by their SKU. Default is Product ID.
  2. Export file name: Filename for the exported file.
  3. Export File Format: Supports both CSV and XML.
  4. Delimiter: Separator for differentiating the columns in the CSV file. Assumes ‘,’ by default.
  5. Enable FTP export: On opting ‘Yes’, choose an FTP profile and specify the export path.

• On expanding Advanced options, one can:
  1. Convert shortcodes to HTML
  2. Export in batches of
  3. Export images as .zip file
• Save the template file for future export (if needed).

• Click on Export to finish and export or schedule the export to finish.

To import WooCommerce products:

• Click on WebToffee Import/Export(Pro) > Import.

As a first step, you need to choose the post type as Product.

Choose from the below options to continue with your import:

•  Quick import 
•  Based on a pre-saved template 
• Advanced import

Let us have a look at each of these import methods:

Quick Import

• imports the basic/standard fields of the respective post type.  
• primarily used when your input file was exported using the same plugin
• One can import file from:
  1. Local
  2. URL
  3. FTP
• Click the Import button to complete the action or proceed to Step3 for advanced options.

• Navigate to Step 4 to know more about Advanced options/ Batch import/ Scheduling.

Pre-saved template

• This method retains the previous filter criteria and other column specifications as per the chosen file and imports data accordingly.
• By selecting this option, one can choose a previously saved template from the Import template drop-down.

•  Click the Import button to complete the action or proceed to Step3 to map and reorder columns.
• Navigate to Step 3 to know more about mapping and reordering import columns.

Advanced Import

• This option will take you through a detailed process of filtering/column selection/advanced options that may be required for your import. 

Here, one can map the import columns under the following 5 fields:

• Default fields
• Taxonomies
• Meta(Custom fields)
• Attributes
• Hidden meta

This field is used to append a value/expression to an existing item while importing. It basically selects/maps any column from the input file and compute the values with expressions and creates output.

• Expression: Any of the operators +*/-()&@ or string constants can be used along with the attributes to manipulate the respective value. 
• Input: Select the column from the dropdown which has to be modified.
• Output: Sample value will be created based on the first record from input file.

• Click on Step 4 to proceed.

• On reaching Step 4, the following window will appear, from where one can:
  1. Update Only: On selecting “Yes”, the store is updated with the data from the input file only for matching/existing records from the file. On selecting “No”, the entire data from the input file is processed for an update or insert as the case maybe.
  2. Match products by their:  ID, SKU
  3. If product exists in the store: One can either Skip or Update the entry.
  4. If conflict with an existing Post ID: One can either Skip item or Import as new item.
  5. Use SKU to link up-sells, cross-sells and grouped products
  6. Delete non-matching products from store

• Save the template file for future export (if needed).

• Click on Import/Schedule to finish.

You can either import the products directly into your store or schedule the import using FTP.

To schedule the import:

1. Hit the Schedule option, and you will be taken to the cron schedule window as shown below:

The plugin supports two different schedule types:

1. WordPress Cron: Upon a visit, WordPress Cron will check to see if the time/date is later than the scheduled event/s, and if it is– it will fire those events.
   • schedules your job at the specified time. 
   • is dependent on your website visitors.
2. Server Cron: You may need to trigger the URL every minute depending on the volume of data to be processed.You can use this option :
   • to generate a unique URL that can be added to your system in order to trigger the events. 
   • if you have a separate system to trigger the scheduled events.

Also, the import/export can be scheduled on a daily, weekly, monthly, custom basis. One can also configure the time at which the import has to be scheduled.

To directly import:

1. Hit on the Import option

Once the import is completed, a pop-up will be displayed showing import status which contains the number of successful imports and failed imports (if any).