Import WooCommerce Products Using Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin

Including all the products in your new website or adding each product’s information manually, can be dawdling! Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce helps you to import all the WooCommerce product’s data from a CSV/XML/Excel file in a quick and efficient manner. To import WooCommerce products:

1. Select the post type as Product.
2. Select an import method.
3. Map the import columns.
4. Use advanced options/ batch import and scheduling.
5. Click on Import to finish.

Before you get down to the product import & export operation, you should know some information about mapping fields.

For example, the post_title field gets mapped to the product name and the regular_price field gets mapped to the regular price of your product. If you want the plugin to work correctly, you must map all of the fields in the correct format. If there is any mistake in your import file, your product import may not work as expected.

The details of WooCommerce mapping fields are given below:

Mapping fields supported by Yoast SEO:

• meta:_yoast_wpseo_focuskw
• meta:_yoast_wpseo_title
• meta:_yoast_wpseo_metadesc
• meta:_yoast_wpseo_metakeywords

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. Existing files
  4. FTP
• Click the Import button to complete the action or proceed to Step 3 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 Step 3 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. If product exists in the store: One can either Skip or Update the entry.S
  2. Match products by their:  ID, SKU
  3. Skip import of new products: On choosing Yes option, import of new products will be skipped. On choosing No option, new products will be imported from the input file.
  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).