As an eCommerce store owner, you may have various reasons to migrate variable products from your WooCommerce store. Having landed on this page means that you are looking for help importing variable products into WooCommerce.
Well, in that case, we are going to help you with that. So what you need is a plugin that does the same.
In this article, we will be showing you how to import variable products into WooCommerce.
Before we kick in, let’s make this clear.
To import variable products into WooCommerce you will need two things.
- An import file with all the variable products.
- WooCommerce import export products plugin by WebToffee.
After purchasing the plugin go to My Accounts > Downloads.
Download the plugin file, upload it to the WordPress plugin directory, and Activate the plugin.
That being said, let’s dive in.
As said earlier, first you need an import file with all the variable products exported. It is recommended that you use the same plugin to export variable products from your WooCommerce store.
To export WooCommerce variable products
- Go to WebToffee Import Export (Pro) > Export.
- Select Product as the post type to export.
- Choose Advanced export as the export method.
- Select Variable product as the Product types.
- Rename and reorder the columns as you want to be exported.
- Enter a file name for the export file and select a file format (supports both CSV and XML).
- Click Export and download the exported file.
The following steps will guide you on how to import WooCommerce variable products.
- Select Product as the post type
Go to WebToffee Import Export (Pro) > Export.
Select Product as the post type to import.
- Select an import method
• Import method: Go for Advanced Import.
• Import from: Select Local to import variable products from CSV stored in your local storage (there are also options to import from URL and FTP). Download a sample CSV of variable products from here.
Upload the import file.
- Map import columns
Here you can map the columns in your CSV file against the corresponding WooCommerce product fields. If the CSV is exported by this plugin, you can skip this step as the columns will be mapped automatically.
- Advanced import options
Here are some advanced options that let you update existing products, set batch import count, or schedule an import. You also have the option to save these settings (as templates) for future imports, in case of requirements arise.
Since you are only importing variable products, you don’t have to bother with these options. Simply scroll to the end of the screen and click the import button. But if you don’t want to import now and schedule the import for another time, you can do it by simply clicking the schedule button.
- Schedule an import
Select Schedule on the Schedule/Import button.
Choose a Schedule type.
• WordPress Cron: It depends on WordPress for scheduling the import job at the specified time.
• Server Cron: Use this option if you have a separate system to trigger the scheduled events.
Add an Interval and Start time.
Click on Schedule Now.
- Directly import
Select Import on the Schedule/Import button.
You can see an import progress log with the number of successful and failed imports (if any).
Previewing Imported Variable products in WooCommerce
Now let’s preview imported variable products in our WooCommerce store.
Go to Products > All Products.
There you can see the newly imported variable products.
You can import any number of products this way in your store.
Final thoughts
If you sell variable products in your WooCommerce store, you may want to add new product variations to your store. Following are some other reasons why people consider importing variable products into WooCommerce.
- Migrating variable products to another store.
- Add variations to existing products.
- Bulk update existing variable products.
The product import export plugin we discussed in this article has a free version available in the WordPress plugin library with basic functionalities. It lets you import products on WooCommerce from CSV or XML files. The free version does not support importing or exporting variable products. You may need to purchase the premium version to import variable products to your store site.
We believe that this article has helped you in importing variable products into WooCommerce.
If you have any thoughts on your mind, let us know in the comments.
Comments (4)
Loretta
December 11, 2022
I tried to put different picture attached to the variable items however this failed and only one primary picture can be posted (which is the first one). I do the excel file and download as CSV which sets up accordling to the product csv sample. Could you verify that the CSV sample that linked with the plugin is working? Please get back to me. I can send you my prduct file to you and try on your side. Thank you.
Alan
January 2, 2023
Hi,
It appears that you require technical assistance. Can you please reach us via support?
Cristian Baitg
October 27, 2022
Thank you. All this information is great as you explain very well what happens with the plugin and how to do it. The big problem that small seller have is creating the CSV/Excel files and the formulas. If I have 10 variation now suddenly I have 10 different file names on my excel and in my other excels with hundreds of products only one filename and 1 price. To create a rule that all the files convert to variable files following the export sample s the complicated thing. Lots of tutorials of how the plugins work that are usually easy as a plugin holds your hands step by step but no tutorials on how to set up Google sheets or Excel to transform one product in multiple ones so you can import those With import/export. Now that would be very useful in a YouTube video.
Alan
November 3, 2022
Hi,
Currently, there is no option to automatically generate the variable product data for import. You have to provide all the details in the file for importing.
We will include your feature suggestion in our development backlogs and will try to include it in future releases.