Updating WooCommerce Product Variations without Parent SKU

The screenshots and content you are viewing may correspond to an older version. We are in the process of updating the documentation to reflect the current version. Until then, you may refer to the latest set up guide for an insight.

Variations of variable product data can be updated without explicit reference to its parent SKU or even without causing any distortion to the existing data. For example, there can be instances where you need to alter the price of a product without altering any other data of the product. This scenario can be easily handled using the Product Import Export plugin.

Let us consider a sample CSV as shown below for demonstrating this scenario:

There are two variables namely B11V1 and B11V2 for the product with SKU B11. The current sale price of the product is shown to be $9 and $10.

Let us change the sale_price of the products from the current value and import it without specifying any reference to its parent_sku. The resultant CSV file will look like the one as shown below:

Now, import this updated CSV in the usual manner. Click here, to know more about how the products are imported.

It can be seen that the merge is successful and the sale_price of the product has been updated successfully as shown below.

In this manner, child products can be updated without explicitly linking it with its parent SKU.

Was this article helpful?
Yes No

This article posted in Advanced Topics, Documentation, Knowledge Base, Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce and tagged parent SKU, update variable products, without, woocommerce, WooCommerce variable products

Written by

Shesna

Shesna is a technical content writer for WebToffee. She is familiar in working closely with the SMEs to break down complex technical information into a concise, easy to understand manner.

Comments (10)

Nabeel Penkar
May 13, 2021
Can you please help me where the “Update products if exist” option in WordPress.
Also I have an update for woocommerce should I install it because I’m getting an error”Invalid or duplicated SKU.”
Reply
- Mark
  May 14, 2021
  Hi,
  You can find the “Update products if exist” option in the import screen of the plugin.
  The error ”Invalid or duplicated SKU.” is occurring because there is already an existing product on your site with the same SKU and the Update option is not enabled. Please make sure that you enable the option “Update products if exist” inorder to update the products.
  Reply
Kyriaki Papadopoulou
September 29, 2020
In case there is not a duplicate product, what are the options for the invalid SKU?I cannot put ID as I have other products with same ID already in the shop
Reply
- Mark
  December 16, 2020
  Hi,
  Please make sure that you don’t map the SKU column to the ID field and there is no existing orphaned variation in your database with the same SKU as in the CSV. If there are orphaned variations then please clear it using the tool Woocommerce>status>tools>delete orphaned variations.
  Reply
zak
June 11, 2020
I have the pro version of woocom and am experiencing the same issue. during import, we only got parent categories and had to manually configure variant skus but when I use my businesses skus, I’m getting the invalid/duplicate warning. HELP
Reply
- Alan
  June 12, 2020
  Hi,
  Could you please share with us your importing CSV file and the screenshots of the issue you are facing via support. Our support team will follow you up from there.
  Reply
Dariusz
February 10, 2020
I have Sku variant and status update in csv.
Invalid or duplicated SKU.
product upgrade does not work
The product is found correctly
Thank you for your help
Ps.
No import can overwrite data without Paren SKU (or is)
;(
Reply
- Alan
  February 10, 2020
  Hi,
  We tried updating the variations in our test environment without including the parent SKU data and were able to update the product without any issues.
  The “Invalid or duplicated SKU” error message is displayed when the “Update products if exists” option is not enabled when updating the products. Please make sure that you have enabled the “Update products if exists” option when updating the product.
  If the issue still persists please reach us via support.
  Reply
  - Dariusz Parczyk
    February 12, 2020
    I have ;(
    100%
    Reply
    - Alan
      February 12, 2020
      Hi Dariusz,
      We have received your support ticket. From the screenshot you shared via the support ticket we can see that you are having the basic version of the plugin installed on your site. The basic version of the plugin supports the import/export of only simple products. It does not support variable products.
      You may please install the premium version of the plugin in order to import/update/export variable products on your site.
      Reply

Cookie	Description
PHPSESSID	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Description
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag	Identification code of website for tracking visits.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_hjid	Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
_hjIncludedInSample	This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate Heatmaps, Funnels, Recordings, etc.
has_recent_activity	This cookie is used to signal to the code repository website if the user has browsed other website resources during the current session.
tk_ai	Gathers information for our own, first party analytics tool about how our services are used. A collection of internal metrics for user activity, used to improve user experience.
tk_lr	This cookie is set by JetPack plugin on sites using WooCommerce. This is a referral cookie used for analyzing referrer behavior for Jetpack
tk_or	This cookie is set by JetPack plugin on sites using WooCommerce. This is a referral cookie used for analyzing referrer behavior for Jetpack
tk_qs	Gathers information for our own, first party analytics tool about how our services are used. A collection of internal metrics for user activity, used to improve user experience.
tk_r3d	The cookie is installed by JetPack. Used for the internal metrics fo user activities to improve user experience

Cookie	Description
_fbp	This cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr	The cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.

Updating WooCommerce Product Variations without Parent SKU

Written by

Comments (10)

Leave a Reply
Cancel reply

Leave a Reply

Updating WooCommerce Product Variations without Parent SKU

Share this post

Written by

Comments (10)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply
Cancel reply