With the rise of digital sales, WooCommerce makes it easy to sell and manage digital products, particularly large catalogs, using CSV files. This article will cover two approaches to uploading digital products: the WooCommerce built-in importer and WebToffee’s plugin, which offers more advanced features.
Selling digital products is an expanding opportunity. Globally, digital product sales are expected to reach $331 billion by 2025. Whether you’re selling eBooks, software, or online courses, WooCommerce simplifies the process of selling digital products. You can easily add your digital products to WooCommerce and advertise them to your customers.
But if you have a large catalog, adding them one by one can be a hassle. This is where a CSV file becomes useful. It allows you to upload and manage your digital products swiftly and effectively.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the straightforward steps to upload digital products to your WooCommerce store using a CSV file. We provide you with two ways to import WooCommerce products with a CSV file,
- Using the built-in product importer of WooCommerce.
- Using a third-party plugin.
When importing your digital goods, WooCommerce’s inbuilt importer will do the job, but if you want more flexibility and advanced options, you can use the Product Import Export plugin for WooCommerce by WebToffee.
Let’s get started!
Key Takeaways
- The booming digital product market presents an excellent opportunity to sell eBooks, software, and online courses using WooCommerce.
- CSV files make it easy to import and manage extensive digital product catalogs swiftly and effectively.
- You can use WooCommerce’s built-in importer for simple imports or opt for the WebToffee Product Import Export Plugin if you need advanced features and greater control.
In eCommerce, a digital product refers to items you sell online that lack a physical presence. Customers can easily download or stream these products immediately after purchase without the need for shipping, providing a highly convenient and instant experience.
Here are some common examples of digital products:
- Ebooks: PDFs or ePub files.
- Music: MP3s, podcasts.
- Software and apps: From desktop programs to plugins.
- Online Courses: Video lessons and interactive materials.
- Photos & design assets: Stock images, illustrations, templates.
- Printables: Calendars, planners, worksheets.
- Subscriptions & licenses: Memberships, SaaS access.
Example of a digital product – An ebook available on Amazon.
Digital products offer businesses a unique chance to create and sell offerings with low overhead and high profit margins.
The Comma-Separated Values (CSV) format is a plain text file that contains comma-separated data. CSV files are commonly used for exporting and importing complex data between applications.
Using CSV files to upload digital products to a WooCommerce store efficiently handles bulk uploads. Here’s why it’s advantageous:
- Time-Saving for Bulk Uploads: If you have a large number of digital products, adding each one manually to your WooCommerce store can take a lot of time. CSV files enable you to upload several products simultaneously, which saves time and minimizes repetitive tasks.
- Organized Data Management: CSV files keep all your product information neatly organized in a spreadsheet format. This makes it simple to track and manage product details like title, price, SKU, description, and download links all in one place, ensuring consistency across your listings.
- Easy Edits and Updates: With a CSV file, you can swiftly edit or update product information in bulk. For instance, if you need to change prices, descriptions, or availability, you can make those adjustments directly in the file and re-upload it, keeping your store’s inventory current with minimal hassle.
- Improved Accuracy: By utilizing a structured CSV file, you reduce the chances of errors that can occur with manual entry. Having all data in one file allows you to double-check for typos or missing fields before uploading, which helps prevent listing issues on your store.
- Compatibility with WooCommerce: WooCommerce supports importing products via CSV, making it easy to get your digital products live on your store. Additionally, most spreadsheet programs like Excel or Google Sheets can work with CSV files, so you won’t need any special software.
Before we hop into that, you must have a product CSV file before we begin. For users who want to migrate their digital products to another site, you can export your WooCommerce products to a CSV file. Once you have the product CSV file, you can start importing WooCommerce products to your store.
Additionally, CSV files may be helpful if you’re switching from another eCommerce platform. Depending on your current platform, you may frequently export your whole product catalog as a single CSV file. Then, you can upload this file to your brand-new WooCommerce store to get completely stocked shelves right away.
Note: For a flawless import, the CSV file needs to be UTF-8 encoded. Refer to this article on how to save a CSV file in UTF-8 encoded to know more.
Using WooCommerce Built-in Product CSV Importer
WooCommerce has a built-in product CSV importer, and both WordPress and WooCommerce provide full support for exporting and importing data in the CSV format. This implies that you may use a single CSV file to import, export, and update all of your products.
Let’s go over the procedure step-by-step.
Step 1: Navigate to WooCommerce Products Page
From your WordPress dashboard,
- Go to Products > All Products.
- Click on the Import button.
Step 2: Upload CSV File
To import your digital products into your WooCommerce store, upload your CSV file in this step.
Select whether you want to update existing products if necessary.
Once you have chosen a CSV file to upload, click Continue to proceed.
Step 3: Map CSV Fields to Products
Choose which fields in your CSV file to ignore and map to the fields in the CSV with that in your WooCommerce store.
If you are happy with the options, click Run the importer button.
This will then import the digital products into your WooCommerce Store.
Using WooCommerce Product Import Export Plugin
To import WooCommerce digital products using the plugin, simply follow the instructions listed below.
Step 1: Install WebToffee Product Import Export Plugin
From the WordPress dashboard,
- Go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
- Enter the search term “WebToffee Product import plugin” in the search box.
- Install and activate the plugin.
Step 2: Choose Product as Post Type to Import
Once the plugin is installed, navigate to:
- WebToffee Import Export (Basic) > Import from the WordPress dashboard.
- Select the post type as Product.
- After the post type selection, click on Select import method button.
Step 3: Select Advanced Import Method
You can import products in two ways: Quick Import and Advanced Import. We will use the Advanced import option because it allows for filters and customization, making it simple to import just the products you want.
For detailed instructions on import methods, refer to the plugin user guide.
If you want to try out a sample CSV file, you can easily download one from the option next to the Choose File for Import button.
Next, just upload the CSV file from your computer to continue importing.
Step 4: Map Product Import Columns
The import mapping feature lets you map the column headers in the CSV file to the WooCommerce product data fields. The mapping section is crucial if you import from a different eCommerce platform, such as Magento, Shopify, etc.
Once you have mapped the CSV file, you need to move on to the next and final step of importing the product.
Step 5: Import Products to WooCommerce
The plugin offers you some critical import options in this phase. It includes,
- Skip import of new products.
- Match product by their ID or SKU.
- Update existing products in your store.
- Import new products.
- Set up the batch count for batch import.
You can now click the Import button to start the process. All the digital products in the CSV will begin to be imported and appear in your WooCommerce store.
Quick Tip: Save the import template to reuse it for future imports!
As instructed in the CSV, the sample digital product, a music file, is imported into WooCommerce.
The free version of the plugin is perfect for managing basic product import and export tasks.
If you have more advanced requirements, the premium version provides extra features designed for more intricate digital product management. This includes support for variable, subscription, and custom product types, making it great for digital offerings such as bundles or memberships.
The WooCommerce Product Import Export plugin is a well-regarded and frequently used tool for moving digital products and their related data between WooCommerce stores. With this plugin, you can effortlessly import and export various product types, including simple, variable, grouped, and affiliate digital products, utilizing file formats such as CSV, XML, TSV, and Excel.
Created with flexibility in mind, the plugin boasts advanced features that make it perfect for larger stores with extensive digital product catalogs. It provides enhanced control over the import/export process, ensuring that migrations or updates are carried out accurately and efficiently.
Key Features:
- Import/export simple, variable, grouped, external, subscription, and custom product types.
- Import and export products to multiple formats – CSV, XML, TSV, and Excel files.
- Export and import custom fields(meta), third-party plugin fields, and hidden meta.
- Advanced filtering options for selectively exporting products.
- Import and export product images.
- Map and transform fields and bulk edit or evaluate data during the import.
- Use FTP/SFTP to transfer files during import and export.
- Schedule automated import and export processes.
Wrapping Up
With the global digital product market proliferating, selling eBooks, software, and online courses has never been more accessible.
You can use WooCommerce’s built-in importer to bring in your digital products. Alternatively, you might consider the more advanced features offered by WebToffee’s Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce. The built-in tool is adequate for basic imports, but the WebToffee plugin provides additional flexibility, making it an excellent choice for scaling your store effectively.
Either way, these tools help you save time, reduce mistakes, and grow your digital product business effortlessly. Hope this post helped you and pointed you in the right way. If you have any questions or feedback, comment below, and we will get back to you at the earliest.