How to Export WooCommerce Products with Images

This article walks you through step-by-step how to selectively export your products and their related images in WooCommerce. Plus, we’ll delve into some common challenges while exploring product data and why using a plugin is crucial for exporting products to another location.

Migrating your online store and all its data, especially products, is challenging. If you have a large catalog of products in your store, selectively exporting them to your new site is arduous and time-consuming. However, specialized tools are built for this.

While WordPress has a built-in tool for exporting product data, it has limitations. It does not offer the option to selectively export products and their corresponding images.

This is where plugins come to the rescue. A third-party plugin like our Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce is your go-to solution for effortlessly exporting products and their images in bulk.

If your store has several product variations, our plugin’s advanced filtering options allow you to export specific products along with their linked images.

In this article, we will dive into how you can export products along with their featured and gallery images from your WooCommerce store.

Let’s get started.

Significant hurdles exist in exporting product data, coupled with images and custom metadata. Nearly all these bottlenecks faced while moving product data between stores can be attributed to the reliance on manual or obsolete practices.

Here are some of the most common challenges that you may encounter while undertaking a bulk export of products and their images from one platform to another.

• Large Product Catalogs – Sorting products and images to transfer from an extensive product catalog and managing their information is complex and time-consuming.

• Numerous Attributes – Most products and their associated images often include multiple attributes (size, color, price, etc.), adding to their complexity.

• Inconsistent Data Mapping – It can get complicated to precisely align product attributes with the fields in specific platforms.

• Missing Information & Errors – There’s a high risk of errors during exports that corrupt product information and leave out crucial details like images, descriptions, and specifications.

Tacking these challenges directly is crucial if you need to simplify, mitigate errors, and speed up the export process. The right plugins can make this happen as they automate many of the tedious and error-prone tasks involved in product exports, saving you valuable time and resources.

There are several reasons why you may want to export your WooCommerce products with images.

It may be because you want to migrate your store entirely or simply create a backup of your products. You may also export your products to update the product lists on other platforms, such as Google Merchant Center. Additionally, the export option comes in handy if you are looking to update the product data and images in your store in bulk.

However, if you have a large number of products, individually transferring them will not be feasible. Also, a product may have multiple images, and manually matching all these images with the product is a sizable task.

Why Export Plugins are Essential

To make the transition bearable and smoother, you will need a plugin to help you with the export process. Here’s why they are indispensable components in exporting products.

• Bulk Export – Plugins allow you to export entire product catalogs and their associated images with just a few clicks, eliminating the need for manual data selection.

• Filter & Modify Data – It’s easy to filter data based on specific criteria (category, price, SKU, etc.) and modify product data such as changing attributes and adding custom fields during the export process.

• Accurate Data Mapping – Plugins can automatically map product attributes between the source and destination platform, reducing the need for manual configuration.

• Multiple Formats – Most plugins can export data in various formats (CSV, XML, TSV, etc.) to suit different platforms and their requirements.

• Schedule Exports – You can schedule exports to occur at regular intervals, ensuring your product and related data remain up-to-date.

• Error Reporting – Most plugins offer detailed error reports to help you identify and resolve issues during the export process.

Whether you are expanding your store or setting up a new one from scratch, our WooCommerce Product Export Plugin is your go-to solution for an efficient export process. With just a few clicks, you can export all your product data from the source store into a CSV, XML, or TSV file and swiftly import it into your new store.

Follow the steps below to export WooCommerce products along with their images using the plugin.

Step 1: Install & Activate Product Export Plugin

1. Go to Plugins > Add New Plugin from your WordPress dashboard.

2. Search for the plugin – Product Import Export for WooCommerce.

3. Install and activate the plugin.

Step 2: Select Post Type

After you have installed and activated the plugin, let’s see how the export process is carried out.

1. Go to – WebToffee Import Export (Basic) > Export.

2. Choose the post type as Product and proceed to select the export method.

Step 3: Choose the Export Method

1. Now select the method for exporting the products. You will have two options: Quick export and Advanced export.

2. Let’s select advanced export and proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Filter Product Data to Export

Here, you can customize the export by selecting the number of products to be exported and specifying which products, categories, or tags to include or exclude.

However, if you want to export all products and their images, it’s best to skip these configurations and move to the next step.

Step 5: Map and Rename Export Columns

Here, you can decide which information to export and how to organize it. You have the option to rearrange the product fields, rename the columns, and select specific fields to appear in the output export file.

Since we have to export the whole set of products and their corresponding images, you can skip configuring and proceed directly to the next step. If you prefer to rename or rearrange any fields, you can do so before moving forward.

However, if you only want to export the product images of the products in the store:

1. Uncheck all the fields and select only the Images (featured and gallery) field. The export file will only have one column named Images.

2. Click the Advanced options/Batch export button to proceed to the next step.

Step 6: Set Advanced Options/Batch Export of Products with Images

1. Select the number of products to be exported in a single batch. By default, it’s set to 30.

2. In the Delimiter drop-down, choose a separator (comma, semi-colon, tab, space) that differentiates columns in the CSV file.

3. Once done, click on Export to start exporting your products and images. You can then download the CSV file.

Here is an exported sample CSV file with product images and other product-specific data.

Now, let’s see how to export product images in your WooCommerce store to an Excel file. For this, you need the premium version of the WooCommerce Product Import Export plugin.

Before we begin, make sure you have purchased and downloaded the plugin file from My Accounts > Downloads on your WebToffee account.

Follow the below steps to export WooCommerce product data with images to an Excel file.

Step 1: Install & Activate the Plugin

1. From your WordPress admin console, navigate to Plugins > Add New Plugin.

2. Click on Upload Plugin and upload the plugin file that you have previously downloaded.

3. Click on Install Now and then Activate the plugin. Refer to this article if you need help activating the import export plugin.

Next, you go through the same steps for export configuration as you did with the basic version of the plugin.

The only difference lies in the final step before exporting, where you configure the advanced export options.

Step 2: Configure Advanced Export Options

This is the final step for exporting WooCommerce product data with images.

1. Specify a file name for the export file.

2. From the export file format dropdown, choose XLS or XLSX as the file format.

3. Click Export to export WooCommerce product data with images.

Exporting Product Images Separately

If you want to export WooCommerce product images separately,

1. Expand the advanced options widget and enable the Export product images separately option.

2. Then click on Export images to export images only.

After completion, you will receive a prompt message to download the export file. Click on the Download button to save the file to your local storage.

You can see an image tab in the export file with a URL to download the images.

The pro version of the WooCommerce Product Export Plugin offers several premium import export features in addition to the ones offered by the basic version of the plugin.

Exporting products and images from the WooCommerce platform using this plugin follows the same steps as the basic version. Meanwhile, the pro version offers more customization and filtration options.

Some of the advanced features offered by this plugin include:

• Supports variable, subscription, and custom product types
• Schedule automated export process
• Export images as a separate .zip file, etc.
• Export in Excel, XML, CSV, and TSV formats
• Exporting custom fields and third-party plugin (hidden meta) fields
• Option to export products modified after the last export
• Enables automatic FTP export

It is always better to keep a backup of all the products in your store. Above all, exporting these data shouldn’t be a headache either. A simple free plugin like the WooCommerce product import and export plugin can help you make this process as hassle-free as possible.

For a detailed breakdown of the product and image export process, you can refer to our documentation here.

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