Since categories are a useful way to sort and organize your products, our Product Import Export Plugin For WooCommerce enables you to import hierarchical category structures as well as multiple categories that are associated with a specific product. Hence, you can easily import your categories and subcategories from a CSV/ XML file.
Product categories must be entered in the uploading CSV/XML file. While importing, if a product has multiple categories, they are separated by ‘|’, and if a product has a category with a hierarchical structure, they are separated with ‘>’.
Steps to Import WooCommerce Product Categories
Let us understand this procedure with the help of the following example:
Suppose, you have the following two products in your CSV file. The products with respective categories are as shown in a sample CSV below:
Note: You can download a sample CSV here.
Following are the steps to import products with their respective categories:
- Navigate to WooCommerce > Product Im-Ex section of the plugin. Under Product > Import, move to Import Product in CSV /XML Format section, as shown below:
Import settings: Choose a file from the file selection option and click Upload file and import. You can also map the fields with column headings (CSV file header), and use Evaluation field to fix/update the required value for the particular field. Finally, click Submit to import the products into your online store.
To know more about importing products, read this article.
Once the import is successful, we can see the products have come perfectly into the system.
The plugin also generates thumbnails for products by using the URL of images which is specified in the CSV file.
To import images with products using the plugin, read import WooCommerce products with images.
The products get imported as shown below:
The following are the product edit pages of the respective simple and variable products.
Simple Product
In the above image, you can see the simple product – Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos is imported to WooCommerce with a product category Mobile Phone, as specified in the CSV.
Variation Product
In the above image, you can see the variation product – Men’s Cotton T-Shirt is imported to WooCommerce with the hierarchical product category, as specified in the CSV.
You can view the imported categories under Products > Categories section. It is as shown below:
To know more about other features of the plugin, read the documentation.
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Comments (15)
Jerry
March 25, 2020
How do you make sure that the products import into existing categories? I did an import and it created new subcategories which should have matched existing ones. Do you use the category slugs or the full name?
Alan
March 26, 2020
Hi,
Our plugin uses the category name to import a product into an existing category. If you are having an issue with importing category using the category name then please reach us via support with the importing CSV file so that we can check it.
Carl
May 23, 2019
Is it possible to merge csv imports?
I have my categories on seperate csv files. Some products are duplicated in 2 or more categories. When I import a file with a product that already is in a category, the previously allocated category is overridden with the new one and I have to manually assign the deleted category. How can I overcome this?
Alan
May 24, 2019
Hi,
If you are required to import a new category to a product that is already having a category then you may please include the existing category name along with the new category in the CSV. You may please separate those categories using the pipe symbol( | ). Eg: If a product X already has a category Y and you are required to import new category Z to X then you may please specify the data in the category column as “Y|Z”.
Patrick
February 22, 2019
I took your sample CSV and filled in product information and “Heating|Fixtures” in product categories it does not separate them into separate categories it creates a new category that reads Heating|Fixtures ??
Mark
February 22, 2019
Hey Patrick,
Please share your importing sample CSV with us via our support forum so that we can check and help you accordingly.
Julia
January 16, 2019
Hi,
i´m having problems to upload my csv right, it´s not taking hierarchical categories like Bekleidung > Tops & Shirts It just uploading Tops & Shirts… What i´m doing wrong? Thank you
Alan
January 16, 2019
Hi Julia,
You may please specify the category as “Bekleidung|Bekleidung > Tops & Shirts” in the CSV in order to import the product under the categories Bekleidung and Tops & Shirts. Following the format “Bekleidung > Tops & Shirts” will create categories Bekleidung and Tops & Shirts however product will be uploaded only under Tops & Shirts.
Kenneth Augustyn
October 31, 2018
Stunning article you have shared with us and it will be very valuable for me to increase my skills. I really impressed by your blog because you have good knowledge of import product categories. I really thankful to you.
jmjose
January 29, 2018
“Condensate Pump > Apollo Pump” is what is in the Products Categories field but the import still fails. However, upon checking the Product Categories list, Apollo Pump and its parent category Condensate Pump were created but has 0 products in it. Can you help me debug as to why this is happening?
Mark
January 31, 2018
Hi,
Please reach us via support with your importing CSV so that we can check it.
https://support.xadapter.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?
info1170
January 22, 2018
When exporting my products the categories are separated with “|” however, when they are imported the | doesn’t separate them properly. For example, if the export has “Category A|Category B” the categories are imported as one category with the name “Category A|Category B”, not two separate categories.
Can you help me find a solution to this?
Mark
January 23, 2018
Hi,
Specifying like Category A|Category B in tax:product_cat column will import the product into two separate categories. We have checked this and it is working fine. Please reach us with the CSV via support if issue persists.
Support LINK: https://support.xadapter.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?
Lee
March 26, 2021
Hello.
Great plugin, live the way you can split the exported products in say batches of 1000.
Please can you recommend a method to import category images and descriptions to the categories already imported whilst importing products ?
Kind regards
Alan
March 31, 2021
Hi,
The plugin does not support importing category images and descriptions. It supports the importing of category name only and that too along with the product data. Category image and description data is not stored with the product details in the database. Hence it cannot be imported using the plugin.