WooCommerce has a built-in product CSV importer and exporter in version 3.1x. You can quickly import or export products, categories, customers, or orders details in bulk on your WooCommerce sites. The importer and exporter support all types of products, including variable products.

Create your Product CSV

CSV is a simple file format that is used to store tabular data, such as a spreadsheet or database. CSV stands for “comma-separated values”. Its data fields are most often separated or delimited by a comma.

To import a new product or update existing products, you need a CSV file containing your products information. You can:

→ Export a CSV file from an existing store.

→ Create a CSV of products using blank and formatted CSV file. (Download from here)

→ Download a CSV file with sample data from here and replace it.

→ Use your own CSV file. Any information you want to include / modify should follow the formatting and columns of the Product CSV Import Schema.

Configure the Product CSV file

Since your CSV file contains a list of product and their translations that’s why you need to identify the language of each row and which rows are the translation of each others. To achieve this criteria you need to create a ‘Language’ and a ‘Translation group’ column.

→ Language: You must specify the language code. You can find the code in languages list column.

→ Translation group: you must specify a value which identifies to which translation group this product belongs to. This value must be unique to the translation group column.

In the following example we import a product in 3 languages.If you look at the following image, all rows which are the translation of each other are sharing the ’20’ value.

You can use the SKU as unique translation group as shown in the following screenshot. As WooCommerce imposes one column per fieldto use, you need to copy your SKU values and paste them in the Translation group column.

If you want to make a single file including language, you need also to create a ‘Language’ column and a ‘Translation group’ column in that same file.

Below is the example of a CSV file which contains English products.

In similar way you can create another file with another language.

Product CSV Importer

When you have correctly created your CSV file, you can run the WooCommerce importer. You can use the CSV to add new products with one upload.

To Add New Products

→ Go To WooCommerce > Products.

→ Click on the Import button at the top to begin the import process.

→ Select Choose File and the CSV file that you have created.

CSV delimiter: (Advanced option only) Generally CSV elements are separated by a comma. If you want to use a different delimiter in your file you can set it here.

→ Click on Continue button.

You will see the Column Mapping screen option, and WooCommerce automatically attempts to match or “map” the Column Name from your CSV file to Fields.

→ If there are any columns you do not want to import, from the drop down menu set to “Do not import”.

→ Now click on Run the importer.

→ Give some time to finish the importing. Do not refresh or touch the browser while the importing is in progress.

Update Existing Products

→ Make a CSV file as indicated in Create Your CSV, using the IDs and SKUs of products you want to update.

→ Go to WooCommerce > Products.

→ Click on the Import button at the top to begin the import process.

→ Select Choose File and the CSV file that you have created.

→ Put a Tick on Update Existing Products checkbox.

→ Click on Continue button.

You will see the Column Mapping screen option, and WooCommerce automatically attempts to match or “map” the Column Name from your CSV file to Fields.

→ If there are any columns you do not want to import, from the drop down menu set to “Do not import”.

→ Now click on Run the importer.

→ Give some time to finish the importing. Do not refresh or touch the browser while the importing is in progress.

Product CSV Exporter

You can export your current catalog of products for any reason to generate a CSV file using the Product Importer/Exporter.

To export a CSV file:

→ Go to WooCommerce > Products.

→ Select Export option at the top.

→ Select Export All Columns Or which columns to export by using the drop down menu.

→ Select Export All Categories Or select which categories to export by using the drop down menu.

→ Tick the check box to Export Custom Meta, if you need this info.

Meta data columns will be exported following the meta:-prefix standard detailed like the above in the importer mapping section. By default, no additional meta data will be exported.

→ Select Generate CSV Option. Wait to finish the export.

→  Exit the exporter to return back.

Here is a video of importing and exporting:

Related Article: Product CSV Importer and Exporter.

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