Product CSV Importer and Exporter

Table of Contents

eCommerce has a built-in product CSV Importer and Exporter.

Import, export, or update hundreds or thousands of products in your eCommerce store with a single CSV. This tool supports most product types, including variations.

  • First-time store owners get started more quickly by exporting and importing products during setup.
  • Existing store owners can update tens or hundreds of products with new info or place them on sale, or sync multiple storefronts.

Create your CSV #

What CSV editors do you recommend? #

We recommend using:

If possible, avoid Microsoft Excel due to formatting and character encoding issues.

How to create the CSV? #

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

  • Export a CSV of products from an existing store.
  • Use your own CSV. Any information you wish to include should follow the formatting and columns of the Product CSV Import Schema.

If using the built-in eCommerce Product CSV Importer and Exporter tool to export a CSV, it already follows the schema and is ready to use. If using the blank and formatted CSV file, it also follows the schema; just be sure to enter the info as instructed at Product CSV Import Schema.

General guidelines #

  • CSVs should be in UTF-8 format.
  • Dates should be defined for the store’s local timezone.
  • Use 1 or 0 in your CSV, if importing a Boolean value (true or false)
  • Multiple values in a field get separated with commas.
  • Wrapping values in quotes allows you to insert a comma.
  • Prefix the id with id: if referencing an existing product ID. No prefix is needed if referencing an SKU. For example: id:100, SKU101
  • Custom meta is supported/imported but only plain text – no support for JSON or Serialized data.
  • Taxonomy term hierarchy is denoted with >, terms are separated with commas.
  • Draft products are not exported, only published and privately published products.
  • It is not possible to assign a specific post ID to product on import. Products will always use the next available ID, regardless of the ID included in the imported CSV.

Images #

  • Images need to be pre-uploaded or available online to import to your store.
  • External URLs are supported and imported into the Media Library if used, provided the images are directly accessible and not behind a redirect script (as happens on some cloud storage services).
  • You can define the filename if the image already exists in the Media Library.

Import #

Adding New Products #

First-time and existing store owners using eCommerce can use the CSV to add new products with one upload.

1/ Go to: eCommerce > Products.

2/ Select Import at the top. The Upload CSV File screen displays.

3/ Select Choose File and the CSV you wish you use.

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

4/ Continue.

The Column Mapping screen displays, and eCommerce automatically attempts to match or “map” the Column Name from your CSV to Fields.

5/ Use dropdown menus on the right side to adjust fields or indicate ‘Do not import.’

*Any unrecognized columns will not be imported by default.

6/ Select Run the Importer.

7/ Wait until the Importer is finished. Do not refresh or touch the browser while in progress.

Update Existing Products #

Store owners can use the CSV Importer tool to update existing products with new info, e.g., Adding a brand, changing a tax class, bulk-update for a special sale or event, etc.

1/ Make a CSV file as indicated in Create Your CSV, using the IDs and/or SKUs of products you wish to update.

The importer uses the ID and/or SKU to auto-match and auto-update whatever info you enter on each line.

2/ Go to: eCommerce > Products.

3/ Select Import at the top. The Upload CSV File screen displays.

4/ Select Choose File and the CSV you wish you use.

5/ Tick the checkbox for Update Existing Products.

6/ Continue.

The Column Mapping screen displays, and eCommerce automatically attempts to match or “map” the Column Name from your CSV to Fields.

7/ Use dropdown menus on the right side to adjust fields or indicate ‘Do not import.’

*Any unrecognized columns will not be imported by default.

8/ Select Run the Importer.

9/ Wait until the Importer is finished. Do not refresh or touch the browser while in progress.

Converting existing simple product to variable product #

Store owners can use the CSV Importer tool to convert the existing simple product to a variable. In order to do that, the following steps need to be taken:

1/ Create a simple product that has a price and SKU.2/ Export product via built-in CSV Exporter on the All Products page.3/ Open CSV file and convert the simple product to a variable. Steps that need to be taken for it (for example to convert to a variable product with 1 attribute and 2 variations):

  • Add 2 new rows
  • Add 4 new columns after the last column:
  • Attribute 1 name
  • Attribute 1 value(s)
  • Attribute 1 visible
  • Attribute 1 global

In our case, we are adding Size variations so our new 4 columns look as follows:

  • Change the type of the product from simple to variable and add type variation to variation rows (2 new rows that you created). Add SKU to variation rows. Give it a name as well. It looks like this in our example:
  • Update the following columns as well (and any other columns if needed):
  • Very important – add SKU to all fields in the Parent column – this is to map parent product with its variations:

4/ Save a new CSV file.

5/ Import the updated CSV file back to the site using built-in CSV Importer on All Products view.

6/ Select to update existing products before import since we want to update theexisting product on the site:

7/ Proceed with import (nothing to be mapped).

8/ You will see the following which is expected:

9/ Navigate to the product. You will see that it is now variable and has 1 attribute added but no variations were created. Note that Used for variations checkbox is not selected. This is also expected:

10/ Next, open the CSV file again (the one where you already created rows for variations) and delete the parent product row. Leave variations rows without changes:

11/ Save the updated CSV file.

12/ Next, import updated CSV file to the site but this time don’t select the box next to Update existing products:

13/ Proceed with import (no fields need to be mapped). You should see that variations have been imported:

14/ After completing the import, navigate to the product. It should now be a variable product with variations:

Export #

Store owners wishing to export their current catalog of products for any reason can generate a CSV using the Product Importer/Exporter.

1/ Go to: eCommerce > Products.

2/ Select Export at the top. The Export Products screen displays.

3/ Select to Export All Columns. Or select which columns to export by using the dropdown menu.

4/ Select to Export All Products. Or select which product types to export by using the dropdown menu.

5/Select to Export All Categories. Or select which categories to export by using the dropdown menu.

6/ Tick the box to Export Custom Meta, if you need this info.

Meta data on your products is typically from other plugins. Meta data columns are exported following the meta:-prefix standard detailed above in the importer mapping section. By default, no additional meta data is exported.

7/ Select Generate CSV. Wait for the export to finish.

8/ Exit the exporter.

FAQ #

Is it possible to add custom import columns? #

Yes. Feel free to visit the eCommerce repo at GitHub to see the custom code at Adding Custom Import Columns.

Is it possible to add custom export columns? #

Yes. Feel free to visit the eCommerce repo at GitHub to see the custom code at Adding Custom Export Columns.

Why aren’t all my products exported? #

Previous to eCommerce 3.6.5, only products with a status of ‘publish’ or ‘private’ were exported, not those in ‘draft.’ If you want to change that, there’s a filter you can use, but this would require custom coding, which we can’t provide assistance with.

Why aren’t all of my products imported? #

Previous to eCommerce , only products with a status of ‘publish’ or ‘private’ were imported, not those in ‘draft.’ As of eCommerce 3.7, CSV product import now allows true/false values for the published field, as well as the original 0 (private), -1 (draft), 1 (publish) values.

#

How to increase the CSV import maximum size? #

The Maximum size value is set at the server level. To increase the maximum file size, please contact your hosting company. As a workaround, you can split the CSV into multiple parts to upload separately.