Free and premium. The free plugins export CSV only. Excel (XLSX), XML, TSV and Google Sheets are premium.
The plugin writes five output formats. Which one you pick depends on what happens to the file next.
CSV #
Plain text, one row per record, fields separated by a delimiter. This is the default and the right answer most of the time.
Choose it when you plan to re-import the file, when you are moving data between stores, or when another system will consume it. CSV is the format every tool understands.
Watch out for Excel. Opening a CSV by double-clicking it in Excel can strip leading zeros from postcodes and SKUs, convert long numbers to scientific notation, and reinterpret text that looks like a date. Import the CSV through Excel’s Data then From Text menu and set the problem columns to Text, or use XLSX instead.
Delimiters #
Comma is standard. Some European Excel installations expect a semicolon and will put every field into one column when handed a comma-separated file. Change the delimiter on the final export step if that happens, and match the same delimiter when you import.
TSV #
Identical to CSV except fields are separated by tabs. Useful when your data contains a lot of commas, such as long product descriptions or addresses, because tabs almost never appear inside the values themselves. Fewer quoting problems, same simplicity.
XML #
Structured markup with one element per record. Each column is written as a named field rather than a positional column, so keys containing colons and spaces survive intact.
Choose it when another system expects XML, which is common for marketplace feeds, ERP imports and older integrations.
Skip it when a human needs to read or edit the file. XML is harder to work with in a spreadsheet than CSV, and the files are considerably larger.
The plugin reads XML on import as well, including files produced by earlier versions of the plugin that used a different element structure.
Excel XLSX #
A real Excel workbook rather than a text file pretending to be one.
Choose it when a person is going to open the file. XLSX preserves values as text where that matters, so SKUs keep their leading zeros and long order numbers do not turn into scientific notation. No import dialog, no encoding questions, no delimiter to think about. Accented characters simply work.
This is the best format for anything you hand to an accountant, a supplier or a colleague. It is also a good choice for bulk price edits, because the file survives the round trip through Excel without the corruption that catches people out with CSV.
XLSX requires the ZipArchive PHP extension, which nearly every host enables.
Google Sheets #
Instead of writing a file, the plugin creates a new spreadsheet in your own Google Drive and gives you the link.
Choose it when several people need to work on the data at once, or when you want the export to land somewhere shared without anyone emailing attachments around. A bundle export to Google Sheets creates one tab per module inside a single spreadsheet.
This needs a one-time connection. See the Google Sheets article for the setup steps. The spreadsheet is created in your own Drive under your own account, so you own it outright and no sharing step is needed.
Which format for which job #
- Migrating a store: CSV, or a bundle ZIP.
- Bulk editing prices or stock: XLSX, then re-import.
- Sending orders to an accountant: XLSX.
- Feeding a marketplace or ERP: XML or CSV, whichever they specify.
- Descriptions full of commas: TSV.
- Collaborative editing: Google Sheets.
Encoding #
Files are written as UTF-8, which handles every language and currency symbol. When you edit a CSV and save it again, keep UTF-8. In Excel, use Save As and choose CSV UTF-8 rather than plain CSV. If you skip this and your data contains accented characters, you will see them arrive as mangled character pairs after import.
On import, the plugin detects several common encodings and converts them to UTF-8 where it can, but starting from a correctly saved file is more reliable.
