Frequently
asked questions

It moves data in and out of WooCommerce. You export what is already in your store to a file, edit it in Excel or Google Sheets, and import it back. You can also pull a supplier feed from a URL or an FTP server, or copy an entire store into one bundle and restore it elsewhere.

It comes in two forms: three free single-purpose plugins on WordPress.org, and one premium plugin that covers every data type together and adds scheduling, remote sources, and more file formats.

Seven: products, orders, customers, coupons, product reviews, product categories, and product tags. An eighth option, Bundle, handles all seven in a single operation.

Products include pricing, stock, images, attributes, and variations. Orders include line items, refunds, and order notes.

The free version is three separate plugins on WordPress.org, split by data type: Products (products, reviews, categories, tags), Orders (orders and coupons), and Users (customers and WordPress users).

Each handles full CSV import and export, updates records that already exist, maps columns, saves reusable templates, processes large files in batches, and keeps a history log with downloadable files. They are not crippled trials.

What they do not do is work as a single plugin, read Excel or XML, connect to Google Sheets, run on a schedule, pull from FTP or SFTP, or keep importing after you close the browser.

Yes. If an imported record matches an existing one by ID, SKU, or email address, that record is updated. A confirmation popup reminds you to back up first.

What premium adds here is control over how duplicates are handled, rather than the ability to update at all.

Any WordPress role: administrator, editor, author, subscriber, customer, shop manager, or a custom role. The Users plugin is not limited to WooCommerce customers.

Premium adds ACF and custom meta field mapping, which matters when you are migrating customer data written by other plugins.

The free plugins handle CSV, with a selectable delimiter: comma, semicolon, tab, pipe, or a custom character.

Premium adds Excel (XLSX), XML, TSV, and Google Sheets. XLSX is worth having when a person will edit the file, since Excel strips leading zeros from SKUs and postcodes saved as CSV.

Yes. The plugin detects whether your store uses High Performance Order Storage or the legacy order tables and writes to the correct one. You do not need to configure anything.

There is no row limit. Files are processed in batches so a large import does not hit a PHP timeout, and you can adjust the batch size to match your hosting.

For very large catalogs, splitting a file into chunks of ten to twenty thousand rows makes runs easier to verify and cheaper to re-run if something goes wrong.

No. Everything happens through a step-by-step wizard in your WordPress dashboard, and the only technical skill involved is editing a spreadsheet.

The one place a little technical help is useful is setting up a server cron for scheduled jobs, and your host can usually do that in a minute.

Yes. Export a bundle from the old store, which gives you a single ZIP containing all seven data types, then import that ZIP on the new one.

Bundles import in dependency order, so categories land before products and products before orders. Keep the old site online during the import, because product images are downloaded from it.

Usually. Column mapping lets you match any header in your file to the matching WooCommerce field, and columns you do not need can be left unmapped and ignored.

You do not have to strip a supplier file down before importing it. A file with forty columns you do not want imports fine.

Yes, and there is no time limit. Install whichever free plugin matches the data you care about, run an export of your own catalog, and see whether the output is what you need.

The free plugins share the same import and export engine as premium, so what you learn from them carries over.

The plugin includes a support form under Settings, so you can send a question without leaving your dashboard. Documentation covering setup, both wizards, scheduling, and troubleshooting is available in the knowledge base.

If you are reporting a problem with an import, turn on the import log first and include what it says. That usually turns a back-and-forth into a single reply.

Open the Import tab, click the Product tile, choose Advanced import, and upload your file. Set what should happen to records that already exist, check the column mapping, and run it.

Full walkthrough: How to Import a CSV File into WooCommerce.

Export ten records of the type you want to import, using the columns you plan to fill in. That file is your template, because its headers match what the importer expects exactly.

Building one by hand from a blog post is guesswork. See WooCommerce CSV Import Template for the columns that matter.

The duplicate rule is almost certainly set to Skip, which means any row matching an existing record is ignored. Change it to Update on step 3 of the advanced import.

Quick import always skips and can never update, so if you need to overwrite records you have to use advanced import. More detail: Handling Duplicates.

Yes, and the safest way is to keep the file narrow. Export only ID, SKU, and the price columns, edit those, and import with the duplicate rule set to Update.

An update only replaces fields present in your file. A three-column price file cannot touch your descriptions, images, or stock even by accident.

The parent link is missing. Variation rows need parent SKU filled in and mapped, the parent row has to be in the same file, and the parent SKU has to match exactly, including case and trailing spaces.

See Importing and Exporting Variable Products.

Images are not embedded in the file. What travels is the URL, and your store downloads from it, so the URL has to be publicly reachable and your host has to allow outbound requests.

Test one of the URLs in a private browser window. If it needs a login, the plugin cannot reach it either. More: Exporting and Importing Product Images.

Yes, once per import, as long as the run finished cleanly. The plugin records the previous state of every record before it writes, and a rollback replays that in reverse.

It is not a substitute for a database backup, and it cannot help with anything other than that one import. See History and Rolling Back an Import.

Open the Scheduled Jobs tab, click New Job, and set the module, frequency, time, and where the file comes from. Point it at a URL or an FTP server rather than an uploaded file, so it picks up fresh data on each run.

Setup guide: Scheduling Automatic Imports and Exports.

WordPress fires its cron only when someone visits your site, so on a quiet store a 2 AM job may not run until the first visitor arrives in the morning.

Add a real server cron through your hosting control panel. The Scheduled Jobs tab shows the exact command line for your installation.

Yes. Imports can pull from a direct URL, FTP or FTPS, SFTP with a password or private key, or a link-shareable Google Sheet. Credentials saved in a scheduled job are encrypted before storage.

A fresh copy is fetched on every run, so updating the file on the supplier server updates what gets imported. See Importing from URL, FTP, and SFTP.

No. WooCommerce transactional emails are suspended for the duration of an order import, so importing historical orders will not send notifications to anyone.

The file is not UTF-8. In Excel, use Save As and pick CSV UTF-8 rather than plain CSV. Files downloaded from Google Sheets are already UTF-8.

Exports are written to wp-content/uploads/ssie-exports/ and stay available from the History tab until you or a cleanup routine remove them. Uploaded import files go to wp-content/uploads/ssie-imports/.

On premium, yes. Background import keeps the job running after you navigate away, and progress shows in the History tab.

On the free plugins the browser tab needs to stay open for the duration. Large files still import without timing out, because processing happens in batches either way.

It depends mostly on images. Product data alone moves quickly, but every image is downloaded and turned into thumbnails, so a catalog with three images per product means three downloads per row.

If a run stalls, import the product data without image columns first, then run a second pass for images. See Working with Large Catalogs.

Open the Export tab, click the Order tile, and choose Advanced export if you want to narrow the result. Filters let you limit by date range, order status, and customer, so a monthly export for your accountant returns only that month.

Pick CSV for something you may re-import, or XLSX if a person will read it. Walkthrough: How to Export WooCommerce Products, Orders, and Customers to CSV.

Yes, and that is the only way images travel. Export files carry the image URL rather than the image itself, and the importing store downloads from that address.

The URLs have to be publicly reachable and your host has to allow outbound requests. You can also resize and compress images as they arrive. See Exporting and Importing Product Images.

Yes. On the filters step, leave Product Type empty or make sure both Variable and Variation are selected. Picking only Variable gives you parent products with none of their variations, which is rarely what you want.

Include product ID, SKU, and parent SKU in your columns so the file can be imported again later. See Importing and Exporting Variable Products.