How to Import-Export WooCommerce Orders & Products (Complete Guide)

Are you looking for ways to import export store data, namely orders, and products from your WooCommerce store?

WooCommerce has default import-export options that allow the following:

• Import products in .csv format. 
• Export products in .xml format.
• Export orders in .xml.

While the default feature is useful, it has limitations like:

• You cannot import orders. 
• You cannot import export orders in other formats like .xlsx or Google Sheets.
• Nor can you import export products in other formats like .xlsx or Google Sheets.

In this article, we show you how to use the default WooCommerce import-export feature and demonstrate how to use a powerful third-party import-export plugin called WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce.

It imports-exports data using Google Sheets and you can download data in .xlsx and .csv formats.

Let’s get started with the tutorial.

How to Import-Export WooCommerce Orders & Products

First, we will show you how to use the WordPress import-export feature and then we will proceed with the WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce. 

Import-Export With Default WooCommerce Tool

Let’s first export orders and products from your WooCommerce store. 

Open your WordPress dashboard, go to Export, choose Products, and hit the Download Export File button. Your existing store products will be exported in a .xml file. 

You can export your store orders by following the same steps. Just ensure that you are selecting the Orders options instead of Products.

Next, to import new products into your WooCommerce store, prepare a .csv file on your local computer and populate it with new product details. 

When the .csv file is ready, go to Tools → Import → WooCommerce Products (CSV) and hit the Run Importer option. 

The importer will let you import products in three steps. In the first step (Upload CSV File), upload the file you prepared using the Choose File option. 

We recommend you review all the options available in this step and make modifications wherever required before hitting the Continue button. 

The next step involves Column Mapping. This is where you match the columns in your import file with the appropriate product fields in your store.

This feature ensures that data from your .csv file is correctly assigned to the corresponding attributes, categories, and other product details when importing products into your WooCommerce store.

When you are ready hit the Run the Importer button to start the import process. 

The third step is called Import and all you need to do here is sit back and let the store import products from your .csv file. 

When the import is complete, hit the View Products button and it will display the products you just imported.

Since WooCommerce does not allow order import, you need to rely on a third-party plugin to do that—more on this in the next section.

And that’s it. You now know how to use the default WooCommerce import-export features to migrate products and orders to and from your store.

Import-Export With WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce Plugin

WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce is a powerful import-export plugin that allows you to migrate orders, products, customers, coupons, events, and custom fields to and from your WooCommerce store. 

There are two WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce plugins:

• One is free and only allows exports of orders, products, customers, and coupons
• The other is a paid plugin that allows both import-export and costs $59 for a single website license

In the following tutorial, we are using the paid plugin, but if you wish to export orders and products, use the free plugin. The steps for exporting are the same no matter which plugin you use. 

Important: Before we dive into the tutorial, you must take a backup of your WooCommerce store. Migration of data in and out of the website is risky business. The backup will be your safety net for when things go south.

When disaster strikes (we hope it doesn’t) you can simply restore the backup and your website will be back to normal in no time.

Step 1: Install & Activate WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce

On your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New Plugins and upload and activate the plugin on your store. 

Paid plugin users need to activate their license by going to WPSyncSheets → For WooCommerce → License. 

Step 2: Connect Store With Your GDrive

As we mentioned earlier, WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce works with Google Sheets. 

You will export orders and products into Google Sheets, then add new order and product details into the same Google Sheets to import them into your store. 

To work with Google Sheets, you need to connect your website to your GDrive account. 

To do that, go to WPSyncSheets on your WordPress menu then navigate to For WooCommerce → API Integration. 

Here you need to add Client ID, Secret Key, and Token. These have to be generated from the Google Cloud Platform account. 

Generate them, add them to your website, and connect your store with GDrive. 

Step 3: Export Orders & Products in Google Sheets

To export orders go to WPSyncSheets → For WooCommerce → Settings → Order Settings. 

To export products go to Product Settings instead of the Order Settings page. 

IMPORTANT: In this section, we will demonstrate how to export orders. We won’t cover how to export products because the steps to export products and orders are similar.

The only major difference is that products can be exported from the Products Settings page and orders are to be exported from the Order Settings page. 

So for exporting orders, go to Order Settings and toggle on the Order Settings option. 

Immediately the page will be populated with numerous other options. Let’s take a look at those options.

Default & Custom Sheet Headers

Scroll down to the Default Order Status as Sheets section.

It contains the names of the different columns in the Google Sheets you will export. Here’s how the headers look in the spreadsheet:

You can enable or disable any sheet headers and create custom sheet headers in the Custom Static Headers section. 

Review the Default Order of Your Sub-Sheets

The Google Sheets you’ll export will be divided into different sub-sheets. These sub-sheets are by default set according to order status like pending orders, processing orders, orders on hold, etc.

Here’s how the sheets will look on the exported Google Sheets:

You can enable or disable these sub-sheets or even rename them according to your needs from the Default Order Status as Sheets section. 

Export Orders From Select Categories (Optional)

If you wish to export orders from only specific product categories, then go to the Select Category section, enable it, and select the product category of your choice. 

There are a bunch of other settings that you can tweak to your liking. Let’s take a quick look at them before starting the export process. 

Custom Order Status as Sheets: There might be other WooCommerce plugins installed on your website that create new order statuses that you can choose to display or not display (enable/disable). 

Product Names as Sheets: Enabling this will add sub-sheets to your Google Sheets and each sub-sheet will contain order details related to products from your store. 

Spreadsheet Row Order: This option allows you to arrange and store order data in an ascending or descending manner based on order IDs.

By selecting ascending order, the rows will be arranged from the lowest to highest order ID, while descending order will sort from highest to lowest.

Export Orders to Google Sheets

To start exporting orders, go to Google Spreadsheet Settings, select the Create New Spreadsheet option, add a name, and hit enter. This will generate a Google Sheets with exported orders. 

Next, choose the Select Existing Spreadsheet option and select the spreadsheet you just created from the dropdown menu. 

Then hit the eye button to open the Google Sheets (with exported orders) in a new tab or hit the download button to download the spreadsheet in the .xlsx format into your local computer. 

Here’s how the exported orders will look on Google Sheets:

Import Orders & Products From Google Sheets

The Google Sheets you exported store orders into in the previous steps will be used to import new orders. 

On your Order Settings page, go to Import Orders, enable it, and then enable the Insert, Update, and Delete Order options. 

This will add new columns in the Google Sheets you just exported. You will use these columns to add new order details or modify or even delete orders in your WooCommerce store. 

To understand how to use these columns, read this guide: How to Import Orders.

With that, we have come to the end of this tutorial!

Conclusion

Import-export of your orders and products can be carried out using the default WooCommerce feature but in a limited capacity.

For instance, orders and products can only be exported in .xml file formats and while you can import products using the default WooCommerce feature, it does not allow import of orders into your store.

A powerful import-export plugin like WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce allows you to import export orders and products with ease and in different file formats.

That’s it, for this one! If you need more help running your WooCommerce store, we suggest looking at some of our eCommerce tutorials.