WooCommerce Product CSV Builder & Checker

About the WooCommerce Product CSV Builder & Checker

A product with 3 sizes and 2 colours is 7 rows in a WooCommerce import file: a variable product that lists every value of its attributes, then a variation for each combination that names its parent’s SKU and carries its own price, stock and attribute values. Here you keep a simple sheet instead — one row per product, with Size, Colour or any option column holding a list such as “S, M, L”, or one row per variant — and the builder writes those rows for WooCommerce’s built-in Product CSV Importer: “Attribute 1 name / value(s) / visible / global” columns, categories as “Parent > Child”, comma-separated image links, 1/0 flags, SKUs for every variation, and weights converted to your store’s unit.

The checker opens a WooCommerce product CSV before you import it and lists what the importer would trip over — duplicate SKUs, variations whose parent is missing or comes after them, variation values the parent does not list (the importer skips those), sale prices above the regular price, http:// and broken image links, decimal commas, “yes” or “no” in 1/0 columns, an empty “In stock?” (out of stock when the row has no Stock number), text saved in the wrong encoding and columns the importer does not know — each with an automatic fix and a change log. Large catalogues split into files that keep each variable product with its variations. Everything runs in your browser; MySmartCoPilot is not affiliated with or endorsed by WooCommerce.

Common uses

• A shop owner listing a new range from a supplier’s price list without typing a row per variation.
• An agency moving a client’s catalogue from a spreadsheet into WooCommerce.
• Checking an export before re-importing it after editing prices or stock in a spreadsheet.
• Cutting a big catalogue into files the store’s host can import one at a time.

What the builder writes

• Simple and variable products: a product without options is a simple product. Option columns make a variable product: its row lists every value (“S, M, L”), and every combination becomes a variation, the first option outermost (S/White, S/Sage, M/White…). An option a row leaves empty means “any” for that variation, as in WooCommerce.
• Rows of one product: rows with the same Parent SKU, or the same name, are one product, so a sheet with one row per variant works, and a row without a name continues the product above it.
• SKUs: a row that makes one variation keeps its SKU; a row that makes several gets SKUs from the pattern (the parent SKU and the values: LS-S-WHITE). A parent without an SKU gets one from its name. Repeated SKUs get -2, -3.
• Names: variations are named like WooCommerce’s own sample file: “Linen Shirt - S, White”.
• Attributes: each option becomes “Attribute N name”, “value(s)”, “visible” 1 and “global” (1 when you use the store’s global attributes from Products → Attributes, else 0); other columns can be attributes that are shown but make no variations, or meta data.
• Values: prices as plain numbers in your store’s decimal format, weights and sizes converted from the sheet’s unit (a “Weight (g)” column) to the store’s, categories as “Clothing > Shirts”, tags and images separated by commas, http:// links made https://, Published 1 (or -1 for drafts) and “In stock?” always filled in.
• Columns: in WooCommerce’s own order, and only those with values, so an update import does not empty fields you never filled.

What the checker finds, and the fixes

• Headings WooCommerce does not map by itself: “Price” is “Regular price”, “Image” is “Images”, “Attribute 1 values” is “Attribute 1 value(s)”, a “Weight (lbs)” column in a kg store (converted). Unknown columns are kept, removed or kept as meta data, as you choose.
• Values the importer misreads: “yes”, “no” or “true” in 1/0 columns (the importer is sure only of 1 and 0: in “In stock?” any word but “backorder”, “no” included, imports as in stock), Published words (1 publish, 0 private, -1 draft; a word such as “yes” imports as private), Type words, prices with a decimal comma, a currency sign or thousands separators, stock that is not a whole number, dates that are not YYYY-MM-DD, “/” or “»” between category levels, “|” between attribute values (WooCommerce’s own screens use it, a CSV must use commas).
• An empty “In stock?”: imported as out of stock when the row has no Stock number (with one, the store works the status out from the stock); filled with 1, or 0 when the stock is 0.
• GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN: the importer does not map this column by itself, so the checker reminds you to choose it on the column mapping screen.
• Images: http:// links, spaces, missing https://, semicolons between links, the same link twice; links that cannot work (a web page, not a link) are listed and removed.
• Products: duplicate SKUs, a parent that is not a variable product, a parent row below its variations (moved up), variation attribute names or values the parent does not list (added to the parent: otherwise the importer skips them), two variations with the same values, variations without a price, sale prices that are not below the regular price.
• The file: encodings other than UTF-8, semicolon delimiters, Excel’s “sep=” line, text saved in the wrong encoding (“Café” for “Café”), control characters and empty or repeated rows.

A variation whose parent is not in the file is listed; the fix that adds a parent row for it is off unless you switch it on, because the parent may already be in your store.

Importing the file

WooCommerce’s Product CSV Importer and Exporter is under Products → Import. Keep each variable product’s row above its variations, as the builder and the fixer write them: when an import makes no variations, WooCommerce’s document says to check that order first. To turn a product already in your store from simple into variable, WooCommerce 11.1 and later do it in one import with Update existing products ticked when the parent row comes first; earlier versions take two imports, the parent row with Update existing products and then the variations without it. With Update existing products, rows match products by ID or SKU, and a non-blank Images cell replaces the whole gallery. The importer downloads image links when your store can reach them: links on your own Media Library or a public host work best. Check the column mapping screen once: a column you renamed or added as meta data is mapped there, and the “GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN” column starts on “Do not import” until you choose its field. The columns and their values are described in the Product CSV Import Schema, and WooCommerce’s own sample products file shows a variable product with its variations.

Large catalogues

WooCommerce’s document advises splitting large files into smaller batches: how much one import can take depends on your host’s upload limit, memory and time limit. Choose a number of rows or a size per file; each file starts with the heading row, and a variable product is never cut from its variations (one bigger than the limit gets a file of its own, with a note).

Limitations

• No store connection: the tool does not read your store or create products; you import the file yourself in WordPress.
• Products only: orders, customers and reviews are not made here, and converting another shop system’s export into WooCommerce’s columns is not part of this tool.
• Values only WooCommerce knows are not checked: that a category, tax class or shipping class exists, or that an image link answers.
• Files up to 60 MB and 200,000 rows are read in this browser; a row can make up to 1,000 variations.
• Excel files are read from their first sheet; every file written is UTF-8 CSV with commas.

Privacy

On this device; its files download once

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. The spreadsheet reader and the ZIP writer load from this site the first time you need them. Your sheets and files stay on your device and are never uploaded.