How to Export WooCommerce Products to Excel

Managing a growing WooCommerce store can become difficult when you need to review hundreds of prices, update stock levels, check SKUs, create a backup, or share product information with a client.

Learning How to Export WooCommerce Products to Excel gives you a practical way to organize and review your store’s product data in a familiar spreadsheet format.

WooCommerce includes a built-in product export tool that generates a CSV file. Although CSV is not the same as a native Excel XLSX workbook, Microsoft Excel can open the file, organize its columns, and save it as an XLSX file.

This guide explains the complete process, including product variations, selected-product exports, formatting problems, security precautions, and situations where an advanced export plugin may be more suitable.

Why Export WooCommerce Products to Excel?

Exporting WooCommerce products to a spreadsheet can help with many everyday store-management tasks.

You may need an Excel product file for:

• Reviewing product names, prices, stock, and SKUs
• Updating multiple products more efficiently
• Creating a product data backup
• Moving products to another WooCommerce website
• Sharing product information with clients or team members
• Finding missing or inconsistent product information
• Organizing inventory reports
• Preparing data for another platform
• Cleaning product descriptions or categories
• Comparing regular and sale prices

Excel also makes it easier to filter, sort, highlight, and search large amounts of product information.

However, you should be careful when editing an exported file that will later be imported into WooCommerce. Changing IDs, SKUs, parent relationships, or attribute structures incorrectly can affect existing products.

What Product Information Can You Export?

The WooCommerce product exporter can include many standard product fields. The exact columns may vary depending on your WooCommerce configuration, installed extensions, product types, and custom metadata.

Common export fields include:

• Product ID
• Product type
• SKU
• Product name
• Published status
• Featured status
• Catalogue visibility
• Short description
• Full description
• Regular price
• Sale price
• Stock status
• Stock quantity
• Backorder settings
• Weight and dimensions
• Tax status
• Product categories
• Product tags
• Shipping classes
• Attributes
• Image URLs
• Downloadable file details
• Parent product information
• Product variations

WooCommerce can also export custom product metadata when you enable the relevant option. Custom metadata columns normally use a meta: prefix in the exported file.

Product images are generally represented by image URLs. The exporter does not normally place the actual image files inside the spreadsheet.

How to Export WooCommerce Products to Excel

WooCommerce’s built-in exporter is the easiest option for most store owners. You do not need to install an additional plugin for a basic WooCommerce product export.

Step 1: Create a Backup

Before exporting or bulk-editing product data, create a complete backup of your website.

Your backup should include:

• WordPress files
• WooCommerce product data
• Website database
• Product images
• Theme and plugin settings

An export file is useful as a product data backup, but it should not replace a complete website backup.

Step 2: Open the Products Screen

Sign in to your WordPress administration dashboard.

Go to:

Products → All Products

This screen displays the products currently available in your WooCommerce catalogue.

Step 3: Open the Export Tool

Select the Export button near the top of the Products screen.

WooCommerce will open the Export Products page, where you can control which product information should be included.

Step 4: Select the Product Columns

Use the column option to choose which fields you want to export.

You can leave Export all columns selected when you need a complete product file. Alternatively, choose only the required fields, such as:

• ID
• SKU
• Name
• Regular price
• Sale price
• Stock
• Categories

Exporting fewer columns can make the spreadsheet easier to review, especially when you only need to update prices or inventory.

Step 5: Choose Product Types

You can export all product types or limit the file to specific types.

Depending on your store, available types may include:

• Simple products
• Variable products
• Variations
• Grouped products
• External or affiliate products

Choose only the types that are relevant to your current task.

Step 6: Filter by Product Category

You can also export products from one or more specific categories.

For example, you could create separate files for clothing, digital products, accessories, or clearance items.

Leave the category selection unchanged when you want to export the complete catalogue.

Step 7: Decide Whether to Export Custom Metadata

Enable Yes, export all custom meta when you need custom product information created by WooCommerce extensions, custom code, or other plugins.

Custom metadata can make the file significantly larger and more complicated. Leave this option disabled when you only need standard WooCommerce product fields.

Step 8: Generate the CSV File

Select Generate CSV and allow WooCommerce to prepare the export.

When the export is complete, your browser will download the CSV file automatically. The official WooCommerce exporter supports column, product-type, category, and custom-metadata selections.

Save an untouched copy of the original CSV before opening or editing it.

How to Export WooCommerce Products to Excel and Preserve SKU Formatting

You can double-click the exported CSV file to open it in Excel, but this method may allow Excel to change some values automatically.

For example, Excel may:

• Remove leading zeros from SKUs
• Convert long numbers to scientific notation
• Change product codes into dates
• Misinterpret decimal separators
• Display international characters incorrectly

A safer method is to import the CSV through Excel’s data-import tools.

1. Open a blank workbook in Microsoft Excel.
2. Select the Data tab.
3. Choose From Text/CSV.
4. Find and select the downloaded WooCommerce CSV file.
5. Confirm that the file encoding is UTF-8.
6. Confirm that the delimiter is set correctly, normally to a comma.
7. Review the data preview.
8. Set SKU, product ID, postal-code, or other code-based columns to text where necessary.
9. Select Load to import the data.

Microsoft recommends importing text or CSV files through Data → From Text/CSV when you need control over delimiters and column formats. Excel may otherwise remove leading zeros or convert long product codes automatically.

After importing, inspect several rows before editing the file. Check product names, SKUs, prices, categories, special characters, and variation information.

How to Save the CSV as an XLSX Workbook

After opening the product file correctly:

1. Go to File → Save As.
2. Choose a secure location.
3. Enter a clear file name.
4. Select Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) as the file type.
5. Select Save.

Your WooCommerce product data will now be stored as a native Excel workbook.

Keep the original CSV separately. If you later need to import products back into WooCommerce, you will normally need to prepare and save the data in a compatible CSV structure again.

How to Export Selected Products Only

The standard export screen lets you limit products by:

• Product type
• Product category
• Exported columns

WooCommerce 9.9 and newer also supports exporting individually selected products directly from Products → All Products.

Select the checkboxes beside the required products and use the Export X selected option displayed near the top of the product list. Stores using an older WooCommerce version may not have this selected-product export feature.

Do not assume that every older WooCommerce installation provides individual product-selection filtering. Update WooCommerce carefully after checking theme and plugin compatibility.

Exporting Variable Products and Variations

A variable product is a parent product containing separate purchasable variations.

For example, a T-shirt may be the parent variable product, while its size and colour combinations are individual variations. Each variation can have its own SKU, price, stock level, image, and other settings.

In the exported CSV, parent products and variations may appear as separate rows. Relationship fields help WooCommerce understand which variations belong to which parent product.

When reviewing variable products:

• Confirm that each variation has the correct SKU
• Check variation attributes such as size and colour
• Preserve the parent product ID or SKU relationship
• Do not delete required attribute columns
• Check variation prices and stock values separately
• Keep an untouched copy before making changes

If you plan to reimport the file, avoid changing the product type from variation or removing the parent relationship unless you fully understand the WooCommerce CSV structure.

WooCommerce documentation also recommends checking unique variation SKUs, matching parent values, and correctly structured attribute columns when variations fail to import.

Using a Plugin for Advanced WooCommerce Exports

The built-in WooCommerce product export tool is suitable for many normal product-management tasks. However, an export plugin or custom solution may be required for more advanced workflows.

Consider an advanced tool when you need:

• Direct native XLSX output
• Scheduled daily, weekly, or monthly exports
• Automatic delivery by email
• Advanced date, stock, price, or custom-field filters
• Reusable export templates
• Custom column names and ordering
• Exports to cloud storage
• API-based product synchronization
• Very large catalogue exports
• Integration with accounting or inventory software

Before installing a plugin, check its current documentation, supported WooCommerce version, export format, security practices, and customer reviews. Plugin features can change between free, premium, and updated versions.

For regular automated workflows, a custom WooCommerce REST API integration may provide more control than manually downloading CSV files.

Common WooCommerce Export Problems and Solutions

CSV Data Appears in One Excel Column

This normally occurs when Excel does not recognize the CSV delimiter.

Use Data → From Text/CSV and select the correct delimiter. In most cases, the delimiter will be a comma, but regional computer settings can affect how Excel interprets the file.

Special Characters Display Incorrectly

Characters in product names or descriptions may look broken when the encoding is not detected correctly.

Import the file using UTF-8 encoding through Excel’s data-import feature. Microsoft specifically recommends the text or CSV import process when UTF-8 files do not open correctly.

Leading Zeros Disappear From SKUs

Excel may treat a SKU such as 00125 as a number and change it to 125.

Set the SKU column format to Text during import. Do the same for product codes, long IDs, phone numbers, or other values that should not be calculated.

Product Images Are Shown as URLs

WooCommerce exports image locations as URLs rather than embedding the image files inside the spreadsheet.

Keep the URLs unchanged when you plan to reimport the products. Downloading and embedding images manually in Excel will not create the same WooCommerce import structure.

Custom Fields Are Missing

Return to the WooCommerce export screen and enable Yes, export all custom meta.

Some complex extension data may still require a compatible export plugin or custom integration.

Prices Display Incorrectly

Check your decimal separator, currency format, and regional Excel settings.

Format the price columns as numbers or currency only after confirming that Excel has interpreted the decimal values correctly.

Variable Products Look Confusing

Sort or filter the product-type column to separate parent variable products from variations.

Do not delete relationship or attribute columns when the file may later be imported into WooCommerce.

Large Exports Fail or Time Out

Try exporting smaller groups by category or product type. You can also reduce the number of exported columns or use an export plugin designed to process large catalogues in smaller batches.

Some Fields Are Blank

A blank exported cell often means that the field was not completed for that product.

Review the product inside WooCommerce before assuming the exporter failed. Some fields also apply only to specific product types.

Important Security and Backup Tips

Product export files may contain commercially sensitive information, including wholesale prices, supplier references, internal SKUs, private product metadata, unpublished products, or download locations.

Protect your files by following these precautions:

• Create a full backup before bulk editing or reimporting
• Keep the original exported CSV unchanged
• Store exported files in a private folder
• Do not upload sensitive spreadsheets to public file-sharing services
• Remove unnecessary private metadata before sending files to clients
• Test bulk updates on a staging website
• Use strong WordPress administrator credentials
• Delete temporary exports from shared computers
• Protect API credentials used by automated export systems

When using an API-based export or automation system, avoid placing credentials directly inside public plugin or theme files. Read this guide on How to Store API Keys Safely in wp-config.php to protect your WordPress credentials.

Final Thoughts

The easiest way to learn How to Export WooCommerce Products to Excel is to begin with WooCommerce’s built-in product exporter.

Go to Products → All Products → Export, select the required columns, product types, and categories, and generate the CSV file. Import that file into Excel using Data → From Text/CSV to protect SKUs, special characters, and column formatting. You can then save the spreadsheet as an XLSX workbook.

The built-in exporter is suitable for most basic product exports. An advanced plugin or custom solution may be necessary when you need native XLSX files, scheduled exports, custom filtering, large-catalogue processing, or automated product synchronization.

Create a backup, keep your original CSV safe, and test the built-in export process before making large changes to your store.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I export WooCommerce products to Excel?

Go to Products → All Products → Export in your WordPress dashboard. Choose the required columns, product types, and categories, and then select Generate CSV. Open the downloaded CSV through Excel’s Data → From Text/CSV option and save it as an XLSX workbook.

2. Does WooCommerce export products as XLSX files?

The built-in WooCommerce product exporter normally creates a CSV file, not a native XLSX workbook. You can open the CSV in Microsoft Excel and use Save As to convert it into an XLSX file.

3. Can I export WooCommerce product variations?

Yes. WooCommerce can export variable parent products and their individual variations. Check the product type, SKU, attributes, and parent relationship fields carefully, especially when you intend to reimport the file.

4. Can I export only selected WooCommerce products?

WooCommerce 9.9 and newer can export products selected from the product-list screen. The normal export page also lets you limit the export by product type, category, and columns. Older WooCommerce versions may require category filters or an export plugin for individual selections.

5. Why does my WooCommerce CSV file look incorrect in Excel?

Excel may be using the wrong delimiter, encoding, or automatic column format. Import the file using Data → From Text/CSV, select UTF-8 encoding, confirm the comma delimiter, and set SKU or product-code columns to text.