WooCommerce – How to Bulk Edit Product Descriptions (Content)

Let’s see how to bulk edit WooCommerce product descriptions.

Adding and editing WooCommerce product descriptions can be a tedious task if you don’t have a tool like WP Sheet Editor.

This plugin allows you to view and edit hundreds of WooCommerce products in an intuitive spreadsheet within WordPress. You don’t need to export and/or import your products to edit them massively, although the plugin also allows you to do that.

Product description and product short description

In WooCommerce, there’s a difference between product description (content) and product short description.

• Product description (content) is a more detailed description of the product that includes information such as its features, benefits, and uses. It is typically longer and more in-depth than the product short description.
• Product short description is a brief summary of the product that is typically displayed on the product listing page. It is shorter and more concise than the product content or description and is designed to give customers a quick overview of the product.

If what you need is to bulk edit WooCommerce short descriptions, you can read this tutorial.

Install the WP Sheet Editor plugin

WP Sheet Editor provides a Products Spreadsheet where you can see all the product information, and you can edit freely.

You can skip this step if you already have the plugin installed and activated.

Open the plugin by going to WP Sheet Editor > Edit Products.

Once you open the plugin, you’ll find all your products along with their detailed information.

1. Bulk edit WooCommerce product description or content in the spreadsheet

Editing your product descriptions in bulk using a spreadsheet can save you a lot of time, especially if you have a large inventory.

It also allows you to double-check and guarantee the information’s accuracy before uploading them to your WooCommerce store.

You can bulk edit the WooCommerce product descriptions by going to the Content column.

If you want to edit your product descriptions using rich editing, you need to click on the edit button.

You’ll see a popup where you can add and edit text.

Optionally, you can add text without formatting by double-clicking the cell.

Once you’re done editing all the product descriptions, you can click on Save to apply the changes.

This is a good way to bulk update WooCommerce product descriptions.

2. Bulk edit product description by setting a new product description

A well-written product description informs potential buyers about the product’s characteristics, benefits, and uses. It helps people determine whether the product meets their wants and preferences.

That is why it is better that all products in your WooCommerce store have a good description.

To help you with this, we will show you how you can find products without a description and bulk edit WooCommerce product descriptions by adding a general description to all of them at once.

For this, you will need to use the Search tool.

Once the Search tool is open, enter these values to filter all products without descriptions:

• Enable advanced filters
• Field: Content
• Operator: =
• Value: Leave empty
• Run search

After filtering the products missing their description, open the Bulk Edit tool:

Now you will enter the following values to add content to all filtered products:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Replace existing value with this value: Enter the product description you want
• Click on Execute now.

Following the completion of the bulk edit, you will see that no products are matching the search parameters, since now all of them have their description.

In this case, you only need to delete the active filters.

Finally, you will notice that no products are missing their content.

For more details, you can check our tutorial on how to Add Message to Product Descriptions in Bulk.

3. Personalize a general description by adding each product name

If you want to add a basic description to all of your products while also adding the name of each one to make it more personalized, we’ll show you how.

You could also want to Copy Product Content to Short Description and vice-versa.

First, you need to open the Bulk Edit tool.

Enter these values to personalize the product description adding each product name:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Enter the value to append to the existing value: Enter the desired description, and when you want to enter the product’s name, enter the title column key $post_title$.
• Click on Execute now.

Now that our product content has been updated, we can see the changes using the spreadsheet.

4. Bulk edit WooCommerce descriptions by appending text to product content

Bulk text appending to product content can be beneficial in a variety of situations, such as when making significant, uniform changes to product information across a large number of items.

Here are some examples of why mass-adding text to product content may be required:

a) Add personalized text at the end of the product content

At the end of your product descriptions, you can encourage customers to do something specific, such as sign up for a newsletter, follow on social media, or contact customer service for more information.

To do this, let’s say you want to add this call to action to all products that contain the keyword “Fashion”.

To start, hover your mouse over the Search tool, enter the keyword, and hit Enter on your keyboard.

Once the products have been filtered, open the Bulk Edit tool.

Now enter the following values into the Bulk Edit tool to add personalized text at the end of the product content:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Append
• Enter the value to append to the existing value: Enter the personalized text here (Include a blank space or some character before this text to make the content make sense because our plugin will add whatever you put in this field right after the product description)
• Click on Execute now.

After completing the edition, you will see the text added to your product content.

b) Append disclosure for product content

There are many situations where it may be necessary to add a disclosure to the content of a product to ensure transparency, preserve trust and comply with legal or industry regulations.

For this example, let’s filter all products that belong to the “promotional products” category using the Search tool.

Once the Search tool is open, enter the product category in the taxonomy field and hit Run search.

After all the products have been filtered, open the Bulk edit tool.

Now use these values to append a disclosure for product content:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Append
• Enter the value to append to the existing value: Enter the disclosure here (Include a blank space or some character before this text to make the content make sense because our plugin will add whatever you put in this field right after the product description)
• Click on Execute now.

When the bulk edit is finished, you will notice that the disclosure has been added to every content of the selected products.

c) Enter an affiliate link at the end of each product content

In cases where you have a partnership or sponsorship with a brand so that you can sell their products through your store, you can include affiliate links in your product descriptions.

For this, let’s filter all products that belong to a specific brand using the Search tool.

NOTE: For this section, we have created the attribute called “Brand“, so it appears in the spreadsheet as “Product Brand“.

Enter these values into the Search tool to filter all products that are of the same brand:

• Use the Enable advanced filters checkbox
• Field: Product brand
• Operator: =
• Value: Enter the brand you are looking for
• Run search

After having all the products to which you want to add the affiliate link, open the Bulk Edit tool.

Then enter these values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Append
• Enter the value to append to the existing value: Enter the affiliate link here (You can include a disclosure statement that informs the reader about the link’s purpose and always remember to include a blank space or some character before this text to make the content make sense because our plugin will add whatever you put in this field right after the product description)
• Click on Execute now.

After executing, you will see that the affiliate link has been added to your product descriptions successfully.

5. Bulk prepend text to product content

Ensuring a consistent presentation of product content by adding specific text elements at the beginning, such as product name, categories, or stock status, can improve the user experience and overall professionalism.

And how to achieve this is what we will show you in the following sections:

a) Prepend stock status to product content

Prepending stock status to product content can be beneficial for both customers and your business. Here are some reasons to consider doing so:

• Improve customer experience
• Manage customer expectations
• Drive urgency and sales
• Optimize inventory management
• And more.

For this example, is needed to add the stock status to all products whose status is “On backorder”

To begin, we will filter them using the Search function.

In order to find all products with the stock status “On backorder” you must enter these values into the Search tool.

• Use the Enable advanced filters checkbox
• Field: Stock Status
• Operator: =
• Value: On backorder
• Run search

Now that you have filtered all the products, open the Bulk Edit tool.

Once the tool is open, enter these values to prepend stock status to product content:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Prepend
• Enter the value to append to the existing value: $_stock_status$ (To separate the stock status from the actual product description, it is necessary to add a space or character after the text)
• Click on Execute now.

Now, if you check the content field, you will see that each stock status has been added.

b) Copy each product category at the beginning of their descriptions

Incorporating the product category at the beginning of descriptions improves consistency, SEO, navigation, and customer understanding, and attracts the correct audience.

All of this contributes to improving the customer experience and, perhaps, increasing sales.

Now you can start by opening the Bulk Edit tool.

Once the tool is open, select these values to copy each product category at the beginning of their descriptions:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Prepend
• Enter the value to append to the existing value: $product_cat$ (To separate the category from the actual product description, it is necessary to add a space or character after the text)
• Click on Execute now.

As you can see, after running the bulk edit, each category has been added before the product description.

6. Bulk replace specific data from product content

Replacing words from the content is a great way to bulk edit WooCommerce product descriptions.

It is a crucial strategy for businesses to maintain accuracy, enhance brand image, ensure legal compliance, and optimize customer experience.

Here we show you different options on how to do it using the WP Sheet Editor spreadsheet.

a) Replace a specific word from the products descriptions

If a company switches suppliers or manufacturers, it may be necessary to update this information.

Bulk replacing can simplify this process and ensure accuracy across all affected products.

To start, open the Bulk Edit tool.

You need to enter these values to replace specific data from product content:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Replace
• Replace this: Enter the word you want to replace
• With this: Enter the new word
• Click on Execute now.

After doing the bulk edit, you will notice that all the descriptions that previously contained the prior word have been updated.

b) Bulk replace a character from the content of the product

Certain platforms or devices may not support or show special characters properly in some instances.

Replacing these characters with other characters or plain text can help maintain readability and accessibility across multiple systems.

To bulk replace these characters, start by opening the Bulk Edit tool.

Then, insert these values to replace the specific character from your product descriptions:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Replace
• Replace this: Enter the character you want to replace
• With this: Enter the new text or character
• Click on Execute now.

After applying the changes, you will see the old character has been replaced successfully.

c) Change one phrase with another in product content

When the original phrase contains incorrect or obsolete information, it is critical to replace it with an accurate and up-to-date phrase to ensure the integrity of the product content.

In this case, you will need to use the Bulk Edit tool.

Once the Bulk Edit tool is open, enter the following values to replace one phrase with another in product content:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Replace
• Replace this: Enter the phrase you want to replace
• With this: Enter the new phrase
• Click on Execute now.

Once done, you will see that the new phrase has been added to the respective product descriptions.

d) Replace year references from product content

For this section, please check our tutorial on how to Replace Old Year References from Product Descriptions.

7. Eliminate words from product descriptions

Eliminating irrelevant or repetitive words can make your product content more concise, improving clarity and making it easier for customers to understand product features and benefits.

You will see some options to do this in the sections below.

a) Remove everything after some text in the product description

There are several occasions when it is necessary to remove text from a particular point to shorten your product descriptions, which we will show you how to do.

To begin with, open the Bulk Edit tool.

Once the tool is open, enter these values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Remove everything after some text
• Remove everything after this text: Enter the word or phrase from which you wish to delete.
• Remove the text too?: Yes, remove everything after the text, including the text, or No, remove everything after the text, without including the text
• Click on Execute now.

After executing the bulk edit, you will see that all the text after the phrase or word entered has been deleted.

b) Remove everything before some text from product content

If you’ve added language to the beginning of your descriptions that you’d like to remove, you may do it easily using the Bulk Edit tool.

Enter these values into the tool to remove everything before the selected text:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Remove everything before some text
• Remove everything after this: Enter the word or phrase up to where you want to delete.
• Remove the text from above too?: Yes, or No
• Click on Execute now.

Once done, you will see that your product content has been successfully edited.

c) Shorten the description by a maximum number of words

There are times when we know you want to describe your products perfectly, but your descriptions end up seeming like a blog post.

In these situations, we can limit the number of words in each product content using the Bulk Edit tool. If you want to limit the content length for just some products, you can use the picker selector.

Once in the Bulk Edit tool, enter the following information to reduce the description length by the maximum number of words:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit the rows selected manually in the spreadsheet.
• What field do you want to update: Content
• Select type of edit: Generate excerpt
• Maximum number of words: Enter the number of words you want in your description
• Click on Execute now.

Note: When using this option, ensure that the paragraphs or thoughts in your description are complete. This option adds an ellipsis at the end of the content.

Now you will see that all the descriptions were shortened and that an ellipsis was added at the end.

8. Bulk import product content from a CSV file

You can bulk edit WooCommerce product descriptions by importing them from a CSV file.

To start, make sure your CSV file contains all the required fields, such as product name, description, ID, etc. You may also include additional fields, like categories, tags, images, or custom attributes.

Important: Before executing any bulk imports, make a backup of your site and product data to ensure that you can simply restore your site if something goes wrong during the process.

Go to the WP Sheet Editor interface and click on the Import button.

Click Select File and choose the CSV file you want to import and click Next.

Select columns to import. In this case, will be all.

In the Do you want to update or create new items? dropdown, select Update existing items, ignore new items.

Map the columns in your CSV file to the appropriate fields in WooCommerce by selecting the WooCommerce field name from the dropdown menu and the same CSV column name and click Next.

Review the import preview to ensure the data is mapped correctly and click The preview is fine, start import to initiate the import process.

After the import is complete, check your WooCommerce Products section to ensure all product descriptions have been imported correctly.

This is how you can bulk edit WooCommerce product descriptions with WP Sheet Editor.

You can now keep your product descriptions accurate, engaging, and up-to-date, ultimately leading to better customer experiences and increased sales.