Import New WooCommerce Products With Images From CSV

To import WooCommerce products with images, upload your product data through a CSV file first, then upload the image files to the WordPress media library and match them to each product using the SKU as the file name. This two-step approach lets you create hundreds of new products with their images already attached, without opening a single product page to add an image manually. Below is the full process using WP Sheet Editor – WooCommerce Products, a plugin that lets you manage this entire workflow inside a spreadsheet in your WordPress dashboard.

This guide is written for setting up new products and their images together, for example when launching a new store or adding a new batch of products. If your products already exist in WooCommerce and you only need to add or update their images, this guide to bulk uploading WooCommerce product images covers several methods for that case, including SKU matching, external URLs, and CSV updates for existing products.

Why importing images separately takes so long

WooCommerce’s built-in CSV importer can only pull in an image if you already have a public URL for it in the Images column of your CSV. If your images are just files sitting on your computer, WooCommerce has no way to attach them during the import. That means the default workaround is opening each product individually, clicking into the Product image box, uploading or selecting the file, and saving the product, then repeating that for every single item.

For a handful of products, this is manageable. For a catalog of a few hundred or a few thousand products and variations, it adds up to hours of repetitive clicking. It also raises the chance of human error: pasting the wrong image on the wrong product, skipping a product by accident, or losing track of which SKUs still need an image after switching between browser tabs.

WP Sheet Editor – WooCommerce Products avoids this by letting you import the product data and the images in two fast batches instead of one product at a time. You import your CSV as normal, upload your image files to the WordPress media library, and then use the plugin’s Bulk Edit tool to match each image to the correct product using the SKU as the connector. WP Sheet Editor works directly with WooCommerce, so the products, variations, and images you manage this way behave exactly like products added the standard way.

Once you install the plugin and activate your license, follow the steps below to import products with images into WooCommerce.

Step 1. Prepare your CSV containing the products

Start by creating a CSV file with all your product data. This file is what WP Sheet Editor reads to create your products.

At minimum, your CSV should include the following columns:

• Product name: The title of the product.
• SKU: A unique identifier for each product. This is the value you’ll use later to match each product with its image file, so make sure every product has one and that it’s spelled consistently.
• Description: A full product description (optional but recommended).
• Price: The regular price of the product.

If you don’t have a CSV ready, you can start from this sample CSV and replace the sample rows with your own product data.

Important: you don’t need to fill in the Images column at this stage. The import in Step 2 will create the products without images, and you’ll assign the images afterward in Step 3 and Step 4. Adding image URLs at this point is unnecessary extra work if your images are just local files.

In the example below, the products have a SKU but nothing in the Images column, which is expected at this stage.

Step 2. Import the products using the CSV file

Open the products spreadsheet by going to WP Sheet Editor > Edit products, then open the Import tool.

Select the CSV file you want to import:

• Source: CSV file from my computer
• Click on Choose File.
• Locate the CSV file on your computer.
• Click on Next.

You can choose to Import all the columns or Select individual columns to import. In this example, all columns are imported.

Since these are brand-new products, choose Import all rows as new.

Click The preview is fine, start import to run the import.

Once the import finishes, your products are created in WooCommerce and ready for images to be assigned. In this example, 35 products were created and are now ready for the image assignment steps below.

Step 3. Upload the images to the WordPress media library

Before you can assign images in bulk, every image file needs to be uploaded to your WordPress media library and named to match the product it belongs to.

Important: each image file must be named exactly after the product’s SKU. For example, if a product has the SKU my-shirt-1, the corresponding image file should be named:

• my-shirt-1.jpg
• my-shirt-1.png
• Or any other standard image format (e.g., .webp, .jpeg)

This naming convention is what lets the plugin match each image to the right product automatically in the next step, instead of you assigning each one by hand. If a filename doesn’t match a SKU exactly, that image won’t be matched to a product.

Below, the image file names follow this format, ready to be uploaded to the media library:

Please, make sure your image files have the same name as the SKU.

Step 4. Assign the images to your new products in bulk

With the products imported and the images uploaded to the media library, the last step is connecting the two. This is done with the Bulk Edit tool, which lets you edit a field on any number of products at once, in this case the featured image field, based on the product SKU.

Open the Bulk Edit tool and set these values to complete the import products with images process:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (including non-visible rows)
• What field do you want to edit: Featured Image
• Select the type of edit: Set value
• File URL: $_sku$.png
  • Make sure you use the right file extension (.png, .jpg, etc.)
• Click Execute Now.

With the $_sku$.jpg value in the File Name field, the plugin will search the filenames of the images you uploaded and match them with the product SKUs to add the right images to the products.

Once the bulk edit finishes, your new products have featured images assigned automatically, without opening a single product page. This is the fastest way to launch a new catalog with images already attached.

Import WooCommerce products with images now!

Importing WooCommerce products with images doesn’t have to mean opening every product one by one. With WP Sheet Editor, you import the product data as a CSV, upload the images to the media library, and let the Bulk Edit tool match everything by SKU. A full catalog of new products gets its images in two bulk operations instead of hundreds of individual edits. If you’re working with products that already exist in your store, see this guide to bulk uploading WooCommerce product images for more ways to add images to them.