How to Import WooCommerce Variations from a CSV File

Struggling to import WooCommerce variations efficiently? Whether you need to bulk import product variations, create new variable products, or update existing ones with new attributes, this guide has you covered. We’ll walk you through how to import WooCommerce variable products with variations using WP Sheet Editor.

Importing or migrating variations manually in WooCommerce can be a real challenge. The process often involves dealing with complex CSV formats, matching parent-child relationships using IDs, and making sure attributes are correctly assigned. A small mistake can break the entire import, and WooCommerce’s built-in tools can be limited or unintuitive, especially when working with large catalogs.

That’s where WP Sheet Editor comes in. It simplifies the entire workflow by providing a powerful spreadsheet interface inside WordPress, allowing you to view, edit, and bulk import variable products and their variations with ease. Whether you’re starting from scratch or working with exported CSV files, WP Sheet Editor ensures accuracy, saves time, and eliminates the technical headache.

WP Sheet Editor has many features that simplify variations management. You can:

• Display variations in the spreadsheet and manage both products and variations in one place
• Create variations in bulk for every combination of attributes
• Copy variations from one product to multiple products
• Search for products and/or variations by keyword, category, attribute, price, stock, SKU, etc.
• Bulk edit products and variations with a few clicks
• Duplicate variable products with their variations
• Export variations to a CSV file
• Bulk import product variations from a CSV file

Keep reading and follow the steps in the sections below to bulk import WooCommerce variations.

Open the products spreadsheet

After installing and activating WP Sheet Editor, go to WP Sheet Editor > Edit products.

You’ll view all your WooCommerce products and variations displayed on the spreadsheet.

By default, the spreadsheet displays products only, but you can click on the Display variations button to view the product variations next to their parent products.

Optional — Bulk export variable products with variations

The first step to importing your variable products and their variations is to prepare a CSV file that contains all the necessary data:

1. Click on Display variations.
2. Click on Export.
3. Complete the export by selecting which columns you want to export, the CSV editor app you’ll use to edit the CSV, etc. Here’s a tutorial.

Here’s the CSV file we have exported from our site:

Important: Managing variations in a CSV file

There are some things you need to take into account when preparing your CSV to import WooCommerce variations.

a) When importing variations to another site

If you’re migrating variable products and their variations from one site to another, you’ll most likely need to create the variations as new entries on the destination site.

To do this successfully, you must make a few adjustments to your CSV file.

Note: This applies whether you’re importing a CSV previously exported from WooCommerce or creating the variations manually from scratch.

For example, when you export products with variations from WooCommerce, the “Parent” column in the variation rows contains the product ID of the parent item.

However, since each site has its own database with different product IDs, you can’t rely on IDs when importing variations from one site to another because the link between parent products and their variations would break.

Instead, we recommend using the SKU of the parent product in the “Parent” column, rather than the product ID. This ensures the relationship is preserved correctly during import.

Important:

• Each variation can have its own SKU in the “SKU” column, but the “Parent” column must contain the SKU of the parent product for every variation.
• Make sure that parent products have “variable” set in the “Type” column, and that each variation is marked as “variation” in the same column.

b) Editing variation attributes in the CSV

WP Sheet Editor uses the same format as WooCommerce for exporting and importing products and their variations.

While WP Sheet Editor provides a user-friendly interface for managing attributes and other fields directly on WordPress, the CSV file still follows WooCommerce’s structure for column names and values.

This means that for each attribute used in your variations, a corresponding set of columns will appear in the CSV.

For example, as shown in the screenshot below, using a “Color” attribute generates the following columns:

• Attribute 1 Name
• Attribute 1 value(s)
• Attribute 1 global
• Attribute 1 visible

The same applies for our “size” attribute; we have these columns:

• Attribute 1 Name
• Attribute 1 value(s)
• Attribute 1 global
• Attribute 1 visible

So, whether you’re creating variations in a new CSV file or editing them in an exported one, you must ensure that the attribute columns use the correct naming format.

Pro tip: Create variations for every combination of attributes with WP Sheet Editor

If you want to avoid the hassle of having to create/edit variations in the CSV file, we recommend creating the variations directly in WP Sheet Editor.

Here is a tutorial: How to create WooCommerce variations in bulk.

Bulk import WooCommerce variations

Bulk importing variable products with variations from a CSV file offers several benefits:

• Saves time and effort: Updating variations via CSV is much faster than editing them individually in WooCommerce.
• Bulk updates made easy: You can quickly update existing variable products and their variations in bulk by importing the data.
• Simplifies migration: Easily transfer variable products and their variations from one store to another.

To get started, open the Import tool to upload your variable product data from a CSV file.

Next, you need to select the variations CSV file you will import:

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

After selecting the CSV file you will import to update your variable products and their variations, you need to select which columns you’ll import.

You can Import all the columns or you can Select individual columns to import.

Now you need to select how you will import the data:

• Do you want to update or create items: You have some options here:
  • Create new items and update existing items
  • Import all rows as new.
    • Note — You may need to select this if you’re migrating products from one site to another.
  • Only create new items, ignore existing items
  • Update existing items, ignore new items
• Match the data in the CSV with the data in WordPress: If you’re updating existing products and variations, you need to use a specific field as an identifier. You can use record_id (CSV) and ID (WordPress).
• Click on Next.

Finally, you’ll see a preview of how the data will appear once imported into WordPress. If everything looks correct, click “The preview is fine, start import”.

After that, the import process will begin, and your WooCommerce variable products and their variations will be added to/updated in your store.

If you need to import WooCommerce products and variations, the WP Sheet Editor plugin is the ideal tool. It lets you export variable products—with or without variations—to a CSV file. After editing the data, you can easily bulk import everything back into WordPress, saving time and simplifying product management.