Importing WooCommerce Sample Data

Right after installing WooCommerce, your store has no products, orders, or reviews. This is intentional so you can set up WooCommerce exactly as you need. If you want to see what a store full of products looks like before creating your own, you can import the sample product data included with the WooCommerce plugin.

The sample data files are named sample_products.csv and sample_products.xml. Both are located in the WooCommerce plugin folder at WooCommerce/sample-data/. You can access these files in two ways:

  • Download the WooCommerce plugin again, open the .zip file, and find the files in the sample-data folder.
  • Connect to your site via SFTP and navigate to the plugin folder to retrieve the files directly.

Import via the WooCommerce product importer

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The WooCommerce built-in CSV importer is the recommended approach for importing sample product data. Follow the steps below to import the sample_products.csv file.

  1. Go to Products > All Products.
  2. Click the Start Import button at the top of the page.
  3. The Import Products screen appears.
The Import Products screen showing the file upload field and Continue button.
  1. Click Choose file and select the sample_products.csv file you downloaded.
  2. Click Continue. A Column Mapping screen appears. WooCommerce automatically maps columns from the sample CSV to product fields.
The Column Mapping screen showing CSV fields matched to WooCommerce product fields.
  1. Scroll down and click Run the Importer.

Your sample product data is now available in WooCommerce under Products > All Products.

Import via the WordPress importer

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You can also import the sample data using the WordPress Importer tool with the sample_products.xml file. This method uses the standard WordPress import process.

  1. Go to Tools > Import.
  2. Find WordPress in the list and click Run Importer. If the WordPress Importer is not yet installed, click Install Now first, then run it.
The Tools Import screen with the WordPress importer option visible.
  1. Click Choose file and select the sample_products.xml file you downloaded.
  2. Click Upload file and import.
  3. Assign an author for the imported products. You have the following options:
    • Import the default Shop Manager author included in the file.
    • Create a new user to serve as the author.
    • Assign the products to an existing user on your site (recommended).
  4. Select or clear the Download and import file attachments checkbox. When selected, this imports all sample product images to your site.
  5. Click Submit to start the import.

Your sample product data is now imported. To (descriptive link text describing the destination) about working with products, see the documentation on adding and managing products.

Questions and support

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Do you still have questions and need assistance? 

This documentation is about the free, core WooCommerce plugin, for which support is provided in our community forums on WordPress.org. By searching this forum, you’ll often find that your question has been asked and answered before.

If you haven’t created a WordPress.org account to use the forums, here’s how.

  • If you’re looking to extend the core functionality shown here, we recommend reviewing available extensions in the WooCommerce Marketplace.
  • Need ongoing advanced support or a customization built for WooCommerce? Hire a Woo Agency Partner.
  • Are you a developer building your own WooCommerce integration or extension? Check our Developer Resources.

If you weren’t able to find the information you need, please use the feedback thumbs below to let us know.

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