WooCommerce Sample Products CSV, Template & Validator

WooCommerce ships with a built-in product importer, but it is unforgiving about format: the column headers have to match what it expects, and values like prices, stock flags and visibility only accept particular forms. Get one wrong and the import either fails outright or silently creates products with missing data.

This page solves that three ways:

1. 1Sample products — download a filled demo catalog of 26 products, ready to import into a fresh or staging store with no editing at all.
2. 2Generate template — pick the columns you need and get a blank CSV with correct headers and example rows to fill in.
3. 3Validate CSV — paste or drop a CSV you already have and check it against the importer's rules before you run it.

To get a working sample catalog

1. 1Open the Sample products tab above.
2. 2Click Download sample products CSV.
3. 3In WordPress go to Products → Import, choose the file, and click Continue.
4. 4WooCommerce maps every column automatically. Click Run the importer.

To build a template for your own catalog

1. 1Open the Generate template tab and tick the columns you need. Type and Name are locked on because the importer requires them.
2. 2Choose how many example rows to include — they show the exact formatting each column expects.
3. 3Download the template, then fill it in with your products in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
4. 4Export as CSV (UTF-8) and run it back through the Validate tab before importing.

A minimal WooCommerce import needs only two columns. This is a completely valid file:

Type,Name
simple,Classic Cotton T-Shirt
simple,Ceramic Coffee Mug

In practice you want prices, stock and images. A realistic simple product looks closer to this:

Type,SKU,Name,Published,Regular price,Sale price,In stock?,Stock,Categories,Images
simple,WS-TEE-001,Classic Cotton T-Shirt,1,19.99,15.00,1,120,Clothing > T-Shirts,https://example.com/tee.jpg

Variable products need one row for the parent plus one row per variation. The parent lists every attribute option; each variation names its own value and points back via Parent:

Type,SKU,Name,Regular price,Parent,Attribute 1 name,Attribute 1 value(s)
variable,WS-HOODIE-100,Pullover Hoodie,49.99,,Size,"S, M, L"
variation,WS-HOODIE-100-S,Pullover Hoodie - S,49.99,WS-HOODIE-100,Size,S
variation,WS-HOODIE-100-M,Pullover Hoodie - M,49.99,WS-HOODIE-100,Size,M
variation,WS-HOODIE-100-L,Pullover Hoodie - L,49.99,WS-HOODIE-100,Size,L

These are the columns the built-in importer recognises. Only Type and Name are required — everything else is optional, and any column WooCommerce does not recognise is either imported as custom meta or ignored.

Prices import as zero or empty

Almost always a currency symbol or thousands separator in the cell. Spreadsheets add these when a column is formatted as currency. WooCommerce wants 19.99, not $19.99 or 1,299.00. Format the column as plain text before exporting.

Products import as duplicates instead of updating

The importer matches on ID or SKU. Without either column, every row is treated as a brand-new product. Include SKU and tick “Update existing products” on the import screen.

Variations do not attach to the parent

The Parent value on each variation row has to exactly match the parent's SKU or ID, and the parent must carry all attribute options in its Attribute 1 value(s) cell. A variation whose value is not listed on the parent is silently dropped.

Accented or Japanese characters turn into mojibake

The file was saved in the wrong encoding. Export as CSV UTF-8 — in Excel that is a separate option from plain “CSV”, and picking the wrong one mangles any non-ASCII text.

Images do not appear

URLs must be publicly reachable and start with http — WooCommerce downloads each one at import time. Local paths, Google Drive share links and password-protected URLs all fail silently.

The import times out on a large file

Split the CSV into batches of a few thousand rows. Image-heavy imports are slowest because each URL is fetched and resized during the run.

Run your file through the Validate CSV tab above — it checks required columns, flags unrecognised headers, and verifies that every value matches what the importer accepts. If your catalog came out of another platform and has messy duplicates or stray whitespace, clean it first with the Bulk CSV Cleaner.