Exporting Products
Exporting sends products from WooCommerce to Shopify. It is the mirror of importing, and it is what a seller uses when the marketplace is their master catalogue.
Open My Account → Shopify Connector → Manage Account → Export Product.
Only the seller's own products are listed. A seller can never export another seller's catalogue.
Before you export
On the Settings tab:
| Setting | Why it matters here |
|---|---|
| Price Rule Applicable For | Set to Export Product to adjust prices on the way out |
| Select Shop Location | The Shopify location the stock quantity is written to |
| Product Fields To Update | Which fields an update writes — price, quantity, description, images |
Exporting products
Everything at once
Select Export All Products. The connector collects every one of the seller's exportable products and pushes them to Shopify in batches, showing a progress bar and a Sync Logs panel.
Products that are already on Shopify are counted separately and reported as Product(s) Already Exported — the export never creates a duplicate.
A selection
Tick the rows you want and use Bulk Actions → Export, then Apply.
If nothing is ticked, the connector asks: Select Products to Export.
One product, from its row
Each row carries an upload icon in the Action column. Selecting it exports that single product immediately — no ticking, no bulk action.
| Button state | Tooltip | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Export to Shopify | The product has not been exported yet |
| Greyed out | Already Exported to Shopify | The product is already on Shopify; use Update to Shopify instead |
This is the quickest route when a seller has just created one product and wants it on Shopify now.
The product list
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Product Name | The WooCommerce product, with its post ID |
| SKU | The product's SKU |
| Type | Simple or Variable |
| Export Status | Exported or Not Exported |
| Action | Export to Shopify (single-product export), Edit Product, Delete Product |
Use the search box to find a product by name. The Export Status column is the quickest way to see what still has to go across.
Keeping exported products current
Exporting a product creates it on Shopify once. After that, changes made in WooCommerce reach Shopify in one of three ways.
Update to Shopify (manual)
Tick the rows and use Bulk Actions → Update to Shopify. The connector rewrites those products on Shopify, changing only the fields listed in Product Fields To Update.
If nothing is ticked: Select Products to Update.
Progress messages: Updating Products, Products Updated Out of, Products Updated.
Product Fields To Update
This multi-select on the Settings tab is the safety valve for an update. Choose any combination of:
- Price
- Quantity
- Description
- Images
Only the chosen fields are written. This matters when the Shopify listing has been given its own marketing copy or its own photography — leave Description and Images unselected and an update will refresh stock and price without overwriting that work.
Important
This setting applies to updates only. The first time a product is exported, everything is sent regardless of what is selected here — Shopify needs a complete product to create one. The setting protects a listing from that point onwards.
On product creation
When a seller creates a new product through the marketplace's own product form, the connector pushes it to Shopify automatically, so the two catalogues do not drift apart from the first day.
Automatic (live)
Set Product Auto-Sync to Woocommerce To Shopify on the Settings tab to keep Shopify updated from WooCommerce as changes happen. See Webhooks and Auto-Sync.
What is sent
For each product the connector sends the name, description, images, tags and attributes, and for each variant the price, compare-at price, SKU, weight, stock quantity, inventory policy and barcode.
Warning
Weight is always sent to Shopify in kilograms, whatever unit your WooCommerce store uses. If your store works in pounds or grams, the number travels as-is and Shopify reads it as kilograms. Check one product after your first export.
Stock quantity is written against the location chosen in Select Shop Location. The full mapping, including how each WooCommerce stock state becomes a Shopify inventory policy, is in the Product Data Reference.
What can and cannot be exported
The Export Product list only ever shows simple and variable products. Grouped products and external/affiliate products never appear, and neither do products that were imported from Shopify in the first place (they are already linked) or products already exported to this account.
Warning
Shopify allows a maximum of three options per product. A WooCommerce variable product with more than three variation attributes — say Colour, Size, Material and Fit — cannot be created on Shopify, and its export will fail. Reduce it to three attributes or fewer before exporting. The connector does not warn you in advance; the failure comes back from Shopify.
Variable products
Variable products export with each variation as a Shopify variant, carrying its own price, SKU and stock. Variation images are pushed through a background queue after the product itself is created, so a variable product may appear on Shopify a moment before all of its variation pictures do.
A WooCommerce simple product has no options, but Shopify requires at least one — so the connector sends the standard single default option, and the product appears on Shopify exactly as a native single-variant product would.
Removing products
Bulk Actions → Delete removes the selected products from WooCommerce and clears their Shopify mapping. It reports "%d Product Deleted Successfully!".
Warning
Deleting here removes the WooCommerce product. It does not delete the copy on Shopify — remove that from the Shopify admin if you no longer want it listed.
Order of work
Exporting products is a prerequisite for exporting orders. Shopify cannot create an order for a product it does not have, so the connector refuses an order export whose line items have not been exported yet — see Exporting Orders.
Related pages
- Product Data Reference — exactly which fields travel, and how
- Exporting Orders — the next step, which depends on this one
- Settings — controlling what an update writes