What this article is about
Managing a WooCommerce store with a large number of products can be time-consuming. This is especially true if you need to edit or update many products in one sitting.
But the good news is that you can shorten this time. Bulk editing products in WooCommerce can be done quickly using built-in Woocommerce tools or special plugins.
So in this article, I will share how to organize bulk editing of products in Woocommerce online store to save you time.
First, look at the functions you will need in the bulk product editing plugin.
What features are needed in the bulk product editing plugin?
Each product in the online store has a specific set of data. And if you often edit product data and want to reduce the time for editing, then most likely you need a specialized plugin for mass editing store products. Consider some of the features that such a plugin should have.
Bulk editing of product prices
One of the most frequent changes you can make to your WooCommerce store is to update product prices. But updating all product prices one by one can be a tedious task. You can do it much easier and faster if you edit the price of WooCommerce products in bulk
Bulk editing of full and short product descriptions
The same can be said about updating each product description. If you want to change the description or even if you just want to add one line of text to all products, bulk editing the WooCommerce product descriptions will save a huge amount of time.
Bulk editing of product categories
It is inevitable that products in a WooCommerce store will be in several different categories. But if you have just added a new category or want to do a complete categories reorganization, then the ability to bulk edit WooCommerce categories is a major advantage.
Bulk edit attributes and product variations
Bulk editing of WooCommerce products should not be limited to simple products. If you want to update all your products, then this should of course include variable products and product attributes.
Updating product variations one by one takes a very long time. Therefore, the plugin you choose should allow mass editing of attributes and variations of products. Without this feature, you will have a solution that does only half the job.
Additional useful features of the bulk product editing plugin
That is not all. The chosen WooCommerce bulk product editing plugin should also allow:
Bulk editing of WooCommerce product SKUs.
Bulk update of product images.
Provide the ability to change the stock status or stock quantity and product type.
Provide the ability to update product fields, custom fields, etc.
Now you know what to look for when choosing a WooCommerce bulk product editing plugin.
But did you know that you can edit multiple WooCommerce products without bulk editing plugin? In the next section, I will look at how to do this.
1. How to edit multiple WooCommerce products without bulk editing plugin
Similar to other WordPress post types that allow you to assign categories, tags, or post statuses in bulk, products in WooCommerce also have a bulk editing feature.
Therefore, under certain circumstances, you may not need a bulk editing plugin. WooCommerce has a tool that you can use for this.
So, to edit products in bulk using WooCommerce default settings, follow the steps below:
- In the WordPress dashboard go to the “Products” → “All products” section.
- Select the checkbox next to all the products you want to update (far left column).
- Then select “Edit” from the “Bulk Actions” drop-down menu and click the “Apply” button next to the drop-down menu.
After clicking, an editing window will appear with various product data fields that you can change or leave unchanged:
The “BULK EDIT” section shows the currently selected products that will be changed. Click x to remove a specific product from the active bulk editing session.
The “Product categories” section is a list of product categories that can be checked or unchecked to assign or remove them from the selected products.
In the “Comments” section you can set “Allow” or “Disallow” comments.
“Status” displays the published status of the product, options include Published, Private, Pending, or Draft
“Product Tags” – as soon as you start typing, existing product tags will be offered as clickable options. Otherwise, add one or more new tags separated by commas.
The “Product data” section contains available product data for editing.
The “Price” option includes the ability to change the price of selected products: “Change to”, “Increase the existing price by (fixed amount or %)” or “Decrease the existing price by (fixed amount or %)”.
Next are the fields for sale, change of tax status, changes in the weight of the goods, dimensions,
change of delivery class, the number of products in stock, stock status, backorder, etc.
Restrictions for bulk editing of products without a plugin
However, bulk editing of store products in this way has a significant limitation:
If you want to bulk update variable products – then WooCommerce does not provide such an easy option.
So, if you need to bulk edit products with variations without using an additional plugin – then you will have to select each variation separately and edit it manually to make changes. In fact, you will have to make changes for each product.
Therefore, you will need the help of a plugin to save time when bulk editing variable products of your WooCommerce online store. Next, I will look at plugins for bulk editing of products.
to table of contents ↑2. Plugin WooCommerce Bulk Variations
As I wrote above, adding and editing variable products with WooCommerce can be a time-consuming and tedious process. This is because the platform itself is not designed for bulk adding and editing of variable products. But with the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin, you can make this process faster and easier.
The WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin allows you to select specific variations and edit them together without applying those changes to your other variations. The plugin also allows you to bulk-add images to selected variations.
to table of contents ↑How to select variations and edit them in bulk
Go to the “Edit” screen for the variation product for which you want to edit the variations.
Scroll down the product edit page to the “Product Data” section and open the “Variations” tab.
You will see a grey “Filters” panel above the list of variations. Use it to select the options you want to edit.
Use the “Advanced” button to select variations based on additional data such as price or stock. Clicking on the button will open additional options for filtering variations. You can add as many filter criteria as you want.
When you are done configuring the selection criteria, click the “Update” button to apply the filter.
After filtering the list of variations to edit, use the “Bulk actions” drop-down list (called “Add variation”) to edit all selected variations. Make sure that the “Apply to filtered variations only” checkbox is selected.
To return the filter to the initial data and view all possible filtering options again, use the “Reset” button.
With the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin you will be able to bulk:
- Remove all variations;
- Change the status of the product;
- Change the price of the product, including the regular price (fixed or percentage);
- Set and change the sale price (fixed or percentage);
- Set the planned dates of sale;
- Change the status of stock, pre-order, out-of-stock, and low stock threshold (& SKU);
- Change the length, width, height, and weight of products;
- Change information about the product that can be downloaded;
- Change, set, and delete images of variable products.
WooCommerce Bulk Variations also allows you to display variations in a grid on the front of your WooCommerce store. This makes browsing and buying a variable product much more convenient for the user.
WooCommerce Bulk Variations is good for bulk editing variations of one product at a time, especially when a product has many variations. The plugin provides a convenient way to repeatedly select options that have certain common features. And after selection, you can apply certain changes to the selected one without affecting other options.
You can see the demo version of the plugin and buy the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin here (link to the site).
here (link to the site).
But if you are looking for a way to bulk edit multiple products at once, then keep reading.
to table of contents ↑3. Plugin BEAR – WooCommerce Bulk Editor and Products Manager Professional
The specific feature of BEAR – WooCommerce Bulk Editor plugin is bulk editing of WooCommerce store products on one page.
With the plugin you can:
- Bulk edit any WooCommerce product fields: attributes, categories, tags, custom taxonomies, meta fields;
- Make bulk editing of products with variations (variable products): create, set default combinations, change the order of variations, specify visibility, replace variations, delete variations with the selected combination;
- Filter WooCommerce products by all fields for further bulk editing or export;
- Export products using the internal WooCommerce data format;
- Store the history of mass and single editing operations with the possibility of rollback;
- Do bulk deletion of WooCommerce products with the ability to pre-filter products by all fields: title, content, SKU, price, categories, attributes, meta fields, and custom taxonomies;
- Add and manage the necessary meta fields to the system. Mass editing of metadata in JSON format is possible using a convenient pop-up window with a built-in data constructor!
- Use a calculator for numeric fields;
- Make linked editing – edit multiple products in two clicks!
- Change prices relatively;
- Automatically attach any taxonomies associated with products for further editing;
- Joint editing by several product store managers without interfering with each other. Also, store managers can be limited by their roles;
- Store profiles of any set of columns for quick configuration loading;
- Store profiles for any combination of filters for fast loading. This means that in future bulk edits you will be able to load the installed filters and make changes even faster.
The list of plugin features is impressive. For its price ($40) it is quite a powerful and functional plugin.
It should be noted that the plugin has a free version, but it is limited in capabilities. For example, it is not possible to edit all fields in bulk mode, only a maximum of 2 meta fields are available for editing and only 2 history records are saved, there is no bulk delete and not all functions are activated. The free version is more useful for getting acquainted with the functionality.
to table of contents ↑4. Plugin YITH WooCommerce Bulk Product
YITH WooCommerce Bulk Product Editing is another plugin that allows you to quickly edit one or more product attributes for an unlimited number of products at once.
You will not need to open products one by one and wait for the page to load. With this plugin, you will save a lot of time and be able to edit a large number of products at the same time.
With this plugin, you will be able to edit any product field, from URL to stock quantity, product type, product name, etc.
YITH WooCommerce Bulk Product Editing has a number of useful filtering options. Using the filter, you can search and quickly find the products you want to edit.
As a bonus, WooCommerce Bulk Product Editing also allows you to quickly create a new product right in the plugin interface.
Summary.
When managing an online store, sometimes you need to make bulk editing of products. The article provides a number of ways to do it faster:
- editing multiple WooCommerce products without plugin;
- editing variable products with the WooCommerce Bulk Variations plugin;
- bulk editing of products with the BEAR – WooCommerce Bulk Editor plugin;
- bulk editing of products with YITH – WooCommerce Bulk Product plugin.
Of course, there are other tools to reduce the time spent on editing online store data. As I get acquainted with it and gain experience in using it, I will describe it as well.
Comment on the article, share recommendations for tools for mass editing of online store products, and share the article on social networks.
Good luck!
Alexander Koval
