The Complete Guide to Bulk Editing Attributes in WooCommerce

If you run a WooCommerce store, you already know how draining product updates can be, especially when you’re forced to edit things one by one.

Even a simple change of attributes, like color or adding new sizes, can take up your time and make you question your sanity.

WooCommerce gives you the basics, but once your catalog grows, those basics just aren’t enough. You need speed, control, and a way to update hundreds of products without clicking through every single page.

That’ exactly what this guide will help you do.

Here’s what you will learn:

• What WooCommerce allows you to bulk edit, and where it falls short
• How to bulk edit attributes, prices, categories, tags, and descriptions safely
• Real store examples of using bulk editing smartly
• And how Smart Manager makes all of this happen in minutes

By the end, you’ll know the fastest, safest way to bulk edit anything in WooCommerce. 

So let’s get started.

Attributes vs variations in WooCommerce: What’ the difference?

Before you start bulk editing anything, it’ important to get one thing absolutely clear: attributes and variations aren’t the same.

Understanding this difference helps you avoid the most common bulk-editing mistakes.

Most store owners jump straight into editing without checking whether they’re changing the attribute (like “Color”) or the variation (like “Color: Blue / Size: L”). 

That’ when updates don’t show, edits don’t apply, or variations break.

Here’ the simplest way to look at it:

• Attributes: The options you offer (color, size, material, pattern).
• Variations: The actual purchasable combinations created from those options.

Why does this matter for bulk editing?

Because the action you take depends on what you want to update:

• Want to add or remove colors across 200 products? You’re editing attributes.
• Want to update prices or stock for size/colour combinations? You’re editing variations.
• Want new combinations altogether? You need to generate variations, not edit attributes.

Once this difference is clear, the rest of the bulk editing workflow will make perfect sense.

How to bulk edit attributes in WooCommerce (without any plugin)?

WooCommerce does offer a built-in bulk editor.

So before we move to smarter methods, let’ look at what you can and cannot do using WooCommerce’ native tools. 

This helps store owners understand the exact limitations before deciding whether they need a plugin.

What can you bulk edit with WooCommerce?

You can access the default bulk editor:

1. Go to Products > All Products
2. Select two or more products
3. Choosing Bulk actions > Edit > Apply

From here, WooCommerce lets you update:

• Categories
• Tags
• Regular & Sale prices
• Tax status and tax class
• Product visibility
• Shipping class
• Stock status, stock quantity & backorders
• Manage stock / Sold individually
• Weight, dimensions
• Product status (Published, Draft, Private)

These options work fine if your store sells simple products or if you only need basic updates.

But what about attributes?

This is where WooCommerce’ built-in bulk editor falls short.

You cannot bulk edit attributes using WooCommerce itself. 

WooCommerce does not support:

• Adding a global attribute to multiple products
• Removing attribute values in bulk
• Editing custom attributes
• Updating attribute visibility (e.g., “Used for variations”, “Visible on product page”)
• Copying attributes from one product to another
• Bulk editing attributes for variable products
• Assigning attributes based on filters
• Editing variation-specific attributes
• Removing old or incorrect attributes across many products

So, if you’re trying to update any of the following attributes across your catalog: Color, Size, Material, Capacity, Pattern, or any custom attribute, the native editor cannot do it.

Are there any native workarounds?

There are a few minor loopholes, but they only apply to very small stores.

1. Editing attributes from the Attributes screen

   You can go to Products > Attributes, edit an attribute (like “Color”), and add new terms.

   But:

   • This does not add the attribute to products
   • It does not update existing products
   • It does not fix attribute visibility
   • It does not generate new variations

   So it’ not a real bulk-editing method.

2. CSV export/import

   You can export your product list as a CSV file and then manually edit the attribute columns before importing it back.

   But this method comes with risks:

   • Attribute formatting in CSVs is complicated
   • Variation rows are easy to break
   • Errors overwrite product data
   • Undo is not possible
   • Not suitable for large stores
   • It’ slow, technical, and error-prone.

Now that you know what WooCommerce can’t do, let’ move to the part every store owner actually needs: how to bulk edit attributes quickly, safely, and in minutes.

How to bulk edit product attributes in WooCommerce with plugin?

WooCommerce doesn’t offer true bulk attribute editing, but Smart Manager does.

This plugin gives you a spreadsheet-style view of your entire store. With this, you can update attributes across hundreds of products in a few clicks, without opening individual product pages or dealing with messy spreadsheets.

Here’ how to bulk edit attributes quickly and safely with Smart Manager.

Add or remove existing attributes in bulk

Let’s say you just stocked up on 10 blue t-shirts for the holiday season. Instead of editing each product manually:

1. Head to WordPress Admin Panel > Smart Manager
2. From the dropdown, choose the Products dashboard
3. Select the t-shirts you want to update

Have a large inventory? Use Advanced Search to filter by:

• Product name
• SKU
• Category
• Other product fields

4. Click on the Bulk Edit button (this opens a slide-in panel)
5. Choose:
   • Action: Add Attribute
   • Attribute: Color
   • Value: Blue
6. Click Update

Now all 10 t-shirts are tagged with the Blue color attribute—no repetitive editing needed!

You can also remove an existing attribute (e.g., remove “Red” if it’s no longer available) by selecting Remove Attribute in Step 5.

Try Smart Manager live demo

Add custom attributes in bulk

Let’s level up our t-shirt example. Suppose you want the blue tees to have Avengers-themed weapon prints. You want to highlight this cool detail on all of them.

1. Select the same t-shirts as used in the example above using Smart Manager
2. Click on Bulk Edit
3. Choose:
   • Action: Add Attribute → Custom
   • Value: Avengers Print (Hammer | Shield)
4. Click Update

Now every t-shirt will show a new custom attribute like Print: Avengers Weapons. That’s how you create niche-specific tags without breaking a sweat.

Use AI-powered Advanced Search to find products faster

Let’ say you want to bulk update attributes only for products that don’t have SKUs.
Instead of building multiple filters manually, you can just tell Smart Manager:
> Show products without SKUs

Here’s how to use AI-powered search:

1. Go to Smart Manager > Settings > General Settings
2. Under AI Integration, select:
   • Model > Cohere
   • Enter your Cohere API key
   • Save your settings

   For more information on how to create the API key, refer to this documentation.

3. Go to Smart Manager > Products
4. Click the ✨ AI Search icon (right before the Advanced Search toggle)
5. Type or speak your query in any language. 
   For example: “Show products without SKUs”, “Find out-of-stock T-shirts” or “Show products missing the Color attribute”
6. Click GO

Smart Manager will auto-create and apply the search filters for you.

Select the filtered products and proceed with Bulk Edit as usual

Copy attributes between products in bulk

If you want to use the same attribute setup across multiple products (like the same size chart, same material, same pattern, or same pack options), Smart Manager lets you copy attributes from one product to many in just a few clicks.

Here’ how to do it:

1. Go to the Smart Manager dashboard
2. Choose the Products dashboard from the dropdown.
3. Select as many products as you want — or filter using search
4. Click Bulk Edit
5. In the slide-over panel, set the rules as Attributes > Copy From > Select the product you want to copy attributes from.
6. Click Update
7. Choose Now to apply instantly or Schedule for later
8. Confirm with OK

That’ it, all selected products now carry the exact same attribute values.

Note: You can use this same method to copy categories, tags, prices, stock, descriptions, images, and more.

Bulk edit attributes for variable products

Now let’ say you want to change the Size attribute for all Red variations of a T-shirt from “Large” to “L”. Instead of opening each variation, you can update them all together.

Here’ how to bulk edit variation attributes in Smart Manager:

1. Go to Smart Manager > Products
2. Check the Show Variations box; all product variations will appear in the grid
3. Use Advanced Search to filter only the variations you want (e.g., Color = Red, Size = Large)
4. Select the filtered variations
5. Click Bulk Edit
6. Choose:
   • Field: Attributes
   • Action: Change / Add / Remove (based on what you need)
   • Value: Enter the new attribute value (e.g., Size = L)
7. Click Update

How to bulk edit prices?

Managing product prices one by one is a major time-sink. With Smart Manager, you can bulk edit both regular and sale prices effortlessly—whether you’re running a flash sale or adjusting prices across entire categories.

Using Smart Manager, you can:

• Increase or decrease prices by a fixed amount or percentage (e.g. increase all prices by 10%)
• Set sale price equal to regular price in one click
• Set sale prices as a percentage lower than regular prices in bulk
• Edit prices based on product categories
• Increase/decrease prices for products based on specific attributes
• Adjust sign-up and recurring fees for subscription products
• Apply price changes using filters like product type, status, or SKU
• Quickly fix pricing errors across multiple products
• Schedule future price updates for planned promotions or changes

Edit prices based on attributes

Let’s say you’re running a seasonal promotion and want to set a product category to clothing T-shirts, assign blue color and reduce the sale price by 10%. Instead of updating each one manually, here’s how to do it in seconds using Smart Manager:

1. Go to your WordPress Admin > Smart Manager
2. Click on Bulk Edit
3. In the slide-over panel, choose:
   • Category > set to > Clothing - Tshirts
   • Add Attribute > Color > Blue
   • Sale Price > decrease by % > 10
4. Hit Update and choose Now to apply changes.

Boom! You just saved yourself a boatload of time.

Want to go deeper?

Check out our full blog on bulk editing prices for more detailed use cases and pro tips.

How to bulk edit product categories?

Just like prices and attributes, bulk editing categories in WooCommerce is super smooth with Smart Manager. Whether you want to assign, remove, or copy categories—it’s all just a few clicks away.

Choose the action that fits your need:

• Set To: Assign a completely new category (replaces the current one)
• Copy From: Copy categories from one product to another
• Copy From Field: Copy categories based on values from a field
• Add To: Add a new category to the selected products without removing the ones they already have
• Remove From: Remove a specific category from the selected products while keeping the rest untouched

You can easily assign or remove multiple products from categories in one go—no need to edit them one by one.

Want to add 50 new jackets to Winter Collection and Men’s Jackets? Just bulk select them in Smart Manager, choose Add To, pick the categories, and hit Update. Quick and easy!

For an elaborated discussion on product category bulk editing, check out the following use case:

Let’s say you’ve uploaded several new products—like t-shirts, jeans, and jackets—and want to bulk assign them to the Clothing category.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Smart Manager > Products
2. Select the products (use Advanced Search if needed)
3. Click on Bulk Edit
4. Choose:
   • Action: Set To
   • Category: Clothing
5. Click Update

Boom! All selected products are now grouped under the Clothing category.

Want more tips? Read the full blog on bulk editing categories to explore all category-editing tricks Smart Manager has to offer.

How to bulk edit product tags?

You’ve added a bunch of new products—like t-shirts, hoodies, and joggers—and want to tag them all with Winter Collection.

Here’s how to do it using Smart Manager:

1. Go to Smart Manager > Products
2. Select the relevant products (use Advanced Search to filter quickly if needed)
3. Click on Bulk Edit
4. Choose:
   • Action: Add To
   • Tag: Winter Collection
5. Hit Update

And just like that all selected products now share the “Winter Collection” tag, making them easier to find and filter in your store.

How to bulk edit product description?

Let’s say you’ve updated your product materials and want to reflect that change across multiple product descriptions. For example, if all your T-shirts previously mentioned high-quality cotton now you want to use premium organic cotton.

Follow these steps to quickly update product descriptions in bulk:

1. Go to Smart Manager > Products
2. Select the products you want to update
3. Tip: Use Advanced Search to filter specific products (e.g., by category, tag, or SKU)
4. Click on the Bulk Edit button
5. In the Bulk Edit panel:
   • Field: Description
   • Action: Search & Replace
   • Search for: (High-quality cotton)
   • Replace with: (Premium organic cotton)
6. Click Update to apply changes to all selected products

Go through this blog about customizing product taxonomies to understand this even further.

How to bulk edit backorders, SKU and more with Smart Manager?

You’ve already seen how easy it is to bulk edit attributes, prices, categories, tags using Smart Manager. Well, good news — the same steps apply when you want to bulk edit other product details too!

Instead of editing attributes, you can quickly update:

• Stock quantity
• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
• Tax status
• Backorders
• Featured images
• Gallery images
• Product status (Published, Draft, etc.). And more!

How to bulk edit product data:

1. Go to WordPress Admin Panel > Smart Manager
2. From the dropdown at the top, select the Products dashboard
3. Use Advanced Search if needed to filter specific products
4. Select the products you want to edit
5. Click Bulk Edit to open the slide-in panel
6. Choose the product field you want to update
7. Click Update

All selected products will be instantly updated with the new values—no more clicking into each product individually.

Read the full guide on bulk editing products to explore all the ways Smart Manager can simplify your WooCommerce workflow.

Smart ways to use bulk attribute editing

Once you start using bulk attribute editing correctly, managing your WooCommerce store becomes much easier. 

It’ not just about saving clicks, it’ about keeping your products clean, consistent, and ready for anything.

Here are some real, everyday ways store owners use it to work smarter:

Seasonal attribute updates for large catalogs

You’ve introduced new winter colors, Wine, Olive, and Navy, across 120 products.

Instead of editing each product:

• Filter your winter collection
• Bulk Add Attribute > Color
• Enter your new values
• Update in one go

You instantly refresh your entire catalog without spending hours on edits.

Cleaning outdated or discontinued attributes

A color gets discontinued or a size is no longer offered, like Size “5XL” or Color “Red”.

Instead of letting these old values clutter your product pages:

• Select relevant products
• Bulk Edit > Remove Attribute
• Pick the outdated value

Your catalog stays clean, accurate, and customer-friendly.

Fixing inconsistent attribute naming

Maybe half your products say Blue, others say blue, Blu, or Dark Blue.

Instead of correcting each one manually:

• Filter variations by the incorrect attribute
• Bulk Replace Attribute > "Blue"
• Your filters, variations, and product navigation work perfectly again.

Standardizing attributes across newly imported products

Imported products often have mismatched attribute names (e.g., “Colour” vs. “Color”).

With Smart Manager:

• Filter imported SKUs
• Bulk Edit > Replace or Add Attribute
• Align the attribute structure with your existing catalog

Adding new attributes for SEO or better filtering

Launching a new line? You may want to add attributes like:

• Fit (Slim / Regular / Oversized)
• Occasion (Casual / Travel / Workwear)
• Material Grade
• Device Compatibility

Simply select the products and bulk add these attributes.

Updating variation attributes after reorganizing a catalog

You change your naming system:

• “Large” → “L”
• “Solid” → “Plain”
• “128GB” → “128 GB”

Instead of editing each variation:

• Show Variations
• Filter the ones you want
• Bulk Edit > Change Attribute Value

Your entire variation structure updates consistently.

Assigning attributes to new product collections

Launching a “Premium Cotton” or “Handcrafted” collection?

• Filter by category
• Bulk Add Attribute > Fabric: Organic Cotton

All products get the same premium attribute in seconds.

Fixing variation visibility issues

If variations aren’t appearing on the product page:

• Bulk toggle “Visible on product page”
• Mark attributes it as “Used for variations”
• Update all affected products at once

Segment-based attribute updates

Want to add attributes based on price or stock levels?

Examples:

• Add attribute “Clearance” to products under $20
• Add “Fast Selling” to products with stock < 10
• Add “Premium Range” to products > $100

Copying attributes for new product lines

Launching multiple new products that share:

• The same material
• The same size chart
• The same color set
• The same print styles

Use Copy From > Attributes and instantly apply the same structure to every new SKU.

Do even more with Smart Manager

• Bulk edit any post type – Products, orders, coupons, blog posts, subscriptions, bookings, and more.
• Export data to CSV – Filter by date, columns, or search terms before exporting.
• Duplicate any post type – Clone products, pages, or posts and make quick edits.
• Customize and bulk print orders – Add your logo to packing slips and print them in bulk.
• Manage orders in bulk – View all orders, update statuses, create custom ones, and more.
• Track customer lifetime value (LTV) – See total spends, order history, and last purchase date.
• Compatible with major plugins – Works smoothly with Subscriptions, Bookings, Yoast SEO, and others.
• Undo edits anytime – Instantly reverse bulk or inline edits when needed.
• And so much more – Try Smart Manager today and feel the productivity glow-up!

Get Smart Manager plugin

Edit smarter, not harder

Managing a growing WooCommerce store doesn’t have to mean endless clicks or opening product pages one by one. 

With Smart Manager, you can handle bulk edits, fix attributes, adjust prices, update categories, and clean up your entire catalog from one simple dashboard.

It’ fast, reliable, and built to help you work the way a modern store owner should with clarity and control, not repetitive tasks.

If you’re ready to save hours every week and manage your store with confidence, Smart Manager is the upgrade your workflow needs.

FAQ

1. Is it possible to undo bulk edits in WooCommerce?

   Smart Manager allows you to undo bulk edits instantly, so if you make a mistake, you can roll it back with one click.

2. Can bulk editing affect SEO or product indexing in WooCommerce?

   Bulk edits won’t affect SEO as long as you’re not changing slugs, deleting content, or removing key attributes that affect your product filters.

   However, if you edit many titles, descriptions, or categories at once, Google may recrawl your products. It’s normal and safe, especially if the updates improve clarity and consistency.

3. Can I bulk edit product variations in WooCommerce?
   WooCommerce’s default options are limited. With Smart Manager, you can bulk edit all variation fields—prices, stock, SKUs, attributes—quickly and easily.
4. How do I change categories for multiple products at once?
   Use Smart Manager’s Bulk Edit to set, add, or remove categories for multiple products in one go—no manual edits needed.