Exported files keep your data as a backup and you can analyze it whenever required.
Plus, you can also export categories to migrate across platforms, integrate with external systems and optimize your catalog through cleanup.
While WooCommerce, by default, offers a basic product export tool, it lacks flexibility for exporting only product categories with advanced filtering or customization.
So how to export product categories in WooCommerce with filters? How to do an advanced WooCommerce product export for categories, attributes, tags and other product info?
In this post, we’ll see how to export product data using the default WooCommerce and with the Smart Manager plugin.
How to export product categories using the default WooCommerce?
The default WooCommerce has an in-built product import export feature. You can use it to export product categories to a CSV file.
Go to WooCommerce > Products > Export.
Search and enter the data columns, product types and product categories to be exported. You can also enable the custom meta option to export.
Click the Generate CSV button to get your desired data in a CSV file.
However, this default WooCommerce export is very basic. You cannot:
- Export products based on date filters
- Apply search filters and export
- Sort data before export
- Export fields of compatible plugins
Handling large export files becomes cumbersome without filters.
You definitely need an export-specific plugin that does a lot beyond traditional export. That’s what the Smart Manager plugin is capable of.
How to export product categories in WooCommerce using Smart Manager?
Smart Manager allows you to manage, export and bulk edit WooCommerce products, orders, coupons, users, any WordPress post type and taxonomies (including categories) using an Excel-like sheet editor.
This spreadsheet provides you with different options like Duplicate, Delete, Export, Bulk Edit and more to perform them on the records.
Install and activate the Smart Manager plugin. Then go to your WordPress Admin panel > Smart Manager.
The Products dashboard will load by default. If not, select Products from the drop-down.
Now, let’s see how to export different product data records:
How to export all product categories
Make sure you are able to see the Category column on the dashboard.
If not, then click on the Columns button. Under the ‘Disabled’ option, search for Category, drag it under the ‘Enabled’ option and click on Update.
Now, hover over the Export CSV button and you’ll see four options, namely: Selected Records – Stock Columns, Selected Records – Visible Columns, Entire Store – Stock Columns and Entire Store – Visible Columns.
You can export selected records or the entire store’s data. Click on Entire Store - Visible Columns to get the required data exported to CSV.
Note: This exports product data plus the categories each product is assigned to, not a standalone list of category taxonomies.
How to export specific product data columns and categories
You can export product categories with specific data columns. For example, you want to export product categories, product type, SKU, sale price and regular price columns data.
As mentioned above, use the Columns button to enable / disable required columns for export. Once done, hover over the Export CSV button and click on Entire Store - Visible Columns to get the required data exported to CSV.
Again, use the Columns button to enable / disable required columns and get your attributes and tags data with categories instantly.
Now you have to hover over the Export CSV button and click on Entire Store - Visible Columns to get the required data exported to CSV.
How to export product categories based on search and date filters
Let’s say you want to export only those products that belong to two clothing categories – Hoodies and Tshirts, the product type is variable and for the previous year.
Use the Smart Manager Advanced Search option to enter the conditions as below:
- Category is Hoodies
- Category is Tshirts
- Product Type is Variable
- Post Parent > 0
- Post Date Gmt > 2024-01-01 00:00:00
- Post Date Gmt < 2025-01-01 00:00:00
Click on Search, hover over the Export CSV button and click on Entire Store - Visible Columns. That’s it.
How to export only specific data columns all the time
Smart Manager also includes Column Sets / Custom Views, which allows you to create a customized dashboard and export only the data records you want at any time.
Here’s why it’s useful:
- Reuse the same category-focused export setup anytime.
- Share export views with your team or make data only visible to particular team members.
- No need to manually select columns every time.
For example, you can create a dashboard that contains only these columns for products – name, SKU, features image, sale price, regular price, description, category, tag, attribute, type, quantity and manage stock.
You can access this dashboard anytime, make changes to data, apply filters and export your data to CSV.
How to export WooCommerce products with images
With Smart Manager, when you export product data, you’ll get the URL for each featured image under the Thumbnail ID column in your CSV sheet.
To export products with image URLs, hover over the Export CSV button and click on Entire Store - Visible Columns.
How to export categories in WordPress?
Smart Manager also allows you to export posts, pages, media, orders, coupons, users and any WordPress post type data to CSV.
Open Smart Manager, select Posts dashboard from the dropdown, enable the Category column for the posts, then hover over the Export CSV button and then click on Entire Store - Visible Columns.
This will export all your posts’ data to CSV along with the categories data.
You can also apply filters and then export categories and other blog posts data to CSV.
How to export product categories without a plugin?
You need to write a query using the three database tables:
- wp_term_taxonomy
- wp_term_relationships
- wp_terms
Or you can take a backup of these tables, as information pertaining to product categories is stored in these tables.
We do not advise this unless you take the help of a developer.
If you wish to get the code for this, contact us.
Wrapping it up
Exporting product categories as well as other product data and post types is quite simple and fast with Smart Manager.
You can export:
- All product categories
- Filtered category data
- Custom sets of columns
- Category data for any WordPress post type
We also recommend taking regular exports to ensure your data is backed up whenever needed.
Any questions or suggestions, let us know in the comments box.