WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform that adds an online shop to a WordPress website, from product pages to the checkout.
What it means
WooCommerce describes itself as “the open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress”.1 It is a plugin, an add-on that turns a WordPress website into a shop, and the site can be hosted wherever its owner chooses.2
Products can be imported from a CSV file under Products > All Products, then Import. Only SKU and Name are marked required. With Update existing products selected, “Existing products that match by ID or SKU are updated.”3
A product in several versions is a variable product: one parent row, then one row per variation that names the parent’s SKU in its Parent column.3
Think of it like this
It is like fitting a ready-made shop counter into a building you already own. The counter works from day one, and the rent, the repairs and the locks are yours.
For example
Why it matters
WooCommerce recognises a product by its ID or SKU, so the SKU is the key to every repeat import. A SKU that changes between supplier deliveries no longer matches its product. WooCommerce’s advice for repeat imports is to “keep stable IDs or SKUs”.3
Not to be confused with
WordPress is the website software, and WooCommerce is the plugin that adds the shop to it.
Sources
- WordPress.org Plugin Directory. WooCommerce.
- WooCommerce. WooCommerce home page.
- WooCommerce documentation. Product CSV Importer and Exporter.
- WooCommerce documentation. Products Settings.