Import WooCommerce Orders

The Import WP WooCommerce add-on includes a dedicated WooCommerce Orders template. It creates real WooCommerce orders (shop_order) with status, customer, billing/shipping addresses, line items, and totals — not generic posts.

Import products and customers first so line items can resolve SKUs and orders can attach to accounts. See Import WooCommerce Customers and Import WooCommerce Products.

Requirements

WordPress with WooCommerce installed and activated
Import WP (free)
Import WP WooCommerce add-on (free) — orders and customers

Create a WooCommerce Orders importer

Go to Import WP → Add Importer.
Choose your file source.
On the template step, select WooCommerce Orders.

There is no post-type dropdown — the template is fixed to WooCommerce orders.

Template sections

Section	What it imports
Order Fields	Order ID (match only), order key, status, currency, date created, customer note, payment method, payment method title, transaction ID
Customer	Existing customer by ID, email, or username
Billing Address	First name, last name, company, address 1/2, city, postcode, country, state, email, phone
Shipping Address	First name, last name, company, address 1/2, city, postcode, country, state, phone
Line Items	Repeatable rows: product (SKU or ID), quantity, optional line total, optional name
Order Totals	Shipping total, discount total, cart tax, order total
Custom Fields	Extra order meta (Import WP Pro)

Status values are WooCommerce statuses without the wc- prefix (pending, processing, completed, on-hold, cancelled, refunded, failed). Default for a new order is pending if status is not mapped. Currency defaults to the store currency.

Unique identifiers

WooCommerce assigns order IDs. Order ID cannot be inserted — it is only a reference to match an existing order on update.

Identifier	When to use
Order Key (`_order_key`)	Preferred. Map a stable key from the old platform (or WooCommerce `_order_key` on a re-import).
Order ID (`ID`)	Update an order that already exists in this store. Enable the Order ID field and select it on Permissions.

If neither identifier has a value, the row fails with No unique identifier value present.

On a first migration, generate or keep a unique order key per order in the CSV (for example the source platform’s order number prefixed, shopify_1001). Re-runs then update that order instead of creating a second one.

Minimum CSV example (one order, one line)

Order Key	Status	Customer Email	Billing First	Billing Last	Billing Email	SKU	Qty
shopify_1001	processing	`[email protected]`	Alice	Smith	`[email protected]`	simple-one	2
shopify_1002	completed	`[email protected]`	Bob	Jones	`[email protected]`	simple-two	1

Suggested mapping:

CSV column	Import WP field	Section
Order Key	Order Key	Order Fields
Status	Status	Order Fields
Customer Email	Customer	Customer → Field Type = Email
Billing First / Last / Email	Billing Address fields	Billing Address
SKU	Product	Line Items → Product Field Type = Product SKU
Qty	Quantity	Line Items

Line items: one record per order

Line items are a repeatable group on a single order row. On update, existing line items are replaced, so you cannot import one CSV row per line item that shares the same order key — the second row would wipe the first item.

CSV with several products on one order: add extra Line Items rows in the template (Add row) and map sku_1 / qty_1, sku_2 / qty_2, and so on.

XML / JSON with nested items: set the line-item row base (repeater node) to the repeating product node. Import WP loops those children onto one order. Missing SKUs are skipped (the rest of the order still saves).

Line item field	Notes
Product	SKU (default) or Product ID
Quantity	Defaults to `1`
Total	Optional. Leave empty to use the current product price
Name	Optional line-item name override

Products must already exist. Import the catalogue first. Variation line items should use the variation SKU, not the parent SKU.

Customer linking

Under Customer, map a value and set Customer Field Type:

Type	Looks up
Email (default)	`get_user_by( 'email' )`
Username	`get_user_by( 'login' )`
ID	WordPress user ID

If no user matches, the order is still created as a guest order (customer_id = 0). Billing email on the order can still be set from Billing Address → Email.

Import customers before orders when you want My Account history attached.

Order totals

Field	Behaviour
Shipping Total	Creates a shipping line named “Shipping” and sets shipping total
Discount Total	Sets the order discount total
Cart Tax	Creates a tax line and sets cart tax
Order Total	If mapped, that value is stored. If left empty, WooCommerce calculates totals from line items

Leave Order Total empty unless the feed is the system of record for the paid amount (historical migrations often map the original total so it matches the old shop).

Notification emails

Enable order notification emails is off by default. When off, Import WP suppresses WooCommerce emails such as new order, processing, completed, on-hold, cancelled, failed, refunded, invoice, and customer note.

Turn it on only when you intend customers and admins to receive status emails during the import.

Update existing orders

Map Order Key (or enable Order ID for in-store IDs).
Select that field as the unique identifier on Permissions.
Enable Update.
Re-running the file replaces line items on matched orders with the items in the file.

Do not change the order key between runs.

Filters

add_filter( 'iwp/woocommerce/order_field', function ( $value, $field ) {
	// $field examples: status, currency, payment_method, billing_country
	return $value;
}, 10, 2 );

add_filter( 'iwp/woocommerce/order_field/status', function ( $value ) {
	return strtolower( $value );
} );

More snippets: WooCommerce Filters and Code Snippets.

Updated 2026-09-16