WooCommerce Importer FAQs

Why doesn’t the app accept my WooCommerce API credentials?

Between different versions of WooCommerce or WordPress, different extensions installed, and some run on different hosting providers. While we’ve worked hard to make the app run for all WooCommerce sites, this means that there’s occasionally a site we might need to make a fix for. If your API credentials aren’t working, we suggest:

  • Go through the API troubleshooting steps and see if that fixes the problem
  • If not, contact us at support@ablestar.co, and we’ll take a look as fast as possible

How does Ablestar WooCommerce Importer handle WooCommerce’s ‘Description’ and ‘Short Description’?

WooCommerce has a description and short description field for each product, but Shopify only has one description field. Depending on the WooCommerce theme, either of the WooCommerce fields may contain the data you want to import.

The app will combine both description fields (if they have text) and use that as the description in Shopify.

Does the app copy the HTML in product descriptions?

Yes, the app will copy all the HTML content from your WooCommerce store to your Shopify store. One thing to note is that the Ablestar WooCommerce Importer app copies the product description as-is from WooCommerce. This means that if your product descriptions have links to other pages on your WooCommerce site, those same links will still be present in your product’s description in Shopify.

How do multi-level categories work in Shopify?

Unfortunately, Shopify does not support multi-level categories (for example, Men -> Shirts -> Dress Shirts), but there are several ways you can accomplish a similar feel on your Shopify page:

  • You can filter collections by product tag, which can give the impression of a collection with a sub-collection. Unfortunately, you won't be able to go more than two levels deep.
  • You can create pages on your Shopify site that hold links to all the sub-collections
  • You can use third-party apps to use a 'mega menu' on your Shopify store, which will show collections in a nested fashion.

How does the Ablestar WooCommerce Importer app handle products in the draft state?

The app will import products that are in the draft state on WooCommerce. After a draft product is imported, it will be visible in the Shopify admin, but it will not be publicly viewable on your store unless you choose to publish it.

Can I just import some products from my WooCommerce site?

The app can only import all products on your WooCommerce site. We recommend importing all the products and then deleting the ones that you don't need. If you find yourself in this situation, please let us know before completing the export, and we can discount the import so you won't be paying for products you're about to delete.

Can I pay for the Ablestar WooCommerce Importer app outside of Shopify?

Unfortunately, we can only accept in-app payments for the app. This is a requirement from Shopify for apps listed in the Shopify App store.

Why didn't my product attribute table transfer to Shopify?

If you have a table of product attributes on your WooCommerce site, it might not transfer initially because Shopify doesn't support product attributes in quite the same way. You can, however, add the table with a small modification to your theme files. 

Why didn’t all my products transfer to Shopify?

Over 99% of products transfer without problem from WooCommerce to Shopify. However, in two rare cases, it’s not possible to migrate a product from WooCommerce to Shopify:

  • The product’s description is over 65,535 characters long. Shopify imposes a limit on how long a product’s description can be. If your product’s description in WooCommerce is over 65,535 characters long, contact us, and we can discuss ways to trim the descriptions, so Shopify accepts them.
  • The product has more than three attributes for variations. Shopify only supports three attributes for variations (i.e., size, color, and style). If you have products with more options, Shopify won’t accept them.

Why didn't all my customers/orders transfer to Shopify?

In some cases, you may notice a discrepancy in the number of customers or orders you have on your WooCommerce site and the ones on Shopify. There are a couple of different reasons this may happen.

  • The Ablestar WooCommerce Importer app only imports customers that have placed orders and do not import user records. If this is the case, contact us, and we'll show you how to export a list of WordPress users, and then we can import that list for you.
  • Shopify is more strict than WooCommerce about customer/order data and will not accept invalid emails the way WooCommerce does. If you think you should have more customers or orders, let us know, and we can provide you with a list of the orders and customer data that didn't import. We can then correct the information and re-import those customers and orders. 

Can I only import orders from a given date?

When migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify, many people import all the orders art first so they can make sure everything is working as they like, and then do a complete re-import right before they go live with the new Shopify site. 

Running a complete reimport ensures that any refunds or exchanges that may have happened are caught and updated. For sites that have a large number of orders, this can take a while, so we also allow order imports from a given date. This allows you to bring any new orders that may have happened over to Shopify while saving the time it would take to do a complete re-import.

Will the app make any changes to my WooCommerce site?

No, the app will not make any changes to your WooCommerce site. The only thing it will do is read data from the WooCommerce API to retrieve product and order information. No data on your WooCommerce site will be modified.

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