Knowing how to efficiently import and export WooCommerce product reviews is critical for any store owner trying to migrate to a new platform, merge stores, or simply take a backup.
Reviews serve as one of the most persuasive assets for helping store customers make a buying decision. This makes the data worth protecting, especially during any platform switch. However, WooCommerce doesn't include a native import or export tool for reviews, which leaves that gap to be filled by a dedicated plugin.
WP All Import and WP All Export fill that gap by providing the import and export halves of the workflow. Both processes are covered in this guide, starting with the import side.
📑 Table of Contents
- What You Can Do with WooCommerce Product Review Import and Export
- How to Import Product Reviews into WooCommerce
- Beyond the Basics — Advanced Review Import Options
- How to Export Product Reviews from WooCommerce
- Beyond the Basics — Advanced Review Export Options
- Migrating Product Reviews Between WooCommerce Stores (Import + Export Together)
- Final Thoughts
What You Can Do with WooCommerce Product Review Import and Export
Importing and exporting WooCommerce product reviews supports many of the common store management scenarios, such as:
- Moving reviews over to a new WooCommerce store during a site migration
- Populating a newly launched store with reviews carried over from a previous platform
- Backing up review history ahead of a redesign or platform change
- Bulk correcting review data, such as approval status or ratings, by exporting, editing, and reimporting
- Keeping reviews in sync between a staging environment and a live production site.
How to Import Product Reviews into WooCommerce
WP All Import makes it easy to bring product reviews into WooCommerce with a straightforward five-step workflow:
- Start a new WooCommerce Reviews import. Navigate to All Import → New Import from the WordPress admin dashboard, load the file that contains the review data, and choose WooCommerce Reviews as the post type.
- Add filters (if necessary). Click Create Filters to see a preview of the incoming product review data and also access filtering options to narrow down what is imported.
- Map review content to WooCommerce fields. Drag the review data from the source file on the right side of the screen into the relevant WooCommerce product review fields. Author information and custom review meta map the same way, through their own sections on the same screen.
- Configure import settings. Click Continue to Import Settings to set a Unique Identifier for the import using WP All Import’s Auto-Detect feature. Also specify whether the import creates new records, updates existing ones, or handles both. Click Continue to proceed.
- Run the import and verify. Click Confirm & Run Import, then check the imported reviews directly on their product pages in WooCommerce.
Beyond the Basics — Advanced Review Import Workflows
Matching by SKU when no SKU fields exist
Sometimes, product review source files do not include an SKU column, but that does not mean that an accurate product match cannot be made. WP All Import includes a lookup function that makes it possible to still pair each review with its product by SKU. This workaround is detailed in Match Reviews Using Product SKUs.
Importing only specific reviews
There are scenarios where only a subset of product reviews need to be imported. WP All Import includes filtering options that make it possible to bring in only reviews that meet a specific set of criteria, rather than importing the entire file’s data. This process is explained in Selectively Choose Which Reviews to Import.
Handling a missing product match
In instances where a review in the source file references a product that does not exist in the store, the import process isn’t abruptly halted. Rather, the particular record gets skipped, and the reason is logged. This behavior is documented in Review Skipped Due to Product Match Not Found.
How to Export Product Reviews from WooCommerce
WP All Export handles the pulling of WooCommerce product reviews through a simple four-step process, producing a file that is ready for editing, migration, or backup.
- Start a new WooCommerce Reviews export. From the WordPress admin dashboard, go to All Export → New Export and select WooCommerce Reviews as the post type to export. Click Customize Export File to proceed.
- Choose your review data columns. Select the review fields that you want to include in the export. Review fields are organized into four groups: Review Data, Author Info, Parent, and Other; a complete breakdown of each group is available in the WooCommerce Reviews export guide. Drag each relevant field into the column selection area to build the export. Click Continue.
- Configure and run the export. Configure the Advanced Options as relevant for the export and then click Save and Run Export or Confirm and Run Export to generate the export file.
- Download the exported file. Download the finished export in CSV, XML, or Excel format. A Bundle option is also available, which packages the export with an import template for moving reviews to a different site.
Beyond the Basics — Advanced Review Export Workflows
Scheduling recurring review exports
Manual WooCommerce product review exports work well for one-off tasks. However, if there’s a need to set up an ongoing backup or sync process, the ideal is for the export to run automatically on a recurring schedule. WP All Export includes this setting, with details covered in Run WordPress Export on a Schedule.
Including the product’s permalink in an export
Certain exports require that the URL of the associated WooCommerce product be included in the product reviews export file. Although WP All Export’s Available Data panel does not include a direct link to reviewed products, they can be generated on the fly using a PHP function tied to the product ID. This is explained in How to Get the Product Permalink.
Sending exported reviews to a third-party app
For scenarios where WooCommerce product reviews data need to be sent to third-party apps, WP All Export includes a Zapier integration that makes it possible to automate the forwarding of the data each time the export runs. This eliminates the need for a manual download and upload each time. Steps for this are covered in Send Reviews to a Third-Party App with Zapier.
Migrating Product Reviews Between WooCommerce Stores
Moving WooCommerce product reviews from one store to another combines the import and export processes covered above into a single workflow. WP All Export provides a Bundle export option that connects both processes directly, making it possible.
- Export the product reviews as a bundle. On the Source site, go to All Export → New Export, create a new WooCommerce Reviews export, and click Migrate Reviews.
On the Export Settings screen, click Confirm & Run Export. A bundle file that includes the review data alongside an import template is generated. Click Bundle to download it.
- Upload the Bundle to the destination site. On the destination site, navigate to All Import → New Import and upload the Bundle file.
- Skip to Import Settings and run the import. Since the product reviews Bundle already carries the field mapping and other settings from the original export, click Skip to Import Settings → Continue → Confirm & Run Import. This bypasses manual mapping entirely while ensuring that all the data carry over exactly as they were on the Source site.
This same approach works for migrating other WooCommerce and WordPress data between sites. Additional details can be found in the Migrate Overview.
Final Thoughts
WooCommerce store owners rarely think about product review data until the moment they need to move it, at which point it becomes clear that WooCommerce never gave them a way to do so. And the absence of an easy way to move the data implies that it's one of the first things to get lost during any platform switch.
WP All Import and WP All Export close this gap by treating WooCommerce product reviews as their own data type, with fields, matching logic, and a migration path built around what reviews actually are. This preserves a store’s review history and keeps it accurate through platform migrations, backups, and other changes to a WooCommerce store.
Import and Export WooCommerce Product Reviews — Frequently Asked Questions
You can export reviews from WooCommerce with WP All Export. The steps are as follows:
Go to All Export → New Export
Select WooCommerce Reviews as the export type
Use the Drag & Drop screen to choose which review fields to include, such as content, rating, product, and author details
Click Confirm & Run Export, then download the file as CSV, XML, or Excel
You can import reviews to WooCommerce with WP All Import following the steps below:
Go to All Import → New Import
Upload a CSV, Excel, or XML file, and select WooCommerce Reviews as the import type
Use the Drag & Drop screen to map file columns to review fields, including content, rating, product, and author
Review the Import Settings and click Confirm & Run Import.
Use WP All Import and WP All Export to import and export products in WooCommerce. For imports, go to All Import → New Import, upload a file, select WooCommerce Products, map columns to fields like price, SKU, categories, and images, then run the import. For exports, go to All Export → New Export, select WooCommerce Products, choose the fields to include, and run the export.
WP All Import is the best import plugin for WooCommerce, supporting the full range of WooCommerce data types such as products, variations, attributes, orders, customers, and reviews, all through one drag-and-drop interface. Built-in filtering, scheduling, and record-matching make it suited for ongoing, repeatable imports rather than a one-time file upload.
