How to Download a Spreadsheet of Orders in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
So, you’re running a WooCommerce store, and orders are pouring in! That’s fantastic! But sometimes, you need to analyze all that order data in a manageable way, like a spreadsheet. Maybe you want to track sales trends, calculate taxes, or simply create a report for your accountant. Manually copying and pasting data from your WooCommerce dashboard is tedious and prone to errors. Fortunately, WooCommerce offers ways to download your orders as a spreadsheet (like a CSV file) making your life much easier.
This guide will walk you through different methods to export your WooCommerce orders to a spreadsheet, from the built-in options to more powerful plugins, making it easy even if you’re not a tech whiz.
Why Download Your WooCommerce Orders to a Spreadsheet?
Before we dive into the “how,” let’s talk about the “why.” Downloading your orders to a spreadsheet opens up a world of possibilities:
- Reporting and Analysis: Identify top-selling products, track sales performance over time, and understand customer buying habits. For example, you might notice a spike in sales for a particular product during a specific season, allowing you to optimize your marketing efforts.
- Inventory Management: Keep track of your inventory levels based on the items being ordered. If you notice a high volume of orders for a specific product, you know you need to restock it promptly.
- Accounting and Tax Compliance: Easily provide your accountant with the necessary data for filing taxes. Having everything neatly organized in a spreadsheet simplifies the process considerably.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Import your customer data (name, address, email) into a CRM system for more personalized marketing and customer support.
- Order Fulfillment: Generate shipping labels and packing slips more efficiently.
- Data Backup: Create a backup of your order data in case something goes wrong with your website.
- Columns: Choose which columns of data to include in your export. By default, all columns are selected. Uncheck the ones you don’t need.
- Order Status: Choose which order statuses to include in the export. By default, all statuses are selected.
- Export Type: Select “CSV” as the export type. CSV (Comma Separated Values) is a widely supported format for spreadsheets.
- Metadata: Choose whether to export order metadata.
- Custom Meta: You can specify specific custom meta keys to include in the export. This is relevant if you use custom fields for your orders.
- Batch Export: Set the batch size for export.
- Limited Customization: The built-in tool offers limited customization options.
- Performance Issues with Large Datasets: If you have a large number of orders, the export process can be slow or even fail.
- Lack of Advanced Filtering: Filtering options are basic.
- Order Export & Order Import for WooCommerce (XLPlugins): A powerful plugin that allows for complex filtering, scheduling, and exporting to various formats (CSV, Excel, XML, etc.).
- Advanced Order Export For WooCommerce (AlgolPlus): Offers comprehensive filtering, column selection, and export scheduling.
- WooCommerce Customer / Order CSV Export (SkyVerge): A simple and reliable option for exporting orders to CSV.
- Columns: Select which columns to include in the export. You’ll typically have far more options than the built-in tool.
- Filters: Apply advanced filters based on order date, status, products, customer information, and more. You could, for instance, export all orders containing a specific product SKU.
- Date Range: Specify a start and end date for the export.
- File Format: Choose the output format (CSV, Excel, XML, JSON).
- Scheduling: Set up automatic exports on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly). This is incredibly useful for automated reporting.
- Chunking: The plugin can split the export into smaller chunks to improve performance.
- Advanced Filtering and Customization: Fine-tune your exports to get exactly the data you need.
- Scheduling: Automate the export process.
- Support for Multiple File Formats: Export to CSV, Excel, XML, JSON, and other formats.
- Improved Performance: Plugins are optimized for handling large datasets.
- Additional Features: Some plugins offer features like order importing and synchronization with other systems.
Imagine you run an online bakery. You can download your order data to see which cake flavors are most popular for birthdays versus weddings. This informs your baking schedule and marketing campaigns.
Method 1: The Built-in WooCommerce Export Tool
WooCommerce includes a basic export tool. While it’s not the most feature-rich, it’s a great starting point and requires no extra plugins.
1. Navigate to WooCommerce > Orders: In your WordPress admin panel, find the “WooCommerce” menu and click on “Orders.”
2. Filter Your Orders (Optional): If you only want to export specific orders (e.g., orders from the last month, or orders with a specific status), use the filter options at the top of the Orders page. You can filter by date, product, order status, and more. For example, you might filter for all “Completed” orders from January to March to analyze your Q1 sales.
3. Click the “Export” Button: You’ll find an “Export” button at the top of the Orders page.
4. Configure Your Export Settings: A modal window will appear with export options:
5. Click “Generate CSV”: Click this button to start the export process.
6. Download the CSV File: Once the export is complete, the CSV file will automatically download to your computer. You can then open it with spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice Calc.
Limitations of the Built-in Tool:
Method 2: Using a WooCommerce Export Plugin
For more control and advanced features, consider using a dedicated WooCommerce export plugin. These plugins offer greater flexibility, customization, and performance. Here are a few popular options:
Let’s look at how to use Order Export & Order Import for WooCommerce (XLPlugins), as an example. The process is generally similar for other plugins.
1. Install and Activate the Plugin: Search for “Order Export & Order Import for WooCommerce (XLPlugins)” in the WordPress plugin directory, install it, and activate it.
2. Navigate to the Plugin Settings: After activating, you’ll find the plugin settings in the WordPress admin menu, usually under “WooCommerce” or a dedicated “Order Export” section.
3. Create a New Export Profile (Optional): Plugins like this often allow you to create profiles to save your export settings. This is helpful if you regularly perform the same export.
4. Configure Your Export Settings: The plugin will offer a wide range of options, including:
5. Run the Export: Click the “Export” or “Run Export” button to generate the spreadsheet.
6. Download the File: The exported file will be downloaded to your computer.
Example using a plugin: Let’s say you want to export all orders containing the product with SKU “WOOD-CHAIR” for the month of June. You would use the plugin’s filtering options to specify the date range (June 1st to June 30th) and add a filter to only include orders that contain the “WOOD-CHAIR” SKU.
Benefits of Using a Plugin:
Method 3: Using Code (For Advanced Users)
If you’re comfortable with PHP, you can create a custom script to export your WooCommerce orders to a spreadsheet. This offers the most flexibility but requires coding knowledge.
<?php // This is a basic example and needs adjustments for production use.
// Database connection details (replace with your actual credentials)
$servername = “localhost”;
$username = “your_db_username”;
$password = “your_db_password”;
$dbname = “your_database_name”;
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die(“Connection failed: ” . $conn->connect_error);
}
// CSV headers
$csv_headers = array(“Order ID”, “Order Date”, “Customer Name”, “Total Amount”);
$csv_data = implode(“,”, $csv_headers) . “n”; // Add headers as the first row
// SQL query to retrieve order data
$sql = “SELECT post_id, post_date, meta_value, _order_total FROM wp_posts
JOIN wp_postmeta ON wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id
WHERE post_type = ‘shop_order’ AND meta_key = ‘_billing_first_name'”;
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// Output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$order_id = $row[“post_id”];
$order_date = $row[“post_date”];
$customer_name = $row[“meta_value”] . ‘ ‘ . get_post_meta( $order_id, ‘_billing_last_name’, true ); //Get last name
$total_amount = $row[“_order_total”];
$csv_data .= $order_id . “,” . $order_date . “,” . $customer_name . “,” . $total_amount . “n”;
}
} else {
echo “No orders found”;
}
$conn->close();
// Set headers for CSV download
header(‘Content-Type: text/csv’);
header(‘Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”woocommerce_orders.csv”‘);
// Output the CSV data
echo $csv_data;
exit();
?>
Explanation:
1. Database Connection: The code establishes a connection to your WordPress database. Remember to replace the placeholder credentials with your actual database details.
2. SQL Query: It executes an SQL query to retrieve order data from the `wp_posts` and `wp_postmeta` tables. This is a simplified query, and you’ll likely need to modify it to retrieve all the necessary data fields. Pay attention to table prefixes, which might be different on your site.
3. CSV Data Formatting: The retrieved data is formatted into a CSV string.
4. Headers: HTTP headers are set to force a CSV file download.
5. Output: The CSV data is outputted to the browser, triggering the download.
Important Considerations for the Code Approach:
- Security: Be extremely careful when using database queries. Sanitize your inputs and prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities. This is especially important if you allow users to run this script.
- Performance: For large datasets, optimize your SQL query and consider using pagination to prevent memory issues.
- Customization: You’ll need to customize the SQL query and CSV formatting to match your specific requirements.
- Placement: This code needs to be placed in a PHP file and accessed via a URL on your website. You might consider creating a custom WordPress page template for it.
- Order Meta: The most important data (customer details, shipping address, product information) is stored as order meta. You need to use the `get_post_meta` function to retrieve this data.
This is a basic example. You’ll need to adapt it to your specific needs and database schema. Consider using WordPress functions for database access for better security and compatibility.
Choosing the Right Method
- For simple exports and small datasets, the built-in WooCommerce export tool might be sufficient.
- For more advanced filtering, scheduling, and support for different file formats, a WooCommerce export plugin is the best option.
- For maximum flexibility and customization, and if you’re comfortable with PHP, you can create a custom script. However, this requires technical expertise and careful attention to security.
No matter which method you choose, downloading your WooCommerce orders to a spreadsheet empowers you with valuable insights into your business and helps you streamline your operations! Good luck!
