Import E-commerce Products to ERPNext Automatically

You've been running your e-commerce business successfully on WooCommerce or Shopify. Your store has hundreds—maybe thousands—of products with carefully written descriptions, professional photos, organized categories, and pricing strategies refined over months or years. Now you want to implement ERPNext for better inventory management, accounting, and multi-warehouse operations.

But there's a problem: how do you get all that product data into ERPNext without weeks of tedious manual work?

OrderWeave solves this onboarding challenge with automatic product import from your existing e-commerce platforms. Instead of manually recreating your entire product catalog in ERPNext, OrderWeave pulls everything directly from WooCommerce or Shopify—transforming what could be weeks of work into a few hours.

The Onboarding Challenge

Traditional ERPNext onboarding for e-commerce businesses involves significant manual data entry:

Manual Product Creation

For each product, you need to:

Create a new Item in ERPNext
Copy the product name and SKU
Paste the full description
Manually type the price
Download and re-upload images
Assign to the correct item group (category)
Set unit of measure, weight, and dimensions
Configure stock settings and reorder levels

Time per product: 5-10 minutes

The Math Is Brutal

100 products × 7 minutes = 11.7 hours
500 products × 7 minutes = 58 hours (7+ work days)
1,000 products × 7 minutes = 116 hours (3+ work weeks)

One of our customers had 850 products in WooCommerce. Manual migration would have taken their team over 2 weeks. With OrderWeave's automatic import, they completed it in an afternoon.

Data Entry Errors

Manual transcription introduces errors:

Typos in product names or descriptions
Incorrect prices (decimal point errors are common)
Missing images or wrong image files
Products assigned to wrong categories
Inconsistent SKU formats
Forgotten products that never get migrated

What Gets Imported Automatically

OrderWeave's automatic import feature pulls comprehensive product data from your e-commerce platform:

1. Core Product Information

Product Name: Exact name as displayed in your store
SKU: Product identifier for inventory tracking
Item Code: ERPNext item code (uses SKU or auto-generated)
Barcode/EAN/UPC: Product barcodes for scanning
Status: Enabled/disabled, published/draft states

2. Detailed Descriptions

Short Description: Summary text for item cards
Full Description: Complete HTML description with formatting
Meta Data: Tags, custom fields, and additional attributes

All the marketing copy you've spent time perfecting is preserved exactly as it appears in your store.

3. Categories and Organization

Product Categories: WooCommerce categories → ERPNext Item Groups
Category Hierarchy: Parent-child category relationships maintained
Tags: Product tags for filtering and search
Brands: Brand associations (if configured in e-commerce platform)

Your organizational structure is replicated in ERPNext automatically.

4. Pricing Information

Regular Price: Standard selling price
Sale Price: Promotional/discounted price
Price Lists: Multiple price points for different customer segments
Currency: Price currency (USD, EUR, KES, etc.)
Tax Class: Applicable tax category

5. Product Images

Featured Image: Main product photo
Gallery Images: Additional product photos
Image Metadata: Alt text and titles for SEO

Images are automatically downloaded from your e-commerce site and uploaded to ERPNext's file system with proper attachments.

6. Product Variations

For variable products (e.g., T-shirts in different sizes/colors):

Parent Products: Template items with shared attributes
Variant Items: Individual SKUs for each variation
Attributes: Size, color, material, etc.
Variation-Specific Pricing: Different prices for different variants
Variation Images: Specific photos for each variant

7. Physical Attributes

Weight: Shipping weight
Dimensions: Length, width, height for shipping calculations
Unit of Measure: UOM (pieces, kg, liters, etc.)

8. Inventory Data (Optional)

Stock Quantity: Current stock on hand
Stock Status: In stock, out of stock, backorder
Stock Management Settings: Whether stock is tracked

You can choose whether to import current stock levels or start fresh with a physical inventory count.

How Automatic Import Works

Step 1: Connect Your Store

OrderWeave connects to your WooCommerce or Shopify store using official APIs:

WooCommerce: REST API with consumer key/secret
Shopify: Admin API with private app credentials
Secure OAuth 2.0 or API key authentication
Read-only access (OrderWeave never modifies your live store during import)

Step 2: Configure Import Settings

Before importing, you customize the import behavior:

Select categories: Import all products or specific categories only
Filter by status: Published products only, or include drafts
Stock import: Import current quantities or skip inventory
Item Group Mapping: How to map WooCommerce categories to ERPNext Item Groups
Price List: Which ERPNext price list to populate
Warehouse: Default warehouse for stock allocation

Step 3: Preview Import

OrderWeave fetches product data and shows you what will be imported:

Total products found: 847
Simple products: 612
Variable products: 235 (with 1,024 variations)
Categories: 28
Estimated time: 15-20 minutes

You can review the data and adjust settings before proceeding.

Step 4: Background Import Process

When you click "Start Import," OrderWeave runs a background worker that:

Fetches products: Retrieves products in batches from WooCommerce/Shopify API
Creates Item Groups: Builds category hierarchy in ERPNext
Downloads images: Fetches product photos and uploads to ERPNext
Creates Items: Generates ERPNext Item records with all attributes
Sets prices: Populates Item Price records for configured price lists
Creates variants: Builds parent-child variation structures
Creates mappings: Links WooCommerce products to ERPNext items

Step 5: Import Completion & Verification

When the import completes, you receive:

Success summary: "847 products imported successfully"
Detailed report: CSV file with all imported items
Error log: Any products that couldn't import with reasons
Verification checklist: Recommended checks before going live

Smart Duplicate Detection

One of the trickiest parts of data migration is avoiding duplicates. OrderWeave uses 3-step duplicate detection:

Step 1: SKU Matching

First, OrderWeave checks if an ERPNext Item already exists with the same SKU:

WooCommerce SKU: LED-BULB-001
ERPNext Item Code: LED-BULB-001
Result: Match found, create mapping (don't duplicate)

Step 2: Product Mapping Table

If no SKU match, check the ProductMapping table for explicit links:

WooCommerce Product ID: 12345
ProductMapping: Links to ERPNext Item BULB-LED-9W
Result: Use existing mapping

Step 3: Name + Price Fallback

If still no match, use fuzzy matching on name and price:

WooCommerce: "LED Bulb 9W Warm White" @ $12.99
ERPNext: "LED Bulb - 9W - Warm White" @ $12.99
Result: Likely the same product, suggest mapping

This intelligent detection prevents creating thousands of duplicate items when you already have partial data in ERPNext.

Common Use Cases

1. Migrating to ERPNext

You've decided to adopt ERPNext for your growing business:

Currently managing everything through WooCommerce/Shopify admin
Need proper inventory management across multiple warehouses
Want integrated accounting (invoices, payments, P&L)
Need purchase order management and supplier tracking

Solution: Import your entire product catalog in one go, then enable bi-directional sync for ongoing operations.

2. Connecting an Existing Store

You already use ERPNext for some operations but have a legacy e-commerce site:

ERPNext has 200 items
WooCommerce has 850 products (many not in ERPNext)
Need to bridge the gap without recreating everything

Solution: OrderWeave imports the 650 missing products, maps the 200 existing ones, and establishes ongoing sync.

3. Multi-Store Consolidation

You run multiple e-commerce sites that need unified inventory management:

Retail WooCommerce site: 500 products
Wholesale Shopify site: 300 products
Significant overlap but different SKU formats

Solution: Import from both platforms, OrderWeave's duplicate detection merges overlapping products, creating a unified catalog.

4. Platform Migration (WooCommerce to Shopify)

You're switching e-commerce platforms:

Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify (or vice versa)
ERPNext will be the central source of truth
Need to ensure data consistency across the migration

Solution: Import from old platform to ERPNext, verify data, then sync from ERPNext to new platform.

Time Savings & Benefits

Dramatic Time Reduction

Compare manual entry vs. automatic import:

Products	Manual Entry	OrderWeave Import	Time Saved
100	11.7 hours	5 minutes	99.3%
500	58 hours (7 days)	15 minutes	99.6%
1,000	116 hours (15 days)	25 minutes	99.6%
5,000	583 hours (73 days)	90 minutes	99.7%

Perfect Data Accuracy

Automatic import eliminates human error:

No typos in product names or descriptions
Exact prices (no decimal point mistakes)
Correct images (no wrong file uploads)
Proper category assignments
Complete data (no forgotten products)

Preserve Marketing Assets

Your e-commerce product data is a valuable asset:

SEO-optimized product descriptions
Professional product photography
Organized category structures
Customer-tested naming conventions

Automatic import preserves all this work exactly as-is.

Faster Time to Value

Get up and running with ERPNext faster:

Start using ERPNext within hours, not weeks
Warehouse team can begin using pick lists immediately
Accounting can generate invoices right away
Purchasing can create POs for existing items

Lower Onboarding Costs

Manual data entry is expensive:

Staff time: 100+ hours @ $25/hour = $2,500+
Consultant time: Often charged per hour or per item
Opportunity cost: Staff could be doing higher-value work
Error correction: Fixing mistakes after they're discovered

Automatic import eliminates most of these costs.

After Import: Sync Goes Live

Once your products are imported, bi-directional sync takes over:

ERPNext → E-commerce

Going forward, manage products in ERPNext:

Update descriptions in ERPNext → syncs to WooCommerce/Shopify
Change prices in ERPNext → reflects online immediately
Adjust stock in ERPNext → updates e-commerce availability
Add new products → automatically created in online stores

E-commerce → ERPNext

Orders flow back automatically:

Customer places order online
Sales Order created in ERPNext
Stock allocated and reduced
Invoice generated for accounting
Warehouse receives pick list

See our blog posts on real-time product sync and automatic order sync for details.

Conclusion

Migrating to ERPNext shouldn't mean weeks of tedious data entry. With OrderWeave's automatic product import:

⚡ Lightning fast: Import thousands of products in minutes
📦 Complete data: Prices, descriptions, categories, images, variations
🎯 Perfect accuracy: No manual typing errors
🔍 Smart duplicate detection: Prevents creating duplicates of existing items
💰 Massive time savings: 99%+ reduction in onboarding time
🚀 Faster value: Start using ERPNext within hours

"We were dreading the ERPNext migration because of our 1,200+ products. OrderWeave imported everything overnight. The next morning, we verified the data, turned on sync, and we were live. Saved us at least 3 weeks of work."
— Sarah K., Operations Manager

Ready to migrate your e-commerce catalog to ERPNext without the manual work? Contact us for a demo or view our pricing.