Managing Large WooCommerce Product Imports

Our Problem

Running a WooCommerce store with a few hundred products is straightforward. Once the catalog grows into the tens of thousands, importing and managing products becomes difficult. Bulk WooCommerce imports can stall, servers may slow down, and errors are common. If you’ve ever tried to upload a supplier feed with 50,000+ products, you’ve likely experienced these issues.

This article explains why large WooCommerce product imports create problems, which practices can reduce the strain, and how ShelfSync addresses these challenges.

Why Large Product Imports Fail

WooCommerce stores data in WordPress tables. Each product and its attributes generate multiple entries in the wp_posts and wp_postmeta tables. At large scale, this leads to several issues:

• Postmeta growth: Each product adds dozens of rows, resulting in millions of rows when catalogs reach tens of thousands of products.
• Memory limits: Many import tools attempt to load an entire CSV file into memory. Large files can exceed PHP memory limits and cause failures.
• Request timeouts: Web servers and PHP processes typically limit execution to 30–120 seconds. A single import job covering thousands of products often cannot complete in that time.
• Database contention: Bulk updates create locks, slowing down other operations. Imports also trigger WooCommerce hooks, adding extra processing that compounds delays.

Best Practices for Handling Large WooCommerce Imports (Before ShelfSync)

There are proven methods to manage large imports more safely:

• Stage data in a temporary table before syncing to WooCommerce.
• Break imports into smaller batches of a few hundred products each.
• Run imports with WP-CLI or background workers instead of the web interface.
• Compare new data with existing records and only update what has changed.
• Disable non-essential hooks during imports to reduce unnecessary processing.
• Stream data line by line rather than loading entire files into memory.

How We Manage Large WooCommerce Product Catalogues (After ShelfSync)

ShelfSync simplifies managing large product catalogues. You only need to connect your ERP to ShelfSync and select which products should go to which website. Once set up, ShelfSync handles the entire process automatically:

• Uploads products in controlled batches.
• Monitors for changes and keeps everything in sync across connected websites in real-time.
• Uses ERP triggers or hooks to track updates.
• Handles failed uploads and timeout retries automatically.
• Processes updates individually, keeping server load low for fast site performance.

From a user perspective, this means you can set your preferences, start the import, and step away. ShelfSync works in the background to ensure your products are uploaded, updated, and fully synchronised in real time — no manual monitoring required.

Example Case

A wholesale distributor importing 70,000 products previously experienced failed uploads that took hours to complete. With ShelfSync:

• Imports run automatically in the background.
• The process completes in under half an hour.
• Normal store operations are not interrupted.
• Any ERP changes are reflected instantly in WooCommerce.

Large catalogues are a reality for many retailers. By using the right approach, stores can keep product data accurate without slowing down their sites. ShelfSync provides a structured solution for reliable imports at scale.

Book a call with our sales team to learn more about how ShelfSync can streamline your business.