How to Add Sample Data in WooCommerce (with Product Images)

Building a WooCommerce store can feel like trying to decorate an empty house – it’s hard to visualize how everything will come together without actual products to work with.

You might wonder how your theme handles galleries or if your layout works with different product types. It is also hard to know how your store will actually look to customers.

The good news is that WooCommerce includes a complete set of sample products designed specifically for this purpose.

These aren’t just placeholder items. They are professionally crafted products with high-quality images, detailed descriptions, and realistic pricing that help you see your store’s true potential.

We will show you how to add this sample data to your WooCommerce store in a few simple steps.

Once imported, you will have a fully functional demo store. This makes it easy to test themes, fine-tune your design, and get a feel for the customer experience.

What Is WooCommerce Sample Data?

Sample data in WooCommerce is a set of pre-made products that you can add to your online store for testing. It’s more than just simple placeholders.

The sample data includes a wide variety of product types. This includes simple products, variable products like a hoodie with different colors and sizes, grouped products, and even virtual items.

This allows you to see how your store handles different product layouts and features. Here is how sample data helps you build a better store:

Goal	How Sample Data Helps
Testing	You can check if your theme and features work correctly without risking real customer data.
Learning	It helps you understand how to manage products, categories, and tags in the dashboard.
Designing	You can visualize exactly how product galleries, descriptions, and checkout pages will look.
Troubleshooting	It allows you to find and fix conflicts with plugins or themes before your site goes live.

Overall, sample data lets you set up and improve your store without the stress of using your real product listings. As a result, you can offer a better customer experience when you launch.

With that in mind, we will show you how to add sample data in WooCommerce. Here’s a quick overview of all the steps we will cover:

Ready? Let’s get started.

How to Add WooCommerce Product Sample Data

There are two easy ways to add sample products to your store. The method you choose depends on whether you have a brand-new store or an established one.

Method 1: Using the WooCommerce Setup Wizard (For New Stores)

If you just installed WooCommerce, this is the fastest method.

First, navigate to WooCommerce » Home in your WordPress admin area. Look for the ‘Add your products’ task in the setup guide.

You will then see a step-by-step wizard to add your products.

From here, you can click on the ‘View more product types’ link.

After that, you will see two extra options.

You just need to click on the ‘Load Sample Products’ button to start.

A new popup will now appear.

Go ahead and click on the ‘Import sample products’ button.

The sample WooCommerce products will then show up just like regular products.

Here, you can edit them just like any other WooCommerce product, preview them with your WooCommerce theme, and try out different WordPress plugins.

Method 2: Using the Product Importer (For Existing Stores)

If you don’t see the setup wizard, you can manually upload the sample data file. This comes built-in with WooCommerce.

First, you need to download the sample_products.csv file. You can get this file directly from the official WooCommerce GitHub repository.

Once you have the file saved to your computer, go to Products » All Products in your WordPress dashboard.

Click on the ‘Start Import’ button (or ‘Import’ if you already have products).

On the next screen, click ‘Choose File’ and select the CSV file you just downloaded.

Then, click ‘Continue’.

WooCommerce will ask you to map the column headers.

Since this is the official sample file, you can typically scroll to the bottom and click ‘Run the importer’ without changing anything.

Wait for the importer to finish. Once done, you will see a success message.

Note: We recommend going to Media » Library to confirm that the product images have finished downloading. It may take a few minutes for all images to appear.

How to Create Sample Orders in WooCommerce

WooCommerce doesn’t come with a sample order generator. The easiest way to create dummy orders in WooCommerce is to simply go through the checkout process yourself. This lets you optimize your customer journey and boost conversions.

The good news is that it’s easy to do this without spending any money and changing your products’ prices.

Simply go to the WooCommerce » Settings » Payments page in your WordPress admin and enable the toggle for the ‘Cash on delivery’ payment option.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Next, you’ll need to go to your store and complete the full checkout process to order some of the dummy products.

You should then see your orders on the WooCommerce » Orders page.

You can create as many sample orders as you want.

For more tips about optimizing customer journeys, then feel free to check out our actionable tips on the best ways to increase WooCommerce sales.

How to Remove the Sample Data in WooCommerce

After you have finished using your sample data, you can delete the sample products and orders.

To delete orders, head over to WooCommerce » Orders in your WordPress admin. Here, simply select all the orders and use the ‘Bulk actions’ menu to move them all to the trash.

Next, select ‘Move to trash’ from the dropdown menu and click the ‘Apply’ button.

To delete products, you can go to Products » All Products.

Again, simply select all the products and use the ‘Bulk actions’ menu. Then, you’ll want to select ‘Move to trash’ and then click the ‘Apply’ button.

To permanently delete the data, you must empty the trash. Click the ‘Trash’ link at the top of the products list.

Then, click the ‘Empty Trash’ button to remove them from your database completely.

Frequently Asked Questions About Adding Sample Data in WooCommerce

In this section, we’ve answered some of the most frequently asked questions about adding sample data in WooCommerce.

How do I import dummy data in WooCommerce?

The easiest way to import the dummy product data is by using the WooCommerce setup wizard, as we showed in the tutorial above.

For new stores, WooCommerce offers a ‘Load Sample Products’ button right on the dashboard, which is the simplest way to get started.

How do I create a CSV file for WooCommerce?

You can create a CSV file for WooCommerce with a spreadsheet program like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

The most important part is that the first row of your spreadsheet must have the correct column headers that WooCommerce recognizes, like name, sku, or regular_price.

When you’re finished adding your products, save the file in CSV format. We recommend checking the official WooCommerce documentation for a full list of all available column headers.

How do I add custom data to a WooCommerce product?

The best way to add custom data like color, size, or material to a product is by using Product Attributes.

When you are editing a product, just scroll down to the ‘Product data’ section and click on the ‘Attributes’ tab. From there, you can create and assign any custom data you need.

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We hope this article helped you learn how to add sample data in WooCommerce. Now that your store is ready, we recommend that you check out our article on how to set up WooCommerce conversion tracking and our ultimate guide to WooCommerce SEO.

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