Products can be imported from WooCommerce to Katana in three different ways.
When products are imported
Products are imported to Katana in the following cases:
Initial connection — import all products
You can choose to import all WooCommerce products during the first integration setup.
Important: If you use SKUs in WooCommerce, make sure each SKU is unique for the import to work properly.
For variable products, each variant must also have a unique SKU. If a variant doesn’t have one, it won’t be imported.
Initial connection — import only products on SOs
If you don’t import all products, only those that appear on imported sales orders (SOs) will be created in Katana.
Ongoing sync — products from new SOs
After setup, when new SOs are synced from WooCommerce, any products on those orders are imported into Katana.
Note: Products do not sync from Katana to WooCommerce.
Creating and matching products
Katana tries to match imported WooCommerce products with existing products in Katana:
If a match is found → no new product is created.
If no match is found → a new product is created in Katana.
How matching works:
SKU code check
WooCommerce SKU is compared to the Katana Variant Code.
SKU codes are case-sensitive: e.g., “code-1” ≠ “CODE-1.”
WooCommerce ID check
If there’s no SKU or no match, Katana uses the WooCommerce product ID.
On the first sync, Katana saves the WooCommerce ID (hidden from users). Future syncs use this ID to prevent duplicates.
WooCommerce → Katana field mapping
WooCommerce | Katana | Notes |
Name | Product name | - |
Product type | Variants | Imports Simple, Variable, and Bundle products. Grouped and External/Affiliate products are not imported. Variations become product variants in Katana. Parent products in WooCommerce also create an extra variant in Katana (e.g. “T-Shirt,” “T-Shirt Small,” “T-Shirt Large”). |
Unit of Measure | Unit of measure | Not in WooCommerce → defaults to pcs in Katana. |
SKU | Variant Code | Case-sensitive; must be unique. |
– | Safety stock level | Not imported; left blank. WooCommerce Low Stock Threshold is not synced. |
Regular Price | Default Sales Price | Imported as the default sales price during initial connection (tax settings apply). For new products imported via SOs, the SO unit price is used, but the default sales price remains blank. |
– | Cost | During initial connection, you can define cost as a % of sales price. This becomes the average cost in Katana. |
Editing or deleting products
Edits in either WooCommerce or Katana do not sync (name, price, variants, etc.).
Deleting a product in one system does not delete it in the other.
Importing new products after setup
Once the integration is enabled, new products created in WooCommerce or Katana do not automatically sync.
New products are only imported from WooCommerce if:
The product is included in a synced SO, or
You reconfigure the WooCommerce integration in Katana and select Import all products.
Multiple WooCommerce stores
If multiple WooCommerce stores are connected, product import and matching work the same way for each store.
If the same product (same SKU) exists in multiple stores, duplicates are not created — products are matched if they’ve already been imported from another store.
Key takeaway: Katana imports products from WooCommerce only through SOs or during setup. Matching relies on SKUs (case-sensitive) or WooCommerce IDs, and product data fields are mapped with clear rules. Products never sync back from Katana to WooCommerce.
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