The settings area is where you fine‑tune Shop2woo for your specific situation. Maybe you’re a small shop with 50 products. Maybe you’re a dropshipper with 10,000 SKUs. The same plugin can serve both, but the ideal settings are a little different.
In this article, we’ll go through each tab and setting, explain what it does, and give you practical recommendations.
1. Import tab – controlling how products are created #
Location: Shop2Woo → Settings → Import
1.1. Avoid Importing Duplicate Products #
If this is enabled, Shop2woo tries not to create the same product twice.
How it works:
- It checks for existing products with the same SKU or slug.
- If it finds one, it updates the existing product instead of creating a new one.
- If none is found, it creates a new product.
When to enable:
Almost always. It’s especially important when:
- You run imports multiple times,
- You import from multiple pages,
- You want to keep products in sync.
1.2. Product Type #
This setting controls the default WooCommerce product type for new products:
- Simple – standard standalone item.
- External/Affiliate – products whose real purchase happens on another site (e.g., Shopify, supplier site).
- Variable – products with variations (sizes, colors, etc.).
Shop2woo can detect when there are variants and turn a product into a variable product, but this setting influences how “simple” imports are treated.
Recommendation:
- If you’re migrating your own store from Shopify to WooCommerce:
- Set this to Simple or Variable depending on your catalog.
- If you’re importing from a supplier’s Shopify store and sending users out to buy there:
- Set this to External/Affiliate.
1.3. Product Status #
- Published – products are live immediately.
- Draft – products are hidden until you manually approve and publish them.
Recommendation:
Use Draft for your first imports and while you’re setting things up. Once you’re confident the data looks good, you can switch to Published.
1.4. Default Category #
Every WordPress/WooCommerce product belongs to at least one category.
- Shop2woo lets you choose a default WooCommerce category for all imported products.
- This is useful when you want to start with a single bucket like “Imported from Shopify” and reorganize later.
You can later reassign categories in bulk inside WooCommerce.
1.5. Image import mode & limits #
Image mode:
- Import Product Image (local)
- Downloads images to your Media Library.
- Sets featured image and gallery images for each product.
- Use External Image and Local Image Has Priority
- Stores image URLs instead of downloading by default.
- If local images already exist, they will be used first.
Number of Images to Import:
- A dropdown from 0–9.
- This is the maximum number of images per product.
Combined with the popup question at fetch time (“Import all images?”), you get very fine control:
- Want only 1 main image per product?
- Set maximum to 1 or choose “No” on the popup and keep maximum low.
- Want full galleries for every product?
- Set maximum to a higher number and choose “Yes” when asked.
Recommendation:
- For testing: import only the first image, max 1–3.
- For final migration: import all images, max appropriate for your theme (3–6 usually looks good).
1.6. Import options (attributes, stock, price, product URL) #
Each checkbox controls whether Shop2woo will import specific pieces of data:
- Import Attributes
- Turns Shopify options (Size, Color, etc.) into WooCommerce attributes.
- Needed for variable products.
- Import Stock Status
- Sets WooCommerce stock status (in stock/out of stock).
- For external products, stock management is handled carefully to avoid conflicts.
- Import Price / Import Regular Price
- Determines how base and regular prices are set.
- Combined with dropshipping markup rules if enabled.
- Import Product URL
- For external/affiliate products, sets the “Buy” button URL to the original Shopify product.
Recommendation:
If you’re doing a full migration of your own store, leave all of these enabled. If you have very custom pricing rules or stock logic, you might selectively disable them and manage certain fields manually.
2. Inventory tab – keeping your catalog clean and up‑to‑date #
Location: Shop2Woo → Settings → Inventory
This tab is all about long‑term maintenance: what happens as products go out of stock, and how often you want to refresh data from Shopify.
2.1. Out of Stock Product Action #
Options:
- Move to Trash – delete products from the catalog (but keep them in Trash).
- Set to Draft – remove them from the public frontend but keep them in the admin.
- No Action – do nothing on prolonged out‑of‑stock status.
This works together with the “Move to Trash if Unavailable for (days)” setting.
Example:
- If you set:
- Action: Set to Draft
- Days: 30
- Then any product that has been out of stock for 30+ days will automatically be moved to Draft.
2.2. Move to Trash if Unavailable for (days) #
This is simply the threshold for the action above.
- Short values (like 7 days) keep your store very clean but might be too aggressive.
- Longer values (30–90 days) are more forgiving.
2.3. Update Period (days) #
Controls how often the inventory update task runs:
- 1 means daily.
- 7 means weekly.
During each run, Shop2woo:
- Finds products that have a _source_url meta (imported from Shopify).
- Calls source_url.json for each.
- Updates price/regular price/stock status if those toggles are enabled.
2.4. Update Price / Regular Price / Stock Status #
Toggle which fields you trust Shop2woo to keep fresh from Shopify.
Examples:
- If you use Shopify purely as a master catalog, enable all three.
- If you’ve customized prices in WooCommerce and don’t want them overwritten, disable Update price/regular price but leave Update stock enabled.
3. Frontend tab – small but important details #
Location: Shop2Woo → Settings → Frontend
Two main options:
3.1. Buy Button Text #
For external/affiliate products:
- WooCommerce can show a button like “Buy Now”, “Shop Now”, or “Purchase”.
- This setting lets you choose which phrase suits your store’s tone.
3.2. Show Update Date #
When enabled:
- On the single product page, Shop2woo adds:
- Last Updated: [date]
- The date is based on _last_updated meta updated during import or cron updates.
This small line can really boost customer trust, especially for:
- Dropshipping stores
- Time‑sensitive products (fashion seasons, electronics)
4. Dropshipping Price Rule tab – making your margins automatic #
If you are importing from a third‑party Shopify store and reselling in WooCommerce, this tab is critical.
4.1. Markup Percentage (%) #
Example:
- Base Shopify price: $20
- Markup: 30%
Calculation: $20 * 1.30 = $26 before rounding.
4.2. Round Precision #
Rounding makes your prices psychologically nicer:
- 1 – keep full decimal precision.
- 10 – round to 0.10, 0.20, etc.
- 100 – round to whole dollars.
Example:
- $26.37 with precision 100 → $26.00
- Or if you design it, you could round to 26.99, etc. (depending on implementation).
4.3. Apply to Old Price #
This option affects how compare_at_price and base price interact with markup.
In plain language:
- Decide whether markup should be applied to the old price or just the base selling price.
- Use it when Shopify has special sale prices and you want to control how those map to WooCommerce.
With these settings understood, you’re in full control: from how products appear on your site to how much profit you make on each order.
