---
title: "Mastering Shop2woo Import products via JSON URL Settings: Getting the Perfect Migration"
description: "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…"
url: "https://shop2woo.com/docs/shop2woo-import-products-via-json-url-settings/"
updated: "2026-03-24"
category: Shop2Woo – Import Via Shopify URL DOCS / Configuration Settings
---

# Mastering Shop2woo Import products via JSON URL Settings: Getting the Perfect Migration

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.

### *Related*