If you have read about the new Wix Stores product catalog (subcategories, modifiers, up to 50 images per product) and went looking for an "upgrade" button, you probably didn't find one. This post covers what moving to the new catalog really means today, the free built-in route step by step, where that route gets painful, and what to check before you retire the old site.
Full disclosure: I build Wix apps, and one of them copies products between sites. It's in a short section at the end. The built-in route comes first, because for a small catalog it's enough.
The problem: there is no in-place upgrade
Developers know the two versions as Catalog V1 and Catalog V3 (that's what the Wix APIs call them). The help center calls them the "previous version" and the "new product catalog".
Wix's own feature request page is clear about existing sites: "Currently, it is not possible to migrate an existing Wix Stores site to the new product catalog." The workaround it gives is that new sites come with the new catalog built in. The same page tells you to look for a migration banner in your dashboard, so if you see one, use that instead and skip this post. If you don't, there is nothing to switch on.
So in practice, "migrating to V3" means:
- Create a new site and add Wix Stores to it (check that it really is on the new catalog, see below).
- Bring your products over.
- Redo everything that isn't a product: payments, shipping, tax, design.
Sources: migrating to the new catalog (feature request), what the new catalog adds.
How to tell which catalog a site uses
Open any product in the dashboard. Wix's import guide says that if the first field you see is "Images and videos", the site is on the previous version. Do this on both sites before you start, because the export and import steps differ between them.
What about duplicating the site?
Wix lists "duplicate your site" as a workaround for moving a store, and says it copies the product list and categories but not the rest of the store information, such as payment methods, shipping rules and tax settings (Wix guide). I couldn't find anything from Wix saying a duplicate gets the new catalog. Given that existing stores can't be migrated, I wouldn't count on it. Duplicate if you want a copy to redesign; don't do it to get V3.
The built-in route: CSV export and import
Wix's FAQ confirms you can export products from one Wix store and import them into another (import guide). Coming from V1 and going into V3, it looks like this.
Step 1: export from the old (V1) site
From the export guide:
- Go to Products in the dashboard.
- Select what to export: all products, a filtered set (for example one category), or products you pick by hand.
- Click More Actions > Export and confirm.
The limit is 5,000 rows per file. Mac users: Wix says to open the file in Numbers or Excel 15 or later.
Step 2: rework the file for the new catalog
This is the step nobody warns you about. The V3 import uses a different set of columns. The V3 export/import guide lists columns like handle, fieldType, categorySlugs, primaryCategorySlug, media, mediaAltText, productOptionName[1] and modifierName[1], and says not to add or delete columns or rename them.
The easiest way to get the right template is to export from the new site itself (add one dummy product first), then move your data into that file. Things to map by hand:
- Collections become categories. V1 has collections; V3 has categories, referenced by slug.
- One row per media item. In V3, each image, GIF or video gets its own row, and row order sets display order. A V1 file with several image URLs in one cell has to be split out.
- Variants. V3 manages price, weight and pre-order per variant once a product has options, so variant rows need checking rather than copying.
Wix doesn't say whether a V1 export imports into a V3 site as it is. I'd assume it doesn't and plan time for the rework.
Step 3: import into the new (V3) site
- Go to Store Products > More Actions > Import, click Continue, upload the file and click Import.
- If rows fail, click Generate Error CSV, fix the rows it lists, and import again.
Limits from the same guide: 15 MB and 10,000 rows per file, and if there are more, only the first 10,000 rows are imported. Since every variant and every image is its own row, a catalog of a few hundred products can easily need more than one file.
Where the CSV route stops
These are the gaps I'd plan around, with what Wix's docs say about each.
Images between sites. A V3 media row takes "either 1 media URL or 1 media ID". Wix doesn't document whether a media reference from one site keeps working on another, and the V1 import guide warns that image URLs stored on another platform won't load if that store has been deleted. Forum users also report variant images not reconnecting after an import. Treat images as the thing most likely to break later, and don't delete the old site until the new site's images are in its own Media Manager.
SEO text. The V3 column list has no SEO fields. Custom SEO titles and descriptions per product have to be entered again on the new site, and if your URL slugs change, so do your product URLs. Set up redirects for the old URLs if the old site had search traffic.
Info sections. The V1 import format has additionalInfoTitle columns (up to 6 sections per product). The V3 column list doesn't include info sections at all, so size guides, care instructions and similar sections have to be recreated by hand, or set up once as reusable info sections in the new catalog.
Nested categories. The V3 import "can create new categories, but cannot nest them". Subcategories, one of the main reasons to move to V3, are rebuilt in the dashboard.
Digital products. Both the export and import guides say digital products aren't supported. They have to be recreated and their files uploaded again.
Everything that isn't a product. Orders, customers, coupons and reviews don't move with a product CSV. Payment methods, shipping rules and tax settings are set up again on the new site.
What to check after the move
Before you point your domain at the new site:
- Counts. Compare the number of products, and the number of variants on your biggest products, between the two sites.
- Images. Open a sample of products, including variant images, and check the new site's Media Manager actually holds them.
- Prices, sale prices and stock. Spot check variants, not just the main product.
- Categories. Check nesting, product order and which products are in each category.
- Hidden products. Anything that was hidden on the old site should still be hidden.
- SEO and URLs. Product slugs, SEO titles and descriptions, and redirects from old URLs.
- Store settings. Payments, shipping regions and rates, tax, and checkout fields.
- A real test order with a test payment method, through to the confirmation email.
Keep the old site until all of that passes. Moving the domain is easy to undo; deleting a site is not.
An app that copies products site to site
Full disclosure: I built Catalog Mover for this move. You install it on both of your sites, show a short pairing code on the old one and enter it on the new one.
What it does:
- A dry run first: it counts the products, variants, images and categories it found, and lists products already on the new site so they can be skipped. Nothing is created until you click Copy.
- Copies names, descriptions, URL slugs and SEO settings, up to 15 images per product, options and variants with prices, sale prices, costs, SKUs, weights and stock, custom text fields, brands, ribbons, info sections and nested categories.
- Reads stores on the older and the current catalog versions, and creates products on sites using the current one. So it covers the V1 to V3 move without a CSV in between.
- The source site is only read. A report afterwards shows what was copied and anything that couldn't be, with the reason.
What it doesn't do:
- Orders, customers, coupons and reviews are not copied.
- Videos are not copied.
- Digital products arrive hidden and without their download file, so you can add the file before showing them.
Pricing: the free plan covers 10 products per site, so you can try it on a few of your own products. For more, there are one-time plans for 500 products or unlimited.
- Catalog Mover on the Wix App Market: go.kayabyte.dev/catalog
- A longer step-by-step guide, including duplicating and transferring sites: How to move Wix Stores products to another Wix site
If you've done a V1 to V3 move with CSV and hit something I didn't list, I'd like to hear about it in the comments.
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