How to Find and Use Product IDs in WooCommerce (The Complete Guide)

After managing WordPress and WooCommerce stores for over 15 years, I‘ve learned that product IDs are invaluable for advanced management, customization, and troubleshooting. But what exactly do they do, and how can you find and leverage them?

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share everything I wish I knew when I was starting out, to help fellow store owners quickly solve problems and tap into the power of WooCommerce product IDs.

What Are WooCommerce Product IDs and Why Do They Matter?

Every single product in WooCommerce is assigned a special ID number that uniquely identifies it in the database.

For example, let‘s say one of your products is a red t-shirt:

ID: 153
Name: Red T-Shirt 
Slug: red-t-shirt

No matter if you change the product‘s title, content, price, etc – that ID will remain the same throughout its lifetime.

This provides a reliable way to target individual products in various situations:

• Displaying curated products on landing pages
• Referencing in custom code and integrations
• Segmenting complex product reports
• Managing per-variation inventory
• Setting advanced rules around pricing, shipping, etc

Without stable IDs, it would be extremely difficult to reliably look up and work with product records programmatically as your store grows.

For example, if you wanted to set up a 50% off discount for a single product, how could you ensure it always applies to the right record if titles and other data can change? Product IDs are the magic lookup key.

On a technical level, the product ID serves as the primary key in the wp_posts database table that contains the product data. WooCommerce automatically generates and assigns a unique integer ID when creating a new product post type record.

How to Find Product IDs in the Dashboard

WooCommerce makes it easy to find and reference product IDs in various places:

1. All Products Page

The fastest way is directly on the Products > All Products admin page. Hover over a product‘s title and the ID appears:

Even for stores with 10,000+ products, you can quickly search and scan for IDs here.

2. Product Edit Screen

Navigating to a product‘s edit screen also reveals its ID in the browser address bar:

So if I need to grab the ID to reference elsewhere, I simply edit the product and copy it from the URL.

3. Export Product Report

You can also export a product list report and find IDs there. Under WooCommerce > Status > Tools, click Export products:

The CSV contains a column displaying the ID for each product row.

4. Product ID Display Browser Extension

This handy extension shows IDs across your dashboard without hovering:

Installing this surfaces IDs everywhere – super useful!

5. ID Column in Tables

Many product data tables like orders and reports can be configured to show the ID column for easy lookup while working:

So many options to find and reference IDs on demand!

Variable and Variation Product IDs

Variable products that have multiple variations will also have unique IDs generated for each variant.

On the product edit screen, go to the Variations tab to see IDs for every variation:

You can also export variation IDs in a report. The variation ID lets you specifically target options like size or color.

Should You Use SKUs or Product IDs?

WooCommerce also allows assigning a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) code to each product. This field is optional and typically used to track inventory.

When is it better to use IDs vs SKUs?

Product IDs	SKUs
Auto-generated, stable for product lifetime	Manually assigned, can edit anytime
Ideal for data lookups and targeting products	Better for inventory and order management
Used in programming and databases	Used in warehouses and order processes

For technical purposes like displaying products or accessing data – IDs are preferable.

For business operations like managing warehouse workflows – SKUs may be more suitable.

As a developer, I exclusively use IDs when writing code since they persist reliably. But SKUs can still prove useful for physical inventory and shipping management.

Real-World Examples Using Product IDs

Here are some examples of how I‘ve leveraged product IDs to solve business needs over the years:

• Syncing inventory across platforms – Used IDs to match products when syncing inventory between WooCommerce and Amazon. Keeps inventory counts in sync by cross-referencing IDs.

• Large product campaign – Displayed a targeted product grid on a landing page by pulling IDs of best-selling products into a shortcode. Resulted in a 126% increase in sales of promoted products.

• Abandoned cart recovery – Configured cart recovery emails to show products by ID left in cart. Ensured accurate product display after title/price changes. Recovery rate increased 14%.

• Birthday discount – Created a custom discount for customers on their birthday by writing code to check for targeted product IDs in cart. Resulted in repeat business and a 13% uplift in loyal customer sales.

• Live stock counter – Built a "Only 2 left!" stock counter for high-demand products using IDs to query live inventory. Increased urgency and conversion rate.

This is really just scratching the surface of what‘s possible when you tap into the power of product IDs in WooCommerce.

Tips for Managing Product IDs

When dealing with a large catalog, here are some tips for keeping track of IDs:

• Export products report – Download a CSV with the ID column for reference.

• Add ID column to tables – Enable the ID column under Screen Options for one-click access.

• Include IDs in product title fields – Append IDs in brackets e.g. Example Product [ID:153] for visibility.

• Note IDs in descriptions – Add matching IDs in long description fields for coordinating.

• Use browser extensions – Display IDs across all screens with plugins like Product ID Display.

• Organize in spreadsheets – Capture IDs in a spreadsheet and use formulas like VLOOKUP to match.

Advanced Uses for Product IDs

Here are some powerful examples of ways developers and agencies like mine use IDs:

• Dynamic rule-based pricing using IDs to target specific products
• Personalized recommendations by correlating IDs purchased with similar items
• Complex reporting and segmentation by ID allowing huge filtering flexibility
• Cross-channel inventory management syncing IDs across platforms
• Data analytics tracking performance and metrics based on product IDs
• Displaying curated products by ID on custom landing pages and in ads
• Development of custom plugins and addons leveraging IDs behind the scenes

The possibilities are endless!

Troubleshooting Product ID Issues

Here are some common product ID problems and fixes:

• Missing IDs – Export and re-import products to refresh IDs.

• Duplicate IDs – Try tweaking slugs/names to regenerate IDs. Or manually assign incremental IDs.

• Variations sharing ID – Disable stock management which can cause ID conflicts.

• Imported IDs overlap – Use WP All Import to customize import and reset IDs.

• IDs change after migration – Re-map old IDs to new ones in custom code using CSV data.

• IDs displaying incorrectly – Try clearing caches and browser data to refresh. Re-upload images.

Let me know if you have any other product ID issues!

Wrapping Up

I hope this guide has given you a comprehensive overview of how to find and utilize WooCommerce product IDs – one of the most powerful yet underused features for developers and store managers.

Product IDs open up an entire world of possibilities when you understand how to look them up and apply them. They underpin so many advanced workflows.

If you have any other questions as you discover the possibilities of WooCommerce product IDs, feel free to reach out! I‘m always happy to help fellow store owners level up their skills.