Key takeaways
- WooCommerce Analytics counts orders for any date range under Analytics > Orders, and orders from before it started tracking must be imported under Analytics > Settings > Import Historical Data.
- WordPress shows the total database size under Tools > Site Health > Info > Directories and Sizes, which a WordPress administrator can open.
- Orders download from Analytics > Orders and products export from Products > All Products > Export, but core WooCommerce has no full order or customer exporter.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your order count, the date of your first order and the number of users who manage the store ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is WooCommerce data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
WooCommerce data is the record of what a WordPress-based online store has sold: each order with its products, coupons and customer type, plus the product catalog behind it. AI labs (companies that build and train AI models) and data vendors (companies that anonymize business records and package them for those labs) buy a copy because WooCommerce runs many small and specialized stores whose real purchase patterns rarely appear in public data.
What a WooCommerce store records
WordPress is software for building websites, and WooCommerce is a plugin that adds an online shop to a WordPress site. Each checkout becomes an order that lists the products bought (its line items), any coupon used, the customer and the payment. The store keeps the order, the customer and the product catalog in the site's database, the store of structured records behind the website.
Orders can also carry notes that staff attach, such as a reminder about a delivery problem. Those notes live in the database too.
Why orders from small and niche stores teach an AI model something
An AI model learns by studying a very large number of examples and finding the patterns in them, and those examples are called training data. The largest retailers' sales are discussed everywhere, but a store that sells restaurant supplies to other businesses is not. Its orders show what that kind of customer buys, in what quantities, with what coupons and how often.
AI labs also want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step, such as answering a customer's question about an order. A data vendor can turn anonymized orders into worked examples that an agent studies like an answer key. The full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How WooCommerce fits into a dataset
A WooCommerce store is usually one of several apps in a company's dataset, alongside email, accounting and support records. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to. The price covers the whole dataset, not each app on its own, and what your data is worth explains what moves it.
02
Where does WooCommerce show how much data you have?
The short answer
WooCommerce counts orders for any date range under Analytics > Orders, and WordPress shows the size of the whole database under Tools > Site Health > Info. Use a WordPress administrator account for both. Analytics only counts orders it has processed, so older orders may need to be imported first.
How to count your orders
Analytics is built into WooCommerce from version 5.3 onward. The steps below read the all-time order count.
- Log in to the WordPress admin as an administrator.
- Open Analytics > Orders and set a custom date range that starts on the day of your first order and ends today.
- Read the order count for that range.
- If the count looks too low because older orders are missing, go to Analytics > Settings, scroll to Import Historical Data and import them.
The WooCommerce Analytics documentation explains the date range controls and the import.
How to see the size of the database
The database is where WooCommerce keeps orders, customers and products. Its size is listed in the WordPress admin: open Tools > Site Health > Info and expand Directories and Sizes. That section lists the size of the WordPress, uploads, themes and plugins folders, and also the total size of the database and of the whole installation, as WordPress's Site Health screen documentation describes.
Why Analytics can show fewer orders than you have
Orders placed before Analytics started tracking are not in its reports until you import them. WooCommerce's documentation advises importing that older data so the reports are accurate.
When you import, tick Skip previously imported customers and orders if your date ranges overlap, so that nothing is processed twice. The import runs in the background, and you can stop it with Stop Import.
03
What should you know about your WooCommerce data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: how many orders the store has taken in total, how many years it has been selling and how many WordPress users manage the store. They go into the data manifest, the written summary of which apps hold your records, how many years each covers and roughly how much. Applying shares no data, and you don't need to run an export first.
The order count
Report total orders as the number of records. The all-time figure from Analytics > Orders, after any missing orders have been imported, is the one to use.
The years of history
Take the date of the store's first order. That date tells a buyer how many years of sales the records cover.
The number of seats
A seat is one person who can log in. Count the WordPress users who manage the store, and leave out accounts that only belong to customers.
What you don't need to do first
You don't need to export anything to apply, and you don't need to clean or scrub an export. micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, anonymizes the records before anyone else sees them, and nothing moves until a lawyer-reviewed license is signed. The application, the intro call and each later step are laid out in how to sell your company's data.
04
How do you export your full WooCommerce history?
The short answer
Download the order list from Analytics > Orders and export the product catalog from Products > All Products > Export. A backup of the WordPress database, requested from your hosting provider, is the only copy that also holds customers and order notes. Core WooCommerce has no full order or customer export of its own.
Export orders from Analytics
- Log in as a WordPress administrator and open Analytics > Orders.
- Set the date range to cover the store's whole history.
- Click Download in the table header.
- For a large set of orders, WooCommerce prepares the file as a background job and emails a download link to the account that asked for it.
The documentation adds that the emailed link stays available for one week and can be used more than once in that time. A short list that fits on one screen without paging downloads at once.
Export products
- Go to Products > All Products and click Export.
- Leave Export all columns on to include every field.
- Click Generate CSV. A CSV is a plain spreadsheet file.
To export only part of the catalog, filter by product type or category, or tick products in the list and export just the selected ones. The WooCommerce product CSV exporter guide covers these options.
Get a complete copy from your host
Your hosting provider is the company that runs the server your site lives on, and it can supply a backup of the WordPress database. That backup is the most complete copy of a store, because it holds the customers and order notes that the other two exports leave out.
What the built-in exports leave out
An Analytics download holds the columns shown in the report table, not every field of an order. Core WooCommerce also has a product CSV exporter but no full exporter for orders or customers. WooCommerce sells a separate extension, Customer / Order / Coupon Export, for that job.
The product exporter has one more quirk: WooCommerce may leave attribute values out of variation names in the exported file, which happens for products with three or more attributes.
Sources: WooCommerce Analytics and Sales Reports, Product CSV Importer and Exporter and WordPress Site Health screen documentation. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when WooCommerce data is licensed?
The short answer
Payment gateway credentials and WordPress user passwords stay on your site, because the order and product exports carry the useful history without them. The data vendor replaces customer names and other personal details with consistent stand-ins before an AI lab sees anything, and the company keeps ownership of its store history.
Credentials never leave the site
The keys that connect your store to a payment service and the passwords of your WordPress users are not part of the order and product exports. A database backup is a different matter, since it is a complete copy, so the data vendor tells you what it needs from it and deletes records too sensitive to clean safely.
Names are replaced before a lab sees them
Anonymization means replacing every detail that identifies a person, such as a name, an address or an email address, with a stand-in that is the same every time it appears. A repeat customer still looks like the same customer, but nobody can tell who the customer is. The method is in how company data is anonymized for AI training.
Ownership and payment
Licensing gives the buyer limited rights to a copy, while the company keeps ownership of the originals. The terms that matter, such as exclusivity, permitted use and deletion, are covered in data licensing, and is it legal to sell company data covers the legal questions. micro1 pays in full within 30 days of accepting the data, usually as a single payment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Why does WooCommerce Analytics show fewer orders than we expect?
Orders from before Analytics began tracking are missing until you import them, under Analytics > Settings > Import Historical Data. If the date ranges you import overlap, tick the option that skips orders already imported.
Where did my WooCommerce Analytics download go?
It was probably emailed. A large download runs in the background, and WooCommerce sends the link to the email address of the WordPress account that started it. The link works for one week.
Can I export only some WooCommerce products?
Yes. Narrow the export with a product type or category filter, or tick the products you want in the list and export just those.
How do I get WooCommerce customers and order notes?
Request a database backup from your hosting provider. Core WooCommerce has no full order or customer exporter, so that backup is the most complete copy available.
How do I see the size of my WooCommerce database?
Go to Tools > Site Health > Info in the WordPress admin and open Directories and Sizes. It shows the total database size and the total installation size.
Do we need to export WooCommerce before we apply?
No. The application shares no data. You only need your total order count, the date of your first order and the number of users who manage the store. The export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
What is WooCommerce data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Store history is priced as part of a whole dataset rather than on its own. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, and the price depends on the years of history and how completely the records show each job. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in WooCommerce, then see what it is worth
You don't need to export anything to apply. Apply in two minutes, describe your records on the intro call, and micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, prices the whole dataset and sends an offer 1–2 days later.
Not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures come from micro1's published pages and public reporting as of November 2026.