How to offer user group discounts in WooCommerce

WooCommerce customer group discount offers (also called user group discounts) can drive revenue, build customer loyalty, boost customer data collection efforts, and more. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough on how to set it up on your online store in less than 10 minutes.

If you're looking for a way to add WooCommerce customer group discounts to your online store, you're in luck. In this detailed tutorial, I'll walk you through the steps to define customer roles, create user group discounts, and promote them throughout your site using the WooCommerce Discount Manager plugin.

But first, let's clarify what group discounts are and how they can benefit all kinds of Woo stores.

What is a WooCommerce customer group discount?

In WooCommerce, customer group discounts (or user group discounts) allow you to categorize buyers into different groups based on certain criteria, such as their loyalty, customer type, membership status, or purchase history. Once classified, you can then apply discounts tailored to each group and offer different pricing to each user role.

This approach allows you to customize your pricing strategy, encourage loyalty, and attract different customer segments.

There are two types of customer group discounts:

• Direct customer group discounts: These are implemented based on user roles set in WordPress.
• Indirect customer group discounts: These are implemented based on total spend or quantity purchases.

Note: Since WooCommerce is built on WordPress, this setting works based on user roles set in WordPress. Customers may need to log in to use some types of discounts.

Ways to offer customer group discounts in WooCommerce

Here are some common ways you can offer discounts to specific user groups:

• Loyalty discounts: To reward returning customers who have made multiple purchases or reached a certain order value.
• Wholesale or VIP discounts: For wholesale customers who make bulk purchases.
• Membership discounts: For stores that offer membership-based products and want to retain subscribers.
• Partner discounts: This offers specific pricing for employees and business partners.
• Subscriber discounts: To encourage first-time buyers to create an account on your eCommerce store.

Benefits of offering WooCommerce customer group discounts

Here are the top benefits WooCommerce store owners can expect to see from offering user group discounts:

• It boosts revenue: Although discounts are an added cost to your business, there are many ways to use them to supercharge your revenue. For instance, you can offer discounts on orders above a specific amount to encourage higher cart values. Another example is offering quantity-based discounts to encourage customers to order more items at once. You can also provide category-based discounts to facilitate orders from specific categories.
• It builds customer loyalty: User group discounts are personalized; unlike regular discounts, they're not available to just anyone. Offering exclusive discounts to loyal customers or specific customer types fosters a sense of appreciation and encourages repeat purchases. People are more likely to shop from your store over the long term when they receive personalized benefits and rewards.
• It helps you manage inventory better: Offering customer group discounts encourages buyers to buy more from your online store. This ensures fast-moving inventory and prevents overstocking. And if you end up overstocked, you can strategically offer discounts on specific products to help clear excess inventory.
• It facilitates customer data collection: Many types of customer group discounts can only be applied to logged-in customers. This encourages new customers to register and enables you to gather more customer data, which can be helpful for other business purposes, such as setting up email marketing.
• It improves customer engagement: Personalized discounts catered to different user groups can enhance customer engagement and interaction in your store. Customers feel acknowledged when they receive targeted offers that align with their interests and behaviors, which can lead to increased site visits, longer browsing sessions, and, ultimately, more conversions.

How to create a discount for a WooCommerce customer group

Adding discounts based on user groups isn't a default feature in WooCommerce, so we'll need to use the WooCommerce Discount Manager plugin.

WooCommerce Discount Manager is the best customer group discounts plugin out there. It will help you create discounts based on customer segments and promote them throughout your website for maximum exposure. With this plugin, you can:

1. Create virtually any type of discount, including fixed amount, percentage discounts, buy X get Y free, BOGO deals, bulk discounts, cart value discounts, etc.
2. Apply various kinds of discounts to different users and user roles in WooCommerce.
3. Set start date and end dates, spending rules, together with other advanced discount pricing rules.
4. Add custom messages throughout your site (on the single product page and cart page) to promote the discount.

An added bonus: WooCommerce Discount Manager is an all-in-one discounts and dynamic pricing plugin that lets you offer various kinds of deals. This means you won't need to get another plugin to add other discount types to your site.

Steps to create WooCommerce customer group discount offers

These instructions will guide you through the steps to add and promote user group discounts on your WooCommerce site:

1. Install WooCommerce Discount Manager

The first step is adding the WooCommerce plugin to your site:

1. Get WooCommerce Discount Manager.
2. Download the plugin's zip files onto your computer.
3. Log into your WordPress dashboard area and locate the 'Plugins' section.
4. Select Add New → Upload Plugin followed by the plugin zip file that you saved on your computer earlier.
5. Click on Install Now → Activate.
6. Enter the license key into the plugin setup wizard and activate it.

2. Create a customer group discount rule

Next, let's add the specific discount rule to the website:

1. Installing WooCommerce Discounts Manager adds a new "Discounts' section to your WordPress admin dashboard, which you'll find at Marketing → Discounts.
2. Select the 'Add New' option to set up a new discount rule.
3. Enter a name for the discount. (Note: This will only be visible to store admins).
4. Choose the preferred discount type from the dropdown options in the modal window. You can create a:
   • Simple discount: To give customers a fixed percentage or amount off.
   • Based on total spend: This sets a threshold $ (or whatever currency you use) for the amount customers must spend to qualify for a fixed discount amount or percentage off.
   • Free products: This sets a minimum product quantity you can buy to qualify for a fixed number of free products. Here, you can offer either the lowest-valued products or the same products for free.
   • Buy X products for a fixed price: To offer several products for a fixed price, e.g, buy 3 hoodies for $100.
   • Buy X products for X discount: To give shoppers either a fixed amount or percentage off part or the cart subtotal.
   • Bulk pricing: To give customers a fixed amount or percentage off the total cart value or specific products in the cart.
5. 'Which products?' - Here, you can choose the products the discounts apply to. Select the 'All products' option if you plan to add this discount to several products. Note: You can still select specific products and product categories to be excluded from the discounts in a later step.
6. Now, choose the logic for the discount. For instance, if you selected a 'Simple discount' in step 2 above, you can enter the fixed amount or percentage off here.

3. Tailor the customer group discount rule

Now, let's customize the user group pricing rule:

1. The 'Applies to' section is where you choose the customer groups that are eligible for this discount. Note that if you don't select any option here, this discount will apply to everyone who shops in your store. You can offer the discount to:
   • Specific users
   • Specific user roles
2. If you wish to schedule the discount, enter the details in the 'Availability' section. For instance, if you run a hybrid wholesale and retail shop and want to schedule a Black Friday Cyber Monday sale, this is where you'll add start and end dates.
3. You can add a message to promote the customer group discount on the single product pages of products that the discounts apply to using the 'Content' option. Feel free to use eye-catching emojis to make this prominent. For instance, you can say something like, 'Buy 3 hoodies, get 1 hoodie free 🎁'.
4. You can add another custom message to the cart page with the "Cart notice" option. This message will be displayed on the cart and checkout pages for buyers eligible for the discount. Here, you can say something like, 'Congratulations 🎉! We've added your free product(s) to your cart 🛒!'.
5. That's it. Save the discount and head to your site's front end for a test drive before you roll it out for everyone.

Here's a screenshot showing the discount on the single product page of a demo WooCommerce store:

And on the cart product page of a demo WooCommerce store:

Tips to boost sales with WooCommerce user group discounts

Like with every other type of pricing/marketing strategy, you need to be strategic while implementing customer group discounts. These tactics will help you make the most of user group discount offers in your WooCommerce store:

• Properly segment your customers: Divide your customer base into meaningful segments in a way that makes sense for your specific business. For instance, you might create segments based on customer type (whether first-time or returning customers), average order value, purchase history, etc. Categorizing customers this way helps you create relevant and effective discounts.
• Create compelling discount offers: Craft offers that resonate with each customer segment and don't eat into your profits. For example, if the regular price of your hoodies is $50 for retail customers, setting the product price at $48, i.e., $2 off, may not be compelling enough to entice returning customers to buy. Invest time to understand what matters to your customers and design your offers accordingly.
• Promote the discounts: If no one knows about your offers, they won't be useful. Take advantage of the 'Content' and 'Cart notice' features within the WooCommerce Discount Manager plugin to advertise the offers on your site. You can also configure your email marketing tools to set up campaigns to notify customers about exclusive discounts for added exposure.
• Update offers frequently: Keep shoppers engaged by regularly updating and rotating discount offers. Introduce new promotions, limited-time discounts, or seasonal offers to maintain customer interest over time.

Ready to add a WooCommerce customer group discount rule in your store?

Although WooCommerce is a robust platform to build your eCommerce site, it doesn't come with the in-built functionality to offer discounts based on user groups.

Thankfully, adding customer group discounts is easier than ever using Barn2's WooCommerce Discount Manager plugin.

WooCommerce Discount Manager lets you add customer group discount rules to your store and promote them on your site with a few clicks. It's an all-in-one discount plugin, so you can offer percentage-based discounts, fixed amount discounts, buy X get Y free (such as buy one get one free) discounts, and much more.

Get WooCommerce Discount Manager today!