How to set product discount percentages in WooCommerce
Do you want to increase your sales and attract more customers? As a WooCommerce store owner, one of the powerful marketing strategies that can help you achieve this is offering percentage discounts. In this article, we'll go over three discount plugins to help you do just that, each catering to a different set of needs.
While WooCommerce does allow you to run discounted sales, it is typically done manually on a per-product basis. This can be very time-consuming if you have a large inventory to manage.
What if you need something that's flexible and allows you to offer a percentage discount across your entire store? Or, better yet, allow you to offer discounts to specific categories or bulk purchases?
There are several plugins that allow you to do this. In this article, we'll go over three popular WooCommerce discount percentage plugins. They are:
- WooCommerce Discount Manager: An all-in-one discount solution with a range of rules to help you create different types of discounts.
- WooCommerce Wholesale Pro: Offer percentage discounts based on user roles or quantity.
- WooCommerce Product Options: Offer % discounts depending on the product options that the customer selects.
We'll also answer some of the common questions like "What is a WooCommerce discount percentage?" and "How do I set discount rules in WooCommerce?". Let's get started!
When should you offer percentage (%) discounts in WooCommerce?
When it comes to WooCommerce discounts, you have two options: fixed price discounts and percentage discounts.
While fixed price discounts offer a specific amount off the product's price, percentage discounts offer a discount based on a percentage of the product's price.
Here are a few situations when you should consider offering percentage (%) discounts in WooCommerce:
- Discounts based on the total amount spentIf you want to offer a discount that's proportional to your customer's order value, then a percentage discount is the way to go. For example, you can provide 10% off for orders above $100 or 20% off for orders above $200.
- Flexible discounts that can be applied to different products or categoriesIf you have products across multiple categories, you may want to offer a percentage discount that can be applied to a wide range of products.
- Encourage customers to buy more itemsYou can offer percentage discounts and encourage customers to add more items to their cart in order to meet the minimum quantity required for the discount.
- Attract new customers or reward loyal onesPercentage discounts are great for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Offering a discount on the first order will help attract new customers to try your products, whereas offering it as part of a loyalty program will turn them into long-term customers.
- Adjust prices based on market trendsIf you need to adjust product prices regularly, percentage discounts can be an effective way to make changes across your entire product range.
How do I add a discount percentage in WooCommerce?
You can easily add a discount percentage using the various WooCommerce discount plugins available. In this tutorial, we'll go over three different plugins that cater to different needs. We'll also use each one of them to answer the question "How do I add a 20% discount in WooCommerce?"
Option 1: Create flexible pricing rules with percentage discounts
The WooCommerce Discount Manager plugin provides a wide range of custom pricing options to incentivize customers with discounts. It makes use of dynamic pricing which helps you offer percentage discounts based on various criteria.
You can set up different pricing rules that, when met, will apply the discount. For example, you can offer discounts such as BOGO or Buy 2 & Get 50% off the third item, and so on.
Setup instructions
To set up percentage discounts with this discount percentage plugin, follow the below steps:
- Purchase, install and activate the WooCommerce Discount Manager plugin.
- Navigate to Marketing → Discounts and choose from 6 different discount types.
- Give the percentage discount you're creating a name (this will only be used in the WordPress admin). Next, select the products or specific categories you want to apply the rule.
- After that, choose from a % or fixed discount and set the discount amount.
- You can also add a custom message that shows up on the product page and give information to the customers about the discount, or enable a tiered pricing table.
- Finally, scroll down and click the Save Rule button to publish the rule.
An example use case for this type of discount is tiered pricing wherein customers get a percentage discount based on the number of products they buy. This helps attract customers looking to buy in large quantities by reducing the cost per unit of the product.
Option 2: Set percentage discounts for wholesale users
If you're running a wholesale store or a membership-based WooCommerce store, Barn2's Wholesale Pro is a great plugin that can help you add a percentage discount. With this plugin, you can create new user roles for different customers and provide them with unique pricing and discounts based on their roles.
If you don't know what user roles are, they're a way of dividing your customers into different groups. This allows you to offer different pricing and discounts to different groups of people.
To set up a 20% percent discount for a user role using Wholesale Pro, follow the below steps:
- Install and activate the WooCommerce Wholesale Pro plugin.
- Create new user roles for customers to whom you want to offer discounts by navigating to WooCommerce → Settings → Wholesale → Roles.
- Click the Add New Role button, give your new user role a name, and enter the desired discount percentage (For example, 20%).
- Next, check the first box if you want to make this the default user role when someone registers for wholesale. You can also check the second and third boxes if you want to allow setting regular and sale prices for individual products.
- Finally, scroll down and click the Add Role button to save your changes.
Now, when someone creates an account and is assigned the added user role, they'll automatically see the discounted price on the store.
You can also create different user roles and set up a percentage discount for them based on quantity.
Barn2 WooCommerce Wholesale Pro is useful in various use cases. For example, you can use it for an online store that offers bulk discounts based on quantity.
Option 3: Add extra product options with percentage discounts
Product Options is a WooCommerce plugin with a unique approach to percentage discounts. Instead of role-based pricing, it discounts the product price by a percentage depending on which options the customer selects.
The plugin works by allowing you to add extra product options such as text fields, checkboxes, and dropdown menus. You can then configure a percentage discount which will be given when the customer selects certain options.
Some example use cases
WooCommerce Product Options is ideal for stores that want to offer personalized discounts based on customers' specific product configurations. Here are some examples of the types of product that would benefit from this type of WooCommerce percentage discount:
- Customization options If you offer customization options for a product, such as different colors, materials, or sizes, you may use product options to increase or decrease the price based on the option selected.
- Bundles If you offer product bundles where customers can select multiple items together, you may use it to apply a percentage discount based on the selected combination of products.
- Upgrades If you offer product upgrades or add-ons, you may use it to increase or decrease the price based on the extra options selected.
- Quantity discounts If you offer discounts for bulk purchases, you may use product options to decrease the price based on the number of products selected or cart subtotal.
- Personalized services If you offer personalized services, such as engraving, gift wrapping, or monogramming, you may use product options to increase or decrease the price based on the extra service selected.
- Premium features If you offer premium features for a product, such as expedited shipping or extended warranty, you may use it to increase or decrease the price by a % based on the extra option selected.
How to set up a discount percentage using WooCommerce Product Options
To set up percentage discounts based on extra product add-ons, follow the below steps:
- Install and activate the Barn2's WooCommerce Product Options plugin.
- Navigate to Products → Product Options and click the Add Group button.
- Give your product options group a name and set the visibility. You can either set it to all products or select specific products or categories.
- Scroll down and start adding options by clicking the Add Options button. Give your option a name and select its type.
- Again scroll down and add your choices. To add a discount, select Percentage decrease as the Price type and enter your percentage discount value in the amount field column.
- You can also add minimum/maximum limits and apply conditional logic to the product options. This will make sure the discount option is only shown when a certain condition is met.
- Once everything is done, click the Save Changes button to publish your discount.
Now, whenever customers select an option with percentage decrease, the pre-configured conditional discount will be applied to the regular price.
What is the difference between a discount and a coupon in WooCommerce?
A discount and a coupon are two different concepts. While both help drive sales, there are some differences between them.
A discount in WooCommerce is a reduction in the original price of a product or service. This can be a percentage discount or a flat rate discount. Discounted price is automatically shown on the frontend and is marked by a sale badge. Discounts are ideal when you a large inventory and want an easy way to offer discount across your entire store.
On the other hand, a WooCommerce coupon is a code that a customer has to enter on the checkout or cart page to apply a discount to their purchase. Coupon codes can be created with various options or conditions, such as expiry dates, usage limits, and can apply to specific products or categories.
They are ideal when you want to offer a discount to a small group of people but do not want it to be visible on the frontend.
That's all! These are the three plugins you can use to offer different types of discount percentages in WooCommerce.
Boost sales with WooCommerce percentage discount plugins
Offering product discount percentages in WordPress is an excellent strategy to attract and retain customers. It helps in conversion and builds customer loyalty, resulting in long-term success for your eCommerce store.
We discussed three plugins that can help you set product discount percentages in WooCommerce. They are:
- WooCommerce Discount Manager Perfect for those wanting fully customizable, all-in-one discount solutions with a range of rules.
- WooCommerce Wholesale Pro Perfect for those running a wholesale store or offering bulk pricing options.
- WooCommerce Product Options Perfect for businesses that want to offer personalized discounts for their customers' specific product configurations.