WooCommerce location-based pricing: A step-by-step guide to zip code pricing

WooCommerce Zipcode Based Pricing Plugin

A customer recently told me that there are no WooCommerce location based pricing plugins. I didn't believe this, so I had a look - and I couldn't find one either!

I'm writing this step-by-step tutorial to show you how to set up WooCommerce zipcode based pricing using the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin. You can use it to charge different prices depending on the customer's zip code, postcode, area, location, region, or country. And it only takes a few minutes to set up!

Importance of location based pricing in ecommerce

There are lots of reasons why location based pricing can be useful on an ecommerce platform:

  • Firstly, it allows you to customize your pricing strategies based on specific market conditions and consumer behavior in different geographical locations. By considering factors such as local competition, purchasing power, and demand patterns, you can optimize your pricing to remain competitive and maximize profits.
  • Secondly, location based pricing enables you to offer personalized pricing to customers, taking into account their specific location. This approach allows you to provide targeted discounts, coupons, or promotions to customers in certain regions, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
  • Furthermore, location based pricing can help you effectively manage shipping rates and logistics costs. By adjusting the process based on the proximity of the customer's location to the warehouse or distribution center, store owners can ensure that the shipping costs are reasonable and aligned with the customer's location.

Examples of industries that can benefit from location based pricing

Several industries can benefit from implementing WooCommerce location based pricing strategies. Here are some examples:

  1. Ecommerce store and retail: Online retailers can use location based pricing to account for variations in shipping costs. local competition, and customer preferences. By adjusting prices based on different zones, a postcode WooCommerce plugin lets them remain competitive while keeping each area profitable.
  2. Travel and hospitality: Hotels, airlines, and travel agencies can implement WooCommerce location based pricing to reflect regional demand, seasonal fluctuations, and local competition. Pricing can be adjusted based on popular travel destinations, high-demand areas, or specific tourist seasons.
  3. Food delivery services: WooCommerce location based pricing can be beneficial for food delivery platforms and services. Pricing can be adjusted based on the delivery distance, traffic conditions, and availability of local restaurants and food suppliers. This allows for accurate cost calculations and fair pricing for customers.
  4. Insurance: Insurance companies can use WooCommerce location based pricing to account for different risk factors associated with specific locations. Factors such as crime rates, weather patterns, and accident statistics can be considered when determining insurance premiums for different postcode WooCommerce prices.
  5. Subscription services: Companies offering subscription-based, such as streaming platforms or software providers, can implement WooCommerce location based pricing to adjust flat rate prices based on regional demand and market conditions. This approach allows them to optimize revenue and cater to specific customer segments.

Why use a WooCommerce zip code based pricing plugin?

In an ideal world, everyone would pay the same amount regardless of where they live. However, there are situations where you might want to change your product pricing based on the customer's zip code or location.

Here are some reasons why you might need location-based pricing:

  • If you offer free shipping, then your profitability will vary depending on the customer's location. There's no way to avoid this because shipping companies often charge different rates depending on the customer's zip code, area, or country. The easy solution is to set up WooCommerce shipping zones to charge zip code-based shipping and keep your product prices consistent for all customers. However, if free shipping costs are a big selling point for your WooCommerce site, then you could keep this while charging higher specific product prices for customers in more remote locations.
  • If your website sells worldwide then it's important to be aware that accepting payments from customers in different currencies may lead to higher fees for your business. A WooCommerce price based on country plugin can help with this.
  • There may be higher legal or administrative fees relating to selling in certain places. You might try to recoup some of this by charging higher prices to those customers. For example, different WooCommerce zip code validation may have different tax rules or legal requirements which make it harder to sell to that area.
  • If you provide local services then your prices may differ based on each customer's zip code area.
  • Perhaps you want to reward locals with lower pricing depending on their zip code.

If this sounds like you, then you may be able to increase profitability with WooCommerce location based pricing. Continue reading to find a step-by-step guide on how to set up a price by country WooCommerce plugin.

What is WooCommerce Protected Categories?

WooCommerce Protected Categories is a WordPress plugin developed by us at Barn2 Media. It restricts access to certain product types in your WooCommerce store so that only people with the password can see and buy them.

I'll talk you through how to achieve zip code based pricing in WooCommerce. You can also change product prices depending on postcode, zone regions, location, country - whatever you like.

In a nutshell, the plugin lets you create a separate product category for each of your price bands. Each category is password protected using one or more zip codes or area names. The customer visits a central login page and enters their area or zip code as the password. This unlocks the category for their area and instantly directs them to the products with the correct pricing. Each product page will then show the right prices.

Each password protected category will contain a different version of your products, with the correct pricing for that zip code area, region, or price by country WooCommerce .

Customers will only be able to see the pricing for their own zip code area (i.e. category).

How to set up WooCommerce zipcode based pricing

Setting up WooCommerce location based pricing gives you the flexibility to customizable product prices based on specific zip codes, countries, etc. Installing the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin is a straightforward process. Let's dive into the installation and basic setup. You can do all this in the WordPress backend.

Installation and activation process

  1. Get the plugin, and you will receive a confirmation email containing your license key and a download link to the plugin. If you don't find the email, please check your spam folder or contact support for assistance.
  2. Download the plugin by clicking on the provided link. In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins → Add New → Upload plugin. Choose the downloaded file and click on "Activate". Note that you need to have the WooCommerce plugin already installed for the WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin to work seamlessly.
  3. Enter your license key. You can find your license key in the email confirmation that was sent to you after purchase. The plugin will not work until you activate your license key. There are two ways to enter your license key: In the setup wizard - Once activated, the setup wizard will open. This walks you through each step of the setup process, including entering your license key. On the WooCommerce settings page - Alternatively, you can go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Protected Categories and enter your license key.
  4. Finally, save changes.

Configuring the WooCommerce location based plugin

  1. On the plugin settings page, choose the text that will appear above and on the category login form. For example, you will want to replace 'Enter your password' with 'Enter your zip code' or similar.
  2. Create a separate WooCommerce product category for each area that requires its own pricing. For example, you might sell products to 15 local zip codes based on 3 price bands. You would put the 5 zip codes for Band 1 in one category, the 5 zip codes for Band 2 in a second category, and so on.
  3. Password protect each category using the option in the 'Visibility' settings on the add/edit category page. Create a password using each area or zip code that you want to restrict the category to. For example, if you want customers in zip codes 123456 and 987654 to be able to access the category, then create 2 passwords: 123456 and 987654.
  4. Next, create a separate version of each product - one for each of the categories you just created. (Note: You can't put the same product in more than 1 password protected category. To get around this, the Duplicate Post plugin provides one-click cloning of WooCommerce products. If you're cloning products and want to manage inventory across the retail and wholesale versions of each product then we recommend the Group Stock Manager plugin. This lets you share stock levels across multiple products.)
  5. Put each product in the correct category.
  6. Change the pricing of each product as required.
  7. Create a category login page by adding the following shortcode wherever you want people to log in to the category for their zipcode or area: [category_login].

When customers enter the password (i.e. their zipcode or area) into the category login form, they will automatically be directed to a hidden category containing the products with their local pricing.

But I want the public to be able to see my products!

When you use a price by country WooCommerce plugin, the products will be hidden from the public parts of your website so that only customers with the password can view them. However, you don't have to protect all your products using this functionality.

Perhaps you want to list each product on your front end public site but also want a hidden version of each product for people from different zip code areas. You can achieve this by creating one or more public categories, which will not be password protected. These will appear in the public parts of your online store in the usual way.

The pricing of your public products will NOT change depending on the customer's location. The same price will appear for everyone. This means that you need to either show a standard cost that will always be visible in the public part of your site.

If this isn't appropriate for your site, then you can list the public products without prices. WooCommerce will automatically disable the checkout buttons for these products. People can view them but not buy them online. Customers will have to request the password to view pricing and buy.

How can customers request the password for their zip code?

There are various options for how you can give each customer the password for their zip code. This will depend on how private you want your area-based pricing to be, and whether you have regular or one-off customers:

  • If your pricing is not confidential then you could list all the passwords publicly, above the category login form. Customers simply need to find the password relating to their zipcode area and enter it to see their pricing.
  • You could use a WP contact form plugin such as Contact Form 7 to let customers request the password. This is a more secure option, as you can ensure that each customer can only access the prices for their own local WooCommerce zip code validation.
  • If you have a members-only WooCommerce shop or WooCommerce wholesale store, then you might only sell to pre-approved customers. If this is the case, then you can give them the password directly.

Location-based shipping methods

After setting up location-based pricing for your WooCommerce products, it's important to make sure that shipping will always be profitable for you regardless of the customer's location. Fortunately, you can easily do this using the built-in WooCommerce shipping methods.

WooCommerce lets you create an unlimited number of shipping zones and shipping classes. You can create different zones per continent or country, or make it fine-grained and charge different shipping based on city, zipcode, etc. Choose which areas get free shipping, local pickup, and which areas you won't ship to at all.

You can add one or more shipping options for each shipping zone. For example, each zone might have a free shipping option with a different minimum order amount to quality; flat rate shipping with a different cost, and so on.

To get full setup instructions, check out our complete guide to WooCommerce shipping. This covers how to add shipping zone or zones to your store, and how to add shipping methods. You can add a zone name for each one, and set multiple pricing options.

Let customers enter their location on the product page

Normally, WooCommerce stores only let customers enter locations on the cart page or single product page. That's no use - customers need to enter their location before deciding whether to buy a product!

It's much better to use the WooCommerce Product Page Shipping Calculator plugin to let customers enter their shipping location and view costs directly on the product page. That way, they can easily see if you will ship to their location and what it will cost. This is much more user-friendly and avoids disappointment while improving your conversion rates. After all, there's nothing worse than getting abandoned carts when customers get put off by seeing the shipping cost too late in the process!

Location-based payment gateways

The WooCommerce location-based pricing plugin described above will work with any WooCommerce-compatible payment gateway. However, you may need an extra plugin if you want to offer different payment options based on the customer's location. For example, maybe you offer PayPal as an option in some countries but not others.

For this, I recommend the Conditional Shipping and Payments plugin from woocommerce.com. This gives you full control over which customers see each shipping and payment option. You can Show different payment gateways based on the customer's billing country, shipping method, country, state or postcode.

Best practices for WooCommerce location based pricing

To effectively implement WooCommerce location based pricing, start by conducting thorough market research. Understand how prices vary in different areas by analyzing factors such as income levels, competition, and customer preferences. This research will help you segment your customers based on WooCommerce postcode and identify patterns in their behavior and purchasing power. By understanding these dynamics, you can develop a comprehensive pricing strategy that caters to the specific needs of each segment.

Use product data analytics to analyze historical sales data and identify trends across different postcode WooCommerce. This will enable you to adjust your prices dynamically based on real-time market conditions.

By implementing dynamic pricing, you can respond to changes in demand and stay competitive in the market. Keep a close eye on your competitors' pricing strategies to ensure your prices remain attractive while offering unique value-added features or services that differentiate your offerings.

It's time to add location pricing to your store!

WooCommerce Protected Categories provides a unique way to offer location-based pricing. Simply install the plugin and create a separate product category for each location, each with its own pricing.

I was really interested to hear that a customer was using it as a WooCommerce zip code based pricing plugin and thought that others might like to do the same.Please leave your comments below!

24 Comments

  1. I want to implement different product price according to different locations . Which is India want to sell products , which plugin is available?

    • Hi Rod, thanks for your interest in our plugin! You've come to the right place as our plugin will allow you to do exactly that. You can use the postcodes as the passwords on a central login page, which depending on the postcode/password that you enter will then redirect you to the correct password-protected category that shows you only the products with specific pricing for the particular postcode.

      Additionally, this will entail creating copies/duplicate products for each postcode's password-protected category (e.g. product 1 priced for postcode 1 and added to password protected category 1, copy of product 1 priced for postcode 2 and added to password protected category 2, and so on). You can use the Duplicate Post plugin to easily make copies of your products. Additionally, you can also use the Group Stock Manager plugin to allow you to share stock quantity between the duplicates (to help you track inventory across the duplicates).

      Should you have any questions, you can get in touch with us via our dedicated Support Center. Cheers.

  2. Hi, Fabio. Since you have different pricing for the same products on different zip codes, you will need to create individual categories for each zip code and then duplicate your products using a Duplicate Post plugin so you can assign unique pricing and discounts for products within each category. When customers enter the password (i.e. their zip code or area) into the category login form, they will automatically be directed to a hidden category containing the products with their local pricing. Should you have any questions, please let me know. You can also enquire in more detail via our dedicated Support Center. Many thanks!

  3. This seems like a good solution if the pricing is only limited to a handful of zip codes. However, if the product pricing needed to be different for hundreds of zip codes it would take forever to enter each code as a password?

    • Hi, Lee. I'm glad you found our tutorial that shows you how you can use our plugin for zip code based pricing in WooCommerce. We have an Advanced Usage article that shows you how you can import or load category passwords in bulk Please see: Bulk importing passwords into WooCommerce Protected Categories. While there is no limit to the number of passwords that our plugin can handle, such a large number can be expected to cause the querying of each protected category to take longer than usual (i.e. page load time when viewing a protected category archive/page). Our plugin would need to go through and check the validity of a submitted password against the entire list of passwords of a protected category.

      Due to how WordPress works, this increase in page load time can be influenced (increased or decreased) by factors such as the webserver that your site is on and the PHP settings/restrictions/limits of your site (such as memory limit, max execution time, etc.). I hope this answers your question and helps. You can also open a support request through our Support Center if you have other questions. Thanks!

  4. Hi, how granular does the postcode need to be in order for this to work? For instance if I want to restrict pricing

  5. If there any plugin available in WordPress.
    When someone enter zip code and get service price based on zip code?
    please advise

    • Hi, Umer. You've come to the right place as our article describes exactly what you're asking about or looking for! Should you have any questions, let us know via our Support Center. Thanks!

  6. I have a brick and mortar store and am starting an eCommerce store. I want to offer a different price for my local customers than remote customers. Do you have a plugin which can geo-locate a user and offer them pricing accordingly. For example, if a customer is within 100 miles of my store (I could also specify ZIP codes), I want to offer them a higher price than a customer who is far away and wants to buy my product over the internet.

    • Hi, Sam. Thanks for your comment and my apologies for the late reply. You can get in touch with us quicker via our dedicated Support Center.

      What you describe involves using a WooCommerce geolocation-based products plugin to determine which products to display to the user, without the need to enter a zip code as a password.

      As explained in this tutorial, you can use our WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin to determine which protected product category to display and bring the user to, based on the password that they enter (which you can use the 100-mile radius zip codes for). If a user enters a valid zip code, this would be the password that then takes them to the product category that shows them products priced according to that zip code. An unrecognized zip code would not be accepted as a password and so those users would need to browse and purchase from the public, non-protected/private categories on your site.

  7. Hi, is there any way to make this NOT a password field? Instead of having it display **** but actually show the content of the field as the user types it and not have it an actual password field but just an input field?

    • Hi, Fiona. Since the password input field is for typing out a password after all, there is no built-in or default way to display this as plain text because that input field is designed to be a password, which will always be treated and displayed as such, rather than as plain text.

      I'm yet to find a plugin that can add this type of functionality to allow you to view or make visible the password input/text. What I found is a code snippet to show/hide the password field that you can ask your developer to use or build upon at https://codepen.io/Sohail05/pen/yOpeBm . If you don’t have one, we recommend posting a job on Codeable. We have partnered with them to provide plugin customizations for our customers.

      We haven't tested this with WooCommerce Password Protected Categories yet and you are most welcome to do so, which would be completely risk-free for you. We offer a full 30-day money back guarantee, which lets you buy the plugin and try it for up to a month, and get a full refund if you're unhappy with it or if it doesn't suit your needs.

  8. Also is it possible to change the "Incorrect password, please try again." text to something else? In our case "Sorry, we do not install in that area."

  9. I have set this up and it looks like it is going to achieve what we were after (Post Code based installation costs).
    However, I do not need to redirect customers to a new page after logging in, I really need to stay on the same page.
    Is that possible?

    Many thanks,
    Paul

    • It depends on where people are entering the password. If you give them a link to the actual category page or a specific product page, then they will see the password entry form when they first visit it. When they enter the password, they will remain on that page but will be able to see the full content (i.e. the products).

      If you add the login form to a different page then it's not possible to keep people on the same page. This is because the plugin is designed to redirect people to the unlocked category page that matches the password they have entered.

  10. Hi, how granular does the postcode need to be in order for this to work? For instance if I want to restrict pricing to one side of London could I just use the first part of the postcode to distinguish between the two halves of London or would we need to enter individual street level / full postcodes?

    • You need to enter the passwords in the exact format that people will be entering them. So if you just want to add the first part of the postcode then that's fine, and you should add a message above the postcode/password entry form telling people to do this. Or if you want more granular control then you can enter the full postcodes as passwords, and instruct people to enter their full postcode. All that matters is that the passwords match what your customers enter.

  11. Can you set the password as the postcodes the category corresponds to? It would eliminate the need to give them the password :)

    • Yes, that's a good idea. Create a password matching each of the postcodes that the category corresponds to (without spaces), and customers can login with the postcode.

  12. It really Grt Info. I was looking for the plugin that can help me to set up the different price of delivery for different ZIP codes for my e-com website.

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