How to Use WooCommerce Discount Coupons

WooCommerce Explained is the best-selling book on WooCommerce.

In this exclusive tutorial, taken from WooCommerce Explained, we’re going to show you how to create discount codes for your WooCommerce store.

Coupons are often a fundamental part of the marketing strategy for stores.

You may want to create a holiday discount, a discount code for first time customers, or a discount code just for a special audience such as your newsletter or a podcast.

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Your Video Guide to WooCommerce Coupons

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Creating Your First WooCommerce Coupon

The example we’re going to use for coupons is linked to the launch of our store. In “WooCommerce Explained” we use the example of store called “Purpleville”, so that’s what you’ll see here. We’re going to offer a $20 discount for everyone who buys at least $75 worth or products.

• Log in to your WordPress site. Go to “WooCommerce” and then “Coupons”.
• If this is your first time here, you’ll see a blank page.
• Click “Create your first coupon”.

After the page loads, we’ll see all of the fields we need to fill out.

First, we need to add the Coupon code, which is what the user has to enter to apply the coupon.

• Type in a name into the “Coupon Code” field. I’ll enter “purpevillelaunch”.
• Enter a description for the coupon. This is just for your purposes. So you can enter a description to remind yourself and anyone else what this coupon is used for. I’ll add “This 20% discount will be for the launch of the Purpleville store”.

Now we need to enter a discount. There are a few different types of discounts:

What’s the difference between these coupon types? Let’s imagine a cart contains two Dinosaur T-shirts and two Plain T-shirts for $20 each. The cart total will be $80. Here are different ways the coupons can impact this order:

• Percentage discount: A coupon for 10% would result in savings of of $8.
• Fixed cart discount: A coupon for $20 would result in savings of of $20.
• Fixed product discount: This gives the customer a flat discount on only some products. So, a coupon for $5 might only apply to Dinosaur T-shirts. This would result in savings of $10.

For our store, I want to offer a really good discount. So I’m going to offer a $20 Fixed cart discount:

• Set “Discount type” to “Fixed cart discount”.
• Set “Coupon amount” to “20”.

Now we need to add our restrictions:

• Click the “Usage restriction” tab.
• Set the “Minimum spend” to 75 if you want to make sure people don’t get the discount for only spending a few dollars.
• Enable “Individual use only” to make sure it isn’t combined with any other coupons.

Our coupon is pretty great. We just want to add a few more restrictions. If we don’t, users can use this coupon over and over again.

• Click the “Usage limits” tab.
• Under “Usage limit per user” enter “1”. This way our new customers can only use the coupon once.
• Click “Publish”.

• The coupon is live on the site and we can test it ourselves to make sure it works.

It is possible to track how which coupons are most successful:

• In your WordPress admin area, go to “WooCommerce” and then “Reports”.
• Click “Orders” and then “Coupons by date”.
• You’ll see a graphic report that shows how often each coupon has been used.

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Going Further With WooCommerce Coupons

We created a simple launch coupon in this chapter. Your store may well need a more sophisticated coupon strategy. You can look into discounts on specific products, product categories, or even offer free shipping.

The trick with coupons is to make sure that someone can’t use a coupon meant for 50% off a $10 item on a $1,000 item. Be very specific with how you create your coupons to make sure you don’t let someone use coupons in an unintentional way. That way you can avoid having to eat the cost or refunding the order and possibly angering the customer.

One plugin we recommend is WooCommerce Extended Coupon Features.

This will add extra features directly into the default WooCommerce Coupons area. After installing the plugin, go and edit a coupon. You will see a new “Checkout” area on the left-hand side. This allows you to create coupons that apply to specific customers or user roles. You can also create coupons for customers who use a specific shipping method or payment method.

Under the “Miscellaneous” tab, you’ll have the option to automatically add the coupon to the users account, if the criteria are met. This is a user-friendly feature because customers do often forget to enter a coupon, or they will type it incorrectly.

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Go Further With WooCommerce

If you enjoyed this introduction to WooCommerce coupons, check out WooCommerce Explained, the comprehensive introduction to WooCommerce.