Discounts are a staple of any store, but applying them in WooCommerce is very difficult, if not impossible, without a plugin. These handy tools come with useful features like the option to create and manage different types of discounts and promotions, which helps to attract customers, improving sales and the overall shopping experience.
While each one has its advantages, there are certain features that should be non-negotiable when choosing a plugin. These include:
- High levels of customization
- Automated rules
- Usage restrictions
- Integration with marketing tools
- Reporting and analytics capabilities
Overall, you want a plugin that allows you to create bespoke discounts and promotions, and track their performance to drive sales growth.
In this article, we’ll help you do just that by going through the most popular and used WooCommerce discount plugins and their main features.
Let’s begin!
Types of discounts available to WooCommerce store owners
First, let’s start with the most effective discount options:
- Percentage discount: These reduce the price of items by a specific percentage. This type of discount is versatile and can be applied to individual products, entire categories, or the whole cart. Percentage discounts are particularly effective in encouraging larger purchases, as the savings increase with the total amount spent.
- Fixed discounts: Fixed discounts reduce the price by a set amount. This can be applied to individual products or the entire order.
- Bulk discounts: Bulk discounts decrease the unit price as the quantity purchased increases. This type of discount is excellent for encouraging customers to buy in larger quantities. Bulk discounts are particularly effective for businesses that sell consumable goods and for wholesale businesses.
- BOGO deals: Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) deals are a popular way to increase sales and clear out inventory. This type of promotion encourages customers to buy more products than they initially intended, boosting overall sales volume.
- Specific-user discounts: With these, you can target particular customer groups, such as first-time buyers or returning customers. These personalized offers make customers feel valued and can foster loyalty. On top of that, you can use these discounts in a pop-up or a game-like spinning wheel. This tactic is great for engagement and gathering emails for your newsletter.
- Flash sales: Flash sales are time-limited promotions that create a sense of urgency, prompting customers to make quick purchasing decisions.
- Free shipping: Offering free shipping can be a powerful incentive for customers, often increasing conversion rates and average order value. It’s usually offered if customers order above a certain amount or include particular items in their cart.
- Dynamic pricing: Dynamic pricing allows for flexible pricing strategies based on various factors such as purchase quantity, customer role, and more. This flexibility helps store owners tailor their pricing strategies to different customer segments and purchasing behaviors.
- Free gifts: Offering free gifts with purchases can increase perceived value and customer satisfaction. Free gifts not only incentivize purchases but also enhance the overall shopping experience, potentially leading to increased sales and customer loyalty.
- Bundle discounts: Bundle discounts offer savings on grouped products, encouraging customers to buy more items together. Bundle discounts can increase the average order value and help move more inventory.
How to choose the right plugin for your store
Hopefully, we’ve convinced you that discounts can be great for your e-commerce website. But how do you choose the best plugin for the job? Let’s see what the main criteria are:
Features
The most important factor is whether the plugin offers the functionality you need for the types of discounts you want to offer. Look for plugins that provide customizable discount options, such as percentage discounts, BOGO deals, or bulk discounts. Ensure the plugin allows for sufficient customization to tailor the discounts to your specific business needs.
Compatibility
The plugin has to be compatible with your version of WooCommerce and any other plugins you use. If it’s not, it’s likely to cause functionality problems and disrupt your store operations. Check the plugin’s documentation and reviews to confirm it works with your setup.
Updates
Choose a plugin that receives regular updates. This ensures compatibility with the latest versions of WooCommerce and helps maintain security and performance. Regular updates also indicate that the plugin developers are actively maintaining and improving the product.
Support
Good support is essential in case you encounter issues or need assistance with the plugin. Look for plugins that offer comprehensive support, including documentation, forums, and direct support channels.
Reviews
User reviews can provide valuable insights into the plugin’s reliability and performance. Look for comments on ease of use, functionality, and support quality.
Top WooCommerce discount plugins
WooCommerce Discounts by Studio Wombat
WooCommerce Discounts is a light and optimized plugin that lets you create multiple types of discounts and pricing rules.
Highlights
- Flexible discount rules like tiered pricing, bulk discounts, BOGOF, flash sales, scheduled discounts, repeat discounts, and more
- Conditional discounts based on cart contents, user roles, and amount spent
- Quantity discounts as well as percentage discounts
- This feature-rich plugin doesn’t slow down your website despite its powerful functionality
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface that provides a native WordPress look and feel
Pricing
You can choose between a yearly and a lifetime license of the 3 plans: Starter, Business, and Agency.
Yearly:
- Starter – $49 for 1 website and 1 year of updates and support
- Business – $99 for up to 3 websites and 1 year of updates and support
- Agency – $179 for up to 20 websites and 1 year of updates and support
Lifetime:
- Starter – $159 for 1 website with lifetime updates and support
- Business – $249 for 1 site with lifetime updates and support
- Agency – $349 for up to 20 websites and lifetime updates and support
Discount Rules for WooCommerce
Discount Rules for WooCommerce is a powerful plugin that allows store owners to create various discounts for individual products, variations, and categories.
Highlights
- Tiered, bulk-purchase, fixed-cost, purchase history-based, first-order, user role-based discounts, and many more
- Applying multiple discount rules in one purchase
- Excluding products on sale from the other discount rules
- Special discounts based on customer domains
Pricing
The plugin has free and premium versions, with the premium starting at $69 per year.
WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discounts Plugin
WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discounts Plugin is a plugin that combines discount rules and dynamic pricing, offering a comprehensive solution for WooCommerce store owners.
Highlights
- Weight-based shipping and free shipping options
- BOGO deals, product groups or bundles, conditional checkout fees (in the PRO version)
- Cart total-based offers, bulk pricing, percentage, and date-based discounts
Pricing
You can download this plugin for free or purchase a subscription to the pro version for €60€/year for one site. Additional plans and add-ons are available.
YITH WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing & Discounts
YITH WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing & Discounts offers extensive discount options, including percentage and fixed discounts, BOGO deals, and dynamic pricing based on cart conditions.
Highlights
- Create targeted offers based on cart quantity or total amount
- The option to promote an offer in a modal window when the user performs an action that triggers the discount rule
- Customizable price and quantity tables with the discount applied on product pages.
- Support for scheduled discounts and promotions
- Integrates easily with other YITH plugins, making it particularly suitable for users already invested in the brand’s ecosystem
Pricing
The pricing for one license is at $144.99/year.
Dynamic Pricing With Discount Rules for WooCommerce
Dynamic Pricing With Discount Rules enables store owners to implement various discount types, including percentage discounts, fixed amount discounts, and ones based on cart total.
Highlights
- Setting multiple discounts within a single pricing rule
- Setting discounts on multiple date ranges
- Restricting discount rules for registered users
- Discounts based on shipment and payment methods (PRO version)
- BOGO, gift, and tiered discounts (PRO version)
Pricing
The plugin offers a free version with basic features and a premium version starting at $43/year for a single site and with updates for 1 year. You can also get it with lifetime updates.
A step-by-step guide to creating discounts using WooCommerce Discounts
When you purchase the plugin, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing your login credentials. With those, you can access your Studio Wombat account and download your plugin.
After that, you need to go to your WordPress site and upload the downloaded file to your plugin directory.
Lastly, you need to click Activate plugin.
Create your discount
You can create all sorts of discounts with this plugin. For this example, let’s go with a simple flat discount for a specific category.
- Go to Marketing → Discounts → Add new and choose Flat discount.
- Choose a name for your sale and schedule it if you need to. If you don’t, the discount will be applied the second you activate it (and until you disable it).
- Then, you can apply the sale to a specific category, in our case Clothing, and specify the discount amount.
- A great feature in WooCommerce Discounts is that you can add customized messages to all applicable products, as well as the customer’s cart when they add something that’s on sale.
- Finally, you can add more conditions, such as limit the discount to a specific user role or apply a cart minimum. You can also decide to exclude items that are already on sale.
- Save your discount and you’re done! Don’t forget to test it yourself to make sure everything is working properly.
When is the best time to offer a discount?
Offering discounts at specific times can positively impact the success of your strategy. Here are some of the most popular discount timings:
- Holiday sales: People are actively shopping for gifts in the run-up to major holidays like Christmas, Black Friday, or Valentine’s Day. To capitalize on these occasions, consider offering special discounts, bundles, or free shipping.
- Seasonal clearance: Offering discounts on seasonal products toward the end of the season or just after is the perfect opportunity. This helps clear out stock that won’t be in demand for another year, making room for new inventory. For example, offering discounts on summer clothing at the end of summer can help move the remaining stock quickly.
- New or less popular products: If you have new products that are unfamiliar to your customers or items that aren’t selling as well as you’d like, offering a discount can boost sales and increase visibility. Discounts can entice customers to try new products or reconsider less popular ones.
Boost your WooCommerce store revenue with a discount plugin
A discount plugin is essential for enhancing your WooCommerce store’s functionality and boosting revenue. Choosing the right plugin allows you to easily implement the discounts you need to attract customers and increase sales.
WooCommerce Discounts is the perfect choice, offering extensive features and flexibility, allowing you to create storewide sales, conditional discounts, and special offers for loyal customers and wholesalers. Don’t wait – try WooCommerce Discounts today and see the impact on your store’s performance!
