How to create WooCommerce discounts by product category

If you have an online store, you have probably offered discounts in the past, but there are too many promotional strategies and each of its types offers different benefits. In this article we will look at WooCommerce category discounts, which are discounts that apply to all products in a certain category.

We will see the different types, what their benefits are, and how you can implement them quickly and easily in your online store.

Types of discounts by category

Technically, offering category discounts using WooCommerce’s default features is possible, although their application is limited. Let’s take a look at the two types of category discounts available and find out how to configure them.

Creating WooCommerce category discounts is simple, you need to go to the Marketing > Coupons section and create a new one. WooCommerce discounts are divided into three sections: general, usage restrictions and usage limits.

For our guide, we will focus on the first two, using a shopping cart worth $30 as an example.

In the General section of the coupon, you can choose what type of discount you want to create. It can be a percentage or fixed amount discount.

Percentage discounts

If you want to create a percentage discount for your WooCommerce store, select “Percentage discount” in the Discount type field and then enter the amount below.

As you can see in the image above, we have set a percentage discount of 10%. So taking the example cart worth $30, this code will offer a discount of $3.

Fixed amount discounts

On the other hand, if you want to create a discount code for your online store with a fixed price (because it is more immediate and manageable), choose the dedicated option:

As you can see, keeping the same value (10), the fixed discount will now be $10.

But whatever type of discount you are going to create, you will still have to limit its application to the particular category you have chosen. Let’s see how.

Discount by category

To do this, we will go to the second section of the coupon, which is called “Usage restrictions”:

As you can see, in this section there are restrictions on how the coupon code works, including the value of the cart, whether to make it active only for certain emails, what products it can be used on, and more.

As you can see in the image, in our example we are offering WooCommerce category discounts for “Suits” and the discount will be applied to all products in this specific category.

Simple, right?

Advantages of category based discounts

As you have seen, creating WooCommerce category discounts is very simple, whether they are the default coupon codes, or more advanced promotional tools, as we will see later. But, why should you offer category discounts? There can be numerous reasons, but let’s list three main benefits associated with this discount type.

Increased average order value (AOV)

One of the first benefits of offering category discounts is an increase in average order value. In fact, an offer applied to many similar products increases the likelihood of multiple purchases, which encourages cross-selling and results in higher-value shopping carts.

This is a very important benefit! One of the three ways to increase sales in your online store (in addition to retaining customers and attracting new ones) is to increase the value of each order on the site.

For example, if the average customer spends $20 instead of $10, you will have easily doubled the revenue stream of your WooCommerce store.

Practical implementation

So far we have only seen category discounts that can be created using the basic version of WooCommerce. While these tools are certainly useful and free to use, you will find that they are also very limited in nature.

For this reason, many sellers rely on plugins that extend this functionality so that they can introduce new marketing strategies for selling on their website.

The discount plugin we recommend today is WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discounts, which allows you to implement dynamic discount rules that allow you to apply numerous types of promotional strategies.

Steps to configure discounts

Using Dynamic Pricing is very simple. In fact, once you have installed and activated the plugin, all you have to do is go to the YITH > Dynamic Pricing and Discounts side menu and you will find a section with all the discount rules you will create.

When you create a new one, you will be offered different types of the most popular promotions, such as 3×2, BOGO, Black Friday Promo, and more:

Most of these discount rules can be applied to a category:

As you can see, they allow the application of advanced and successful advertising strategies!

Examples of discount rules

Offering discounts in particular product categories is very broad and can be articulated in many forms. Here are a few examples:

• Percentage category discount – As we saw earlier, this is a very simple discount to apply and understand.
• Threshold discount – A discount that is applied when the cart value exceeds a certain price threshold, with the great advantage of increasing the AOV.
• Product combination discount – Products in the same category are often purchased together, so you can see the most common combinations and offer a discount on them.
• Discount by day of the week – To make each day a themed event and increase customer loyalty.
• Discount on old products – To eliminate unsold items in the warehouse and recoup their cost.
• New arrivals discount – To highlight the latest products that have arrived and convey the image of a store that is constantly updating and improving.
• Discounts on special events – such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which can be a huge boosting sales opportunity.

And much more!

Conclusion

Category discounts are a very powerful tool to increase sales, promote product categories and help you manage your inventory. Use both WooCommerce’s internal features and the advanced features offered by the WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discounts plugin to get the most out of this marketing tool and create an advertising campaign for your WooCommerce store!