Coupons are one of the best strategies that have worked for marketers for quite a long time. These strategies have proven to be effective in attracting new customers and rewarding loyal ones to retain them.
If you are running an e-commerce store with substantial monthly traffic, this strategy can undoubtedly be a game-changer. If WooCommerce powers your e-commerce store, it’s a win-win situation.
WooCommerce is best known for its amazing capability to turn any WordPress site into a full-fledged online store. In the context of coupons, it has an easy-to-use yet powerful coupon feature that works for most online stores right away.
This means you can start offering coupons with WooCommerce in just a few clicks. Wondering how? Don’t worry, we will guide you on how to create and set up WooCommerce coupons in your store.
WordPress is free, and so is WooCommerce, which is a proprietary WordPress plugin that allows you to turn any simple website into a full-fledged e-commerce store.
With this open-source WordPress proprietary plugin, you can easily create WooCommerce coupons for free.
All you have to do is install the WooCommerce plugin from the WordPress repository and follow the steps given below:
Step 1: Log in to your WordPress admin and check out the “Woocommerce tab” On the left side of your WordPress dashboard, click on or hover over the “Marketing” tab, then click on “Coupons.”
Creating Woocommerce Coupons
Step 2: This will take you to the Coupons dashboard, where you can create new coupons and see all your drafts and live discounts. Now click on the “Add coupon” button to create your first coupon.
Step 3: You will be provided with a coupon creation form in which you are required to provide the details of your discount as shown in the picture below:
Step 4: In the “Discount code” field, enter the name of the code that users will use to get the discount. You can also click the button below it to generate a random code. Add a description if you like.
Step 5: Next, fill out the “General,” “Usage restriction,” and “Usage limits” sections with the relevant information. (We will let you know about these settings in the below sections.)
Step 6: Once you’ve filled in all the details, set the visibility and publication dates on the right side, then click “Publish” and you have successfully created your first coupon.
Some Configuring Woocommerce Coupon Settings for more customization and Control
While creating your first coupon and filling up the coupon details, you have been provided with three settings, such as General, Usage Restriction, and Usage Limit. Let’s explore each one of these options and what else you can do.
General
In this particular option, you will have various other fields such as:
1. Discount Type :
In this field, Woocommerce by default offers you three types of discount options to choose from:
Percentage discount: Allows you to set Discount type in the form of a percentage off the user’s entire cart.
Woocommerce Coupon General Settings
Fixed cart discount: It lets you set a discount in the form of a dollar amount off on the user’s entire cart.
Fixed product discount: A set dollar amount discount on individual products rather than the cart
2. Allow Free Shipping:
This field states that you need to mark the box if you want the coupon to give customers free shipping. But before that, you have to ensure there is a free shipping option set up in your shipping settings, and that it’s set to only work when a ‘free shipping coupon’ is used.
3. Coupon Expiry date:
This will allow you to set a particular date after which the coupon will not be valid or function.
Usage Restriction
This section allows you to set the rules for your coupon.
You can:
Require a minimum or maximum purchase amount.
Prevent the coupon from being used with other discounts or sale items.
Choose specific products or categories where the coupon can or cannot be used.
Limit the coupon to certain email addresses.
If you don’t set any rules, anyone can use the coupon at any time, which might not be ideal.
For example, you can restrict the discount to a particular category, like “Uncategorized,” using the Product categories field.
Usage Restriction in Woocommerce Coupons
Usage Limit
In this field, you have control over how many times a coupon can be used:
Usage Limit in Woocommerce Coupons
Usage limit per coupon: It means the maximum number of times a coupon can be used in total by all customers combined. Once this limit is reached, no one else will be able to use the coupon. For example, if you set the usage limit per coupon to 100, the coupon can only be used 100 times in total, across all customers. After that, it becomes invalid.
Limit usage to X items: It means that the coupon can only be applied to a specific number of items in a customer’s cart. For example, if you set this limit to 3, the discount will only apply to 3 items in the cart, even if the customer has more items in their cart. The rest of the items would be at full price.
Usage limit per user: It means the maximum number of times a single customer can use the coupon. For example, if you set this limit to 2, each customer can use the coupon only twice. After they’ve used it twice, they won’t be able to use it again.
For better understanding suppose, you have set a limit of “Black20” coupon to be used once per customer and by a total of 100 customers.
This means the first 100 customers who use the coupon will get 20% off all products in the “uncategorized” category, while any other products in their cart will stay at full price.
his is not the end. If you want to do more with coupons, such as creating more complex coupons or using advanced features with additional customization options, you can try using other dedicated WordPress coupon plugins.
Once you have finalized everything and hit on the “publish” button, it will start reflecting in the coupon dashboard as shown below:
Woocommerce Coupon Dashboard
But before allowing your customers to use a discount code on your e-commerce website, it’s important to ensure everything is working properly.
After all, you don’t want to accidentally give a bigger discount than you intended. To test it, do a trial run by adding an item to your shopping cart and applying the coupon code.
Woocommerce Coupon Testing
If the discount works as planned, it means the code is functioning correctly. Also, try different settings and perform mock tests based on the rules or limitations you’ve set for coupon usage.
For example, check if the coupon is only valid for certain products (if it’s set to be valid for certain products, the code shouldn’t work on sale items), the number of times the coupon can be used by the same individual, etc.
How to utilize Woocommerce Coupons to boost your sales
With the right strategy, marketing coupons can skyrocket your sales. Offering discounts to customers from time to time is a great way to increase sales, but it’s important to avoid over-discounting, which can seriously hurt your profits.
To prevent this, we’ve put together the best tips you can use to run effective and efficient discount campaigns.
1. Coupon Marketing Best Practices:
1.1 Create a Discount Schedule:
It will help you to keep an eye or track of all your coupons.
Easy to manage and also helps to prevent too many discount offerings at once, which can hurt your profits.
1.2 Set Specific Conditions for Coupons:
Try to implement certain limits and restrictions on coupon usage, it helps to prevent customers from getting too many discounts.
This will help you to keep control of how much customers can save.
1.3 Use Personalized Coupons:
Customize coupon designs or offers that blend with the company profile helps to build brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Following this practice can lead to more full-priced sales in the future.
2. Best Practices for Coupon Administration:
2.1 Stand Out from Competitors:
Before offering coupons to your customers always, check what discounts your competitors offer.
Do a competitor analysis and get ideas for new discounts that attract customers to your store.
2.2 Track Influencer Impact:
Provide influencers with unique coupon codes and ask them to promote your product or services.
After that, check which influencers drive the most customers to your store.
After analyzing the influencers and their efficiency, focus your marketing efforts on the most successful influencers.
This makes it easy for beginners to understand the key points of effective coupon marketing.
Conclusion
Everyone wants their products or services to reach a large audience, but this can only be possible with proper planning and a strong marketing strategy.
Coupon marketing can be a game changer. While it can boost your sales, it’s crucial to maintain a balance between attracting customers with discounts and protecting your profits.
In this post, we discussed how you can easily create free WooCommerce coupons on your WordPress site and shared tips to make it an effective strategy for boosting sales.
If you still have any doubts regarding WooCommerce coupons, feel free to ask in the comment section below.
Rahul Kumar is a web enthusiast, and content strategist specializing in WordPress & web hosting. With years of experience and a commitment to staying up-to-date with industry trends, he creates effective online strategies that drive traffic, boosts engagement, and increase conversions. Rahul’s attention to detail and ability to craft compelling content makes him a valuable asset to any brand looking to improve its online presence.
