Top 10 Best WooCommerce Discount Strategies to Boost Sales

Let’s be honest: who doesn’t love a good deal?

Whether you’re a seasoned bargain hunter or just casually browsing, finding a discount feels like a mini victory.

And the numbers don’t lie: a staggering 89% of shoppers are triggered to make online purchases because of promotions and discounts.

That’s huge! Plus, coupons and discounts influence a whopping 83% of purchasing decisions.

If you’re running a WooCommerce store, you’re in the perfect position to give your customers that winning feeling – and boost your sales in the process. We’re talking about the best WooCommerce discount strategies that make customers click “add to cart” faster than you can say “coupon code!”

It’s no secret that discounts drive sales, increase customer loyalty, and optimize conversion rates. So, if you’re looking to attract more customers and give your revenue a serious high-five, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will dive into the top 10 WooCommerce discount strategies to help you do just that.

Understanding the Power of Discounts: The Psychology of a Good Deal

Why are discounts so effective?

It’s not just about saving a few bucks; there’s some serious psychology involved. Understanding these principles is key to crafting the best WooCommerce discount strategies.

Let’s explore what makes shoppers tick:

• Urgency and Scarcity (FOMO): Ever feel that little twinge of regret when you miss a limited-time offer? That’s FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Flash sales and discounts with expiry dates create urgency, encouraging customers to act fast. This boosts your WooCommerce sales strategies and conversion rates. These promotional offers are powerful motivators.
• Perceived Value: A discount makes a product seem more valuable. Even a small percentage off gives customers the feeling of a bargain, impacting your pricing strategy and profit margin. Fixed-amount discounts are effective for higher-priced items, making the savings feel substantial. It’s about making people feel they are getting a great deal.
• Incentive Motivation: A discount is an incentive, a nudge to complete a purchase. It’s effective as a cart abandonment solution. Imagine someone about to abandon their cart; a well-timed discount code could save the sale. It’s a reward for finishing the transaction.
• Building Customer Loyalty: Offering discount coupons and promotional offers, particularly to returning customers, builds customer loyalty. It shows you appreciate their business and encourages repeat visits. This is crucial for customer retention strategies. Customer rewards and loyalty programs are excellent tools for fostering this loyalty.

How Discounts Impact Your Bottom Line?

These psychological triggers directly affect key metrics. Strategic WooCommerce discounts can:

• Increase Conversion Rates: Discounts turn browsers into buyers.
• Boost Average Order Value (AOV): Minimum purchase discounts and bundle deals encourage higher spending.
• Drive Sustainable Sales Growth: The combined effect of increased conversion rates, higher average order value (AOV), and improved customer retention strategies creates sustainable sales growth for your WooCommerce store. These WooCommerce discount strategies work together to create a powerful engine for revenue generation.

By understanding why discounts work, you can create targeted best WooCommerce discount strategies that attract customers, build loyalty, and improve your bottom line.

Top 10 Best WooCommerce Discount Strategies to Boost Sales

Now that we understand why discounts work (that whole psychology thing!), let’s explore 10 of the best WooCommerce discount strategies you can use in your online store to increase WooCommerce sales and improve customer retention.

Here are our top 10 WooCommerce discounts –

1. Percentage-Based Discounts
2. Free Shipping Offers
3. BOGO (Buy One Get One Free)
4. Fixed-Amount Discounts
5. Tiered Discounts/Volume Discounts/Bulk Discounts
6. Flash Sales (Limited Time Offers)
7. Loyalty Rewards Programs
8. Cart-Based Discounts
9. First-Time Customer Discounts
10. Seasonal and Holiday Promotions

As the core WooCommerce coupon tool has some limitations, we will demonstrate how to create each discount using a free plugin called Disco.

Let’s get to know these WooCommerce discount strategies in detail.

1. Percentage-Based Discounts

67% of customers prefer a percentage discount, making this one of the most popular WooCommerce discount strategies.

So, what is a WooCommerce percentage discount?

This is your classic “X% off” deal. Think 10% off, 25% off, or even a whopping 50% off. It’s super easy for customers to understand and widely appealing, too.

Best Use Cases:

• A solid choice for general promotional offers.
• Great for attracting new customers with a sweet introductory offer.
• Perfect for highlighting specific product categories or when you want to clear out some older stock.
• Works wonders for big, storewide sales events.

How to Create a WooCommerce Percentage Discount?

Disco is available for free in the WordPress repository. We assume you have already installed the plugin.

Let’s create a WooCommerce percentage discount rule using Disco. Here are the steps –

Example: 15% off on all products.

• Click the Create a Discount from the Disco dashboard to get started.

• Name your discount and select the Product intent.

• For a storewide discount, select All Products.

• From the Discount Type dropdown, select the Percentage option. Enter your percentage value in the following box.

• Save the discount rule.

• Check out your storefront; it should already display the discount amount storewide.

2. Free Shipping Offers

Free shipping is a powerful motivator for online shoppers—it’s no wonder that 57% of them prefer free shipping discounts over any other type of promotional offer. In fact, nearly half (47%) of shoppers consider free shipping a crucial factor when deciding where to shop online.

High delivery costs are a major frustration for 54% of adults worldwide and a leading cause of cart abandonment. Offering free shipping is a win-win: you attract more customers, and they avoid unexpected costs.

You can offer it when people spend a certain amount, for specific locations, or during certain times of the year.

Best Use Cases:

• Boost your average order value (AOV) by setting a minimum spend for free shipping – get people to add just one more thing to their cart!
• A must-have for attracting price-sensitive shoppers who are watching every penny.
• A popular choice for seasonal sales and holiday promotions.

How to Create Free Shipping Discounts in WooCommerce?

Disco has a dedicated intent for WooCommerce free shipping discounts. Let’s create a condition-based shipping discount using Disco.

The plugin provides a wide range of conditions to customize and personalize your discount rules, making them highly dynamic and tailored to different customer scenarios.

Here are the steps to creating a free shipping discount –

Example: Free Shipping on orders equal to or over $100.

• After naming your discount rule, select the Shipping discount intent from the top.
• Specify your products.

• Hit the Add Condition button.

• The condition we need is Cart Subtotal.

• Select the Greater Than Or Equal option as per our example strategy and enter your minimum subtotal value, which is 100.

• Save and add $100 or more worth of products to the cart to test the rule.

3. BOGO (Buy One Get One Free)

Famously known as BOGO, the discount strategy everyone loves. In fact, a staggering 61% of shoppers’ favorite choice of discount is buy one get one deal.

So basically, when a customer buys one item, they get another one free (or sometimes at a discount, like 50% off). It’s a great way to move products.

Best Use Cases:

• Perfect for clearing out excess inventory that’s taking up space.
• Awesome for launching new products and getting them into customers’ hands.
• A good strategy for promoting specific items that need a little extra push.

How to Create a BOGO Deal in WooCommerce?

Here are the steps to create a Buy One Get One discount in WooCommerce.

Example: Buy 2 products and get one for free.

• Select the BOGO option from the top and select All Products.

• Select ALL from the BOGO TYPE dropdown.

• Enter 2 in the Minimum Quantity and 1 in the Get Quantity box.
• Select the Free option from the Discount Type dropdown.

• Save your discount rule, and customers can now enjoy this BOGO deal in your store.

4. Fixed-Amount Discounts

In these discount types, instead of a percentage, you offer a flat dollar amount off (like $5 off, $10 off, or $20 off). This can feel like a bigger saving, especially on pricier items. It’s like handing them cash!

Fixed-amount discounts are among the most favored discounts, preferred by 48% of online shoppers. These discounts can help you strategically adjust your pricing strategy while still maintaining a healthy profit margin.

Best Use Cases:

• Incentivizing purchases of higher-value items.
• Encouraging customers to reach a minimum purchase discount threshold to get them to add more to their order.
• Promoting specific products.
• Creating special offers for product launches.

How to Set Up Fixed Amount Discounts in WooCommerce?

Let us walk you through the steps to creating a simple WooCommerce fixed discount. This time we will create a category based fixed amount discount.

Example: $10 off on “Summer Collection” products.

• Select any of the discount intent, preferably Product or Cart.

• Select All Products if you want to offer the discount on all products under your target category.
• From the Discount Type dropdown, select the Fixed Discount option.

• Enter your discount amount and hit the Add Condition button. Select the Categories filter.

• Search and select your target category and save the rule.

• The “Summer Collection” products should already be displaying the discounted amount.

5. Tiered Discounts/Volume Discounts/Bulk Discounts

These are generally known as bulk discounts, where the more you buy, the more you save! This structure offers increasing discounts as the quantity of items goes up.

Best Use Cases:

• A great way to incentivize bulk purchases.
• Helps increase sales growth by getting people to buy more.
• Works well for promoting complementary products that customers often buy together.

How to Create Bulk Order Discounts in WooCommerce?

To set up a WooCommerce bulk discount or volume or tiered discount, you first need to plan your strategy. Here’s an example –

Example:

1. Buy 3-5 items, Get 10% off.
2. Buy 6-11 items, Get 20% off.
3. Buy 12+ items, Get 30% off.

Let’s set this WooCommerce discount strategy using Disco.

• Select the Bulk option and select All Products.

• In the Bulk Rules section, enter 3 in the Minimum Quantity and 5 in the Maximum Quantity box. Select the Percentage option and enter a discount value.

• Click the Add More button to add a new row and enter your 2^nd set of values.

• Finally, add another row, input your final values, and save the rule.

Here’s the result for 3-5 products added to the cart.

For 6-11 items –

For 12+ items, it should deduct 30% off the total amount.

6. Flash Sales (Limited Time Offers)

Flash sales are all about creating excitement and a sense of urgency. These super short, super sweet discounts—also known as time-limited offers—tap into the “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO).

FOMO encourages customers to snatch up the deal before it’s gone. This makes flash sale discounts incredibly effective for driving quick conversions and boosting WooCommerce sales.

Best Use Cases:

• Perfect for creating a buzz and generating a quick spike in sales.
• Great for highlighting specific products that you want to move quickly.
• A good tactic for boosting sales during slower periods.

How to Set Up Flash Sales in WooCommerce?

Setting up a Woo flash sale using Disco is pretty straightforward. Here’s how you can do it.

Example: 35% discounts on specific products for 24 hours.

• Select your discount intent from the top.
• This time, select the Few Products option and specify your products, as you can see below.

• From the Valid Between fields, start by setting your discount start date and time.

• Next, set your discount end time and date.

• Set the percentage value and save the rule. WooCommerce will automatically start and end this discount as per your set rules.

7. Loyalty Rewards Programs (User-Role Discounts)

Treat your repeat customers like VIPs! Reward them with points, exclusive discount coupons, or other perks for their loyalty.

User role discounts also play a significant role when you have a subscription-based WooCommerce membership website. You can offer different WooCommerce discount strategies for different members and encourage them to upgrade to higher tiers.

Whether you are offering a subscription-based discount or purchase history-based discounts, they ultimately incentivize your loyal customers to spend more at your store.

This is a powerful customer retention strategy that rewards customerloyalty and encourages repeat purchases. You can create a strong bond with your most valuable customers by offering exclusive customer rewards like special discount coupons.

Best Use Cases:

• Essential for building long-term customer loyalty and customer retention.
• A great way to increase customer lifetime value.
• Perfect for showing appreciation to your most valuable customers.

How to Create a User Role Discount in WooCommerce?

We will demonstrate a simple user role discount in WooCommerce using Disco. You can check this article to learn how to set up advanced WooCommerce discount strategies for different user roles.

This time, we will add multiple conditions to the same rule. Disco allows you to apply AND/OR logic to your conditions.

Disco’s AND/OR logic lets you create dynamic discount rules by combining multiple conditions. Use AND for stricter rules where all conditions must be true and OR for broader discounts where any condition can trigger the offer. This flexibility ensures personalized and effective promotions.

Example: 25% discount on the “Kids” category for “Gold” members.

• Select the discount intent and products of your choice from the top.

• Set the percentage value and add the Categories condition.

• Set your target category and click the Add Another Condition button.
• For this example, select the AND logic and select the User Role condition.

• Set your target user role and save the rule. From now on, your Gold members can enjoy 25% off on all products under the “Kids” category.

8. Cart Based Discounts

These discounts are triggered when a customer’s cart reaches a specific subtotal or meets a certain cart condition (cart item quantity, payment method, weight, etc.). Think “Get 15% off orders over $100” or “$10 off when you add 5 items to the cart.”

Cart-based discounts are one of the best WooCommerce discount strategies. These discounts are effective cart abandonment solution that also encourages customers to explore bundle deals and increase their overall order value.

Best Use Cases:

• Incentivize customers to add more items to reach the discount threshold.
• Encourage higher overall cart value, even with different products.
• Appeal to value-conscious customers with a clear spending incentive.
• Encourage purchase completion by offering a discount for reaching a spending goal. This is a great way to implement cart abandonment solutions.

How to Set Up a Cart Discount in WooCommerce?

Cart discounts are a great way to encourage customers to add a little extra to their cart to unlock the savings. This is also a powerful WooCommerce discount strategy for boosting your average order value (AOV).

We will create a total-based WooCommerce cart discount for this article.

Example: 15% off on a cart worth $100 or more.

• You must select the Cart option this time.

• Set the percentage value and add the Cart Subtotal condition.

• For setting equal to or over the $100 cart total value, select the Greater Than Or Equal option and set your value.

• Save the rule and test it by adding $100 or more worth of items to the cart.

9. First-Time Customer Discounts

Give new customers a little welcome gift with a discount on their first purchase. This is a great customer acquisition strategy that helps you attract new customers and build your online retail presence.

Best Use Cases:

• Perfect for attracting new shoppers and growing your customer base.
• Encourages first purchases by making the initial purchase more appealing.

How to Offer First-Order Discounts in WooCommerce?

First-time order discounts or new customer discounts are one of the most effective and best WooCommerce discount strategies out there. Here’s how you can set up a first-order discount in WooCommerce.

Example: 10% off on first purchases.

• Select your discount intent and products from the top and set the discount type along with the value.

• Add the condition Is First Order.

• Select YES and save the rule to activate the discount.

10. Seasonal and Holiday Promotions

Who doesn’t love snagging a deal during the holidays?

In fact, the majority of online shoppers wait year-long to get a great deal during the holidays. Americans alone spent a jaw-dropping $984.3 billion during the 2024 holiday season.

From Black Friday to Cyber Monday or festive occasions like Christmas, people are on the hunt for discounts. Time your promotions to match these moments, and you’ll ride the wave of increased shopping enthusiasm while making your offers impossible to resist!

Best Use Cases:

• Essential for capitalizing on peak shopping seasons and driving sales growth.
• A great way to attract price-sensitive shoppers who are actively looking for holiday deals.
• Perfect for building excitement and anticipation around your brand.

How to Create a Holiday/ Seasonal Discount in WooCommerce?

We will have to use the Valid Between fields again for these types of WooCommerce discount strategies.

Example: 20% off on all products during the Holiday Season.

• Select the Product intent.

• Select All Products and set your start date and time.

• Set the end date and time.

• Specify your discount value and save the rule. WooCommerce will automatically activate and deactivate this rule. Now, you can start your promotions.

Advanced Discount Tactics: Level Up Your WooCommerce Discount Strategies

So, you’ve got the best WooCommerce discount strategies down. Awesome! Now, let’s supercharge your sales growth and conversion rates with some advanced moves.

These tactics will take your eCommerce marketing to the next level.

Combining Discounts

Two discounts are better than one, right?

Combining discount types—like a percentage off plus free shipping—creates irresistible promotional offers and boosts your average order value (AOV). However, don’t cut too deep into your profit margin.

Targeted Discounts

Generic discounts are okay, but personalized discounts are gold. Use behavioral targeting to offer promotional offers based on customer actions.

Viewed a product multiple times but didn’t buy? Offer a targeted discount.

Plugins like Disco make this easy, letting you create discount rules based on cart value, past purchases, and more. It’s a smart way to implement cart abandonment solutions and boost customer retention strategies using WooCommerce coupon codes.

Abandoned Cart Recovery & Retargeting

Even with the best WooCommerce discount strategies, some carts get abandoned. Use discounts in abandoned cart emails and retargeting ads to bring those customers back.

A/B Testing

Don’t guess what works—test it! Experiment with different discount types, values, and messaging to see what resonates with your customers.

Test a 10% discount against a $5 off discount, for example. A/B testing helps you optimize your WooCommerce discount strategies and boost your conversion rate.

Exit-Intent Popups

Catch customers before they leave! Exit-intent popups with a well-timed discount can be the last push needed to prevent cart abandonment and turn a lost opportunity into a sales conversion. It’s a great use of promotional offers and WooCommerce coupons.

Measuring and Optimizing Your Discount Performance: Are Your WooCommerce Discount Strategies Working?

You’ve got the best WooCommerce discount strategies and advanced tactics ready to go—but are they actually working?

That’s where tracking and optimizing comes in. Just offering discounts isn’t enough; you need to see what’s driving sales growth and what’s not. This is key for refining your eCommerce marketing and maximizing profit margin.

Why Tracking Key Metrics is Essential:

Think of your metrics as the dashboard for your discount campaigns. You need to know what’s happening under the hood. Here’s what to watch:

• Conversion Rate: This shows how many visitors become buyers. A higher conversion rate means your discounts are doing their job. It’s a key metric for your WooCommerce discount strategies.
• Average Order Value (AOV): This is your average spend per order. Minimum purchase discounts and bundle deals aim to boost AOV. Tracking it shows if your discounts are encouraging bigger purchases.
• Discount Usage: This tracks how often your discount coupons and promotional offers are used. It shows which discounts are hits with your customers and which need tweaking. It also helps you understand the effectiveness of your targeted incentives.
• Return on Investment (ROI): This is the bottom line: how much revenue are your discounts generating? Calculating ROI ensures your discount strategies are actually profitable.

Tools for Tracking and Analysis:

Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this by hand. Here are some helpful tools:

• WooCommerce Reports: WooCommerce has built-in reports for sales, coupon codes, and more—a good starting point.

• Google Analytics: This free tool gives you deep data on traffic, behavior, and conversion rates. Integrate it with WooCommerce to track your discount strategies’ impact on sales growth.

By tracking, testing (A/B testing is your friend!), and analyzing, you can fine-tune your best WooCommerce discount strategies to maximize sales conversion and revenue. This data-driven approach is essential for successful eCommerce marketing.

Wrap up

So, there you have it! From percentage discounts to loyalty programs and everything in between, you’re now equipped with some of the best WooCommerce discount strategies to boost your sales.

Remember, it’s not just about offering discounts—it’s about offering the right discounts at the right time to the right customers. By understanding the psychology behind these promotional offers and tracking your results, you can turn casual browsers into loyal fans and watch your revenue climb.

Ready to put these WooCommerce discount strategies into action? Start experimenting today and see the difference they can make!