How to Set Up a WooCommerce Category Discount (Without Coupon Codes)

WooCommerce can restrict a markdown to one category, but only inside a coupon, and a coupon does nothing until somebody types its code. Want every item in Shoes showing 10% off on the shop page? Core WooCommerce has no setting for that.

A WooCommerce category discount works best when it targets the category itself rather than a hand-picked product list. New arrivals land in Shoes next month and inherit the price without anyone touching the rule, and the same condition can be flipped to mean “everything except Shoes”.

The coupon route: category targeting behind a code

Core WooCommerce handles this through coupons (WooCommerce coupon documentation). Open Marketing, then Coupons, then Add new coupon, set an amount, and go to Usage restriction. Product categories limits where the code works; Exclude categories keeps it away from others.

That suits codes you send in a newsletter. Shop-page prices stay untouched, though, and visitors who never see the code never get the saving.

Set up an automatic WooCommerce category discount in Disco

Disco runs equivalent category targeting as a campaign that fires by itself, no code involved, and product campaigns cost nothing. These steps follow Disco’s own category example:

1. From the WordPress menu, open Disco and click Create a Discount.
2. Name it (say, “10% off Shoes”) and choose Product as the discount intention.
3. Under Discount, select All products; the category arrives through a condition instead.
4. In Product rules, pick percentage or fixed and enter the value.
5. Click Add condition, choose Categories, set In List, and add Shoes.
6. Save and exit, then open Shoes in a private browser window.

With strikethrough display switched on for the shop and product pages (Disco has per-page settings), each Shoes product shows its original price crossed out beside the new one, while everything outside the category keeps its regular price. Give the campaign a start and end date if the sale should switch itself off.

Discount everything except one category

Flip the operator when a storewide sale needs one exception. Disco’s documentation describes Not In List as exclusion: put a category there and every product in your store qualifies except that category’s items.

That’s the tidier way to run “20% off sitewide, new arrivals excluded” or a promotion that has to skip a category you can’t mark down. Coupons manage it too, through Exclude categories, but again only for shoppers holding the code.

Add a second condition to a category discount

A Categories condition sits beside other conditions in one campaign. Here’s what each pairing costs:

Two rows behave differently from a price cut. That shipping campaign adds a $0 Free Shipping rate to the whole order once a qualifying item sits in the cart, listed beside your other rates, rather than zeroing one product’s postage. Inside a bulk campaign, whichever tier matches applies to every unit on that cart line, so “20% off from the third copy” means all three copies at 20% off.

Wholesale setups are covered under role-based pricing in WooCommerce, thresholds in WooCommerce cart discounts, tiers in WooCommerce bulk discounts, and postage offers in free shipping after a set amount.

Begin with one category and one campaign, check an item inside it and one outside, then layer the second condition. Get Disco free for category campaigns, or see Disco Pro pricing if you need BOGO across categories.

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