Many wholesale businesses reward customers who place larger orders by offering an extra discount once the cart reaches a certain value. WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium includes a built-in cart subtotal discount feature that applies this automatically, without coupons or manual processing.
You can set this up in a few minutes. This guide shows you how to create the subtotal threshold, pick a percentage or fixed amount, target specific wholesale roles, and build multiple tiers for progressively larger orders.
The discount appears automatically as a line item in the cart and checkout totals table. You can customise the label customers see and control whether the discount activates only after minimum order requirements are met.
Requirements
- WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium installed and activated. The cart subtotal discount feature is exclusive to the Premium plugin.
- At least one wholesale role created and assigned to a customer. See Managing Wholesale Roles if you haven’t done this yet.
How to set up cart subtotal discounts
All cart subtotal discount settings are found in one place: Wholesale → Settings → Wholesale Prices → Discount. Scroll down to the Cart Subtotal Price Discounts section.
Step 1: Configure the optional global settings
Two checkboxes at the top of the Cart Subtotal Price Discounts section control how the discount is applied across all your mappings. Both are optional and disabled by default.
- Only Apply Discounts If Minimum Order Requirements Met. When enabled, a cart subtotal discount only activates after the customer has met the minimum order requirements set for their wholesale role. If the minimum is not reached, no subtotal discount applies regardless of the cart value. Leave this unchecked if you want the discount to apply to any order size.
- Apply discounts to wholesale products only. When enabled, the discount is calculated against only the subtotal of wholesale-priced products in the cart, not the full cart contents total. Leave this unchecked to apply the discount against the full cart subtotal.
Step 2: Add a discount mapping
- Go to Wholesale → Settings → Wholesale Prices → Discount.
- Scroll to the Cart Subtotal Price Discounts section.
- In the Wholesale Role dropdown, select the wholesale role this rule applies to.
- In the Subtotal Price field, enter the cart subtotal amount at which the discount should activate. This threshold is the cart contents total excluding taxes and shipping.
- In the Discount Type dropdown, select Percent Discount or Fixed Discount.
- In the Discount Amount field, enter the discount value. For a percentage discount, enter the number only (for example, enter
10for 10%,3for 3%, or0.5for 0.5%). For a fixed discount, enter the amount in your store currency. - In the Discount Title field, enter a short label for the discount. This text appears next to the discount line in the cart and checkout totals table.
- Click Add Mapping.
The new rule appears in the table below the form. To edit or remove an existing mapping, use the icons in the Action column of the table.
Creating tiered discounts
You can add multiple rules for the same wholesale role to create tiered discounts. For example, you might apply a 5% discount when the cart subtotal reaches $500, and a 10% discount when it reaches $1,000.
When a customer’s cart qualifies for more than one rule, only one discount applies: the rule with the highest subtotal threshold that the cart meets. Rules are evaluated from highest to lowest threshold, and the first match is used. Adding more tiers does not stack multiple discounts on a single order.
To add a tier, repeat the steps in the previous section with a different Subtotal Price and Discount Amount for the same Wholesale Role.
Frequently asked questions
Does this apply to all wholesale roles at once?
No. Each mapping is assigned to a specific wholesale role. You must add a separate rule for each role that should receive a cart subtotal discount.
Can I combine this with a general discount or product-level wholesale pricing?
Yes. The cart subtotal discount is applied on top of any general discount or product-level wholesale pricing already in place. It adds a discount line to the cart totals rather than changing the product prices themselves. For more on how product-level and role-based wholesale pricing work, see the Wholesale Pricing Guide.
Does the subtotal threshold include taxes and shipping?
No. The Subtotal Price threshold is based on the cart contents total, excluding taxes and shipping charges.
What happens if a customer qualifies for multiple tiers?
Only one discount applies per order. When the cart meets more than one subtotal threshold, the rule with the highest threshold takes effect. Discounts from multiple tiers do not stack.
Where does the discount appear for the customer?
The discount appears as a line item in the cart and checkout totals table, labelled with the text you entered in the Discount Title field.
Does “Apply discounts to wholesale products only” affect fixed discounts too?
It works as expected for percentage discounts. When the option is enabled, a Percent Discount is calculated against the subtotal of wholesale-priced products in the cart rather than the full cart contents total. A Fixed Discount does not behave this way: it is not scoped to the wholesale-products subtotal, and the amount applied will not match the fixed value you entered. If you want the discount limited to wholesale-priced products, use a Percent Discount with this option enabled.
What happens if a customer hasn’t met the minimum order requirement?
If Only Apply Discounts If Minimum Order Requirements Met is checked and the customer has not reached the minimum order threshold for their role, no cart subtotal discount is applied regardless of the cart value.
Does the discount apply on both the cart page and checkout?
Yes. Cart subtotal discounts are evaluated and displayed on the cart page, checkout page, and on completed orders.
Can guest customers receive a cart subtotal discount?
No. Cart subtotal discounts apply only to logged-in users who have a wholesale role assigned to their account.
How do I edit or remove an existing rule?
In the Cart Subtotal Price Discounts table, click the edit icon in the Action column for the rule you want to change. Update the fields as needed and click Save Mapping. To remove a rule entirely, click the delete icon in the same column.
Help & support
We have a dedicated support team for Wholesale Suite who knows our products, WooCommerce, and the industry very well. You’re welcome to make use of their expertise at any time, worldwide.
If you are an existing customer please go to the support ticket request form and send us a message.
If you are a free plugin user, please send us a support request on the forum. We actively monitor the WordPress.org support forums for the free plugin and help our users there as best as we can.
