WooCommerce ships with a coupon system right out of the box. Using that system, you can easily create coupons for any product in your store. However, despite being easy to use, WooCommerce’s coupon system can be a bit limited.
If you want to offer more advanced coupons, you’re going to need to use a plugin to get there. As far as WooCommerce coupons go, your best bet is Advanced Coupons.
In this article, we’re going to show you how the base WooCommerce Coupons system works. Then we’ll introduce you to the Advanced Coupons plugin and show you what you can do with it. Let’s get to work!
How to Create WooCommerce Coupons
Creating WooCommerce coupons is simple. Once you activate WooCommerce on your website, a new Marketing tab will show up on your dashboard and it includes a Coupon option. Here you can see a list of some of the coupons we’ve set up on our site:
Go ahead and click on the Add coupon button at the top of the page when you’re ready. On the next screen, you’ll be able to generate a coupon code and enter a description for it:
Now move down to the Coupon data section. Here, you can decide what type of discount you want your coupon to apply. You can choose between fixed cart and percentage discounts as well as product-specific offers:
Right below that menu, you’ll see a field where you can enter your coupon’s value. For example, if you select Percentage discount, you can set that percentage to 10% (or any figure that you want):
From this section, you can set an expiry date for your coupon. If you move on to the Usage restriction tab, you’ll be able to select what products the discount should work for and for which ones it shouldn’t:
As you can see, WooCommerce enables you to set minimum and maximum spend values for your coupons. Those two settings are critical to help prevent you from losing money on any sale that you make.
Finally, the Usage limits tab lets you set limits to how many times someone can use a coupon and how many times they can be used globally. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to limit usage for each account so no one can abuse discounts.
Once you’re done, you can publish your WooCommerce coupon and that’s it! WooCommerce’s coupon system is straightforward and it works, but it’s not as powerful as we’d like to see. That’s where Advanced Coupons comes in.
An Introduction to Advanced Coupons
The Advanced Coupons plugin takes WooCommerce’s coupon system and supercharges it. As you saw before, WooCommerce limits you to three coupon types. Using Advanced Coupons, you get access to a system that enables you to create almost any type of coupon that you want.
That includes options for Buy One Get One (BOGO) deals, role-specific discounts, coupons that only work for logged-in users, and many more.
To make that possible, Advanced Coupons enables you to configure cart conditions for each coupon that you create. Cart conditions work using an AND/OR system with plenty of options to choose from (which we’ll show you in a minute).
Beyond being able to create custom coupons, the plugin also simplifies their application. Customers can apply coupons with a click or you can enable automatic application if they meet the necessary conditions.
Finally, Advanced Coupons enables you to organize your WooCommerce coupons using categories. If you run a large store with multiple coupons active at once, that can be a lifesaver.
Key Features:
- Create custom WooCommerce coupons
- Configure cart conditions for each coupon that you design
- Enable auto-appy or one-click application for your plugins
- Set up categories to organize coupons
Price: There’s a free version of Advanced Coupons but it doesn’t include all the features we’ve covered so far. For the full set of features, you’ll need to opt for the premium version.
How to Use Advanced Coupons to Create WooCommerce Coupons
If you’re already familiar with the base WooCommerce coupons system, then getting started with Advanced Coupons should be simple. Keep in mind that the version of the plugin we’re going to show you is the premium one.
Once you install and activate Advanced Coupons, you’ll get access to a new Coupons tab within your dashboard. From there, you’ll be able to access all your existing coupons, create new ones, and configure the plugin’s settings.
If you select the Coupons > Add New option, you’ll enter the coupon editor. It should look familiar, as it uses the same structure WooCommerce does, only with a lot more options at your disposal:
Advanced Coupons adds seven new configuration tabs to the Coupon data widget. From here, you can configure BOGO deals, schedule coupons, set role restrictions, shipping overrides, and enable one-click applications:
The result is that you get much more control over the coupon design process. However, the most important component that the plugin adds is the Cart Conditions section:
Using cart conditions, you get full control over when users can apply the coupons that you create. The plugin includes 15 settings that you can mix and match until you get the exact conditions that you want:
Cart conditions enable you to create incredibly targeted coupons. For example, you can create a coupon that only works for newly-signed-up users by limiting its use to half a day after registration:
You can also create coupons to reward customers who have spent over X amount on your store since they registered:
Those are just two examples. Advanced Coupons gives you full freedom to create almost any type of offer that you want. If you want to see out more examples, check out the Advanced Coupons blog, where you can find dozens of tutorials.
Conclusion
Coupons are one of the best ways to increase sales on your WooCommerce store. That applies for both retail and wholesale stores. In fact, the Advanced Coupons plugin works perfectly alongside the Wholesale Suite.
Using Advanced Coupons, you can design discounts for almost any situation that you can imagine. You can have coupons that work for specific products, user roles, or that only trigger under certain conditions. You can even set coupons to apply themselves if you want to.
Do you have any questions about how to create WooCommerce coupons? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!
Image credit: Pixabay.
Good information – very clear instructions
Cheers Michael, glad you liked the article!
Thanks for the help!
My pleasure Johan!
Thanks for this helpful article. :)
You’re welcome Leslie, glad you found it useful!