How to create a WooCommerce discount by order total [+ video]

Out of the box, WooCommerce doesn’t give you the option to offer a discount by order total. Offering a discount on the total cart value encourages customers to buy more from you, improves customer loyalty and may increase your average order value.

The easiest way to offer a WooCommerce discount based on the order total is to use the WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules plugin.

In this tutorial, we’ll explain how you can set up a WooCommerce discount by order total on your online store. We’ll also go over a few use cases where discounts by order total might be useful.

WooCommerce order total discount video

If you prefer to watch a video tutorial on creating discounts by order total in WooCommerce, you can check out the video below:

Why offer discounts on the order total

A discount on the order total can be based on the total value of the cart or the total number of items in the cart. It could also be based on a subtotal value – e.g. just the value of certain products or categories in the cart. We’ll look at several examples below, including:

• Fixed amount discounts based on the total value of the cart
• Percentage discounts based on the total value of the cart
• Discounts (fixed or percentage) based on the subtotal of certain items
• Discounts (fixed or percentage) based on the total quantity of items in the cart
• Role-based cart total discounts

Often, you might want to set different discount tiers – so the greater the value of the cart, the more discount you apply. You can set these tiers using pricing rules so when a customer adds products to their shopping cart, the discount is applied to the total order amount.

With tiers, you can set progressively more attractive discounts. For example, you could create the first discount tier so that the user received a discount of $20 when they spend $250. Then increase the discount to $30 if the user spends $500. And so on.

Primarily in this article, we’ll look at discounts based on the value or cost of the cart. But this is just one type of cart discount in WooCommerce. You can also see this article for more information on how to set bulk discounts based on quantity in WooCommerce.

By offering WooCommerce discounts on the order total, you can encourage customers to buy more from you as it provides them an incentive to save more. As a result, you can increase customer retention and gain loyal customers. Providing discounts by order total also helps you boost sales and increase the average order value. Additionally, it also helps you stand out and differentiate yourself from your competition.

When to offer discounts on the order total

While offering discounts on the order total might be a good way to boost your sales, it can be challenging deciding when to offer them.

Let’s take a look at a few example use case scenarios where it makes sense to offer a discount on the order total:

• Store-wide discounts. You can offer a discount on all products. For instance, wholesale stores can offer discounts on the order total as a way to attract more customers. Wholesale buyers know they have to buy more. So, by providing discounts on the order total, wholesale buyers will choose to buy from your store every time.
• Offer discount by order total on certain days. You can offer discounts on the order total on certain days so people buy more from you. It is also a great way to get more people to visit your WooCommerce store. You can offer a discount by order total on days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday to maximize sales. You can also provide discounts on order total every Monday as a way to attract more visitors every week. 
• Clearance sale. Providing discounts on order total can help you clear out your old inventory before adding new products. It can encourage customers to buy more from you than they had originally planned, increasing your store’s average order value. For instance, you can organize an End of season sale or a Winter-clearance stock sale so customers know they can get a good deal if they decide to buy from your store.

Creating a WooCommerce discount by order total provides an incentive for your customers to buy more from you. The order total affects the discount so the more the order total is, the better the discounts for customers.

How to create pricing rules for order total discounts: examples

Offering discounts by order total can help you boost sales and increase average order value on your WooCommerce store.

However, as mentioned earlier, WooCommerce doesn’t have features built-in that let you create a pricing rule to offer discounts by order total. For this reason, you need to use the WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules plugin.

The Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules plugin lets you create pricing incentives for your customers. You can apply bulk discounts or fees, either on a fixed or percentage basis.

You can also create dynamic pricing rules like Buy One Get One Free offers or apply fees and discounts based on payment gateways.

Install and activate WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules

As the first step, you’ll need to download and install the plugin:

• Download the zip file using the link from the email you receive when you purchase the plugin
• Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard
• Click on the ‘Upload Plugin’ button
• Drag and drop the zip file into the ‘Choose File’ area and click ‘Install Now’.

When the file has uploaded, click on the ‘Activate’ button.

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, you can follow one of the example pricing rules to apply discounts based on the total order value.

Example #1: Discount based on total order value (fixed amount)

In this first example, we’ll create a pricing rule that will apply a discount to the user’s order based on the total amount in their cart. We’ll create discount tiers – so that the user receives bigger discounts the greater the value of the cart. But you could set a single tier if you wanted – so that the user just needs to reach a certain threshold to receive the discount.

To create a discount based on the total order value in WooCommerce:

• Go to WooCommerce > Fees and Discounts and create a new discount rule
• Enter a title for your own reference
• Choose ‘Order Total’ in the ‘Rule’ field
• In the ‘Tiers’ section, set the different discount levels:
  • ‘Min total’: Enter the minimum value of the cart to quantify for the discount tier
  • ‘Max total’: Enter the maximum value of the cart for the discount tier. Leave this field blank if there is no maximum amount for this tier (i.e. the highest discount tier)
  • ‘Adjustment’: For a fixed amount discount, choose ‘Fixed Discount’. This will discount the overall cart total by a specific amount
  • ‘Amount’: Enter the value of the discount for this tier
  • ‘Label’: Enter an option label that will be displayed in the cart
  • Add as many tiers as you like

Now, when the user adds items to the cart totalling more than the minimum value in one of the tiers, the discount will be applied:

Note that the discount is applied in the subtotals section. There’s also an optional notice to encourage to purchase more items in order to reach the next discount level.

Example #2: Discount based on total order value (percentage)

This example is a slight variation on the first example. Instead of applying a fixed discount amount, e.g. $20, we’ll apply a percentage discount.

To apply a percentage discount to the order total in WooCommerce:

• Follow the steps in Example #1 above
• When entering the discount tiers, choose ‘Percentage Discount’ as the ‘Adjustment’ type
• Then enter the percentage in the ‘Amount’ field

Example #3: Discount based on subtotal of certain items

Instead of applying a discount based on the overall value of the entire cart, you could set discounts based on the value spent on certain items. For example, if the user spends over $250 on items in the ‘Hoodies’ category, they will receive a discount.

To create discounts based on the subtotal of certain items:

• Go to WooCommerce > Fees and Discounts and create a new discount rule
• Enter a title for your own reference
• Choose ‘Discount on Spend’ in the ‘Rule’ field
• In the ‘Applies To’ field, choose either ‘Specific categories’ or ‘Specific products’
• Select the categories in the ‘”Buy” categories’ field that should have the discount
• Create your discount tiers as in Examples 1 and 2 above

Example #4: Discount based on total number of items in the order

If you like, you can create cart discounts according to the total quantity of items in the order. This is often referred to as bulk pricing.

For this method, you create tiers in the same way as the examples above – but the tiers are set according to the number of items in the cart, not their value.

To create discounts based on the total quantity of items in the order in WooCommerce:

• Go to WooCommerce > Fees and Discounts and create a new discount rule
• Enter a title for your own reference
• Choose ‘Bulk Pricing’ in the ‘Rule’ field
• Select ‘All items’ in the ‘Applies to’ field in order to apply the discount to the entire order
• In the ‘Tiers’ section:
  • ‘Min quantity’: Enter the minimum quantity of items in the cart to quantify for the discount tier
  • ‘Max quantity’: Enter the maximum quantity for this discount tier. Leave this field blank if there is no maximum quantity for this tier (i.e. the highest discount tier)
  • ‘Adjustment’: Select either ‘Fixed Discount’ or ‘Percentage Discount’
  • ‘Amount’: Enter the value of the discount for this tier
  • ‘Label’: Enter an option label that will be displayed in the cart
  • Add as many tiers as you like

In the example settings above, the user will receive a 10% discount if they purchase 20 items or more, and a 15% discount if they purchase 51 items or more.

Example #5: Order total discounts by user role (tiered)

Finally, let’s look at two methods to set role-based discounts by order total.

In the first example, we can use a similar rule to the examples above and choose to apply it to one or more user roles. This means that only users with the specified role will receive the discount, making it ideal for offering different order total discounts for wholesale, retail, B2B customers, etc.

To apply a rule to one or more user roles, just select the user roles in the ‘Roles’ field:

Now your rule will only apply to users in the ‘Wholesale’ role.

If you prefer, you can create a rule and exclude certain user roles. Just select the roles to exclude in the ‘Exclude roles’ field:

Example #6: Order total discounts by user role (global)

If you prefer, you can just give certain user roles an automatic discount on their order:

• Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Fees and Discounts > User Role Pricing
• Select the ‘Adjustment’ type against the user role that should receive a discount
• Enter the ‘Amount’ of the discount

In the example below, users in the ‘Wholesale’ group will receive a 10% discount on their order total automatically.

You can apply discounts to as many roles as you like.

Bonus: Apply an additional fee based on cart total

The most common way of incentivizing users to spend more is to offer them a discount. However, using Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules you can apply an additional fee if the user doesn’t spend enough.

To apply an extra fee to the cart in WooCommerce:

• Go to WooCommerce > Fees and Discounts and create a new discount rule
• Enter a title for your own reference
• Choose ‘Order Total’ in the ‘Rule’ field
• In the ‘Tiers’ section, set the different discount levels:
  • ‘Min total’: Enter the minimum value of the cart to quantify for the additional charge. Leave this blank if you don’t want a minimum value
  • ‘Max total’: Enter the maximum value of the cart for the fee
  • ‘Adjustment’: For a fixed amount fee, choose ‘Fixed Fee’. This will increase the overall cart total by a specific amount. You could choose ‘Percentage Fee’ here if you prefer.
  • ‘Amount’: Enter the value of the extra fee for this tier
  • ‘Label’: Enter an option label that will be displayed in the cart
  • Add as many tiers as you like

In the example above, the user will be charged an extra fee of $50 if their order is worth less than $500.

Conclusion

With the WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules plugin, you can create a pricing rule for order total that can help you boost sales and potentially attract new customers. Additionally, this can help you clear out your old stock so that you have space for new inventory.

We explained how you can create a pricing rule and offer discounts by order total using the WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules plugin. Hopefully, you’re in a good position to start creating discounts on your store. 

Ready to offer discounts by order total on your online store? Get the WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing and Discount Rules plugin today!