WooCommerce free gift – how to let customers choose a free gift

As an online store owner, one of the best ways to encourage customers to buy more from you is by offering incentives. For example, you might set up a WooCommerce free gift on your e-commerce store to get customers to buy a certain product.

WooCommerce free gifts

In this article, we’ll show you three different ways to implement WooCommerce free gifts on your online store using the WooCommerce Fees and Discounts plugin.

Let’s get started.

What do we mean by free gift?

In the e-commerce world, offering a “free gift” simply means that customers can qualify for a free product (i.e. the gift) if they purchase a specific product. The free gift can also be a special discount.

One of the most common examples of a free gift is Buy One, Get One Free. This means that you buy one product at normal price and get another one of the same product for free. However, when you offer a free gift, you can take things a step further and offer customers a different product if they buy one product at its normal retail price. In other words:

• Buy Product X and get Product Y free
• Buy Product X and Product Y, and get any product from Category Z free

This is a great way to encourage customers to buy more from your store and increase your average order value. In addition to this, offering a free gift can also help you attract new customers to your online store.

A real-world example would be a cosmetics company that offers customers a free gift with their purchase. For instance, they might offer a free makeup brush with any makeup palette purchase.

Examples of where you can offer free gifts

Now, you might be wondering about different scenarios of where you can offer WooCommerce free gifts and how it would benefit your online business. Let’s quickly step through some examples.

#1: Sales promotions

Whenever you have new products in stock, you can offer customers free gifts as part of sales promotions to encourage them to try it out. Generally speaking, these are limited-time offers that are used to give consumers an opportunity to understand the product. The easiest way to set this is up is to offer a Buy Product X and get Product Y free promotion.

Offering free gifts as incentives helps you increase average order value. Depending on your specific implementation, you might even use it as a means to encourage customers to purchase higher-priced products (or product bundles) or buy products in bulk.

#2: Clearance sales

If you sell seasonal products or perishable goods, you can set up WooCommerce free gifts to quickly move old stock. For example, you can offer a free pair of mittens or a free scarf on every denim trouser purchase.

To set this sort of offer up, you could offer either Buy Product X and get Product Y free or Product X and Product Y, and get any product from Category Z free.

This is especially great for end of season sales when you need to quickly get rid of old stock. Offering free gifts can also help you increase brand loyalty. In fact, according to a survey, nearly 90% of free gift receivers said they were “somewhat likely” to buy more frequently from an online retailer after receiving a gift.

#3: Discounts and coupons

Instead of offering traditional discounts and coupons, you can offer customers a free gift if they buy a certain product from you. For example, you can offer subscribers or new customers a free gift on purchase. This would be similar to a Buy Product X and get Product Y free offer in terms of implementation.

Using free gifts as incentives can help you bring in new customers to your online store. In addition to this, it also helps you increase average order value by encouraging existing customers to buy more.

How to implement WooCommerce free gifts using WooCommerce Fees and Discounts

To offer WooCommerce free gifts through your online store, you’ll need to use the WooCommerce Fees and Discounts plugin. It lets you easily set up dynamic pricing rules (like Buy X Get Y Free) without having to code.

Here, we’ll show you three different ways to implement WooCommerce free gifts for inspiration. We’ll assume you already have the WooCommerce Fees and Discounts plugin set up on your WooCommerce site.

Also, make sure that the ‘Enable Dynamic Pricing’ option is ticked on the plugin’s settings page.

Method #1: Buy Product X, get Product Y free

The simplest way to offer a WooCommerce free gift is to set up a Buy Product X, get Product Y free pricing rule. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Fees and Discounts > Dynamic Pricing to get started.

First, use the ‘Pricing table’ option to decide where the offer should appear on the product page. You can choose to display it either before or after the add to cart button, or hide it entirely.

Next, use the ‘Pricing Rule #1’ metabox to configure the Buy Product X, get Product Y free pricing rule.

How to set it up

• Use the dropdown menu to set ‘Offer type’ to ‘Buy X Get Y’.
• Enter some text in the ‘Label’ field to display information about the pricing rule. This will show up next to the product’s price on the product page. For example, you might say Buy denim trousers and get a pair of mittens free!
• Use the dropdown menu next to the ‘Applies to’ field to select which product you’d like to apply the pricing rule to. For this example, we’ll apply it to ‘Specific products’.
• Set both ‘Buy’ and ‘Get’ to ‘1’ since we’re offering a pair of mittens on each denim trousers purchase. You can modify this depending on your offer.
• Set the ‘Adjustment type’ to ‘Percentage Discount’ and the ‘Amount’ to ‘100’ since we want to offer the pair of mittens for free (i.e. at 100% off).
• Use the ‘“Buy” products’ option to choose the product the customer has to purchase to qualify for the discount.
• Use the ‘“Get” products’ option to choose the product the customer will get as a free gift if they purchase the ‘“Buy” product’.

Click the ‘Save changes’ button to proceed.

Method #2: Buy Products X and Y, get Product Z free

Another way to offer a WooCommerce free gift is to set up a Buy Products X and Y, get Product Z free pricing rule. Same as before, head over to WooCommerce > Settings > Fees and Discounts > Dynamic Pricing to get started.

Use the ‘Pricing table’ option to decide where the offer should appear on the product page.

Next, use the ‘Pricing Rule #1’ metabox to configure the Buy Products X and Y, get Product Z free pricing rule.

How to set it up

• Use the dropdown menu to set ‘Offer type’ to ‘Buy X Get Y’.
• Enter some text in the ‘Label’ field to display information about the pricing rule. This will show up next to the product’s price on the product page. For example, you might say Buy denim trousers and a t-shirt to get a pair of mittens free!
• Use the dropdown menu next to the ‘Applies to’ field to select which product you’d like to apply the pricing rule to. For this example, we’ll apply it to ‘Specific products’.
• Set ‘Buy’ to ‘2’ and ‘Get’ to ‘1’ since we’re offering a pair of mittens on each denim trousers and t-shirt purchase. You can modify this depending on your offer.
• Set the ‘Adjustment type’ to ‘Percentage Discount’ and the ‘Amount’ to ‘100’ since we want to offer the pair of mittens for free (i.e. at 100% off).
• Use the ‘“Buy” products’ option to choose the product the customer has to purchase to qualify for the discount. Here, you need to enter both products i.e. ‘Denim Trousers’ and ‘Purple T-Shirt’.
• Use the ‘“Get” products’ option to choose the product the customer will get as a free gift if they purchase the ‘“Buy” product’. Here, we’ll only enter ‘Mittens’.

Click the ‘Save changes’ button to proceed.

Method #3: Buy any product from Category A, get a product from Category B free

You can also offer a WooCommerce free gift to customers if they purchase a product from a specific category.

Use the ‘Pricing table’ option to decide where the offer should appear on the product page.

Next, use the ‘Pricing Rule #1’ metabox to configure the Buy any product from Category A, get a product from Category B free pricing rule.

How to set it up

• Use the dropdown menu to set ‘Offer type’ to ‘Buy X Get Y’.
• Enter some text in the ‘Label’ field to display information about the pricing rule.
• Use the dropdown menu next to the ‘Applies to’ field to select which products to consider for the offer. For this example, we’ll apply it to ‘Specific categories’.
• Set both ‘Buy’ and ‘Get’ to ‘1’ since we’re offering a free WooCommerce product from the winter stock on each purchase of a product from the summer stock. You can modify this depending on your offer.
• Set the ‘Adjustment type’ to ‘Percentage Discount’ and the ‘Amount’ to ‘100’ since we want to offer the product from the winter stock for free.
• Use the ‘“Buy” categories’ option to choose the product category the customer has to purchase from to qualify for the discount.
• Use the ‘“Get” categories’ option to choose the product category the customer will get a free gift from if they purchase a product from the ‘“Buy” categories’.

Click the ‘Save changes’ button to proceed.

Be sure to check out our tutorial on WooCommerce dynamic pricing for more ideas!

Related gift options

If you’re offering free gifts as an incentive on your store, then it makes sense to offer a gift wrap service. Follow this tutorial for how to add a gift wrap option to your WooCommerce products.

Or, take a look here for creating a WooCommerce gift box product.

Conclusion

The WooCommerce Fees and Discounts plugin is incredibly easy to use and gives you tons of options for offering customers WooCommerce free gifts.

You can select specific products to give away as free gifts on the purchase of specific products.

Or, you can choose to offer a WooCommerce free gift from a specific category if customers buy a product from another category.

Ready to set up WooCommerce free gift offers on your online store? Get the WooCommerce Fees and Discounts plugin now!