Create WooCommerce Coupons – A How-to Guide

Creating WooCommerce coupons is an essential requirement for most store owners. Whether you’re running a seasonal sale, rewarding loyal customers, or trying to recover abandoned carts, coupons are one of the most reliable tools you have to influence purchase decisions. Most online shoppers actively look for a discount before completing a purchase, and showing up with the right offer at the right moment can meaningfully move your conversion rate.

In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about creating a coupon in WooCommerce, including choosing the right discount type, setting usage restrictions, and configuring expiry dates.

If you’ve been relying on basic discount codes and want more control over how they’re applied, we’ll also cover what Smart Coupons for WooCommerce adds to the default WooCommerce coupons.

Let’s get started.

WooCommerce coupons are discount codes that customers can apply at checkout to reduce their order total. They’re one of the most widely used promotional tools in eCommerce — and for good reason. Most online shoppers actively search for a discount before completing a purchase, and offering a coupon at the right moment can be the difference between a completed order and an abandoned cart.

WooCommerce gives you three built-in coupon types to work with.

• A percentage discount applies a set percentage off the cart total or eligible products. This works well for storewide sales, category-level promotions, or first-order incentives where you want the discount to scale with the order size.
• A fixed cart discount takes a flat amount off the entire cart, regardless of what’s in it. This is a good fit for campaigns like “get $20 off orders over $100,” where you want a straightforward, easy-to-communicate offer.
• A fixed product discount applies a flat amount per eligible product, so if a customer adds three qualifying items to their cart, the discount applies to each one individually rather than to the cart as a whole.

These three types cover most standard promotional needs, but they do have limits. WooCommerce natively doesn’t support BOGO deals, store credits, auto-applied coupons, or giveaway products. If your store needs that level of flexibility, or if you want to build more targeted, rule-based promotions, WebToffee Smart Coupons for WooCommerce fills those gaps without requiring any custom code.

Now, let’s see how to create a new coupon code in WooCommerce using the default settings.

Follow the steps below to create WooCommerce coupons:

Step 1: Enable WooCommerce Coupons

Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > General. Scroll down to “General options,” check the box to Enable the use of coupon codes, and click Save changes.

Step 2: Create a New Coupon Code

From your WordPress admin dashboard, go to Marketing > Coupons. 

• Click the Add Coupon button at the top.
• Enter your Coupon code (e.g., SAVE35) or click Generate coupon code.
• Then add a short description for the coupon code. This is optional and can help internal teams track why this coupon exists.

Step 3: Configure the Coupon Data

Once you’ve entered the coupon code, scroll down to the Coupon data panel. This is where you define how the discount actually works.

• Discount type: WooCommerce gives you three options from the dropdown: percentage discount, fixed cart discount, or fixed product discount. Select the one that fits your campaign.
• Coupon amount: Enter the value of the discount. If you selected percentage discount, entering 35 means the customer gets 35% off. If you went with fixed cart discount, they get $35 off the cart total.
• Allow free shipping: Check this box if you want the coupon to grant free shipping when applied. This only works if you have a free shipping method enabled in your shipping zone, and that method must be configured to require a valid free shipping coupon.

Coupon expiry date: Set the date you want the coupon to stop working. WooCommerce uses the YYYY-MM-DD format. Leave it blank if you want the coupon to stay active indefinitely.

Step 4: Set Usage Restrictions for the Coupon

Go to the Usage restriction tab under Coupon data. This is where you control who can use the coupon and under what conditions.

• Minimum spend: Set the minimum cart value required to apply the coupon
• Maximum spend: Restrict the coupon to orders below a certain value
• Individual use only: Prevent the coupon from being combined with other coupons
• Exclude sale items: Stop the coupon from applying to products already on sale
• Products: Limit the coupon to specific products only
• Exclude products: Prevent the coupon from applying to certain products
• Product categories: Restrict the coupon to specific product categories
• Exclude categories: Omit certain categories from the discount
• Allowed emails: Limit coupon usage to specific customer email addresses
• Product brands: Apply the coupon only to selected brands
• Exclude brands: Prevent the coupon from applying to certain brands

Step 5: Set Usage Limits

• Go to the Usage limits tab.
• Usage limit per coupon: Set the total number of times this coupon can be used across all customers
• Usage limit per user: Limit how many times a single customer can apply the coupon

Step 6: Publish the Coupon

Once all settings are configured, click Publish to make the coupon live on your store.

Step 7: Test the Coupon

Before promoting the coupon, test it to make sure it works as expected.

1. Go to your store’s shop page and add a qualifying product to the cart
2. Proceed to checkout
3. Enter your coupon code in the coupon field
4. Verify that the correct discount is applied to the order total

If the discount doesn’t apply, double-check your usage restrictions; the most common cause is a minimum spend requirement or a product exclusion that the test order doesn’t meet.

And, that’s it! You have successfully created a percentage coupon on your WooCommerce store.

Smart Coupons for WooCommerce extends the default coupon setup with additional controls that give you more flexibility over how and when a coupon is applied. After installing the premium version of the WebToffee Smart Coupons plugin, follow these steps:

Step 1: Add New Coupon

• Go to Smart Coupons > Add Coupon from your WordPress dashboard.
• Enter a coupon code and add a short description.

Step 2: Configure the General Settings of Smart Coupons

Now, scroll down to the Coupon Data settings.

In the General tab, configure the general settings and define the core behavior of your coupon.

• Discount type: Select your discount type from the dropdown. The standard options (percentage discount, fixed cart discount, fixed product discount) are all available here, along with additional types that Smart Coupons unlocks.
• Coupon amount: Enter the value of the discount. For a percentage discount, entering 20 means the customer gets 20% off. For a fixed cart discount, they get that exact amount off their cart total.
• Allow free shipping: Check this box if you want the coupon to grant free shipping when applied. This requires a free shipping method to be enabled in your shipping zone, configured to require a valid free shipping coupon.
• Apply coupon automatically: When checked, WooCommerce applies the coupon to eligible carts without the customer needing to enter a code. This works well for loyalty rewards, targeted promotions, or any campaign where reducing friction at checkout is a priority.
• Coupon applied message: Set a custom message that appears when the coupon is successfully applied. You can update this to match your store’s tone instead of using the default text.
• Display coupon in: Choose where the applied coupon is visible to the customer. You can show it in the cart, at checkout, or both.

Step 3: Set Up Scheduling for WooCommerce Coupons

Schedule: This is where Smart Coupons goes a step further than native WooCommerce. Instead of just setting an expiry date, you get full control over the coupon’s active window.

• Coupon start date: Set the exact date and time the coupon becomes valid. Useful for flash sales or scheduled campaigns where you want the coupon to go live at a specific moment.
• Coupon expiry date: Set the end date with a precise time, down to the minute.
• Enter coupon expiry in days: Check this option if you want the coupon to expire a set number of days after it’s first used, rather than on a fixed calendar date.
• Coupon active on: Restrict the coupon to specific days of the week. For example, you can run a weekend-only promotion by selecting Saturday and Sunday.

Step 4: Set Usage Restrictions

The Usage restriction tab is where you control who can use the coupon and under what conditions. You can set a minimum and maximum spend, restrict the coupon to specific products, categories, attributes, or brands, and exclude sale items from the discount. Smart Coupons also lets you define exactly which other coupons this one can or cannot be stacked with, giving you more precise control over how promotions are combined at checkout.

For more granular campaigns, you can set product conditions with quantity and subtotal thresholds, so the coupon only triggers when the cart meets specific requirements. You can also restrict usage to specific customer email addresses for personalized offers.

Step 5: Set Usage Limits

The Usage Limits tab controls how many times the coupon can be used.

• Set a total usage limit across all customers, a per-user limit, and cap how many items in the cart the discount applies to.
• Smart Coupons adds a maximum discount value field to cap the total discount amount per order, and a once-per-product restriction to prevent repeat use on already-discounted purchases.

Step 6: Set Checkout Options

This is where Smart Coupons goes beyond what WooCommerce offers natively.

• You can restrict the coupon based on the customer’s shipping method, payment method, or user role.
• Location-based restrictions let you target or exclude specific countries, states, or postal codes, with the option to base that check on either the billing or shipping address.

Step 7: Configure Giveaway Products

The Giveaway products tab lets you attach a free or discounted product to the coupon.

• When the coupon is applied, the selected product is automatically added to the cart.
• Set the quantity, choose whether it’s fully free or partially discounted, and decide how tax should be calculated on the giveaway item.

Step 8: Set Purchase History Conditions

The Purchase history tab lets you target customers based on their past order activity.

• You can set conditions around the number of orders placed, the date range of those orders, order status, total spend, and whether a specific product was previously purchased.
• There’s also an option to exclude customers who have already received this coupon, keeping your campaigns clean and non-repetitive.

Step 9: Publish the Coupon

Once you’ve configured all the settings across the tabs, click Publish to make the coupon live. If you want to save it without activating it yet, set the visibility to Draft and publish it when you’re ready.

Creating coupons in WooCommerce is a simple yet effective way to attract customers, increase conversions, and encourage repeat purchases. With the built-in coupon options, you can quickly set up basic discounts like percentage-based offers, fixed cart discounts, and product-level coupons, making it easy to get started even if you are new to WooCommerce.

As your store grows, however, your promotional needs may go beyond basic coupon rules. This is where advanced tools like WebToffee Smart Coupons for WooCommerce come in. From advanced usage restrictions and checkout-based conditions to giveaway products and flexible BOGO offers, Smart Coupons gives you the control and flexibility needed to run more targeted and scalable coupon campaigns.

Whether you want to keep things simple or build complex promotional strategies, WooCommerce provides a solid foundation. Start with the default coupon features, and when you’re ready to level up your discount campaigns, Smart Coupons can help you unlock even more possibilities for your WooCommerce store.