How to Setup User Role Discounts for WooCommerce? (Step-by-Step guide)

Do you want to offer different discounts to different types of users, such as wholesale Customers, VIP customers, or members of a specific group?

User role discounts for WooCommerce allow you to create discounts that are only available to specific user roles, such as subscribers, customers, or wholesalers. This means that you can provide different levels of discounts to different types of users, based on their role and level of engagement with your store. For example, you could offer a 10% discount to all customers, but a 20% discount to wholesale customers.

Setting up a user role discount for WooCommerce may seem complicated, but it’s actually quite easy. All you need is a plugin that supports user role pricing, such as the “Discount Rules for WooCommerce” plugin. With this plugin, you can set up different discounts for different user roles in just a few clicks.

In this blog, let’s learn about how to setting up user role discounts for WooCommerce store. So, let’s get started and start boosting your sales with user role pricing!

What is a user role in WordPress?

A user role in WordPress is a pre-defined set of permissions and capabilities that determine what actions a user can perform on a WordPress site. Different user roles have different levels of access and permissions, ranging from simple subscriber accounts to administrator accounts with full control over the site. User roles are an important tool for managing user accounts and controlling site security and access.

What are the WordPress user roles?

The default user roles in WordPress are listed below.

• Super Admin: This role is available only on WordPress Multisite installations. Super Admins have full control over the entire network and all its sites.
• Administrator: This is the highest level of access in a single-site WordPress installation. Administrators can manage all aspects of the site, including content creation, theme and plugin installation, and user management.
• Editor: Editors can manage and publish posts, pages, and other content, as well as moderate comments. They cannot access the site’s settings, plugins, or themes.
• Author: Authors can create and publish their own posts, but they cannot publish other users’ posts or access the site’s settings.
• Contributor: Contributors can create and edit their own posts, but they cannot publish them. They must submit their posts for review by an editor or administrator.
• Subscriber: Subscribers can only view content on the site and leave comments on posts. They cannot create or edit any content.

WooCommerce adds two user roles when it is installed, which are Customer and Shop Manager.

Customer: When a user makes a purchase or registers on the site, they are assigned the ‘Customer’ role. The customer role has very limited capabilities, like viewing their order history.

Shop Manager: This role has additional capabilities that allow users belonging to this role to manage WooCommerce products in the dashboard and view the reports.

As a store administrator, you have control over the creation and the capabilities of each role.

How to create a user role in WordPress?

1. Go to WordPress dashboard and navigate to “Users” > “Add New”.
2. Enter the new user’s details such as username, email address, and password.
3. In the “Role” drop-down menu, select the role you want to assign to the user.
4. If the role you want is not available, you can create a new role by installing a plugin like User Role Editor or Members.
5. Once you have selected the appropriate role, click “Add New User”.
6. The new user will now have the assigned role and corresponding capabilities within WooCommerce.

Note: With the “User Role Editor” plugin, you can customize the permissions and capabilities of each user role to fit your needs.

Please check this guide for step by step tutorial for creating a user role in WordPress

Why set prices by user role in WooCommerce?

Setting prices by user role in WooCommerce allows you to offer personalized pricing to different groups of customers based on their roles or memberships. This can be beneficial for various reasons, such as providing discounts or special pricing to loyal customers, offering wholesale pricing to specific user roles, or creating pricing tiers for different levels of access. By setting prices by user role, you can tailor your pricing strategy to meet the specific needs and preferences of your customers, which can help increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Common Use Cases to offer User role discount for WooCommerce

User role discounts for WooCommerce can be a great way to incentivize customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. Here are some common use cases for offering WooCommerce user role based discount:

Wholesale customers: If you have wholesale customers who purchase products in bulk, you may want to offer them a discount on their orders. You can create a user role for wholesale customers and assign a discount to that role.

VIP customers: Customers who make large purchases or have been loyal to your brand for a long time can be designated as VIP customers. You can offer them exclusive discounts as a way to show your appreciation and encourage them to continue shopping with you.

Memberships: If you offer memberships or subscriptions to your store, you can assign a discount to the user role associated with that membership. This can be a great way to encourage customers to sign up for your membership program.

First-time customers: If you want to encourage first-time customers to make a purchase, you can offer them a discount when they create an account on your store. You can create a user role for first-time customers and assign a discount to that role

Abandoned Cart Customers: If you have customers who have abandoned their carts, you could create a user role for them in WooCommerce and offer them a discount to entice them to complete their purchase.

Referral program: If you have a referral program in place, you can offer a discount to customers who refer new customers to your store. You can create a user role for customers who have referred new customers and assign a discount to that role.

How to create User Role Discount for WooCommerce?

Enabling User Role Discount for WooCommerce requires a Dynamic Pricing plugin like “Discount Rules for WooCommerce”

This guide assumes that you already have the plugin. If you have not installed it. Please follow this guide to download and check out for details.

Scenarios to offer WooCommerce User Role discount

There are a number of scenarios to offer user role discount for WooCommerce to increase its efficiency. Let’s learn to create them one by one.

Store-wide discount only for specific users

Store-wide discount based on user role in WooCommerce is a useful strategy for WooCommerce store owners looking to offer targeted discounts and promotions to specific customer groups. By tailoring discounts to specific user roles, store owners can build stronger relationships with their most valuable customers and drive more sales in the process.

For Example, ‘Shop Managers get a discount of $50 on all products for a purchase of $500 and above’

Let’s quickly learn to create this discount scenario.

Go to your WordPress dashboard ->‘WooCommerce’ ->‘Woo Discount Rules’

Click ‘Add New Rule’

Once you have entered the rule page, enter the rule name and select the discount type as ‘Cart Adjustment’

Choose ‘All Products’ in the filter section as it is a store-wide discount.

In the discount section, choose the Discount Type as ‘Fixed discount’ and enter the discount value as $50

The following screenshot gives you an example of the discount

If you look at the above screenshot, you can see we have set two conditions to create this discount.

Condition 1:

In the rules section, Click ‘Add condition’

Select ‘User role’ as the condition type, choose ‘in list’ and select ‘Shop Manager’ as the user role.

Condition 2:
In the Rules section, Click ‘Add Condition’

Select ‘Subtotal’ as the condition type, choose ‘Greater than or equal to (>=), enter the value as ‘500’ and select ‘Count all items in the cart’

‘Save and enable’ the rule.

Now, Shop Managers will get a discount of $50 for purchase of $500 and above automatically on all products in your store.

WooCommerce user role discounts based on specific categories

WooCommerce user role discounts for specific categories enable store owners to offer discounts on specific categories of products to customers based on their user role or level of loyalty. Store owners can target specific customer groups with discounts on categories that are most relevant to them.

For Example, ‘Wholesalers get Exclusive 40% discount on Apparels’

Let’s quickly learn to create this discount scenario.

Go to your WordPress Dashboard->’WooCommerce’-> ‘Woo Discount Rules’

Click ‘Add New Rule’

Enter the rule name and choose the discount type as ‘Product Adjustment’

In the filter section, choose ‘category,’ select ‘In list’ and choose ‘Apparels’

In the discount section, choose the Discount Type as ‘Percentage discount’ and enter the discount value as ‘40’ as illustrated in the screenshot below

If you look at the above screenshot, you can see we have set a special condition.

In the Rules section, Click ‘Add Condition’

Select ‘User role’ as the condition type, choose ‘in list’ and select ‘Wholesale Customer’ as the user role

‘Save and enable’ the rule.

Now the Wholesalers will get a 40% discount when they purchase on Apparels.

Tiered discounts based on User Roles

Tiered discounts allow store owners to offer different levels of discounts to customers based on their WooCommerce user roles. This scenario enables store owners to provide personalized discounts that are tailored to specific customer groups and can be a powerful tool for improving customer retention and encouraging repeat purchases.

For Example, Exclusive offers for Subscribers,
Buy 100 items and get a 10% discount
Buy 200 items and get a 20% discount

Let’s quickly learn to create this discount scenario

Go to your WordPress Dashboard->’WooCommerce->’Woo Discount Rules’

Click ‘Add New Rule’

Enter the rule name and select the discount type as ‘Bulk discount’

Choose ‘All Product’ in the filter section

In the discount section, choose the discount type as ‘Percentage discount’ and set the ranges as illustrated in the screenshot below

If you look at the above screenshot, you can see we have set a special condition.

In the Rules Section, Click ‘Add Condition’

Select ‘User role’ as condition type, choose ‘In list’ and select ‘Subcriber’ as the user role

Now the discount will be automatically added when a subscriber purchases in your store.

Free Shipping for specific user roles

Offering free shipping to all customers can be costly for the store owner. That’s where the feature of free shipping for specific user roles in WooCommerce comes in handy.This allows the store owner to provide a premium service to their most valuable customers, while also minimizing the cost of providing free shipping to all customers.

For Example,’Free Shipping for Wholesale Customers’

Let’s quickly learn to create this discount scenario.

Go to your WordPress Dashboard->’WooCommerce->’Woo Discount Rules’

Click ‘Add New Rule’

Enter the rule name and select the discount type as ‘Free Shipping’

The Following screenshot gives you an example of the discount

As you can see in the above screenshot, we have set a special condition.

In the Rules (Optional) Section, Click ‘Add Condition’

Select ‘User role’ as condition type, choose ‘in list’ and select ‘Wholesale Customer’ as the user role

Now wholesale Customers will automatically get a free Shipping for their purchase in your store.

Buy X Get Y for specific User roles

Buy X Get Y based on user role enables store owners to offer special deals and promotions to specific customer groups. With this type of discount, store owners can incentivize customers to make purchases, increase their average order value, and build stronger relationships with the store.

For Example, Subscribers gets a free cap for every product they purchase.

Let’s quickly learn to create this discount scenario.

Go to your WordPress Dashboard->’WooCommerce->’Woo Discount Rules’

Click ‘Add New Rule’

Enter the rule name and select the discount type as ‘Buy X Get Y’

Choose ‘All Product’ in the filter section

In the discount section, choose discount type as ‘Buy X Get Y- products’,set the ranges and choose ‘cap’ as the free product as illustrated in the screenshot below

As you can see in the above screenshot, we have set a special condition.

In the Rules section, Click ‘Add condition’

Select ‘User role’ as condition type, choose ‘in list’ and select ‘Subscriber’ as the user role

Now the discounts will be automatically when a subscriber makes a purchase in your store.

Conclusion

User Role discount for WooCommerce can be a successful strategy for store owners to improve customer retention, increase sales volume, and tailor their pricing strategies to different customer groups. By providing personalized discounts and incentives to customers based on their user role or level of loyalty, store owners can encourage repeat business and build strong relationships with their customers.

So, whatever type of discount you want to provide for the particular user roles in your WooCommerce online store, “Discount Rules for WooCommerce” will make it easy and neat for you. It can handle any kind of discounting use case you can think of. Be it BOGO deals, bulk discounts, advanced discounts, and more.