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

Looking to make your WooCommerce store even better? Offering special deals based on user roles is a great way to do just that. Whether you’re aiming to give a warm welcome to new visitors with a first-time purchase discount, say thanks to your loyal customers, or offer something special for your subscribers, setting up these discounts can make a big difference. And guess what? It’s easier than you might think, especially with the ‘Discount Rules for WooCommerce’ plugin.

This step-by-step guide is here to help you, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been running your WooCommerce store for a while. We’ll show you how to use the Discount Rules for WooCommerce plugin to create discounts just for certain groups of users. You’ll learn how to get the plugin up and running, how to decide who gets what discount, and how to make sure everything works just right.

So, if you want to make shopping at your store a little more special for certain groups of customers, keep reading. This guide will make setting up those discounts easy and straightforward.

What is a User-Role Based Discount in WooCommerce?

User role-based discounts in WooCommerce provide differentiated pricing and promotions based on the roles assigned to users in your eCommerce platform. This method allows store owners to cater to various customer segments with tailored discounts, making the shopping experience more personalized and potentially increasing customer loyalty and sales.

By default, WooCommerce does not include functionality for user role-based discounts. However, this can be achieved through additional plugins like “Discount Rules for WooCommerce” or similar. These plugins extend WooCommerce’s capabilities, enabling the application of automatic discounts for users based on their roles.

How User Role-Based Discounts Work:

1. Role Assignment: Users are assigned specific roles within the WooCommerce system, such as “Wholesale Customer,” “Subscriber,” or “Retail Customer.” These roles can be assigned manually by the store admin or automatically through specific actions (like signing up for a newsletter).
2. Defining Discounts: The store owner sets up discounts specific to each user role. For example, wholesale customers might receive a 15% discount on all products, subscribers might get free shipping, and retail customers might have access to seasonal sales.
3. Automatic Application: When a user logs in and shops, the WooCommerce store automatically applies the discounts relevant to their user role at checkout. This process is seamless and does not require any coupon codes.

Examples of User Role-Based Discounts:

• Wholesale Customers: Might receive a 10% discount on all orders over $500 or bulk discounts on specific products to encourage large purchases.
• Subscribers: Could be given a 20% discount on their entire cart as a reward for their loyalty or exclusive access to certain sales.
• Retail Customers: While they might not receive a blanket discount, special promotions or sales could be targeted towards this group during certain times of the year.

Benefits of User Role-Based Discounts:

• Customization: Offers tailored shopping experiences that can meet the needs and expectations of different customer segments.
• Efficiency: Discounts are applied automatically based on user roles, saving time and reducing the likelihood of errors.
• Loyalty and Sales: By providing exclusive discounts to certain groups, you can increase customer loyalty and potentially boost sales.

Implementing user role-based discounts requires thoughtful planning and understanding of your customer base to ensure that the discounts are enticing and relevant to each segment. It’s also important to monitor the performance of these discounts to adjust strategies as needed.

Common Use Cases to Offer User Role Discounts for WooCommerce

Offering user role discounts is a strategic move for WooCommerce store owners to enhance customer loyalty, promote sales, and manage inventory efficiently. Here are several common use cases where implementing user role discounts can be particularly beneficial:

1. Loyalty Rewards
   Rewarding repeat customers with exclusive discounts can increase customer loyalty. By assigning a specific user role to repeat customers (e.g., “VIP Customer”), you can offer them special discounts on all purchases, encouraging further shopping and engagement with your store.
2. Wholesale Pricing
   For B2B transactions, it’s common to offer different pricing to wholesalers compared to regular customers. By creating a “Wholesaler” user role, you can set discounted prices for bulk purchases, facilitating larger transactions and attracting business clients.
3. Membership Discounts
   If you run a membership site or offer premium content, you can create a member-exclusive discount. Members can be assigned a specific role (e.g., “Premium Member”) and receive discounts on products related to the site’s content, incentivizing memberships.
4. Educational Discounts
   For stores selling educational materials or software, offering discounts to students and teachers can drive sales and promote the educational use of your products. By verifying and assigning roles such as “Student” or “Educator,” you can offer these groups special pricing.
5. Seasonal Sales Promotions
   During seasonal sales or events, you might want to offer additional discounts to certain user groups. For instance, during a back-to-school sale, parents and students could be given a “Back to School” role that qualifies them for extra discounts on relevant products.
6. Exclusive Access
   You can create user roles that offer exclusive access to pre-order products, limited editions, or special collections. This exclusivity can drive demand and offer a sense of prestige to customers with the role, such as “Early Access” or “Collector.”
7. Employee Benefits
   Offering discounts to your employees as a benefit can be a great way to encourage product familiarity and staff morale. Assigning an “Employee” role with a significant discount can enhance their engagement with your brand.
8. Referral Programs
   Reward users who refer new customers to your store by assigning them a special role (e.g., “Referrer”) that offers discounts. This can incentivize word-of-mouth marketing and increase your customer base.
9. First-Time Customer Discounts
   Encouraging first-time shoppers to make a purchase is crucial for growing your customer base. By offering a one-time discount to new users, you can increase the likelihood of converting website visitors into paying customers. This can be achieved by creating a “First-Time Customer” user role or simply applying the discount automatically upon the customer’s first purchase.
10. Abandoned Cart Customers
    Shopping cart abandonment is a significant challenge for eCommerce stores, but it also presents an opportunity to re-engage potential customers. By offering a discount to users who have added items to their cart but have not completed the purchase, you can encourage them to return and finalize their purchase.

How to Create a 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 it and check out for details.

Scenarios to offer WooCommerce User Role discount

There are a number of scenarios to offer user role discounts 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 tailored to specific customer groups, and it 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 the condition type, choose ‘In list,’ and select ‘Subscriber’ 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 get 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 the 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 the 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 based discounts in 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.