How to Create Coupons in WooCommerce
Confirm coupon codes are enabled under WooCommerce → Settings → General, then open Marketing → Coupons → Add coupon. Enter a code, choose percentage, fixed cart or fixed product discount, set the amount, usage limits and expiry, and publish. Test the code on a real cart in a private window before announcing the sale.
For WooCommerce store owners in India setting up festive, first-order or channel-specific discount codes.
knowledge
- Read time
- 5 min
- Sections
- 7
- Updated
- 14 Nov 2026
- Written by
- WebJi® team
Last editorial update: 14 November 2026. Prices follow the dated sources on this page; checkout confirms current charges.
How do you create a coupon in WooCommerce?
Make sure “Enable the use of coupon codes” is ticked under WooCommerce → Settings → General, then go to Marketing → Coupons → Add coupon, enter a code, choose the discount type and amount, set limits and click Publish. You need an administrator or shop manager account.
- Open WooCommerce → Settings → General, confirm coupon codes are enabled, and save.
- Open Marketing → Coupons and click Add coupon.
- Type a code such as
DIWALI10, or click Generate coupon code. Codes are not case sensitive. - Add a description for your own records; customers do not see it.
- Under General, choose the discount type and enter the amount as a plain number.
- Set an expiry date, usage limits and restrictions, then click Publish.
If the coupon field never appears at checkout, the enable setting is off or the checkout block is hiding the field; see customising the WooCommerce checkout.
Which WooCommerce discount type should you use?
Use a percentage discount for store-wide sales, a fixed cart discount for “spend and save” offers, and a fixed product discount to cut the price of specific items. On a multi-item cart the three behave very differently.
| Type | Amount entered | Discount applied |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage discount | 10 | 10% of eligible items: ₹200 |
| Fixed cart discount | 200 | ₹200 once on the whole cart |
| Fixed product discount | 200 | ₹200 on each eligible item: ₹400 |
Ticking Allow free shipping lets the coupon unlock a free shipping method, which must already exist in the shipping zone and be set to require a valid coupon; see WooCommerce shipping zones for India.
How do you limit who can use a coupon and how often?
Use the Usage restriction and Usage limits tabs: without them, a code works for anyone, any number of times, on any cart. Set them before sharing the code publicly.
| Setting | Controls |
|---|---|
| Minimum / maximum spend | The cart subtotal range the code accepts |
| Individual use only | Stops the code combining with other coupons |
| Exclude sale items | Keeps already-discounted products out |
| Products / categories (include or exclude) | Which items the discount can touch |
| Allowed emails | Billing emails that may use it; wildcards such as *@company.com work |
| Usage limit per coupon | Total redemptions across all customers |
| Limit usage to X items | Items covered by percentage or fixed product discounts |
| Usage limit per user | Times one customer may use it |
The expiry date is when the code stops working: WooCommerce expires it at 00:00 on that date in the store’s timezone. To include 31 October, set the expiry to 1 November.
How do you test a coupon before a sale?
Apply the code on the storefront in a private browser window, check the discount on an eligible cart, confirm it is refused on an ineligible cart, and place a test order. The admin screen does not calculate carts the way checkout does.
- Add eligible products and apply the code on the cart or checkout page.
- Compare the discount line with the amount you planned, including excluded items keeping full price.
- Build a cart that breaks a rule — below minimum spend or from an excluded category — and confirm a clear refusal message.
- Place a test order with cash on delivery or gateway test mode, and check the confirmation email and invoice show the discount.
Why is a WooCommerce coupon not applying?
WooCommerce shows a reason with every refusal; match the message to one setting before editing anything.
| Message or symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| Coupon does not exist | Spelling, or the coupon is in draft or trash |
| Coupon has expired | Expiry date reached (it ends at the start of that date) |
| Minimum spend not met | Cart subtotal below the minimum |
| Not applicable to selected products | Product or category restrictions exclude the cart items |
| Usage limit reached | Total or per-user limit used up |
| Not valid for your email | Billing email not on the allowed list |
| No coupon field at all | Coupons disabled, or field hidden in the checkout block |
If checkout fails for other reasons, WooCommerce checkout not working covers payment and plugin conflicts.
How do you run a festive coupon without hurting margins?
Cap total redemptions to the discount budget you can afford, exclude low-margin categories, block stacking, and give each channel its own code so you can see which one paid off. Diwali, Navratri and end-of-season sales bring traffic spikes that meet any uncapped code.
- One code per channel:
INSTA10,EMAIL10,WHATSAPP10. - Usage limit per user set to 1 for first-order offers.
- Exclude sale items when prices are already reduced.
- Recover abandoned carts with a time-limited code; see abandoned cart recovery.
When a discount is shown on the invoice at the time of sale, GST is charged on the discounted value; the WooCommerce GST invoice guide covers the invoice fields.
Can your hosting handle a coupon campaign?
Coupons are configured inside WordPress, but the hosting decides whether cart and checkout stay fast when a campaign sends a spike of shoppers. Cart and checkout pages cannot be fully cached, so they lean on CPU and PHP workers.
A small WooCommerce store can run from ₹300 a month on WebJi®’s entry shared plan before 18% GST, and bigger stores are quoted per catalogue and peak traffic on WooCommerce hosting. Ask support@webji.services about capacity a week before the sale, not during it. Speeding up WooCommerce covers the store-side fixes.
Frequently asked questions
Can customers use more than one coupon on an order?
Yes, by default WooCommerce allows several coupons on one cart. Tick “Individual use only” on a coupon to stop it combining with others. Test stacked codes on a real cart, because a percentage and a fixed cart discount together can cut deeper than intended.
How do I create many unique coupon codes at once?
Core WooCommerce creates coupons one at a time. For hundreds of single-use codes, use a bulk coupon plugin or WP-CLI scripts, and set each code’s usage limit to one so a leaked code cannot be shared widely.
Can a coupon apply automatically without a code?
Not in core WooCommerce; customers must enter the code, or you can share a link that applies it using a plugin. For automatic cart discounts, such as buy-two-get-one, a dynamic pricing plugin is the usual route.
How do I see how many times a coupon was used?
The Marketing → Coupons list shows a usage count for each code, and WooCommerce Analytics has a Coupons report with orders and discount totals by date range. Use separate codes per channel to compare campaigns.
Last editorial update: 15 November 2026. Prices follow the dated sources on this page; checkout confirms current charges.
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