Are customers abandoning carts due to high shipping costs or the nonavailability of their preferred shipping method?
Restrict WooCommerce coupons by shipping methods will surely reduce abandonments. And how to do that easily is what this article is all about.
Why restrict WooCommerce coupons by shipping methods?
Now shipping is considered as the ‘make or break‘ point of a consumer’s online purchase.
If it’s too costly, not as per customer’s preferred carrier, or inconvenient in some way, a potential customer will abandon the shopping cart. No doubts about that!
But if somehow you could arrange for the customer’s preferred shipping carrier. Or offer a bait that encourages customers to use a particular shipping method, conversions are bound to happen.
And that’s where restricting WooCommerce coupons by shipping methods work wonders.
Steps to restrict WooCommerce coupons by shipping methods
Look. The default WooCommerce coupons doesn’t provide this flexibility. But Smart Coupons, a plugin available on WooCommerce.com lets you choose any shipping method you want the coupon to get applied. Be it free shipping, local pickup, flat rate or any other.
For those who entered late, Smart Coupons provide a powerful, ‘all-in-one’ solution for gift cards, store credits, discount coupons and restrictions extending the core functionality of WooCommerce coupons.
This is also one of the best tricks to encourage your customers to use a particular shipping method.
Steps
- Create a new coupon or open an existing one.
- Go to the tab
Usage restrictions. - Look for the field
Shipping methods. Here you need to choose the shipping method/s on which you want to allow the usage of this coupon. - You can set other restrictions if you wish to.
- Publish or save the coupon.
Refer this Smart Coupons doc for more details
That’s it. You can also use shipping restrictions along with other advanced coupon restrictions like location, user role, product attributes, etc.
Five best use cases of restricting WooCommerce coupons by shipping methods
Don’t hesitate to use these on your store:
Flat rate shipping for heavy products
It takes effort and cost to pack bulky items in boxes and ship them. It is advisable to have a flat rate shipping where the product weight exceeds 15kg.
But as shipping costs are a concern for customers, a small discount coupon will reduce the burden on the shipping charges involved.
Upsell products eligible for Free shipping above an order total
Customers prefer waiting longer for the product than paying those shipping charges. So if you are already offering free shipping on an order total say above $100, upsell more feature-rich product at a discount.
As the product is already eligible for free shipping, customers won’t hesitate to spend a little more. This idea can work well during Thanksgiving as well.
Local pickup in remote location / central point
This will save you time and money on shipping and distribution. Customers will get their products quicker from the location closest to them. All this if you provide a discount on local pickup.
Cancel off shipping charges and taxes
$5 shipping charges or ‘Free shipping’…which one will you prefer?
Create a coupon of $5 which automatically gets applied. When customers see this, they feel the burden of shipping charges being removed.
This is a smart way to show customers you don’t charge for shipping.
Table rate shipping for worldwide selling
Table rate shipping is a good option when you sell worldwide. You easily know where the charges are high and how could you reduce them to encourage customers to make a purchase.
Say the charges to ship to Canada are higher. So you want only users of Canada opting for table rate shipping to apply the coupon. Using Smart Coupons plugin, select location as Canada and shipping method as Table rate. But before that, you also need to set up a shipping zone as Canada.
Conclusion
Shipping charges, even a single penny is a big load on customers’ heads. And a solid reason for abandonment.
So, be smart, restrict coupons based on shipping methods and encourage potential customers to make a purchase.
And for smart people, you have Smart Coupons to get this job done!