How to Generate Free Shipping Coupon for Woocommerce Website

Introduction 

Free Shipping offers an enticing and effective means of increasing sales and delighting customers on your WooCommerce site. In any case, it is an extremely enticing offer that might make the difference between conversions and abandoned carts. Offering free shipping to all customers, regardless of the purchase details, of course, isn't necessarily realistic for every business. Here's a free shipping coupon, which makes for an effective alternative in such cases. This post details how you can create a free shipping coupon for woocommerce with the help of your WooCommerce website in a bid to earn more customers for your e-commerce site and keep tight management of the shipping expense. Raising the average order value, clearing out the inventory, or rewarding your loyal customers a cleverly timed free shipping coupon is bound to make all the difference to your online store.

Need to Offer Woocommerce Free Shipping Coupon

Here are some of the major reasons you should offer a WooCommerce free shipping offers:

• Reduce Abandonment, Raise Conversion Rates: Free shipping may be the incentive your buyers need to complete a purchase instead of abandoning their carts.
• Provide a Better Customer Experience: Free shipping will go a long way in offering them better customer service; high customer satisfaction goes usually hand-in-hand with repeat business.
• Raise Average Order Value: You will encourage more items per order by specifying a minimum value for the order to qualify for free shipping.
• Stay competitive: Most e-commerce portals make shipping free to some extent, so with a free shipping coupon, you remain competitive in the market.
• Promote Sales Events: Grab sales or promotional events and offer free shipping coupons to attract more buyers, which allows for a larger sales volume.
• Clear Excess Inventory: Free shipping on some products or categories will help drive off slow-moving inventory.
• Build Customer Loyalty: Make use of these coupons in return to loyal customers for better customer relationships.

How to Generate a Free Shipping Coupon for Woocommerce?

Creating a free shipping coupon in WooCommerce is a straightforward process that can significantly enhance your store’s appeal. By setting up this type of coupon, you can offer customers an attractive incentive to shop more, ultimately boosting your sales. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to easily generate a free shipping coupon for your WooCommerce website.

Method 1: Using In-Built Features

Creating a free shipping coupon in WooCommerce using the built-in features is simple and requires just a few steps. Here’s how to do it:

• Log in to your WordPress Dashboard: Navigate to your WordPress admin panel.
• Access the WooCommerce Coupons Section: Go to Marketing > Coupons or WooCommerce > Coupons, depending on your WooCommerce version.

• Add a New Coupon: Click on the “Add Coupon” button. Here, you can either generate a coupon code automatically or create a custom code.
• Set Coupon Details: In the “General” tab, enter the coupon code and description. Choose the “Discount type” as “Percentage discount” or “Fixed cart discount.” Enter the value “0” in the discount field, as the focus is on offering free shipping.
• Enable Free Shipping: Under the “Free shipping” checkbox in the “Usage restrictions” tab, enable free shipping for this coupon. Optionally, you can set a minimum spend requirement or other restrictions.
• Set Usage Limits: In the “Usage limits” tab, set restrictions on the number of times this coupon can be used per user or in total if needed.
• Publish the Coupon: Once all settings are configured, click “Publish” to make the coupon available for use.

Your customers can now apply the free shipping offers at checkout, benefiting from this attractive offer while you maintain control over your shipping costs.

Method 2: Using Plugins 

Creating a free shipping coupon for woocommerce using plugins offers additional flexibility and features that may not be available through WooCommerce’s built-in options. You can also go through our previous article where we've listed some of the best shipping plugins for woocommerce. Now, here’s how you can do it:

• Install and Activate the Plugin: Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard. Search for a plugin like “WooCommerce Advanced Coupons” or similar. Click Install Now and then Activate.
• Access the Plugin Settings: After activation, navigate to the plugin’s settings, usually found under WooCommerce > Coupons or directly in the plugin's menu.
• Create a New Coupon: Click on Add Coupon and enter a custom coupon code or let the plugin generate one for you.

• Configure Free Shipping: In the coupon settings, look for the free shipping options provided by the plugin. Enable free shipping for this coupon. Some plugins offer advanced rules like restricting woocommerce free shipping on specific products, categories, or customer roles.
• Set Additional Conditions: Plugins often allow more granular control. Set conditions like cart total, number of items, or customer location. You can also schedule the coupon for specific dates or limit usage to specific customers or user roles.
• Publish the Coupon: Once all settings are configured, save or publish the coupon.
• Test the Coupon: To ensure everything works correctly, add products to your cart, apply the coupon at checkout, and verify that free shipping is applied.

Using plugins to create free shipping coupons in WooCommerce provides more options to customize and optimize your promotional strategies, ensuring they align perfectly with your business needs.

Method 3: Using Manual Coding

Creating a free shipping coupon for woocommerce using manual coding involves adding custom code to your theme’s functions.php file. This method provides greater control and flexibility, allowing you to create unique rules or conditions for applying free shipping in woocommerce. To implement this technique, it is essential that your WordPress theme is flexible and can accommodate additional code snippets without causing compatibility issues.

This is where VW Themes truly excel. Their premium WordPress themes are designed with compatibility in mind, ensuring that you can seamlessly integrate external code snippets or custom functionality. Whether you are adding shortcodes, custom scripts, or modifying existing features, VW Themes provide a robust and reliable foundation that allows for easy customization while maintaining the stability and performance of your website. Here’s how you can do it:

• Access Your Theme’s Functions.php File: Log in to your WordPress dashboard. Go to Appearance > Theme File Editor. Select the functions.php file from the list on the right.
• Add the Custom Code: Insert the following code snippet at the end of your functions.php file:

$coupon_code = 'UNIQUECODE'; // Code created using the random string snippet.

$amount = '10'; // Amount

$discount_type = 'percent'; // Type: fixed_cart, percent, fixed_product, percent_product   

$coupon = array(

    'post_title' => $coupon_code,

    'post_content' => '',

    'post_status' => 'publish',

    'post_author' => 1,

    'post_type'     => 'shop_coupon'

);

$new_coupon_id = wp_insert_post( $coupon );

// Add meta for free shipping coupon for woocommerce

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'discount_type', $discount_type );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'coupon_amount', $amount );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'individual_use', 'no' );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'product_ids', '' );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'exclude_product_ids', '' );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'usage_limit', '' );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'date_expires', '1 May 2023' );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'apply_before_tax', 'yes' );

update_post_meta( $new_coupon_id, 'free_shipping', 'no' );

• Customize the Code: Replace 'FREESHIP' with your desired coupon code. You can modify the logic if you want to add further conditions, such as cart total or woocommerce free shipping on specific products category.
• Create the Coupon in WooCommerce: Go to WooCommerce > Coupons. Add a new coupon with the same code you used in the custom code (e.g., FREESHIP). Set the discount type to “Fixed Cart Discount” or “Percentage Discount” and leave the value at 0, as the free shipping coupon for woocommerce is handled by your custom code.
• Test the Code: Add products to your cart, apply the coupon, and verify that free shipping is enabled when the coupon code is used.
• Save and Monitor: Save your functions.php file. Monitor the checkout process to ensure the code functions as expected.

Important Notes:

• Always back-up your site before editing the functions.php file.
• If you’re unfamiliar with coding, consider using a child theme to prevent your changes from being overwritten during theme updates.

This manual coding approach allows for precise control over how and when free shipping is applied, making it ideal for custom scenarios that default WooCommerce features or plugins may not cover.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, we have outlined three effective methods to apply free shipping coupon for woocommerce website. The first method involves using WooCommerce's built-in features, which offer a simple and efficient way to set up free shipping options. The second method is through plugins, which provide additional flexibility and automation for managing your shipping rules.

For those who prefer a more customized approach, the third method allows you to add manual code snippets. However, this method requires a theme that is compatible with external code snippets, such as the ones provided by VW Themes. Their themes are designed to work seamlessly with custom code, ensuring smooth integration and functionality. You can also explore their WP theme bundle that have a collection of 250+ premium themes. These themes are perfect choice in the market for creating your online store. Being compatible with external code snippet is just one of it's feature. But these themes excel designs and functionality as well.

By utilizing the right method and theme, you can effectively offer free shipping in woocommerce, making your store more appealing to customers and driving more sales.