Do you want to set a coupon expiry date on your WooCommerce store? 

If yes, you are at the right place. In this article, we are going to show you how to set an expiry date and time for WooCommerce coupons. 

Are you having doubts about whether you need to set an expiry date for coupons in your store? Let’s begin by answering the obvious question. 

Why do you need to set an expiry date for WooCommerce coupons?

WooCommerce coupons are great! No doubt about that. Most store owners depend on the coupon system in WooCommerce for their marketing strategies. Like every other marketing activity WooCommerce coupons if not managed properly can also cause adverse effects on your store. 

Let’s say you have created a special discount coupon for Valentine’s day on your WooCommerce store and forget to manually remove it from your store coupons after the sale. So your customers will continue using the coupon, eating up your profits. 

Following are some major reasons why you should set an expiry date for coupons on your WooCommerce store: 

Creates a sense of urgency

Coupons with an expiry date create a sense of urgency for your customers. Customers will feel a fear of missing out if not acted quickly. If there is no expiry for coupons on your store site, your customers may not feel the exclusivity in getting a discount. They may even think about other alternatives and probably won’t purchase from your store. 

Increase conversion rate

Complementing the first point, the sense of urgency will result in faster conversion. Your customers will have less time to think about whether to proceed to checkout. This will speed up the conversion process and increase the conversion rate on your store site. 

Create holiday special discounts

Setting up an expiry date in coupons will let you create holiday special exclusive coupons on your store site. Holiday-specific coupons have a higher conversion rate than normal coupons. Customers are expecting discounts on holidays. You can create coupons for winter sale, summer sale, New year special discounts, and so on.

Automate coupon management

You can automate coupon management by setting up proper restrictions for your WooCommerce coupons. The coupon expiry date can help you automate coupon management with ease. Let’s say you are running a winter sale from December to January. 

You can automate the coupon to expire on January 31st. So your customers will not be able to avail of the winter sale discount coupon from February 1st onwards. 

Creates credibility

Imagine you created a discount coupon for a winter sale and it is still live in summer. This will create doubt in your customers about your store’s credibility. Yes, customers love discounts but that doesn’t mean they will be happy to use a ‘WINTER10’ coupon code during summer.

So that were some of the reasons why it is important to set an expiry date for WooCommerce coupons.

How to set an expiry date for WooCommerce coupons? 

Now, let us see how to set an expiration date for WooCommerce coupons.

Step 1: Navigate to WooCommerce coupons

Log in to your WordPress admin account. 

Then, from the admin panel navigate to Marketing and select Coupons.

Marketing > Coupons

Step 2: Create a new WooCommerce coupon

Click on the Add coupon button to create a new coupon on your WooCommerce store.

Add new coupon

Step 3: Enter a coupon code

Enter a coupon code and add a short description.

Enter coupon code and description

For example,

Coupon code: SUMMER 10

Description: Get 10% off on all products.

Step 4: Set coupon expiration date

Now scroll down to the Coupon data meta box.

Discount type: Choose a discount type. Let’s choose Percentage discount as the discount type.

Coupon amount: Here, choose a discount amount. We’ll choose 10. This will give a 10% discount for the products in our store.

Allow free shipping: Enable or disable this checkbox for providing free shipping for your customers. 

Coupon expiry date: Set an expiration date for your WooCommerce coupon from here. The coupon will expire at the set date. 

Coupon data general settings

Configure any other necessary settings for WooCommerce coupons and click on Publish to save the coupon.

Now, you have successfully set the expiry date for WooCommerce coupons.

How to set a start date and end date for WooCommerce coupons? Using free plugin

Sometimes you may want to create a start date and end date for WooCommerce coupons. This can be helpful for scheduling festival sales on your WooCommerce store. You can schedule coupons to go live from a date and they will automatically expire after the set date.

The default WooCommerce coupon fields do not have the option to create a start date, so we will need a third-party coupon plugin. For this tutorial, we will be using the Smart Coupons plugin by WebToffee.

Follow the below steps:

Step 1: Install Smart Coupons for WooCommerce

From your WordPress admin console, go to Plugins > Add New.

Search for ‘Smart Coupons For WooCommerce’ by WebToffee.

Smart Coupons for WooCommerce Coupons

Once you’ve located the plugin, click on Install Now to install the plugin.

Then activate the plugin.

Step 2: Add a new coupon

Navigate to Smart Coupons > Add coupon from your WordPress admin console.

Add coupon using Smart Coupons

Then enter a coupon code and add a short description.

Winter20 Coupon code and description

Step 3: Set coupon expiration period

Now, scroll down to the Coupon data meta box and select the General tab.

  • Choose the discount type and amount.
  • Then from the Coupon expiry date option, choose an expiry date for the coupon. 
  • Choose a start date for the coupon from the Coupon start date option.
  • Enable the Apply coupon automatically checkbox to automatically apply the coupon at the checkout. 
Set Coupon expiration period

This WooCommerce coupon plugin has some advanced features and usage restrictions. Configure any other options, and click on Publish to save the coupon.  

Smart Coupons for WooCommerce – An Overview

Smart Coupons plugin- An Overview

Smart Coupons for WooCommerce is a freemium coupon plugin by WebToffee. The plugin lets you create different types of coupon discounts on your store site. This WooCommerce coupon plugin solves all your coupon requirements. It offers a plethora of features to help you increase sales on your store site. 

You can create WooCommerce BOGO Coupons using this plugin. The plugin supports different variations of BOGO like Buy Two Get One, Buy Three, and get one at 30% off, and so on. You can configure auto-apply coupons with this plugin. This will automatically apply the coupon code once the coupon conditions are met at the checkout. 

Apart from that, you can also offer giveaways, sign-up coupons, cart abandonment coupons, exclusive coupons with count-down timers, and so on. The features of this coupon plugin go on and on. It also has an add-on for URL coupons. With this add-on, you can create unique URLs and QR codes for coupons. 

This WordPress coupon plugin also has a free version in the WordPress plugin library, with some basic coupon features. We have used the free version of this coupon plugin for this tutorial.

Conclusion

Setting up an expiry date for WooCommerce coupons can help you manage your store coupons easily. You don’t have to worry about manually deleting the coupons after the sale. Coupon expiration will help in creating a sense of urgency for your customers. 

If you are looking for the best coupon plugin for your WooCommerce store, check out our listicle on ‘Best WordPress Coupon Code Plugins’.

Do you find this article helpful? Let us know in the comments.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

Email Marketing Strategies for WordPress to Drive Audience Growth and Engagement

Email marketing involves sending messages to a group of people using e...

SureCart Review: The New Way to Sell on WordPress!

Creating and maintaining an online store can be hectic when you have a...

13+ Best Shopify Apps for Every Shopify Store Owner

This blog will explore and highlight some of the best Shopify apps tha...