How to Make a Product Free in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
So, you want to offer a product for free in your WooCommerce store? Maybe it’s a lead magnet, a limited-time promotion, or a sampler to attract new customers. Whatever the reason, making a product free in WooCommerce is surprisingly simple. This guide breaks down a few methods, explaining why you might choose one over another and providing real-world examples. Let’s get started!
Why Offer Free Products?
Before we dive into the “how,” let’s quickly touch on the “why.” Offering free products can be a powerful marketing strategy. Here’s why:
- Lead Generation: Offering a free ebook or software plugin in exchange for an email address is a classic lead generation tactic. Imagine you’re offering a “7-Day Meal Plan for Weight Loss” (the free product) and collecting emails from visitors interested in a healthier lifestyle.
- Attracting New Customers: A free sample of your product line can entice hesitant buyers to try your brand. Think of a cosmetics company offering a free trial size of their best-selling moisturizer.
- Promotional Campaigns: Launching a new product? Offer a smaller, related product for free with every purchase. For example, offer a free screen protector with every phone case purchase.
- Building Brand Loyalty: Rewarding loyal customers with a free product on their birthday or anniversary can significantly strengthen your relationship.
- Driving Traffic: Announcing a free product offering through social media or email can generate buzz and direct traffic to your store.
- Specify the products the coupon applies to under “Products.” You can select one or more products.
- Consider setting a “Usage limit per coupon” to control how many times the coupon can be used.
- Cart total reaches a certain amount.
- Specific products are already in the cart.
- User belongs to a particular customer role.
- Shipping Costs: If you’re offering a physical product for free, consider how you’ll handle shipping costs. You might need to offer free shipping as well or charge a nominal fee.
- Inventory Management: Ensure you have enough stock of the free product to meet demand. WooCommerce will track the number of “purchases” of the free product, even if it’s $0.
- Clear Communication: Make it absolutely clear to customers that the product is free. Use prominent messaging on the product page, in the cart, and during checkout. Use phrases like “FREE! Just add to cart!“
- Don’t forget to test: Before announcing your offer, test the process yourself to make sure everything works correctly.
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Method 1: Setting the Price to Zero
The most straightforward way to make a product free is to simply set its price to zero.
1. Log Discover insights on How To Roll Back Woocommerce Version in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Go to Products > All Products.
3. Find the product you want to make free and click “Edit.”
4. In the “Product data” meta box, locate the “General” tab.
5. Set the “Regular price” to 0 (zero).
6. Click “Update” to save your changes.
Reasoning:
This method works perfectly when you want to offer the product *always* for free. It’s simple and doesn’t require any additional plugins.
Example:
You’re giving away a free PDF guide on “Setting Up Your First WooCommerce Store.” You set the price to $0, and customers can “purchase” it for free, typically after providing their email address.
Method 2: Using Coupons
Coupons provide more flexibility and control over who gets the free product and for how long.
1. Go to WooCommerce > Coupons.
2. Click “Add Coupon.”
3. Enter a “Coupon code” (e.g., FREEPRODUCT).
4. Under “Discount type,” choose “Fixed product discount.”
5. Enter the product’s price as the “Coupon amount.” For example, if the product costs $20, enter 20.
6. Go to the “Usage Restriction” tab.
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7. Click “Publish” to activate the coupon.
Reasoning:
Coupons are excellent for limited-time promotions, targeted campaigns, or rewarding specific customer groups. You can easily disable the coupon when the promotion ends.
Example:
You’re running a “Black Friday” promotion. Customers who use the coupon code `BLACKFRIDAY` get your premium WordPress theme for free. You set the coupon to expire at the end of the day.
Method 3: Conditional Logic with Plugins (Advanced)
For more complex scenarios, you might need a plugin that allows conditional logic. These plugins can offer free products based on specific conditions like:
Example Plugins:
* Conditional Free Products for WooCommerce by WP Desk
* WooCommerce Cart Based Fees (with a free product condition)
While the specific setup varies depending on the plugin, the general idea is:
1. Install and activate the chosen plugin.
2. Configure the plugin to add the free product to the cart when specific conditions are met.
Reasoning:
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This method is for advanced users who need highly customized free product offers. It requires a bit more technical expertise, but offers significant flexibility.
Example:
You want to give away a free “Travel Adapter” to customers who spend over $100 on travel accessories. The plugin automatically adds the Travel Adapter to their cart once they reach the $100 threshold.
Important Considerations:
Adding a simple notice to free products
To further enhance clarity, you can add a simple piece of code to your theme’s `functions.php` file to display a “Free!” notice on product pages that have a price of zero.
add_filter( 'woocommerce_get_price_html', 'custom_free_price_message', 100, 2 );
function custom_free_price_message( $price, $product ) {
if ( $product->get_price() == 0 ) {
$price = ‘Free!‘;
}
return $price;
}
This snippet adds a “Free!” message using a `` tag with the class `free-product-notice`, allowing you to style it using CSS. Remember to add appropriate CSS styling to your theme to make the notice visually appealing.
For example, in your `style.css` file:
.free-product-notice {
background-color: #4CAF50; /* Green background */
color: white; /* White text */
padding: 5px 10px; /* Padding around the text */
border-radius: 5px; /* Rounded corners */
font-weight: bold; /* Bold text */
margin-left: Discover insights on How To Figure Out Your Woocommerce Username And Password 10px; /* Space between the price and the notice */
}
This snippet makes the “Free!” notice stand out more clearly for your customers.
By understanding these methods and carefully planning your free product offers, you can effectively leverage this strategy to grow your WooCommerce store and attract a wider customer base. Good luck!
