How to Put Your Entire WooCommerce Store on Sale: A Beginner’s Guide
So, you want to slash prices and boost sales? Great idea! Putting your entire WooCommerce store on sale is a fantastic way to attract new customers, clear out old inventory, or celebrate a special occasion. But how do you do it without manually editing each product? Don’t worry, this guide is designed for WooCommerce newbies, and we’ll walk through the easiest and most efficient methods.
Think of it like this: it’s Black Friday. Do you want to spend hours individually marking down hundreds of items? Probably not! Let’s find a faster way.
Why Put Your Whole Store on Sale?
Before we dive in, let’s briefly touch on *why* you might want to do this:
- Boost Sales: Obvious, right? Sales attract attention and incentivize purchases.
- Clear Inventory: Get rid of slow-moving items to make room for new products. Think of that pile of Christmas-themed mugs after January 1st!
- Celebrate Special Occasions: Anniversaries, holidays, or even a slow sales period can be a great excuse for a sale.
- Attract New Customers: A store-wide sale can be the perfect bait to lure in new shoppers who might not have considered your store otherwise.
- Increase Brand Awareness: Sales can generate buzz and get people talking about your business.
- Sale Price: Find the “Sale Price” section. Use the dropdown to choose an action:
- “Change to…” followed by a percentage or fixed amount. Then enter your desired value. E.g., to apply a 20% discount, select “Change to…” followed by “% of regular price” and enter “80” (as 80% is the discounted price).
- “Increase by (fixed amount)” or “Increase by (%)” – increases the price.
- “Decrease by (fixed amount)” or “Decrease by (%)” – decrease the price.
- Category-Specific Sales: Set different discounts for different categories.
- Role-Based Pricing: Offer special discounts to specific user roles (e.g., members, wholesale customers).
- Scheduled Sales: Set up sales to start and end automatically, even weeks or months in advance.
- Dynamic Pricing: Adjust prices based on various factors (e.g., quantity purchased, time of day).
- WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing & Discounts: This is a comprehensive plugin with a wide range of features for creating complex pricing rules and promotions. It is generally regarded as the most feature-rich option.
- Discount Rules for WooCommerce: Offers a straightforward interface for creating discounts based on various criteria.
Method 1: Using WooCommerce’s Built-in Features (The Easiest Way)
WooCommerce offers a straightforward way to set a sale price for products, which can be automated to apply to your whole store if done strategically. Here’s how:
1. Edit Individual Products: This sounds counter-intuitive, but bear with me. We’re going to use a global attribute. Go to Products > All Products in your WordPress admin area.
2. Quick Edit: Find a product you want to put on sale. Hover over the product title and click on the “Quick Edit” link that appears.
3. Set the Sale Price: In the “Quick Edit” panel, you’ll see fields for “Regular Price” and “Sale Price.” Enter your regular price, and then enter the discounted price in the “Sale Price” field.
4. Schedule Your Sale (Optional): Notice the “Schedule” link? Click it to set the start and end dates for your sale. This is great for timed promotions! Imagine a “24-Hour Flash Sale!”
5. Update the Product: Click the “Update” button.
The Key to Making it Global: Bulk Editing
While the above seems like a single product edit, here’s how you can efficiently apply sales to multiple products:
6. Filter/Select Products: Go to Products > All Products. Use the filters at the top to select only the products you want to put on sale. You can filter by category, tag, etc. If you want to put everything on sale, just leave the filters blank. Note you can set the number of products shown per page in screen options top right. This might increase the number of pages you have to repeat the steps on, but it’s better for server performance.
7. Bulk Actions: Select all the products you want to put on sale by checking the box at the top of the list (or manually selecting them). From the “Bulk actions” dropdown menu, select “Edit” and click “Apply.”
8. Bulk Edit Sale Price: A new panel will appear with options to bulk edit your selected products.
9. Update: Click the “Update” button. Important: This will apply the changes to *all* the selected products on *that page*. If you have multiple pages of products, you’ll need to repeat these steps for each page.
Example:
Let’s say you want to offer a 15% discount on all t-shirts.
1. Go to Products > All Products.
2. Filter by the “T-Shirts” category.
3. Select all the products on the page.
4. Bulk Edit, choose “Decrease by (%)” and enter “15”.
5. Click “Update”.
6. Repeat for each page of T-Shirts.
Method 2: Using a Plugin (For More Advanced Control)
While the built-in WooCommerce method is great for simple sales, a plugin offers more advanced features like:
There are several excellent WooCommerce sale plugins available. Here are a few popular options:
To install and use a plugin:
1. Find a Plugin: Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress admin area. Search for “WooCommerce sale” or “WooCommerce discount” and browse the available options. Read reviews and check the plugin’s compatibility with your WooCommerce version.
2. Install and Activate: Click “Install Now” and then “Activate” for the plugin you choose.
3. Configure the Plugin: Each plugin has its own configuration options. Look for a new menu item or settings page related to the plugin. Follow the plugin’s instructions to set up your desired sales and discounts.
Example:
Let’s say you install “Discount Rules for WooCommerce” and want to set up a store-wide 20% discount for the next week.
1. Go to the plugin’s settings page (usually found under WooCommerce > Discount Rules).
2. Create a new discount rule.
3. Set the rule to apply to “All Products.”
4. Set the discount type to “Percentage Discount” and enter “20.”
5. Set the start and end dates for the sale.
6. Save the rule.
// Example: A simplified version of how a plugin might apply a discount
function apply_sale_price( $product_id, $discount_percentage ) {
$regular_price = get_post_meta( $product_id, '_regular_price', true );
$sale_price = $regular_price * (1 - ($discount_percentage / 100));
update_post_meta( $product_id, '_sale_price', $sale_price );
update_post_meta( $product_id, '_price', $sale_price ); // Important for variations
}
Method 3: Programmatically via Code (For Developers)
If you’re comfortable with code, you can create custom functions to apply discounts to your entire store. This gives you the most flexibility but requires technical knowledge. This option should only be chosen if you know how to code PHP.
Caution: Incorrect code can break your site. Always test code changes on a staging environment before applying them to your live site.
Here’s a basic example of how you might apply a 10% discount to all products:
<?php /**
$products = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $products->have_posts() ) {
while ( $products->have_posts() ) {
$products->the_post();
$product_id = get_the_ID();
// Get the regular price.
$regular_price = get_post_meta( $product_id, ‘_regular_price’, true );
// Calculate the sale price.
$sale_price = $regular_price * ( 1 – ( $discount_percentage / 100 ) );
// Update the sale price.
update_post_meta( $product_id, ‘_sale_price’, $sale_price );
// Update the price. Crucial for variations!
update_post_meta( $product_id, ‘_price’, $sale_price );
}
wp_reset_postdata();
}
}
// Example usage: Apply a 10% discount.
// Be VERY CAREFUL where and when you run this function!
// It will update ALL product prices. Ideally, you’d run this ONCE
// and then remove the code.
// my_apply_storewide_discount( 10 );
?>
Explanation:
1. Query Products: The code retrieves all products from your store using `WP_Query`.
2. Calculate Sale Price: It calculates the sale price based on the regular price and the specified discount percentage.
3. Update Meta Data: It updates the `_sale_price` and `_price` custom fields for each product. Updating `_price` is especially important if your store has product variations.
4. Important: The code is commented out. You would need to uncomment `my_apply_storewide_discount( 10 );` to run the function. Be extremely careful doing this. Consider adding it to a separate function and then calling that function in a one-time execution like a WP-CLI command.
Where to put this code?
- Child Theme’s `functions.php`: The safest option. Create a child theme for your main theme if you don’t already have one.
- Code Snippets Plugin: A plugin that allows you to add and manage code snippets without directly modifying your theme files. Search for “Code Snippets” in the WordPress plugin repository.
After running this code, remember to remove it or comment it out! You don’t want to accidentally keep running it every time the page loads.
Important Considerations Before Running Your Sale
- Inventory Management: Make sure you have enough stock to meet the potential demand.
- Shipping Costs: Review your shipping costs to ensure they’re still profitable with the discounted prices.
- Marketing: Promote your sale through email marketing, social media, and website banners. Let people know about it!
- Sale Duration: Decide how long you want the sale to last. A short, intense sale can create a sense of urgency, while a longer sale might attract more customers overall.
- Revert Prices: Plan how you will revert the products to their regular price. This can be manually or with the scheduling feature if used.
Conclusion
Putting your entire WooCommerce store on sale is a powerful way to boost sales and attract new customers. Choose the method that best suits your technical skills and your desired level of control. Whether you use WooCommerce’s built-in features, a plugin, or custom code, remember to plan carefully and promote your sale effectively to maximize your results. Now get out there and start selling!
