WooCommerce category discount: 20 percent off a whole category, variations included

Which method should you choose?

Before you start, decide whether the customer should see a struck-through price already in the product list, or whether the discount should only apply after entering a code.

How to plan the start and end so the promotion switches itself off is covered in the post on the WooCommerce sale schedule. Coupons restricted to a category are described in the post on WooCommerce discount codes. Here we focus on setting the discount itself for all products in a category.

How to set a category discount step by step

Simple products first, then variations.

1. Export the category's products with regular and sale prices. That is your copy if something goes wrong.
2. Go to Products > All Products and filter the list by category. If there are more products than fit on a page, increase the number shown in Screen Options.
3. Select all the products and choose Edit from the bulk actions.
4. In the sale price field, choose the option to set the regular price decreased by a fixed amount or percentage, and enter, for example, 20%.
5. Save and look through the list. Simple products now have a struck-through price. Variable products are unchanged.
6. Open each variable product, go to the variations and set sale prices with the action for all variations. That is also where you set the sale dates.
7. Finally open the category in the store as a customer and check a few products, including a variable one.

How the sale price fields and their dates work in the product editor is described in the documentation on product editor settings. The actions for all variations at once are covered under variable products.

Where a category discount most often falls apart

In a category with a few products you see everything at once. With several dozen, three things are easy to miss.

Variable products. Bulk edit does not lower them, and they are usually the best-selling products with sizes and colours. The customer then sees a “20% off” category in which their T-shirt costs the same as yesterday.

Products in several categories. The filter shows all products assigned to the category, including those that are in it as an extra. Sometimes a product that was meant to stay at full price gets the discount.

Rounding. 20% off €79.99 gives €63.992. WooCommerce rounds the displayed price, but the price in the database may have more decimal places. If you want neat prices, enter them instead of a percentage.

Remember the information duty as well. With every announced discount you must show the lowest price from the 30 days before it. The rule comes from the EU Omnibus Directive (Directive 2019/2161). Practical examples of labelling discounts were collected by the Polish agency PARP in an article on how to label price reductions correctly (in Polish). WooCommerce does not calculate this price by itself, you need a plugin for it. TellMyShop does not calculate it either.

How to choose the size of a category discount

Start with the margin, not a round number. 20% off a category where some products have a low margin can mean selling below cost. Go through the category and leave out products where a discount makes no sense, or give them a smaller one.

The second thing is the goal. A promotion meant to clear the last items can cover only products with low stock. A promotion meant to bring in new customers works better on products that already sell well. Write the goal down before the start, because after the sale only the goal tells you whether it worked.

How the chat sets a discount on a whole category

The TellMyShop plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce connects your store to your chat (Claude or ChatGPT). In TellMyShop Pro the chat sets sale prices for all products in a category, variations included, with a start and end date. It does this once the Sales switch is on in the plugin panel. The switch covers prices, promotions, discount codes, stock, variations and shipping, and stays on until you turn it off. Without it, the chat prepares a preview, but saving will not work.

With a large category the chat first checks whether the work fits within the hourly limits set in the panel, then shows a preview with the number of products and examples.