Ultimate Guide on WooCommerce Tiered Pricing 2021

A good product added with a great pricing plan is a force to be reckoned with.

Lots of businesses treat pricing as some sort of a math problem or, worse, an afterthought. Pricing is an art, one that relies on psychology as much as it does on marketing.

Setting a great price for the products you sell with the WooCommerce store is one of the imperative decisions you make in business. If you’ve set pricing for your offers that you think are the best and never changed it then maybe you’re doing it all wrong!

It’s time to use an effective pricing strategy to fetch you more conversions and profits!

So, let’s take a look at one of the best Pricing strategies that’ll help you achieve that – ‘Tiered Pricing’.

What is Tiered Pricing?

Now, before we dive deep, let’s quickly understand what tiered pricing really means.

Tiered Pricing is an effective marketing strategy to encourage buyers to buy more quantities of a product by raising the price or giving discounts based on the quantity they order. It all boils down to one secret sauce recipe.

These discounts are”tiered” like a combo offer. The higher the purchase order, the greater the discounts. Tiered pricing is a great pricing method for your buyers as well! When they get the best deals, it also increases their loyalty towards your business.

A perfect win-win situation for you and your customers!

Now that you know what tiered pricing is, let’s dive deeper into some examples of business models where this strategy is implemented.

Examples of business models where tiered pricing can be implemented.

1. Wholesale business

Today, most of the wholesalers are B2B, meaning it’s a situation where a business makes a commercial transaction with another potential business. Wholesale is a widely used business model.

Wholesalers try to sell their products in bulk at the best price.

For example: $20/t-shirt for 1-5 pieces or $15/t-shirt for 5-10 pieces

Some wholesalers are able to do this by eliminating a mediator to buy goods. And, thus it allows their customers to buy a bunch of products at a discounted rate.

However, wholesalers usually set a certain retail price, in addition to the wholesale price to guide retailers.

Now, how do you calculate and set pricing if you’re a wholesaler?

Here’s a simple formula:

Wholesale price = Cost of Sales + Wholesale markup percentage

We know it’s pretty complicated. So, here’s a simplified example for you:

Sam, a men’s apparel online store owner, sells some grey shirts at $40 to each of his retailers on his website. And, then those retailers sell the shirt at the recommended retail price of $90 to the end buyer.

This kind of pricing method is used by wholesalers who sell physical goods like books, accessories, apparel, sports equipment, etc.

2. SaaS subscriptions

If you sell SaaS (Software as a Service) products, you may choose to sell your product subscriptions or licenses by applying tiered pricing.

For example, if you’re offering internet data subscription plans, tiered pricing can work in the following way:

Basic	Standard	Premium
2GB for $40 per month	3GB for $50 per month	5GB for $60 per month

3. Food items

Online food ordering is in full-swing in today’s fast-paced world. There was a time when iconic brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks were using a tiered pricing strategy to make some cash flow and increase their revenue.

Even today, Mcdonald’s sells burgers as a meal which is also a kind of pricing strategy. Like hey, if you buy a coke and fries with your regular burger, you’ll have a happy meal!

So, if you’re selling food on your online store, you can set pricing like this:

5 donuts for $20

10 donuts for $30

20 donuts for $40

4. Art websites or photography websites

If you have an art or photography website, then tired pricing is something that you must employ.

And, if you’re a student or amateur, you probably have a cool portfolio to showcase your skills. But, that may not be enough to grow your business.

To keep your business income consistent and earn more in a single order – set tiered pricing for your work, try selling your services in bulk, and watch your life become easier.

Here’s an example, you can charge $25 for editing a single photo or $150 for creating and editing a portfolio of 8 photos

With tiered pricing, you can create attractive packages and earn way more than normal pricing.

The trick lies in how you present your pricing in a bulk where your client also feels okay about it.

Benefits of using Tiered Pricing

As an admin, the first question we tend to ask ourselves when listening to a plan or a pitch is – ‘What’s in it for me?’

Well, let’s find out!

1. Increase Average Order Value

That’s right! With tiered pricing, you can easily encourage your buyers to increase their purchase quantity and avail the discounts.

Let’s look at how tiered pricing can increase an Average Order Value with a hypothetical example:

If your online store made a total revenue of $1,500 out of 100 orders, your average order value would be $15. So this simply means that, on average, a customer will spend $15 for each purchase from your store.

As you increase the pricing with each order, say you sold two products for $35 as a combo instead of $30 for those two products if bought separately, you get $5 more for the deal. This, in turn, boosts your average revenue by up to 10 – 20%.

Pretty cool right? So, that’s how tiered pricing increases your Average Order Value.

2. Provide more choices to customers

Shoppers are obsessed with choices. They love it when they get multiple choices to buy a product.

So, using tiered pricing, you can allow them to make more choices about products as they buy two or more products in a bulk purchase.

Not only that, but you can also combine and sell products that complement each other. For instance, you can sell a shirt along with trousers and shoes that go well with it.

Even Amazon uses a similar strategy on its website – ‘People who bought this also bought’ so and so products.

By implementing this, you can provide more choices to customers and in turn, make them buy more products from your online store.

3. Increased conversion

Tiered pricing can attract more people than you think. When you advertise or showcase your product that screams “OFFER’’, your customers are more likely to click on it and land on your online store to check it out.

Not to mention, people often can’t resist the urge to buy products in a combo that lure them with a discount.

4. Quicker Inventory turnover

Inventory turnover is vital for every e-commerce business. And, a quicker inventory model is definitely an added advantage. It is essentially the amount of stock or inventory sold in a particular period of time.

Knowing your store’s inventory turnover gives you many important insights into what products are selling best and how the online store system manages its entire cash flow.

Now, how can you calculate the inventory turnover ratio?

This is the key formula:

Cost of products sold / average inventory = inventory turnover ratio

A quick and high inventory turnover means good revenue, as the demand for your products is high.

And, tiered pricing works best to increase the frequency of products a customer buys in a certain period of time because the customers find bundles to be more valuable than buying individual products.

In a nutshell, a customer is more likely to buy products when offered in a bundle.

A smart pricing strategy like tiered pricing can be the wheels to your cart that carries your online store.

5. Increased Customer loyalty

You know your customers are loyal when they are satisfied with your products and refer them to their friends! So, how does this precious loyalty increase?

In tiered pricing, the focus should be on the correct value and pricing of the product bundle that you’re offering to your buyers. Here, you should also consider highlighting your products’ features so that a customer knows exactly what they’re paying for.

This gives them the idea that they’re investing in the right product and getting the best deal.

In simple words, you should allow your customers to understand the perk they get for their money, ensuring more purchase of your products in near future.

Now that you’re aware of the benefits, let’s learn how you can implement tiered pricing on your online store right away.

Creating Tiered Pricing in your WooCommerce Store

Step 1 – Install & Activate a WooCommerce tiered pricing plugin

Integrating WooCommerce tiered pricing to your online store is a great start to encourage your customers to purchase more per transaction.

And, to do that, the very first step is to install a tiered pricing add-on.

Now, while there are lots of plugins that’ll help you create tiered pricing, however, we recommend going with the WISDM Customer Specific Pricing plugin.

This is because:

The WISDM Customer Specific Pricing plugin is developed and created by WisdmLabs who are certified WooExperts.
Plus, the add-on has a great track record when it comes to its support, features, and its easy setup process.
And, it has been rated at an almost-perfect score of 4.8/5 by over 3500 customers.

This add-on comes with tons of features and also allows you to experiment with discounting strategies to hike up your value of orders.

It’s specially made to manage and boost your business with tiered pricing. It helps you retain your customers and builds loyalty by setting specific or personalized prices for your customers.

Moreover, you can also create special offers for some product quantities or categories. And, it even allows you to set cart discount rules and multiple tiered pricing for bulk product purchases.

So, if you’ve decided to go ahead with WISDM Customer Specific Pricing, then let’s move on to the next step.

Step 2 – Create tiered pricing rules for users/roles/groups

This is the step where all the magic happens.

With the WISDM Customer Specific Pricing add-on, you’ll be able to create tiered pricing for simple and variations of variable products.

Now, to select the type of product and set tiered pricing, hop on to

WordPress Dashboard
Hit the ‘All products button’
Choose the product to edit or add a new product

In here, you’ll be able to create tiered pricing for simple and variable products.

You can select the type of product from the Product Data tab. And, the image below is an example of a Simple Product chosen for tiered pricing.

Similarly, you can repeat the step for the variable product and select the same from the drop-down tab.

Note: CSP section – variable product variation.

Now, upon selecting the type of product, you can now move ahead towards 3 pricing options available for simple and variable products:

User/Customer-Based Pricing
Role-Based Pricing
Group-Based Pricing

With the WISDM Customer Specific Pricing, you can set tiered prices for each customer based on the quantity of the products they buy!

For example,

Customer A will see $50 for 5 pairs of sneakers. Another customer, B will see $100 for 2 pairs of the same sneakers. This means, you can set the rules based on the quantity they buy – the more the better.
Another way to create tiered pricing is – A customer will see $50 for 5 pairs of Sneakers. And, the same customer will see $40 for 2 pairs of Sneakers.
And, the third way is – when Customer X sees $10 for 5 pairs of Sneakers whereas, customer Y will see $20 for the same pair of Sneakers for the same quantity of 5.

The above 3 ways give you an insight into how you can use this plugin to create tiered pricing.

Now, let’s take a look at how it works:

a) User/Customer- Based Pricing

The given steps will have to be followed to fix a personalized product price for individual customers.

Simply expand the ‘Customer-Based Pricing’ tab and just click on the ‘Add New Customer-Price Pair’ button if the ‘Customer-Price’ setting is not available.

For Variable Products, there won’t be an ‘Add New Customer-Price Pair’ button. Instead, you will need to use the ‘+’ button to add a Customer-Price Pair.

Select,

A ‘Customer Name’ from the drop-down list,
Your ‘Discount Type‘,
Add the ‘Min.Qty‘ you want to set,
Then, add a specific ‘value’ for the customer. (Choose any value for the discount type ‘flat pricing’, a value between 0 – 100 for the discount type ‘% discount’ you’d like).

Here’s an example – The add-on enables you to set pricing where a user ‘Leo’ will see $10 for a single shirt whereas, another user ‘Mia’ will see $25 for the same shirt for quantity 3.

You can refer to the image given below:

b) Role-Based Pricing

The given steps should be followed to define role-based product prices for some users such as Customers, Subscribers, etc defined in the system.

Simply expand the ‘Role Based Pricing’ tab and just click on the ‘Add New Role-Price Pair’ button if the ‘Role-Price’ setting is not available at the moment.For Variable Products, you will find the ‘+’ button to add a Role-Price Pair instead of an ‘Add New Role-Price Pair’.
Now, select a ‘User Role’ from the drop-down list, the ‘Discount Type‘ you’d like to choose, the ‘Min Qty‘ you’d like to assign, and add an appropriate ‘Value’ for that user role.

Here’s an example – it enables you to set pricing where the ‘Authors’ will see $50 for a set of 5 books whereas, ‘Customers’ will see $150 for the same set of books and for the same quantity.

Refer to this image for guidance:

c) Group Based Pricing

If you want to set custom rates for user groups defined in the system then you should follow the steps given below:

First, expand the ‘Group Based Pricing’ tab and then click on the ‘Add New Group-Price Pair’ button in case the ‘Group-Price’ setting is not available.To add for Variable Products, you need to use the ‘+’ button to add a Group-Price Pair as there isn’t an ‘Add New Group-Price Pair’ button.
Now, select a suitable ‘Group Name’ from the drop-down list, choose the ‘Discount Type‘ you think works and set an estimated ‘Min Qty‘, and add then a ‘Value’ for the group which you selected.

Here’s an example – this plugin enables you to set pricing for ‘existing customers’ who will see $30 for a shirt for quantity 3 whereas, ‘new customers’ will see $60 for the same shirt for the quantity of 3.

See the image below to get a clear idea:

And, with that, you’re good to get going and let the plugin work it’s magic!

Step 3 – Test the tiered pricing rules

Now, this is the last and important step to consider once you’re done creating pricing tiers.

Here, we’d suggest you first test the tiered pricing rule at the front end before going live. Make sure it’s working fine just the way you like it.

And, once you’re satisfied, go ahead, make it live, and let the show begin!

Final Thoughts,

So, that was our ultimate guide on WooCommerce Tiered Pricing!

Today, businesses like Amazon, Chargebee (a subscription billing software), HubSpot, etc. use tiered pricing successfully to increase their sales and revenues.

Now, before we part – if you’re someone who’s just getting started then I suggest you take some time to learn about it before you implement tiered pricing to make sure that you begin well and think about what works best for your business.

And, don’t forget to make a note of the important points or you can simply bookmark this post and visit again 🙂

But, in case, you already have some experience in marketing, you can get going with the WISDM Customer Specific Pricing plugin to scale your WooStore performance if you haven’t already.

We hope you found this article useful and, if you think there is something more that could be added to the guide, let us know in the comment section below. We’d love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading!

eCommerce, WooCommerce

What is Tiered Pricing?