Running a WooCommerce store means you often want to incentivize customers to buy more. One of the most effective strategies is offering automatic discounts when the cart reaches a certain total.

In this guide, we’ll show you step-by-step how to apply a discount automatically based on the cart total using custom code no additional plugins required.

Why Offer Cart Total Discounts?

Offering discounts based on the cart total can:

1. Increase Average Order Value (AOV): Encourage customers to spend more to unlock discounts.
2. Boost Customer Loyalty: Reward loyal customers with automatic savings.
3. Simplify Checkout: Automatic discounts remove the need for coupons, reducing friction.

Step 1: Determine Discount Rules

Decide the rules for your automatic discount. For example:

• 5% off for orders over $50
• 10% off for orders over $100
• 15% off for orders over $200

Step 2: Add PHP Snippet to Apply Discount

Copy the following code into your child theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin:

/**
 * WooCommerce: Apply automatic discount based on cart total
 * Author: Your Name
 * Updated: 2025
 */
add_action( 'woocommerce_cart_calculate_fees', 'custom_cart_total_discount' );

function custom_cart_total_discount( $cart ) {

    if ( is_admin() && ! defined( 'DOING_AJAX' ) )
        return;

    // Get cart total
    $cart_total = $cart->get_subtotal();

    // Define discount rules
    if ( $cart_total >= 200 ) {
        $discount = $cart_total * 0.15; // 15% discount
        $label = '15% Off Discount';
    } elseif ( $cart_total >= 100 ) {
        $discount = $cart_total * 0.10; // 10% discount
        $label = '10% Off Discount';
    } elseif ( $cart_total >= 50 ) {
        $discount = $cart_total * 0.05; // 5% discount
        $label = '5% Off Discount';
    } else {
        return;
    }

    // Apply discount
    $cart->add_fee( $label, -$discount );
}

How It Works

1. The snippet checks the cart subtotal.
2. It applies the highest applicable discount based on the rules.
3. The discount appears automatically in the cart and checkout page under fees.

Tip: You can customize this snippet to apply fixed discounts instead of percentages, or target specific products or categories.

Optional: Target Specific Categories

You can also apply discounts only if certain categories are in the cart:

$has_category = false;
foreach ( WC()->cart->get_cart() as $cart_item ) {
    if ( has_term( 'clothing', 'product_cat', $cart_item['product_id'] ) ) {
        $has_category = true;
        break;
    }
}

if ( $has_category ) {
    $cart->add_fee( 'Category Discount', -10 ); // $10 discount
}

Result

After adding this snippet:

• Discounts are applied automatically based on cart total.
• Customers see real-time savings during checkout.
• You encourage higher spend without relying on manual coupon codes.