In a recent Business Bloomer Club discussion, a question arose regarding WooCommerce’s handling of decimal rounding, especially when discounts introduce fractional amounts.
A common scenario involves applying a percentage discount to a product price, leading to numbers that extend beyond WooCommerce’s typical two-decimal rounding.
While WooCommerce correctly calculates subtotals using the full decimal value, this can sometimes result in minor inconsistencies between displayed price and subtotal that may appear confusing to customers. Let’s explore how to address this and ensure a smooth user experience.
The Problem with Rounding in Discounts
Imagine a product priced at $29.01 with a 50% discount applied via WooCommerce’s code:
$cart_item['data']->set_price($price * 0.5);
This would calculate to $14.505, which WooCommerce rounds to $14.51 when displayed on the product page due to the standard two-decimal setting.
However, when a customer adds two items to the cart, WooCommerce calculates the subtotal based on the actual unrounded number, resulting in a subtotal of $29.01. While accurate, this could confuse customers expecting a subtotal of $29.02, based on the rounded display price.
WooCommerce’s Rounding Logic
WooCommerce’s rounding operates primarily at the display level. Internally, it keeps calculations based on full decimal values to ensure accuracy. However, when it comes to complex pricing models involving discounts or taxes, these rounding differences can seem misleading.
This is especially apparent when discounts are applied on non-whole dollar amounts, as fractional values are almost inevitable.
Shopify vs. WooCommerce: How Other Platforms Handle It
Some eCommerce platforms, like Shopify, allow users to manage display vs. calculation rounding separately, offering flexible settings for rounding calculations. Unfortunately, WooCommerce lacks an out-of-the-box solution to display different rounded values for individual line items and cart totals.
Therefore, store owners need to adopt custom approaches to manage these rounding issues effectively.
A Solution: Using Three Decimal Points and Omitting Zeros
For WooCommerce store owners encountering this challenge, one practical solution is adjusting WooCommerce’s decimal settings to accommodate three decimal points.
To maintain readability, an additional code snippet can remove trailing zeros, ensuring customers see two decimals where possible but three decimals when needed. Here’s how to implement this approach:
- Set Three Decimal Places in WooCommerce
Navigate to WooCommerce settings and increase the decimal point setting to three. This adjustment allows WooCommerce to display and calculate using three decimals, minimizing rounding discrepancies. - Use Custom Code to Remove Unnecessary Zeros
To ensure that prices remain readable and display only necessary decimals, apply this code snippet to trim trailing zeros:
add_filter('woocommerce_price_trim_zeros', '__return_true');
This function helps WooCommerce display prices with two decimals where appropriate, yet retains three decimals where exact calculations require it.
- Inform Customers about Pricing Calculations
Finally, to further alleviate potential customer confusion, consider adding a short note in the cart or checkout page, explaining that subtotal calculations reflect accurate price values beyond the visible two decimals. This transparency can help manage customer expectations.
Conclusion
Rounding issues with discounts and fractional prices in WooCommerce can sometimes lead to minor customer confusion. By modifying WooCommerce’s decimal settings and applying a custom code snippet to manage trailing zeros, store owners can better align the displayed prices and cart totals.
While WooCommerce doesn’t currently offer a fully customizable rounding feature, these adjustments can help bridge the gap and improve customer clarity in the shopping experience.
For further insights and similar WooCommerce discussions, join us in the Business Bloomer Club, where we share solutions for real-world WooCommerce scenarios.
