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Store credit

You can display store credit as a payment method at checkout. After you issue store credit to a customer, they can apply their store credit at checkout when logged in to your online store through new customer accounts.

Review the following examples of when you might want to issue store credit to a customer:

  • as a goodwill gesture
  • as a form of customer retention
  • as part of a marketing campaign
  • as a reward or incentive, such as a loyalty or referral program

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Manage store credit

Store credit is activated on your store by default. You can manage whether to display store credit as a payment method from the Customer accounts settings of your Shopify admin.

To manage whether store credit displays as a payment method, a staff member must have the Store credit staff permission. Learn more about managing staff accounts.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Customer accounts.
  2. Tap the store credit toggle button in the New customer accounts section.

Accepting store credit at checkout

Customers can use their store credit as a payment method on your store only when logged in through new customer accounts. To support customer login using new customer accounts, use one of the following options:

Considerations for accepting store credit as a payment method

Before you set up store credit as a payment method, review the following considerations:

  • Store credit is available as a payment method only on your online store, and isn't accepted on other sales channels. For example, customers can't pay using store credit on the Shop app.
  • Store credit can't be used as a payment method on draft orders, edited orders, B2B orders, or Point of Sale (POS) transactions.
  • Customers can use store credit towards the initial purchase of a subscription, but not towards recurring subscription bills.
  • If a customer has store credit issued to their account in multiple currencies, then only the store credit balance that matches the currency of your checkout displays to the customer at checkout.
  • Only the full store credit amount can be applied as a payment method. Customers can't select a partial amount of their store credit to pay for an order.

Store credit expiration dates

You can set up an expiration date for your store credit. Review the following considerations when setting up an expiration date for store credit:

  • Before you set an expiration date for store credit, ensure that you check the laws for store credit expiry dates in your country.
  • Store credit expires on the expiration date that you set, at the end of the day in the timezone of your online store. If a customer is located in a different timezone than your store, then the store credit expires according to your timezone, and not your customer's timezone.
  • If a customer has multiple store credits with different expiration dates, then the balance is debited from the credit that has the closest expiry date. For example, you issue 10 USD in store credit that expires on March 10, 2024 to a customer account. The next day, you issue 10 USD in store credit that expires on March 15, 2024 to the same customer. If the customer spends 10 USD using store credit on March 9, 2024, then the credit with the March 10, 2024 expiry date is debited because it expires first. A store credit balance of 10 USD expiring on March 15, 2024 remains on their account.

Issue store credit to a customer account

You can issue store credit to a customer from your Shopify admin. After you issue store credit to a customer, the value of the store credit displays in the Store credit section of their customer profile.

To issue store credit to a customer account, a staff member must have the Store credit and Edit store credit staff permissions. Learn more about managing staff accounts.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Customers.
  2. Click the customer profile that you want to issue store credit for.
  3. In the Store credit section, click Edit.
  4. In the Adjustment section, select Credit.
  5. Optional: If your store accepts multiple currencies, then in the Currency drop-down menu, select the currency that you want to issue store credit in.
  6. In the Amount field, enter the value of credit that you want to issue.
  7. In the Expiration date section, do either of the following:
    • To issue store credit that doesn't expire, select No expiry date.
    • To add an expiry date to the store credit, select Set expiry date, and then select an expiry date from the calendar. Learn more about store credit expiry dates.
  8. Click Review changes.
  9. Click Credit {Amount} to issue the store credit.

After you issue the store credit, the customer's balance increases in the Store credit section of their profile, and displays as an event in the customer timeline.

To learn more about store credit transactions, refer to storeCreditAccountCredit in Shopify's developer documentation.

Remove store credit from a customer account

You can remove or decrease a customer account's store credit balance on their customer profile from your Shopify admin.

To debit store credit from a customer account, a staff member must have the Store credit and Edit store credit staff permissions. Learn more about managing staff accounts.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Customers.
  2. Click the customer profile that you want to debit store credit from.
  3. In the Store credit section, click Edit.
  4. In the Edit balance dialog, in the Adjustment section, select Debit.
  5. Optional: If the customer has store credit in multiple currencies, then in the Currency drop-down menu, select the currency that you want to debit store credit in.
  6. In the Amount field, enter the dollar amount that you want to debit.
  7. Click Review changes.
  8. Click Debit to decrease the customer's store credit balance.

After you successfully debit store credit, the customer's balance decreases in the Store credit section of their customer profile, and displays as an event in the customer timeline.

To learn more about debit transactions, refer to storeCreditAccountDebit in Shopify's developer documentation.

Refunding store credit

If a customer uses store credit as a payment method for an order, and later requests a refund, then store credit displays as a Refund amount when you refund an order.

You can refund only the value of store credit that a customer initially used as a payment method towards their order. You can't offer store credit as a refund for orders paid for using other payment methods, such as a credit card.

View a customer's store credit balance

You can view a customer's store credit balance and transactional history from your Shopify admin in their customer profile. This includes the customer's current balance, and expirable amounts when applicable.

To view the details of a customer's store credit transactions, a staff member must have the Store credit and View store credit transactions staff permissions. Learn more about managing staff accounts.

If there have never been any expirable amounts on a customer's store credit balance, then you can view only a transaction history.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Customers, and then click the customer profile that you want to view.
  2. In the Store credit section, click the customer's store credit balance.
  3. Review any of the following information about the customer's store credit transactions:
    • Click All transactions to view all of the store credit transactions to date on the customer account. Click on any transaction row to learn more details about a transaction, such as the amount, transaction date, source, and transaction ID.
    • Click Expirable amounts to view only store credit with an expiry date on the customer account.

Customer experience

When a customer has store credit available to them, and they're logged into their new customer account on your store, the value of their store credit displays at checkout in the Store credit section. The customer can select Apply store credit to use their store credit as a payment method.

A customer can view their store credit balance in their account details when they're logged into their customer account. Learn more about the customer experience for new customer accounts.

Store credit analytics

Store credit displays as a payment provider in the following reports:

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