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Store credit is an amount of money held on one customer’s account, which that customer can spend on a later order. Each store credit carries an amount in one currency, a memo recording why it was given, and a running balance. The customer spends store credit at checkout, and the credit’s balance falls by the amount used. A store credit is attached to one named customer and cannot be transferred to anyone else. A gift card does a similar job, but a gift card holds its balance against a code that anyone can use. See Gift Cards. Stores issue credit to settle something without returning money to the customer’s card: a parcel that arrived late, a damaged item the customer decided to keep, or a price drop the week after they bought. Some B2B stores also use store credit as the way an account pays, topping a balance up and drawing it down over time rather than paying for each order separately. Store credit also appears without you issuing it. Refunding a return, an exchange or a claim to store credit puts the money on the customer’s account instead of back on their card, and a customer redeeming a gift card creates a store credit as well. Every store credit is money your store owes, whatever created it, which is why the Store Credits list totals them for you. To review store credit across every customer, navigate to Loyalty → Store Credits in the admin dashboard. To see one customer’s store credit, open that customer under Customers.

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Reviewing Store Credits

Loyalty → Store Credits lists every store credit in your store, with the total your store owes shown above the list. The Store Credits list, with the outstanding balance cards above it

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Reading the Outstanding Balance

Above the table sits one card per currency you have issued credit in. Each card shows three figures: These three figures reflect whatever filter is active on the table below. With no filter applied, the cards show what your store owes across every customer. Filter the table by one customer, and the same cards show what that customer holds.
A gift card a customer redeems becomes a store credit, so the Issued figure counts gift card money alongside the credit you issued by hand.

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Filtering and Searching

The list can be narrowed by: The search box matches the memo, which is the free-text reason written when a credit is issued, or written by the process that created it.

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Where a Credit Came From

The Origin column names what created the store credit:
  • Gift card - A customer redeemed a gift card, and the balance moved onto their account.
  • Return, Exchange, Claim - A post-sale process refunded to store credit rather than to the original payment method.
  • Issued by hand - A staff member created the credit directly, usually as compensation or a goodwill gesture. The memo records why.

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Opening a Credit

Click a row to open that store credit’s details in a side panel. The panel is for reading: it shows what the credit is and what has happened to it, and changing the credit is a separate form covered in How to Edit Store Credit below. The top of the panel holds the credit’s details: Below the details sits the ledger, which lists every movement of that credit’s balance since it was created, newest first. A credit is allocated when it is created, authorized when a customer starts a checkout with it, and captured when that order is paid. If the order is canceled, the credit is voided or credited back. A store credit's detail panel, showing its fields and the ledger below them Three actions sit at the bottom of the panel: Delete, Open customer profile, which opens the customer who holds the credit, and Edit.

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Reviewing One Customer’s Credit

Every customer profile page has a Store credit card, and the summary across the top of that page carries a Store credit figure beside Total spent and Orders. If a customer has never been given store credit, the card reads “No store credits issued”. Once the customer has credit, the card lists one line per credit: Each line has its own menu at the end of the row, holding the same Edit and Delete actions as the Store Credits list.

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How to Issue Store Credit

Store credit can be issued from either screen. The form is the same on both, except for one field. From the Store Credits list, click Issue store credit in the top-right corner. The form opens with a Customer field at the top. Start typing an email address and select the customer from the list. From a customer’s page, click Issue store credit on their Store credit card. The customer is already known, so the form has no Customer field. The rest of the form is the same on both screens:
  • Amount - How much credit to give. The form cannot be submitted while Amount is blank.
  • Currency - The currency the credit is held in. Currency appears only when your store sells in more than one currency.
  • Memo - Why you are giving the credit, such as “Goodwill for a late delivery”, or the complaint the credit settles.
The Issue store credit form filled in with an amount of 25 GBP and a memo Click Issue store credit. The new credit appears on the customer’s Store credit card, and the Store credit figure at the top of their page goes up by that amount. The customer can spend the balance immediately. The credit’s origin is recorded as issued by hand, along with the staff member who issued it. Both appear on the credit’s details in the Store Credits list. Write a memo every time you issue credit. A balance nobody can explain is hard to defend when the customer, or your accountant, asks about it.

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How to Refund a Return as Store Credit

When you refund a return, you choose whether the money goes back to the original payment method or onto the customer’s account as store credit.
  1. Open the order. Once the returned items have been received, open the return’s menu and choose Refund.
  2. Check the Amount, which starts at the return’s refund total.
  3. Set Refund to to Store credit, then click Refund.
  4. The return is marked Refunded, and a new line appears on the customer’s Store credit card with a memo naming the return. That credit’s origin in the Store Credits list reads Return.
Creating, approving and receiving a return, which all happen before the refund, are covered in Returns.

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How to Edit Store Credit

The Edit form is where a credit is changed, and it is not the same as the read-only detail panel. Open it from the menu at the end of the credit’s row, either on the Store Credits list or on the customer’s page, or with Edit at the bottom of the credit’s detail panel.
  • The amount and the memo can both be changed while none of the credit has been spent.
  • The currency can never be changed, on a new store credit or an old one.
  • Once any of the credit has been spent, only the memo can be changed, because the money has already gone against an order.

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How to Delete Store Credit

If a store credit was given by mistake, for the wrong amount or to the wrong customer, delete it and issue a fresh one.
  1. Open the menu at the end of the credit’s row and choose Delete.
  2. A box asks you to confirm. Click Delete.
  3. The credit is removed, and the Store credit figure on the customer’s page drops by that amount. If it was the customer’s only store credit, the card goes back to “No store credits issued”.
A store credit that has been partly or fully spent cannot be deleted, because the money has already gone against an order.
Deleting a store credit takes its whole amount off the customer’s balance, and removes the line from both the customer’s page and the Store Credits list. Check that the customer has not been promised that money before you delete it.

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Further Reading

  • Gift Cards - Prepaid codes typed in at checkout, rather than credit held on one account
  • Customer Profiles - The rest of the customer page the Store credit card sits on
  • Returns - Creating, approving and receiving a return before you refund it
  • Refunding Orders - Refunding to the original payment method instead