Store Credit Loyalty: Overview and Setup

We’ve taken our Loyalty functionality even further by integrating Shopify’s native store credit into our app, allowing merchants more freedom to create customer loyalty.

This article provides an overview of our native Shopify store credit integration, highlighting the steps needed to configure the store credit-based loyalty program. It also clarifies the possibilities this feature delivers and the limitations imposed by Shopify.

It’s imperative to understand that our native Shopify store credit integration requires enabling Shopify’s New Customer Accounts version.

Several steps are necessary for the store credit-based loyalty program to function properly.

3. Double-check that the “Customer accounts” option is enabled; otherwise, customers won't be able to see or use store credit.

4. The changes take place automatically without the need to save anything.

Your customers can earn native store credit for various loyalty actions, including placing orders, creating an account, celebrating their birthday, and engaging in social media activities.

To set up your desired earning rules, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Program → Earning rules section from within our app’s Loyalty dashboard; the interface will display all available predefined earning rules, including the edit pencil icons and the activation toggles.

Depending on the earning rule you’ve selected to edit, the modal might have more or fewer configurable settings. Nonetheless, one of the most important earning rules is “Place an order”, and some of the most relevant options for it are the following:

2b. Earning type — you can choose between “Incremental amounts” or “Fixed amounts”; we recommend “Incremental amounts” since it offers more earning flexibility.

— N.B.: Note that a customer’s store credit balance cannot be negative, so in case of order refunds or cancellations, our app can deduct only from a customer’s available store credit balance at most.

2c. Store credit issuing option — you can choose between rewarding store credit “Immediately when the order is created” or “After the order is fulfilled”.

— N.B.: Opting for “Immediately when the order is created” might create situations where customers place an initial order and are rewarded store credit, then they spend the store credit on another order, and decide to cancel or get a refund for the initial order; in these instances, the app won't be able to deduct the original amount of store credit because the customer's store credit balance can't be negative. Hence, choosing “After the order is fulfilled” can mitigate such situations.

2d. Expiration — you can tick this checkbox and set the number of “Days” during which the rewarded store credit can be used before expiring; the minimum amount is 1 day.

2e. Save — after being satisfied with your configuration, hitting “Save” will save your changes, but it won’t activate the rule by itself.

— N.B.: You should pay special attention to the “Reward type”, which should be set to “Store credit”; the configuration for the “Place an order” earning rule works with our POS integration once you configure it as described above.

We’ve made it possible for merchants to run a points-based loyalty program while still allowing their customers to redeem points for store credit, not only coupons. You can create specific store credit spending rules, as detailed below:

1. Title — you can name the spending rule anything you want; we recommend being specific with the denomination (e.g. “1 point for $1 in store credit”).

2. Points type — you can choose between “Fixed amounts” or “Incremental amounts”; choosing “Fixed amounts” will lock customers to a predefined number; opting for “Incremental amounts” allows customers to adjust the amount they wish to exchange.

3. Store credit — you can set both the “number of points” required for the exchange and the “amount of store credit” the customer receives.

4. Expiration — you are free to set how long the store credit is available before it expires.

5. Save — hitting it will create the spending rule, but it won’t activate it automatically.

1. Points cost — merchants can set the number of loyalty points needed for the exchange

2. Discount value — merchants can set the amount of store credit customers receive.

3. Save — hitting it will create the spending rule, but it won’t activate it automatically

1. You can hit the “Pencil” icon to edit the spending rule, or the “Trash” icon to delete it.

2. You need to hit the “Activation” toggle for each rule to enable it and allow customers to redeem loyalty points in exchange for store credit.

Our referral program feature enables merchants to reward both the referrer and the friend with store credit instead of points (only available to the referrer) or discounts (amount, percentage, free shipping).

It’s also possible to reward either the referrer or the friend with store credit, while the other receives points (only available to the referrer) or discounts.

The VIP program can be configured as a store credit-based VIP program instead of a points-based one.

— N.B.: Opting for a store credit-based VIP program will require that you select a different “Entry method” than “Points” since this entry method is compatible only with a points-based VIP program.

You have full freedom to set up tier-specific “Points for placing orders” based on store credit instead of points.

This section aims to clarify important aspects regarding store credit, in general, as well as how our store credit loyalty functionality works in specific situations.

Configuring the “Place an order” earning rule, whether general or tier-specific (if using the VIP functionality), will allow customers to earn store credit for their purchases.

For order refunds or cancellations, there are 2 scenarios:

1. If the “Earning type” is set to “Incremental amounts”, the amount of store credit proportional to the refund amount will be deducted from the customer's store credit balance.

2. If the “Earning type” is set to “Fixed amounts”, the amount of store credit originally given for that order will be deducted from the customer's balance.

In both cases, a customer’s store credit balance cannot be negative. Therefore, our app can deduct only from a customer’s available store credit balance, at most.

While our points-based loyalty supports multi-currency, the store credit-based loyalty has limited compatibility with multi-currency stores. This is due to how Shopify developed its checkout functionality.

Essentially, customers who receive store credit in a currency won’t be able to use it during checkout, should they specify a shipping address from another country.

That happens if you’ve set the “Entry method” to “Points”. Store credit doesn’t count towards a customer’s loyalty points. You’ll need to use either “Total spent” or “Order count”.

That’s entirely possible. While we recommend keeping loyalty rules consistent (i.e. either loyalty points or store credit), we’ve developed our store credit feature to accommodate a hybrid loyalty program.

You’re free to reward loyalty points for some actions and store credit for others. Furthermore, you can offer loyalty points in exchange for money discounts, free shipping, and store credit, both on the storefront and Shopify POS.