Store credit is a balance that a store owes a customer and that the customer can spend only at that store. The store usually gives it instead of returning money to the original payment method, or as a goodwill gesture after a problem. The customer then uses the balance as payment on a later order.
For a shopper, the important questions are where the balance can be spent, whether it expires, and whether a cash refund was also an option. For a merchant, the decision comes earlier: who can hold a balance, in which currency, and what happens to it when an order changes.
Disclosure: Runner AI publishes this guide. The Runner example describes inspected source and integration-test scenarios, not a live transaction performed for this article.
Store credit vs. refund vs. gift card
The three can carry the same amount of money. They differ in who holds the value and where it can go.
- Refund. Money goes back to the payment method the customer used. The customer can spend it anywhere.
- Store credit. The store records a balance for one customer. It can be spent only at that store, and usually only by that customer.
- Gift card. The balance belongs to a code. Whoever holds the code can usually spend it, and it can be given to someone else.
That last point is the practical difference between store credit and a gift card. A gift card balance follows a code. Store credit follows a customer record. Shopify’s store credit help page, retrieved 2026-10-30, states that customers can use store credit “only when signed in through customer accounts or using Shop Pay.” Our guide to how gift cards work covers the code-based side.
When stores offer store credit
Stores commonly offer store credit in three situations.
- Returns. The customer sends an item back, and the store offers credit instead of, or in addition to, a refund.
- Price adjustments. An order was overcharged, or a promised discount did not apply, and the store settles the difference.
- Service recovery. A late or damaged order earns the customer a balance for next time.
Store credit keeps the value inside the store, which is why merchants like it. It also asks the customer to come back, which is why some shoppers prefer a refund. Before you make store credit the only option for a return, check your published policy and the consumer rules that apply where you sell. A refund to the original payment method can be required in some cases, and the order-level refund guide explains how a refund is scoped.
Five decisions before offering it
Write these down before the first customer asks.
- Who can hold a balance? Store credit needs a customer record. Decide what happens when the order was placed as a guest.
- Which currency? A balance in US dollars cannot pay a euro order without a conversion rule. Keep one balance per currency unless you have a stated rule.
- Does it expire? Shopify sets expiry per issuance, with no store-wide default for store credit. Whatever your platform allows, state the rule where the customer sees the balance.
- What can it pay for? Some products may be excluded, such as items a supplier ships for you.
- What happens on a cancellation? If a customer pays with credit and the order is canceled, the spent credit should come back to the same balance once, not twice.
How Runner’s store backend handles store credit
Runner’s store backend makes these decisions explicit in code. The behavior below comes from the gift card and store credit module in the store backend and the scenarios in gift-cards-store-credit.spec.ts.
Store credit needs an account. When a merchant settles money owed on an order as a credit line, creditOrderBalanceToStoreCredit adds that amount to the customer’s store credit. A guest order is refused with the message “Store credit can only be given to customers with an account. Refund the payment or issue a gift card instead.” At checkout, a guest cannot use store credit either.
One balance per customer and currency. The refund looks up the customer’s store credit account in the order’s currency and creates one if none exists. A balance in one currency does not pay an order in another.
Partial spending is normal. In the integration test, a signed-in customer spends part of the credit the merchant issued, the rest of the order is charged to a card, and the account history shows both entries.
The credit follows the cart. If the cart total drops below the applied credit, the credit shrinks with it instead of leaving a negative total. Taking credit off a cart restores the full total and leaves the account balance untouched.
Cancellation gives it back once. When an order paid partly with store credit is canceled, restoreCanceledOrderCredit credits the account with what checkout took. A marker on that credit stops a repeated cancel event from paying it back twice.
For the merchant-facing steps, use Runner’s gift card and store credit guide. It lists the switch that turns store credit on, where to see each customer’s balance, and the limit that store credit cannot pay for orders with dropshipped or print-on-demand items. For return decisions more broadly, see Runner’s returns management feature page.
Check the customer promise
Before you offer store credit on a live store, test the full path. Sign in as a test customer, give that customer a balance, and add a product. Confirm that checkout shows the option to use store credit, that a partial balance leaves the rest to pay, and that the order confirmation shows the credit used. Then cancel the order and confirm that the balance returns.
These are suggested checks, not results observed for this article. A balance on an account screen proves only that the store recorded it. It does not prove that the customer can spend it.
Related questions
Can store credit be turned into cash?
Usually not. Store credit is spendable only at the store that issued it. Some places have rules about cash-out for small balances or about whether a refund must be offered first, so check the rules where you sell.
Does store credit expire?
It depends on the store and on local law. Shopify lets the merchant choose an expiry date or no expiry each time it issues credit. Ask the store, and look for the date on the balance or the receipt.
Can I give my store credit to someone else?
Usually not. Store credit belongs to your customer account. If you want to give value to another person, a gift card is the tool built for that.
Is store credit the same as a gift card?
No. A gift card balance belongs to whoever holds the code. Store credit belongs to one customer account and needs that customer to sign in to spend it.