Shopify Store Credit

What is Store Credit?

Shopify store credit is native to Shopify. It's a new feature where customers hold a virtual credit balance in your store, which can then be used as a form of payment on the checkout page for future purchases. This is what store credit looks like on the checkout page:

For example, let's say you own a hair care store. You sell products like shampoo and hair conditioner and issue store credit to a customer to the value of $50. Let's say the customer purchases a bottle of shampoo for $60, they can use this $50 as a form of payment on the checkout page. Now the customer just has to pay $10 with their credit card or debit card.

It's worth noting that with Shopify store credit, a customer can also have multiple store credit accounts in multiple currencies. For example, if your store displays pricing in multiple currencies and the customer buys multiple products in different currencies, then they may receive store credit in these different currencies.

Memberply is one of the very few Shopify credit apps that give store credits to members.

We'll show you how in a tick.

What are the Benefits of Using Store Credit?

Store credit is an absolute game-changer. In the past to incentivise customers to come back to your store, the most common way to do this was using discount codes.

Before founding Memberply, my wife and I had a crochet subscription box called Crochet Surprise. We grew it to over 2,000 subscribers with our customers predominantly in the United States. One of the ways we grew the number of subscribers was through the use of discount codes. We had a win-back email campaign in place, where we would send customers who hadn't bought in 6 months, a 20% discount code.

However, the problem that we found was that discount codes have now become all too common. Everyone sends discount codes all the time. Take for example Temu, if you buy anything from there you get constantly bombarded with discount codes.

Store credit is perceived as virtual money for a customer. They can use it to buy anything from your store and is very much like having a gift card. It reinforces a positive emotion.

Another big benefit of store credit is that it's much better than traditional cash refunds. Traditional cash refunds mean that you give the customer back their money completely as part of the refund process. However, with store credit, the customer can get the same cash value back, except that the store credit can only be used for any other products in your store. Store credit is a game-changer for the refund process.

Improve Customer Retention and Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is also increased with store credit. Would you rather make future purchases with brand A or brand B, if you knew every month your store credit balance would go up with brand A? The answer is brand A.

If a customer is going to keep buying products A and B from the aforementioned brand A, then they are far more likely to also buy products C and D from the same store. Especially since it's much easier to get it all from the same place which saves both time and money in terms of shipping.

Store credit creates loyal customers and increases online sales.

Encourage Customers to Spend More

Have you ever been given a gift card? If so, do you remember when you went to use the gift card, you probably bought more than you intended to? Especially since the gift card was "free money" so to speak. I have.

This is the same benefit that store credit provides. Store credit to customers is like free money that encourages them to spend more on additional purchases. This in turn increases the customer lifetime value.

How Store Credit Works

Store credit is held in a virtual credit balance for a customer. This is automatically handled by Shopify and the store credit balance is unique for each customer. Customers can also see their full transaction history with store credit in their customer admin panel.

There is no need for anything like a credit card to access it. It can be automatically used every time the customer has logged into their account on your store.

When a customer logs into their customer account in Shopify via their email address, they will immediately see their store credit balance and full transaction history.

Every time store credit is added to a customer's account, it will be automatically reflected in the customer's current balance.

Likewise, when store credit is used, it will be automatically reflected in the customer's current balance.

To use store credit, the customer first needs to log into their customer account using their email address. Once logged in, the customer adds products to their cart from your store and then goes through the checkout process. On the checkout page, the customer can select the store credit option and whatever amount is on the balance, will be used to pay for the products.

On the checkout page, it's shown as part of the payment provider.

If the store credit balance is short and not enough to cover the entire cost of the order, then the customer just has to enter their payment method as normal. Then the remaining balance is covered by the customer's credit card.

Memberply Enables Stores to Give Store Credit

Shopify store credit is given to customers through a third-party app like Memberply.

Memberply enables merchants to build and launch a membership subscription program like Amazon Prime. Customers pay you a recurring fee and in exchange, you offer them benefits like free shipping, reward points, access to digital content and much more.

Memberply enables merchants to create multiple membership tiers and is a valuable tool for any store to create recurring revenue and constant cash flow.

Memberply is also a powerful tool that offers multiple benefits involving store credit that you can give members for joining your loyalty programs. These benefits that will increase customer loyalty include:

Loyalty Drops

Every month you can give members store credit regularly. We added this feature so that members have an incentive to stay on their membership. This can form part of your marketing campaigns – become a member and get store credit every month! You can customize the frequency on which you give store credit. For example, you can give store credit every week, every month, every 3 months…whatever makes sense to you as a business owner.

Convert Membership Fees to Store Credit

This is one of the biggest incentives for customers to join your loyalty rewards program. Memberply enables you to convert a customer's membership fees into store credit. That way, the member automatically gets their money's worth every month. This is another great benefit for members to stay loyal and to continue in their membership. Members immediately see the value in joining your membership.

Redeeming Reward Points

Memberply also enables you to set up a reward points program. This is where a member can earn points for every purchase. For example, you can set 1 point per dollar spent on your store. The customer can then redeem these points for store credit and use it as a payment method for any online purchases from your store.

Sign Up Store Credits

You can also offer store credit as a signup bonus when new members join. For example, as soon as a new member signs up, Memberply can add a certain amount of customer credit to their balance. You can set this amount to whatever you like. The great thing is that Memberply automatically handles this for you.

Overall, these store credit benefits can add a rewarding shopping experience for members who join your membership program.