Shopify store credit: how to enable it and its limits

In short. Shopify store credit is a wallet balance tied to the customer record, on by default and managed in Settings → Customer accounts; to work it requires the new customer accounts and, in the online store, the buyer to be logged in or paying with Shop Pay (at POS your staff identifies them). You can offer it as the resolution of a return, but in the European Union it cannot replace the refund on a withdrawal by default: it is only valid if the customer expressly agrees.

Store credit in Shopify is one of those features that look trivial until you put them into production. Used well, it holds on to revenue that was walking out of the door: instead of sending money back to a card, the amount stays in your store waiting for a second purchase. Used badly, it is the fastest route to a European consumer authority accusing you of hiding a right behind a commercial policy. This guide covers both sides: the real operation (what it does, what limits it has, how to enable it) and the legal line you cannot cross if you sell into the EU. It is a satellite of our definitive guide to returns in Shopify.

What is store credit in Shopify?

Store credit —Shopify's own name for it in the admin— is a balance attached to a customer record that the customer can use as a payment method in your store. It is not a code and it is not a product: it is a number on their profile. Careful, though: that describes the D2C scenario. In B2B — which requires a plan with B2B capabilities, that is Shopify Plus — the balance does not belong to a person but to a company location, and it is shared among all authorised customers of that location. You issue it, from the customer record — or from the company location, in B2B — or when you process a refund, and the customer spends it on their next purchase.

The difference with a gift card matters more than it seems, because the two get confused constantly:

In practice: you close returns with store credit; you sell credit with gift cards. Using gift cards as a refund method is a workaround inherited from the days when Shopify had no native balance; today it complicates your accounting and hands the customer a code that can end up anywhere.

How do you enable store credit in Shopify step by step?

Store credit is on by default in your store. What you do have to check are the three requirements that make it actually work:

1. Check that you are using the new customer accounts. Store credit is not available with the legacy customer accounts. If your store still runs the classic email-and-password login, that is your first step: Settings → Customer accounts → New customer accounts.
2. Review the toggle. In Settings → Customer accounts you will find the control for store credit as a payment method. That is where you decide whether your customers see it at checkout.
3. Hand out the staff permissions. Shopify separates three distinct permissions: Store credit (view and manage), Edit store credit (issue and deduct balance) and Refund to store credit (use it when processing a refund). If your team cannot issue credit by hand, the permission that is missing is Edit store credit; if what they cannot do is choose store credit when refunding an order, then it is Refund to store credit.

To issue credit manually: go to Customers, open the record, and add the amount (in B2B you do it from the company location, not from a person's record). To issue it as the resolution of a return: when you process the order's refund, choose store credit as the destination. Shopify lets you split a refund between the original payment method and store credit, which is useful when you return the product's value to the customer and compensate separately for an incident.

⚠️ There is a prerequisite that catches a lot of people out: the order must have a customer attached. On a guest order there is no customer record to credit, so store credit simply is not an available resolution there: the right move is to refund to the original payment method. If a good share of your sales go through guest checkout, expect vouchers to be off the table for those returns.

One operational warning that saves a lot of grief: over-refunding does not automatically claw back credit that has already been issued. If you get it wrong, you will have to deduct it by hand from the customer record.

What real limits does Shopify store credit have?

This is the part no commercial guide tells you, and the one that decides whether store credit fits your operation. The limits are specific:

Three of these limits have immediate practical consequences. Partial use means the customer does not decide how much they spend: at checkout their entire available balance is applied and, if the order costs less, the remainder stays on their account. Convenient for them, but you cannot set part of it aside for another purchase. Draft orders break any flow in which your team creates the replacement order from the admin. And multi-currency makes a balance issued in euros invisible to a customer buying in pounds.

Can you give store credit instead of a refund? The legal limit in the EU

Not by default. When a European consumer exercises their right of withdrawal, Article 13(1) of Directive 2011/83/EU requires you to reimburse all payments received using the same means of payment the consumer used, unless the consumer expressly agrees otherwise and provided it costs them nothing. Each Member State has transposed it into its own consumer law, so check the national text for the markets you sell to.

One nuance about the scope of that refund, because «all payments» is not literal: the standard outbound delivery costs are included, but not the surcharge if the customer deliberately chose a delivery more expensive than your cheapest standard option (Article 13(2)), and you may deduct the diminished value if they handled the goods beyond what was necessary to inspect them, provided you had given them the full pre-contractual information on the right of withdrawal (Article 14(2)).

Read that slowly, because the voucher exception is real but narrow:

• You may offer store credit as an alternative to the refund.
• You may not impose it, present it as the only option, or bury the refund behind two extra clicks.
• The «express agreement» has to be exactly that: an informed choice by the customer, not a pre-ticked box or the outcome of a funnel that only leads one way.

And there is a second front. From 19 June 2026, Directive (EU) 2023/2673 requires stores selling to EU consumers to offer a clearly identified withdrawal function for the contracts where that right exists (the Article 16 exceptions, such as bespoke or perishable goods, are out of scope). If the legal button leads into a flow that pushes the voucher ahead of the money, you are not only breaching Article 13: you are building the exact dark pattern that directive is designed to stop. We unpack it in withdrawal, return and exchange: why they are not the same.

The mental rule is simple: store credit is an excellent commercial tool and a terrible legal substitute.

Can store credit expire?

Technically yes. Shopify lets you set an expiry date when you issue credit and, when a customer builds up several balances with different dates, it spends the one that expires first. But Shopify itself warns explicitly that store credit expiry laws vary by country and recommends checking them before setting one.

There is no harmonised European rule fixing a minimum validity period for store credit, so the answer depends on the national law of each market you sell to. What you can do without any doubt is apply two prudence criteria:

• If the credit replaces a legal refund that the customer expressly agreed to, do not give it an expiry date. It was their money; turning it into something that evaporates is hard to defend.
• If the credit is a commercial incentive (a bonus for choosing a voucher over money), a reasonable expiry announced before the customer chooses is defensible, provided your country does not impose a minimum validity or ban expiry on this balance. Announced afterwards, it is not.

How is a voucher taxed? (indicative)

Time to be careful here: tax treatment depends on your country and your specific case, so treat this as something to raise with your adviser, not as an answer.

The European reference framework is Council Directive (EU) 2016/1065, which amended the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC) and harmonised the treatment of vouchers from 2019. It distinguishes two types:

• Single-purpose voucher: at the moment of issue, the place of supply and the applicable VAT rate are already known with certainty. VAT is due on each transfer of the voucher, not on redemption.
• Multi-purpose voucher: anything that is not single-purpose. VAT is due when the goods are actually handed over or the services actually supplied, that is, on redemption.

A generic store credit balance, redeemable against any product in a catalogue with different VAT rates or deliverable in different countries, normally falls into the second group. But credit issued as the resolution of a return raises the further question of how the taxable amount of the original sale is adjusted. It is exactly the kind of detail worth settling with a tax adviser before you scale volume, not after.

How to make store credit work: the bonus with parity

The tactic DTC brands use is simple: offer more value in credit than in money. If a customer returns €100, they can choose €100 back to their card or €110 in credit. A meaningful share choose the credit, you keep the full amount and you raise the value of the next order on top.

It works, and to be defensible it needs parity of access. It is not a safe harbour — Article 13(1) still requires express agreement at no cost, and the rest of consumer law still applies — but without this the conversation does not even start. That is:

1. Both options are visible at the same time, on the same screen, with the same visual weight. No refund tucked one click further down, greyed out or behind an «other options» link.
2. The refund carries no added friction: no extra steps, no longer form, no «are you sure?» that only appears if you choose money.
3. The bonus is explained before the choice is made, including its expiry if it has one.
4. The legal flow stays separate. The Article 11a withdrawal button opens the right to the refund set out in Article 13; your credit offer lives in the commercial flow, not inside the legal one.

Respecting those four points is what lets you retain revenue without dressing up a right; on its own it does not shield you from the rest of consumer law. Skipping any of them, on the other hand, is the short road to a very good-looking dark pattern.

Common mistakes with store credit

• Issuing the credit before you receive the product. Unless you have offered to collect the goods yourself, Article 13(3) of Directive 2011/83/EU lets you withhold the refund until you receive the goods or until the customer supplies evidence of having sent them, whichever comes first. If you issue the credit first, you have given up that lever. And if you did offer to collect the goods, that lever does not exist: the deadline runs anyway and you cannot wait until the item is back in your warehouse.
• Using gift cards as a refund method. It creates a transferable code, muddies your accounting and is not tied to the customer.
• Putting an expiry date on a refund. See above: if it is money you owed them, do not do it.
• Assuming the customer can spend only part of their balance. They cannot choose the amount: their whole available balance is applied and the remainder stays on their account. If you promise «use €20 now and keep the rest», that is not how it works.
• Designing your operation around draft orders. They do not accept store credit. If your team creates replacement orders from the admin, the customer will not be able to pay with their credit.
• A single button saying «Start a return» that pushes the voucher. This is the expensive one. The label on the legal button is prescribed; we explain it in which button text is valid.

Frequently asked questions

How do I enable store credit in Shopify? It is on by default. Check it in Settings → Customer accounts, make sure you are using the new customer accounts and hand out the permissions: «Edit store credit» to issue credit by hand.

Can I give a voucher instead of a refund when the customer withdraws? Only if they expressly agree and it costs them nothing. By default, Article 13(1) of Directive 2011/83/EU requires you to refund to the same means of payment.

What is the difference between store credit and a gift card? Credit is tied to the customer record and, in the online store, requires a logged-in session or Shop Pay (at POS your staff identifies the customer); a gift card is a sellable product redeemed with a code.

Can store credit expire? Shopify lets you set a date, but warns that the laws vary by country. If the credit replaces a legal refund, the prudent move is not to expire it.

How much credit can I issue? Less than $15,000 USD per D2C customer account and less than $10,000 USD per B2B company location account (which only exists on plans with B2B capabilities, that is Shopify Plus).

Can store credit be used on draft orders or subscriptions? No. It works in the online store, in POS and in Shop, but not on draft orders or edited orders. On subscriptions it covers the initial purchase, not the recurring charges.

Conclusion

If you sell on Shopify to European Union consumers, the right way to use store credit is this: enable it, understand its limits (no draft orders, the customer does not choose how much credit they spend, new customer accounts mandatory) and place it in your commercial flow, with a clear bonus and full parity with the refund. Never inside the legal withdrawal flow. That separation does not cost you retention: it takes away your risk.

The first thing you can do today is open your store's return flow and answer one question: if a customer wants their money, do they get it in the same number of clicks as if they accept a voucher? If the answer is no, you already know what to fix.

💡 Ready to comply effortlessly? returnEasier separates the compliant withdrawal button —refund to the original means of payment, no friction— from your commercial flow of exchanges and store credit (Pro plans and above), in the 7 languages it supports: Spanish, English, Portuguese, Catalan, Italian, French and German. Try it free — 3 trial returns, no card.

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Official sources

• Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights (arts. 9-16) — EUR-Lex
• Directive (EU) 2023/2673 — EUR-Lex
• Council Directive (EU) 2016/1065 on the VAT treatment of vouchers — EUR-Lex
• Shopify Help Center — Store credit
• Shopify Help Center — Refunding orders

Informational content; not legal or tax advice. For specific cases, consult a lawyer specialising in consumer law or your tax adviser.