Merchants can now offer store credits as a redeemable reward. Merchants may prefer store credits over discounts for the following reasons:
Store credits are not subject to the same discount combination rules as coupons.
Unlike coupons, where unused values are forfeited, Shopify applies as much or as little store credit to an order, as required. For example, if a member applies a $20 coupon to a $15 order, they will lose $5. In the case of a $20 store credit, only $15 will be applied and $5 will remain as store credit towards the member.
For some merchants, discounts may not be compatible with their brand (for example, a brand selling luxury goods). A store credit is viewed as a more acceptable way of rewarding loyalty customers.
In this article, you will learn:
How to setup store credits in your online store
How to setup a store credit as redemption
Handling store credits in multi-currency stores
The member experience
Other things to know about store credits
⚠️ Okendo Loyalty store credits are only available to merchants using customer accounts. Merchants using legacy customer accounts, will need to migrate to customer accounts.
Should you consider store credits?
Okendo Loyalty leverages Shopify's store credit functionality. As such, please refer to these Shopify considerations, when assessing whether to include store credits, as part of your loyalty program.
Enabling store credits in your store
To enable store credits, follow these steps:
Got to Shopify admin > Settings > Customer accounts.
Ensure that Customer accounts is selected (not Legacy), as the store credit feature is only available, when this option is selected.
Further down the page, locate Store credit and enable.
Setting up store credits as redemptions
To setup a store credit as a reward, follow these steps:
In Okendo Admin, select Loyalty > Configure > Points Rules and then select the + button at the bottom of the rewards list.
Select Fixed Value Reward or Convert Your Points Reward (for the sake of this example, we will use the Fixed Value Reward).
⚠️ You will be asked to grant additional permissions to allow Okendo Loyalty to access Store Credits in Shopify. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete this task (see below).
3. Against Award Via select Store Credit.
4. Enter a Points Cost (how many points are required to redeem the reward) and an Amount value (how much store credit members will receive, in return).
5. Under Description, add custom Title Text and Notification Text for this store credit reward. While optional, we highly recommend you do this, especially if you have coupons with the same points/rewards values.
6. Under Restrictions, select whether you want each allocation of store credits to expire or not expire. If you choose to expire store credits, then indicate how long each allocation is valid for, by entering a set number of days.
7. Under Available On Tiers, select which VIP tiers can redeem points for store credits and where necessary, the store credit value (either by enter another amount or using a multiplier of the base reward) per VIP Tier. For instance, for the same number of points, you may wish to be more generous to higher VIP Tiers by providing them with a $10 store credit versus a $5 store credit for lower VIP Tiers.
8. Select Apply and then Save.
Additional configuration to support redemption of store credits in other currencies
If you allow members to place orders in their preferred currency (other than your store's base currency), it is highly likely that they will want to redeem store credits in the same currency, as well. Indeed Shopify supports multiple store credit 'wallets', in different currencies, per store account.
The following guide will step you through how to set up currency conversions, to facilitate store credit redemptions, in a member's preferred currency. Before we do so, it is important to note:
⚠️ The following instructions assume you have enabled the desired countries/currencies in Shopify Markets AND have provided customers with mechanisms to select their preferred currency, in your store. If you have not, please follow these instructions to set up Shopify Markets.
❗️ Currency conversions only apply to store credits. Coupon conversion is handled by Shopify.
How store credit currency conversion works
A store credit reward is created in the store's base currency. In the example above, the store's base currency is US dollars and the store credit reward is set to 100 points = $10 USD store credit.
Merchants configure store credit conversion rates to convert the value of the store credit reward, from the store's base currency into other currencies available on the store.
When a member chooses to redeem the store credit reward in another currency, Loyalty will convert value of the store credit reward, from the store's base currency into the preferred currency and add this to the relevant store credit wallet, for the member.
Adding store credit conversion rates
To add store credit conversion rates:
Navigate to Okendo Admin > Settings > Rewards > Store Credit Currency Conversion. Here you will find every unique currency, associated with active markets.
❗️ If you do not find the desired currency, check whether the associated country is selected against a market. If it is, check if that market is activated in your store. For more information on adding a market, read this article. For more information about activating a market, read this article.
2. Select the checkbox against the currencies enabled on your store and then add a conversion rate for each (ie. the equivalent of 1 unit of your store's base currency in other currencies).
❗️ If you do not select the checkbox against a currency, then store credits cannot be redeemed in that currency. Members will not be able to see that reward in your onsite displays, when that currency is selected.
3. Against Round Converted Values To, select Whole Value (rounds converted values to the nearest whole value) or 2 Decimal Places.
4. Against Rounding Strategy, select Round Down (converted values are always rounded down to the nearest whole or 2 decimal place value) or Round to Nearest (converted values ending in 4 or below, are rounded down, while converted values ending in 5 or above are rounded up).
5. Select Save and exit the screen.
Checking converted values against store credit rewards
Once you have added your conversion rates, you can check the converted value of store credit rewards:
Navigate to Okendo Admin > Loyalty > Points Rules > Redeem Rewards.
Locate a store credit reward and open it.
Under the Discount Amount field, select the
icon.In the Set Multi-Currency Value screen, check the value of the store credit reward against each enabled currencies (these values are calculated and cannot be changed). Note, if you change the value of the reward (in the store's base currency), the converted values will also change.
5. Select Confirm to save or Cancel to exit without saving.
6. If you have VIP tiers enabled and use set amount reward variations (ie. where you specify the reward amount per VIP tier), you will be able to select the icon. Like the Discount Amount field, you can alter the set amount reward per tier and Okendo Loyalty will recalculate these for each currency enabled.
7. Once again select Confirm to save or Cancel to exit without saving.
8. Select Apply, then Save, to save your changes.
The member experience with Store Credits
Using points to purchase store credits
Members can redeem points for store credits via the same onsite displays as for coupons. These include:
The Loyalty Page
The Floating Widget
The Banner Widget
Via the checkout extension (they must select a shipping address that is consistent with the desired currency, for example a Canadian address to redeem a reward in Canadian dollars)
Post-Review Modules (coming soon!)
Members will see the converted values of store credit rewards, based on currency selected, store credit conversion rate and their VIP tier.
Members can temporarily view their available store credit balance in the following onsite displays:
The Loyalty Page
The Floating Widget
The Banner Widget
Profile in customer accounts (customer accounts only)
At checkout (via the store credit gateway)
Applying store credits to orders
Members can apply store credits to the orders by following these steps.
A member's store credit is shown at checkout.
A member can apply their store credit to their order, by selecting the Apply store credit checkbox
If they have enough store credit to cover the entire value of the order, then they don't pay anything.
Store credit as payment
b.If they only have enough store credit to cover part of the order value, then they must pay the difference.
c. Any remaining store credit after the purchase, is retained against the member's customer account.
d. Members can use points to redeem store credits, through the Okendo checkout extension. Redeemed store credits will add to their store credit balance, at checkout. Refer to this article for more information on how to implement Loyalty checkout extensions in your store.
Store credit reporting
New reports have been created to track store credits. These are located under Okendo Admin > Loyalty > Performance > Redemptions.
Redeemed store credit value
The total value of store credits redeemed, since the Okendo Loyalty program was launched.
Redeemed store credit
Displays store credits redeemed, for a selected period. Results are grouped by days, weeks or months and tallied by total store credit count or by total store credit values.
Redemptions by rule
Store credit redemptions have been added to this visualisation.
For all other reporting impacted by Store Credits, please refer to this article.
Store credit information sent to marketing automation platforms
Store credit redemption events are captured and pushed to marketing automation platforms such Klaviyo and Attentive.
Other things to know about store credits
Configuration
Store credits cannot be restricted to certain products, collections or specific customers cohorts (beyond VIP Tiers).
Store credits are treated as 'cash' and as such, can be used on all types of orders, from all types of members.
Where store credit allocations are set to expire, Shopify uses the allocations with the closest expiry date, first. This ensures that store credit expiration, is minimized.
A member's store credit balance may decrease over time, due to expiring store credits, from the past.
Multi-currency conversion of store credits
Store credit conversion rates can be updated at any time, but will only affect store credits redeemed after the rate changes are saved.
When applying store credits
Store credits are not available as a reward on Shopify POS.
Store credits cannot be used against recurring subscription orders.
Members cannot ‘partly apply’ a store credit balance against an order - Shopify will always attempt to apply the entire store credit balance against an order.
Store credits in one currency can only be used against orders in the same currency.
Email templates
The Loyalty Rewards Redeemed email template has been updated for store credits
If you have any specific questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out to our support team.