Refund a return to store credit or a gift card in Shopify
Store credit keeps the money in your store: the customer gets credit to spend later instead of money back on their card. This tutorial refunds a returned hoodie, $45.00, as store credit, with a gift card as the alternative when the customer has no account to hold the credit.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 5 minutes read
The worked example
| Returned | Summit Hoodie, $45.00 |
| Restocking fee, 10% | $4.50 |
| Store credit | $40.50 |
| Issued | 17 November 2026 |
| Expires | 15 February 2027, 90 days |
Download the record: store-credit-record.csv (124 bytes).
A record of the store credit in this tutorial, with its expiry date. It is a record, not an import file: credit and gift cards are issued in the admin, not by CSV.
1Process the return
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders, click the order, and in the Return in progress section click Process return. Select the hoodie and set Restock at for it.
2Choose Store credit
In the Refund method drop-down menu, select Store credit. The other choices are Original payment and Original payment and store credit.
3Set an expiry date, or leave it open
If you are refunding to store credit, click the calendar icon to choose whether the store credit expires, and set an expiry date if it does. This tutorial sets 90 days, so credit issued 17 November 2026 expires 15 February 2027.
4Or refund to a gift card instead
If the customer has no account to hold store credit, refund the return to a gift card for the same $40.50. The refund flow supports gift card refunds, and the customer spends the card on a later order.
5Click Refund
Click Refund to issue the credit. The refund is recorded against the order, and the customer can spend the credit on their next order.
The arithmetic
The credit is the item price less the restocking fee. The credit expires 90 days after the issue date.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Summit Hoodie | $45.00 |
| Restocking fee, 10% of $45.00 | $4.50 |
| Store credit issued | $40.50 |
17 November 2026 plus 90 days is 15 February 2027. A gift card refund for the same return would carry the same $40.50.
Held at the counter
Store credit is not cash back. Tell the customer plainly: the money stays in your store. A customer expecting a card refund will be unhappy with credit they did not ask for.
A later refund can be limited after store credit. If the refund screen allows only a limited amount after store credit was previously issued, the order has a limit on what else can be refunded. Read the banner on the order before you refund anything else.
Set the expiry date at refund time. Whether the store credit expires is chosen when you issue the refund. Decide the expiry date before you click Refund, not after.
Sources
- Processing and managing returns — Shopify's help pages: the process-return steps, the restock choice, the refund-shipping section, the refund-method choices, and the cancel / remove / close rules.
- Refunding orders — Shopify's help pages: the refund methods, including refunds to a gift card (consulted via the help pages' search results on 11 November 2026).