Store credit

From Learn, the They Sent It email marketing encyclopedia · First edition · Updated October 29, 2026

Store credit is value that can only be spent at one store. Brands issue it as a refund or goodwill gesture, as a loyalty or referral reward, and as a promotion: an email says the subscriber has a credit, sometimes an exact amount such as $7.48, and that it expires soon. Between February and October 2026, 682 of the 42,029 brands we follow (1.6%) put store credit in at least one subject line.^[6]

Our subscriptions never buy anything, so none of those emails was about a refund or a reward for a purchase we made; they went to subscribers who had never ordered. We did not establish how each credit was set up. The two we inspected presented a discount code for the stated amount. In the inbox, an account balance, a gift card and a code look alike, but they are set up and regulated differently.

Where it comes from and how it is delivered

Two separate questions describe any store credit: where it came from, and how it is delivered.

Origin: a refund paid as credit, a goodwill gesture after a problem, a loyalty or referral reward, or a promotion such as welcome credit or bonus cash.
Delivery: a balance recorded on the customer's account and applied at checkout; a gift card, which can be bought or issued free for promotions, rewards and refunds; or a discount code worth a fixed amount, presented as credit.

Any origin can use any delivery: a promotion can be a real account balance, and a refund can be a gift card. A code reduces revenue only when redeemed, while account balances and gift cards can carry accounting and legal obligations of their own.

Why brands frame it as credit

In several experiments with goods such as mugs, Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler found that owners' median selling prices were often more than twice what non-owners would pay, an effect called endowment.^[1] Prospect theory proposes that losses weigh more than equal gains.^[2] Neither study tested store credit, but together they suggest why brands present credit as already "yours" and about to expire: the email frames spending as avoiding a loss. An expiring percent-off code can be framed the same way. Whether an exact amount such as $7.48 feels more like a real balance than a round number is plausible but untested.

Expiry and the law

In the US, the federal rule for gift cards (Regulation E) applies to cards, codes and other devices that meet its definitions of a gift certificate, store gift card or general-use prepaid card. For those, the funds cannot expire sooner than five years after a gift certificate was issued or money was last loaded onto a store gift card, nor before any later expiry printed on the card.^[3] The rule excludes several kinds of card, including loyalty, award and promotional cards, provided they carry certain disclosures: on the front, that the card is issued for loyalty, award or promotional purposes and the expiry date of the funds; on or with the card, the amount of any fees and the conditions for them; and, if fees can be charged, a toll-free number and any website for fee information.^[3]

So the first question is whether a given credit is a covered card or code at all; an ordinary discount is not automatically a gift card, and calling credit free does not settle it. Refund credit is not automatically protected either: the official interpretation gives a card issued for returned merchandise as an example of an excluded card only where that arrangement is not marketed to the general public, and state laws vary.^[4] Shopify's documentation tells merchants to verify the laws on store credit expiry in their country first.^[5] This section is general information, not legal advice.

Store credit on Shopify

Shopify has store credit built in, as of October 2026:^[5]

It works only with the new customer accounts, not legacy accounts. Online, the customer must be signed in (or use Shop Pay) to apply it; it can also be used at Shopify POS.
Each issue of credit gets its own expiry date, or none, and expires at the end of that day in the store's time zone. When a customer has several, the credit that expires first is used first.
Customers cannot choose to apply a smaller amount; available credit is applied up to the order total.
Staff need store credit permissions to issue it, and developers can issue or debit it through the GraphQL Admin API.

Store credit in email

State the amount, the expiry date and how to use it: applied automatically at checkout, or entered as a code.
Say whether it combines with the current sale. Credit that cannot be used with the offer in the same email frustrates people.
Remind before expiry, for example a week before and on the last day, rather than only on the day.
Use exact amounts only when they are real. An odd amount may suggest a balance the customer earned.

What brands send

Observed subject-line matches in the emails published brands sent to our subscriptions, February 1 to October 28, 2026. Days are Eastern Time.^[6]

682 brands sent 1,722 emails with store credit in the subject, 1.6% of the 42,029 brands that sent anything.
Expiry wording appeared more often than added or waiting wording: 398 brands (763 emails) against 266 brands (513 emails). A brand can appear in both.
782 emails from 319 brands named an exact amount in cents, such as $7.48 or £14.01, rather than a round number.
Store credit emails were sent most often on Friday, Sunday and Saturday.

Brands that sent store credit emails, by email platform
Platform	Brands sending	Sent store credit	Share
Klaviyo	34,463	664	1.9%
HubSpot	2,485	7	0.3%
Mailchimp	4,250	3	0.1%

Platforms serve different mixes of business, which may explain much of the difference. These are observed subject-line matches, not an estimate of every offer sent: offers mentioned only in the body, or worded differently, are missed, and a few matches may be misclassified. Because our subscriptions never buy, the archive shows no refund credit for our own purchases.

Examples from the archive

Your $10 Welcome Credit expires tonight., Forged Blade, October 16, 2026
Your $7.48 credit expires tonight, Buddha Power Store, October 24, 2026
$20 Store Credit Added to Your Account for Labor Day, Orykas, September 5, 2026
We added $8 credit to your account., Balmbare, October 9, 2026
You've got $28 store credit waiting, Camile & Stone, September 13, 2026
You have £14.01 in store credit waiting, Olyndra London, September 1, 2026

Common mistakes

Saying credit was added to an account when it is a code. If nothing was added to an account, describe the offer as what it is.
No expiry date, or an expiry that is only in the footer.
Short expiry on refund credit without checking local law.
Credit that cannot be combined with the sale promoted in the same email.

References

First edition, October 29, 2026, by Conner Baker. Corrections are made in place and noted here. Found an error? Tell us.