Credit settings
Credits is part of Recharge’s Rewards offering, allowing you to offer customers store credit automatically or manually.
This guide explains how to update your credit-related settings in your Recharge merchant portal.
- Shopify Checkout Integration
- Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration
Before you start
- Credits is part of Recharge’s Rewards offering. See Rewards for more information.
- See Credits for additional information about the Credits program.
Access the Credits setting page
Update Credit settings in your Recharge merchant portal:
- Select Settings from the navigation menu in your Recharge merchant portal.
- Click Credits from the Settings page.
Credit types
The following describes the types of credits that can be used:
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Reward: Reward credits are applied if your store has a rewards experience set up to automatically provide credits if a specific trigger is met. If the customer qualifies for a reward credit through the flow, the credit type is set to Reward.
- Gift: Gift credits are received by gift subscriptions. If the customer receives credits as a gift, the credit type is set to Gift.
- Manual: Manual credits are applied if you manually add credits to a customer account through the merchant portal. If the customer receives manual credits directly through the merchant portal, the credit type is set to Manual.
Multi-currency
- Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration
- Shopify Checkout Integration with Shopify Payments
- Custom stores using Stripe or Authorize.net
You can enable multi-currency in Recharge so that Shopify customers can check out in their currency and continue to be charged by that same currency after their initial checkout. See multi-currency for more details.
Multi-currency support for Credits is currently in Early Adopter status. Credits can be converted from the default store currency to a customer's presentment currency. The available balance is presented to customers in your store's default currency at this time.
Toggle the credit conversion setting on to convert credits to the customer’s preferred currency:
Credit expiration
Configure when customers’ credits should expire after credits are added to their account. Credits that expire will no longer be applied to the customer’s order when their charge is processed.
You can configure credits to:
- Never expire
- After a set time period
Use a grace period template to set credit expiration. The grace period expiration flow overrides the original expiration once the customer earns credits. See Grace period expiration for more information.
Consider using batch rolling expiration, which assigns the same expiration date to all of a customer's credits and resets it with each new purchase. See Batch rolling expiration for more information.
Credit accumulation
Credit application
Use the credit accumulation setting to allow customers to stack credits and use them on a later purchase. Customers can decide when to use their saved credits and once the next recurring order is processed, the toggle automatically turns off again to resume accumulation. Gift credits will always automatically apply to orders.
Confirm how you would like credits to apply to recurring orders. You can set credits to:
- Apply to all future recurring orders, regardless of credit type: Credits are automatically applied to customers’ next recurring orders
- Require manual enablement from customers on their next recurring order: Customers choose when to apply accumulated credits to their next recurring order
- Not apply to recurring orders: Customers cannot use credits on their recurring orders, and instead must check out to use the credits they’ve received
Credits at checkout
Shopify Plus merchants can offer customers the ability to apply a credit to their checkout order. This is enabled directly in your Shopify admin. See Credits on Checkout for more information.
Best practices for managing credit settings
Use the following best practices to manage credits effectively when setting expiration policies:
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Set clear expiration policies: Limit long-term liability with policies that prevent customers from accumulating excessive credits, reducing the risk of significant financial obligations. Regularly review and update expiration settings to align with your business goals. Consider using one or both of the following options:
- Batch rolling expiration: Assign a single expiration date to all of a customer’s credits that resets when the customer earns new credits
- Dynamic expiration policies: Assign a unique expiration date to each credit based on when the customer earns the credit.
- Plan for potential redemptions: Proactively prepare for credit redemptions to avoid cash flow issues. Include potential redemptions in your financial forecasts and reserves to minimize the risk of unexpected financial strain, particularly during peak redemption periods.
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Communicate policies clearly to customers: Communicate credit policies transparently to build trust and encourage timely redemption.
- Inform customers about their credit balance, expiration dates, redemption thresholds, and other important details through email notifications.
- Add this information to your policy pages or product descriptions on your Shopify storefront to prevent confusion.
- Send reminders when balances exceed a certain amount or during key moments, such as preventing cancellations, to drive engagement and credit redemption.
- Highlight the potentially lost credits on the Cancellation Prevention landing page and within win back campaigns.
Credit branding
Update how customers see credits appear in their Shopify customer account:
