Store Credits for WooCommerce: A Comprehensive Guide

Offering store credits is one of the smartest ways to boost customer loyalty, drive repeat purchases, and simplify your refund processes.

In a WooCommerce store, implementing a store credit system gives you the flexibility to reward customers, manage returns more effectively, and even offer giftable products like vouchers and gift cards.

While WooCommerce doesn’t offer a built-in store credit feature, the good news is you can easily add this functionality with the help of third-party plugins.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about setting up store credits in WooCommerce — including their benefits, different ways to issue them, and a detailed step-by-step setup using popular plugins like Smart Coupons and WooCommerce Gift Cards by WebToffee.

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Store credits are a type of virtual currency that customers can use to make purchases within your online store. Instead of receiving cash refunds or traditional discounts, customers are given a credit balance that can be applied toward future orders.

Think of store credits as a flexible alternative to cash refunds, loyalty rewards, or promotional vouchers. Customers can redeem these credits during checkout to partially or fully pay for their purchases, depending on the available balance.

Implementing a store credit system in your WooCommerce store can be a smart strategy to boost customer retention, manage returns more effectively, and drive more sales over time. Instead of issuing traditional refunds or offering one-time discounts, store credits keep customers engaged and encourage them to continue shopping with you.

Here are a few key reasons why offering store credits makes sense for WooCommerce store owners:

• Increase Customer Loyalty: Giving customers store credits after a purchase or a return builds a stronger relationship and encourages them to return for future shopping.
• Retain Revenue: When customers accept store credits instead of refunds, the money stays within your business, minimizing revenue loss.
• Promote Repeat Purchases: Store credits act as a gentle incentive for customers to come back and spend more, increasing your store’s average order value over time.
• Enhance Customer Experience: Offering a flexible, customer-friendly alternative to refunds or discounts shows that you value customer satisfaction.
• Simplify Refund Management: Issuing store credits can streamline your refund process and reduce the administrative burden of processing cash refunds.
• Expand Your Marketing Opportunities: Store credits can be used as part of loyalty programs, promotional campaigns, or holiday gift card sales, giving you more ways to market your products creatively.

Let’s look at a step-by-step guide to WooCommerce store credits. We will explore different methods to offer store credits to customers using two plugins: Smart Coupons and Gift Cards by WebToffee.

Store credits aren’t a default WooCommerce feature; third-party plugins are needed to add this capability.

Method 1: Using WooCommerce Coupons

The Smart Coupons for WooCommerce plugin from WebToffee is a comprehensive coupon plugin that enables you to add store credit functionalities to your store. Additionally, it facilitates other coupon features such as cart abandonment coupons, sign-up coupons, volume discount coupons, coupon bulk generation, and more. 

With this store credit coupon plugin, you can configure WooCommerce store credits in three different ways.

• Create store credits that your users can purchase as a product.
• Create store credit coupons.
• Manually email the store credits to the required users. You can use this method as an alternative to refunds.

The first step in creating store credits is to install and activate the WooCommerce coupons plugin. Note that you will need the premium version of the plugin to avail the store credits functionality.

I. Create Store Credits as Product

To enable your users to purchase credits, you should offer them as products that can be procured from the store catalog. To create purchasable store credits:

1. Go to Products > Add New from your WordPress dashboard.
2. Give a product name. Mind that the customers will have to identify that the product is store credit meant to be a store credit while purchasing it. So, provide a suitable name for the product.
3. Now scroll down to the Product data widget and choose the product type as Simple product.
4. From the General tab set the Regular price as 0.
5. Now you can choose the rest of the product required configuration as you please.
6. Once done, publish the product.

7. Now go to Smart Coupons > Store credit > General Settings.
8. Choose the product that you have previously created under Associate a product.
9. Choose the Credit purchase options and configure the corresponding settings.
10. Save the configured settings.

The image below shows how a customer will see a store credit in your store. Customers can purchase the store credit (gift card) in the same way they purchase any other products from the store.

ll. Create Store Credit Coupons

The primary difference between a store credit voucher and a standard coupon is that store credit vouchers can be used repeatedly until the balance is exhausted, whereas a standard coupon can be used only once. To create store credit vouchers:

1. From your WooCommerce dashboard, go to Smart Coupons > Add Coupon to start creating a new store credit coupon.
2. Enter a coupon code and write a brief description to help identify the coupon.
3. Choose Store Credits from the discount type options.
4. Enter the amount of store credit to be issued with this coupon.
5. Enable the option to display coupons on the My Account page. This feature allows customers to view their coupon balance and track usage.
6. Click on Publish.

Customers can apply the coupon code during checkout, and the specified amount will be deducted from their store credit. They can view the remaining balance on the My Coupons section under My Account, and use any balance credits for future purchases.

lll. Offer Store Credits Instead Of Refunds

Product returns and refund requests can dig a hole in profit margin. The only way by which you can prevent this is by offering your customers credits instead of refunds.

The store credits received this way can be redeemed during the next purchase.

To offer store credit coupons when a customer requests refunds:

1. Go to Smart Coupons > Store credits > Email store credit from your WordPress dashboard.
2. Provide the email address of the customer to whom you want to offer the store credit.
3. Fill in the store credit amount, and provide a caption and a description.
4. Choose whether you want the store credit voucher to be used along with other coupons or not.
5. Once selected, click on Send email.

This will create a store credit voucher in your store and will automatically sent it to the specified customer.

Customers can use the voucher to purchase products from your store.

Method 2: Using WooCommerce Gift Cards

We have already explored setting up a store credit system using the Smart Coupons plugin. However, Smart Coupons offers limited features, particularly when it comes to tracking the usage of individual store credit coupons or customization. For more advanced functionality, consider the WooCommerce Gift Cards plugin from WebToffee.

This plugin provides advanced store credit settings and includes a dedicated dashboard for managing user credit balances.

l. Create Gift Card Product

Gift cards are a popular form of store credit that customers can give to their loved ones. To create gift cards in WooCommerce using WebToffee’s premium gift card plugin, follow these steps:

1. Begin by installing and activating the premium version of WebToffee’s WooCommerce Gift Cards plugin.
2. Go to the Gift Cards section within the WooCommerce settings. This area allows you to manage and create gift card products.
3. In the Gift Card Product tab, click on Add New to create a new gift card.
4. Under the General Settings section, set up the purchase options for the gift card. This includes defining the gift card value, customizing the design, and setting any usage restrictions.
5. After configuring all necessary settings, click on Publish.

The newly created gift card product will now appear in your store catalog, where customers can purchase it and share it with their loved ones.

ll. Issue Refunds to Store Credits

To issue a refund using the gift card plugin,

1. Go to your WooCommerce dashboard and select WooCommerce > Orders.
2. Find and click on the order for which you want to issue a refund.
3. Scroll down to the order details section and click the Refund button.

4. Enter the amount you wish to refund in the appropriate field.
5. Below the refund amount, you will see two options: Refund to Store Credit and Refunded Manually. Click on Refund to Store Credit. If you do not see this option, please refer to our documentation guide here.

6. After confirming your selection, the refund amount will be processed and applied as store credit. You can view the updated balance and refund details in the Manage Store Credits tab within the Gift Cards menu. Click on View details.

lll. Reward Loyal Customers with Credits

WooCommerce store credits can be used to reward your customers for their continued loyalty. With the gift card plugin, you have a dedicated dashboard to manage these credits. Follow these steps to add or remove store credits:

1. Navigate to Gift Card > Manage Store Credits
2. To add credits to a customer’s account, click the + symbol. This allows you to increase the store credit balance for a specific customer.
3. After making the adjustments, you can preview the new balance directly on the same page.
4. Click Save changes.

Customers can redeem store credit vouchers in the same way they use a normal discount coupon.

They can use the voucher code to associate store credits with their purchases. To do this, input the store credit voucher code in the coupon code text box on the cart page.

The recipients of the store credits vouchers can either avail of their coupons from the email or can view them from My Account > My Store Credits.

When they are purchasing a product they can provide the coupon code in the voucher to avail of the store credit.

Note that the customers can claim the full voucher amount in a single purchase or during multiple purchases. That is, if you have a store credit of $100 and you purchased for $55 using the credit voucher, you will have $45 remaining in the store credit voucher. It can be used for later purchases.

Adding a store credit system to your WooCommerce store isn’t just a nice-to-have feature — it’s a smart move to build stronger customer relationships and keep your revenue flowing. Whether you want to offer credits as a refund alternative, reward loyal customers, or create giftable products, store credits give you the flexibility to do it all.

With the help of reliable plugins like Smart Coupons and WooCommerce Gift Cards by WebToffee, setting up and managing store credits becomes simple and seamless. By encouraging customers to stay connected with your brand and come back for future purchases, store credits can turn occasional buyers into loyal fans.

Ready to take your WooCommerce store to the next level? Start using store credits today and create a shopping experience that keeps customers coming back for more!