Store credit is a Shopify feature, not an Arbyn one, and whether it works on your store depends entirely on how your customer accounts are configured. This article covers exactly when store credit is available, what a shopper experiences in each case, and the two ways Arbyn actually puts credit on someone's account.

Arbyn can tell a shopper their current store credit balance if they ask, and it can put new store credit on a customer's account in two situations: when a member of your team issues it as a goodwill gesture from a conversation, or automatically the moment your team approves a return whose resolution is store credit. Whether either of these can happen at all depends on three things your store controls in Shopify, not in Arbyn.

Integrations → Store credit shows you, at a glance, whether your store is eligible and whether Arbyn has the Shopify permission it needs. Settings → Guardrails → Returns is where you turn store credit on or off as a resolution shoppers can choose during a guided return. The right-hand panel of any conversation has an Issue store credit button for a standalone goodwill credit.

Arbyn checks three separate facts before it will ever offer or issue store credit, and all three have to be true:

If any of these isn't true, the Store credit option simply doesn't appear as a choice for your team or your shoppers, rather than being shown and then failing when someone tries to use it.

Some stores have customer accounts turned on but not required, a shopper can check out as a guest or sign in, their choice. This is a real, common, fully eligible setup, but it comes with one honest caveat: store credit only applies at checkout for a shopper who is actually signed in. A guest checkout never sees it, credit or no credit. When Arbyn tells a shopper their balance on a store like this, it always adds that they need to be signed in to spend it, and gives them your store's own sign-in link so they know exactly where to go. If a shopper's checkout experience feels inconsistent, "sometimes I see my credit, sometimes I don't", this is almost always why: whether they signed in that particular time.

If a shopper asks "how much store credit do I have," Arbyn looks up their real balance in Shopify and reports it accurately, it never guesses or estimates. A shopper can hold more than one balance at once if they've shopped across different currencies (common for stores selling into multiple countries), and Arbyn reports each one separately rather than adding them together, since they're genuinely separate accounts that can't be combined. If your store hasn't turned on store credit redemption at checkout in Shopify (a separate Shopify setting from the account-type checks above), Arbyn still states the real balance honestly but is clear that it can't currently be spent at checkout.

As a goodwill gesture. From any conversation, your team can open Issue store credit in the right-hand panel, pick the customer, and enter an amount and currency by hand. Currency has no default here on purpose: store credit accounts are tied to a specific currency, and guessing wrong wouldn't show an error, it would quietly create a second, separate account the customer might never notice sits apart from their existing balance. If a customer already has a balance, use that same currency. This is a manual, one-off action your team takes, the same way you'd issue a discount code or a gift card.

Automatically, when you approve a return. If a shopper's return request is set to be resolved with store credit, and you click Approve, Arbyn applies the credit to their account right then, as part of completing your approval, you don't need a separate step afterward. The amount is the order's full refundable total (what was actually paid, minus anything already refunded), in the currency the order was placed in. This is still entirely your decision: nothing is credited until you click Approve, and the amount that gets issued is the same figure shown to you on the return request before you approve it, never a surprise number after the fact.

If the automatic issuance can't complete for any reason (your store's eligibility changed since the shopper's request, the permission was revoked, or the order has no linked Shopify customer to credit, a guest checkout with no account, for example), Arbyn doesn't fail silently. It flags the conversation back to your team with the specific reason, so you can issue the credit by hand in Shopify instead. The shopper has already been told their return was approved and that credit is coming; if the automatic step stumbles, your team completing it by hand keeps that promise, it just isn't instant in that one case.

My store uses classic customer accounts. Can I still offer store credit through Arbyn? No. This is a Shopify limitation, not something Arbyn can work around, store credit simply cannot be redeemed on classic accounts. You'd need to upgrade to Shopify's new customer accounts first.

Do I have to turn on the Shopify permission before store credit works at all? Yes. Even on an eligible store, Arbyn can't add credit to any customer's account until your team grants that one-time permission from Integrations → Store credit.

If I approve a return for store credit, does it happen immediately? Yes, the moment you click Approve, assuming your store is still eligible and the permission is granted. If something's changed since the shopper's request, Arbyn tells your team the exact reason instead of failing quietly, and you can issue it by hand in Shopify.

Can a shopper spend store credit as a guest, without an account? No, never, on any store. Store credit always requires the shopper to be signed in to their account at checkout. On a store where accounts are optional, this means a guest checkout simply won't see the credit applied, even though the balance genuinely exists.

What happens if I issue credit in the wrong currency by mistake? It won't fail or error, which is exactly why the currency field has no default, it creates a separate store credit account in that currency rather than adding to an existing balance. Always double-check the currency against what the customer already holds, if any.