Store Credit Rewards for Referral (Shopify Integration)

Samantha Brown Updated by Samantha Brown

Overview

Store Credit gives you a powerful new way to reward your Advocates: credit that's automatically issued to their Shopify account when a Friend they referred makes a purchase.

With Store Credit, your Advocates can earn a percentage or fixed dollar amount of their referred Friend's order back as credit, no coupon codes or manual payouts required. This integrates directly with Shopify's Account Credit system, so Advocates can view and redeem their credit right through Shopify's built-in checkout experience.

💡 Available for Shopify Plus merchants only who are using New Customer Accounts

How to Enable Store Credit in Shopify

  1. Login to your Shopify admin
  2. Navigate to Settings > Customer Accounts
  3. Toggle Store Credit ON

How Store Credit Rewards Work

When a customer refers a Friend and that Friend completes a purchase, the Advocate can earn a reward that's automatically issued as Shopify store credit.

That credit appears in the Advocate's Shopify account and can be redeemed the next time they shop directly through Shopify's normal checkout flow.

Example

  • Advocate refers her friend using their referral link.
  • Referred Friend makes their first purchase for $100.
  • The Advocate’s Reward is configured to give 10% back as store credit.
  • Advocate earns $10 in store credit, automatically added to their Shopify account.

Reward Types

You can configure Store Credit in two ways:

Reward Type

Description

Example

Fixed Amount

A set amount of store credit earned per qualifying referral.

$10 in store credit for every successful referral

Percentage-Based

A percentage of the referred Friend's order subtotal (before tax and shipping).

10% of the Friend's order given back as store credit

Percentage-based store credit is always calculated on the pre-tax, pre-shipping subtotal of the Friend's order and rounded down to the nearest cent ($0.01).

Setting Up Store Credit Rewards in Friendbuy

  1. Navigate to Referral and select Edit for an existing Campaign, or create a new one.
  2. Select the Advocate Reward tab from the top menu bar.
  3. Under Reward Settings, open the How will you reward your Advocates? dropdown and select Store Credit (Shopify).

  1. Choose the trigger event for the reward: Friend Makes a Purchase.
Store Credit rewards can only be configured with the Friend Makes a Purchase trigger, since the reward amount is based on the Friend's order.
  1. Configure how the store credit is calculated:
💰 Gift to Be Applied

This dropdown determines how store credit is calculated when an Advocate earns a reward:

  • Fixed Amount: Advocates earn a set dollar value in store credit for each qualifying referral.
    Example: Give $10 in store credit per referral.
  • Subtotal Percentage: Advocates earn a percentage of their Friend's order subtotal as store credit.
    Example: Give 10% back on the Friend's order subtotal (pre-tax, pre-shipping).
💵 Enter Value

In the field next to the dropdown, enter the amount or percentage for the store credit reward.

  • If you selected Fixed Amount, enter a dollar value (e.g., 10).
  • If you selected Subtotal Percentage, enter a numeric percentage (e.g., 10 for 10%).
⏰ Expiration Settings

You can set an expiration period for the issued store credit. Enter a number (e.g., 6) and choose a time unit (e.g., Month(s)). This determines how long the store credit remains valid after being earned.

Store credit is automatically issued to the Advocate's Shopify account once the reward conditions are met. The credit can be redeemed at checkout on future orders.
  1. Enable a Reward Delay as a security measure, so a Friend can't make a large purchase, cancel it, and let the Advocate keep the store credit anyway. We recommend delaying the reward until after your standard returns/cancellation window closes.
  2. Enable the setting Friendbuy will validate referred Friend Purchases with Shopify (recommended) so Friendbuy automatically confirms the Friend's order with Shopify to account for cancellations or returns before issuing credit.
  3. Click Save (if your campaign isn't live yet) or Publish Changes (if it is).

Customer Experience

Earning Store Credit

Advocates earn store credit once their referred Friend completes a qualifying purchase. After the order is validated, the credit is added to the Advocate's Shopify customer account following the configured Reward Delay if set.

Redeeming Store Credit

Advocates can:

  1. Log into your store using Shopify's New Customer Accounts.
  2. View their store credit balance in their account.
  3. Redeem available credit directly at checkout, Shopify automatically applies it through the native redemption UI.

Notifications

Friendbuy will send your standard Advocate Reward email, including the store credit amount earned. If you've configured an expiration period, you can include it in the email using the merge variables {{reward.expiration.interval}} and {{reward.expiration.chronology}} (e.g., "This credit expires in 6 months"). Make sure you have an Advocate Reward Email configured for your campaign.

Limitations

  • Available only for Shopify Plus stores.
  • Requires Shopify's New Customer Accounts. Store credit is not compatible with classic accounts at this time.
  • Store Credit is only available for the Friend Makes a Purchase trigger.
  • The Advocate must have a registered Shopify customer account to receive store credit.
  • Order refunds and adjustments are handled by Shopify, not Friendbuy.
  • Rewards are issued as Shopify store credit only (not cash payouts or external gift cards).

How did we do?

Generate a QR Code for a Referral Link (API)

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