Swap can give a customer returns credit in two ways: as a gift card or as Shopify store credit. What is the difference, and why did a customer get one when you expected the other? This article explains how the two credit types differ, which settings decide what your customers are offered, and how to correct credit issued as the wrong type.
ℹ️ This article applies to Returns V2 only.
How gift cards and store credit differ
Both credit types keep the value of a return in your store, and both can carry a bonus. They are separate systems in Shopify: a gift card is a code, and store credit is a balance held on the customer's account.
| Gift card | Shopify store credit |
What the customer receives | A gift card code, sent by email | A balance on their Shopify customer account |
How the customer spends it | Enters the code at checkout | Uses the balance at checkout while logged in to their customer account |
Where you find it in Shopify | Products → Gift cards | The customer's profile |
Swap setting | Gift cards panel | Store credit panel |
Currency | Native Shopify gift cards: the customer's checkout currency where possible, otherwise your store's base currency. Gift card orders: your store's base currency. | The currency of the original order |
Both panels sit under Returns → Settings → Discounts & Credit in your Swap dashboard. Each one has its own bonus setting, so you can offer a different incentive for each credit type.
Which credit type your customers receive
Gift cards and store credit are separate options in the returns portal. Enabling one does not replace the other.
Gift cards are offered as Shop Later when Enable shop later via gift cards is turned on in the Gift cards panel. See Understanding Shop Now and Shop Later (Returns V2).
Store credit is offered when it is turned on in the Store credit panel. Customers see it in the portal as Credit to my account.
If both are enabled, the customer chooses one of them for their return. They cannot split a single return's credit between a gift card and store credit. A customer who uses part of their return value on a Shop Now exchange can take the remainder as store credit.
Swap never automatically switches a customer from one credit type to the other. If customers are receiving store credit when you expected gift cards, check whether the Store credit panel is turned on, and turn it off if you want to offer gift cards only.
How Swap issues Shop Later credit
When a return is processed with a Shop Later outcome, Swap issues the credit through the first route available to your store:
Your Rise workflow, if you have connected Rise.ai to your Swap store. The credit is then managed in Rise rather than as a Swap gift card.
A native Shopify gift card, if Use Shopify native gift cards is turned on in the Gift cards panel. Shopify emails the code to the customer. If you do not see this option, contact Swap support.
A gift card order, named
SGC-{original order number}, in all other cases. Shopify sends the code when the order is fulfilled. See How to make sure gift cards reach your customers (Returns V2).
If Rise cannot issue the credit, Swap falls back to a gift card. It never falls back to store credit. For how native gift cards and gift card orders appear in your Shopify reports, see Understanding accounting types (Returns V2).
Before you offer store credit
Store credit depends on settings in Shopify as well as in Swap:
Store credit must be enabled in Shopify. Turn it on under Settings → Customer accounts in your Shopify admin.
Swap needs permission to issue store credit. If the store credit setting in Swap is greyed out, the Swap app is missing the
write_store_credit_account_transactionspermission. Stores using the public Swap app grant it by opening the app in Shopify and approving the permission update.The customer needs a Shopify customer account. If Swap cannot find one when the return is processed, the return moves to manual review.
For the full setup, including the permissions for stores using a custom app and the optional expiry setting, see How to refund to Shopify store credit (Returns V2).
If a customer cannot find or use their credit
Open the RMA in Swap and check its outcome. This tells you whether the customer received a gift card or store credit.
For a gift card, search for the customer under Products → Gift cards in Shopify. If your store uses gift card orders, check that the
SGC-order is fulfilled and that Shopify's New gift card notification is turned on — see How to make sure gift cards reach your customers (Returns V2). If you use Rise, check the customer's credit in Rise.For store credit, open the customer's profile in Shopify and check their balance. The customer must be logged in to their Shopify customer account to spend it, and there is no code for them to enter. If you have set store credit to expire, check whether the balance has expired.
How to change credit issued as the wrong type
What you can do depends on whether the RMA has been processed.
Before the RMA is processed
Swap does not convert directly between a gift card and store credit. Convert the outcome to a refund first, then convert the refund to the credit type you want:
Open the RMA, click Convert to and select Refund. See How to change store credit to a refund (Returns V2).
Click Convert to again and select Gift Card or Store Credit. Store Credit is listed only when store credit is enabled. See How to convert a refund to a gift card or store credit (Returns V2), which also lists the RMA statuses where conversion is unavailable.
Converting to a refund removes any bonus. When you convert the refund to a credit type, Swap applies the bonus set for that credit type, if one is enabled. Neither conversion processes the RMA.
After the RMA is processed
Once credit has been issued, the outcome cannot be changed in Swap. Make the change in Shopify, and remove the original credit first so the customer does not keep both:
To replace store credit with a gift card, debit the customer's store credit balance to zero from their Shopify profile, then issue a gift card in Shopify for the value the customer is owed.
To replace a gift card with store credit, deactivate the gift card — see How to Deactivate a Credit — then add the value the customer is owed to their store credit balance from their Shopify profile.