How to Refund WooCommerce Orders to Store Credit (Step by Step)

To refund a WooCommerce order to store credit, you record the refund on the order in the usual way, but the money goes into the customer’s store credit balance instead of back to their card. WooCommerce has no store credit of its own, so you need a plugin for this. Once the plugin is set up, each refund takes a few clicks on the order screen.

The steps below use the free version of Simple Store Credit. We make that plugin, so keep that in mind as you read. Everything in the steps works without PRO, and there’s a section near the end on other plugins that can refund to store credit.

Before the steps, check that you’re allowed to refund to credit at all. In the UK and the EU, some refunds have to go back to the original payment method unless the customer agrees to something else.

In this guide

• When you can refund to store credit
• Before you start
• How to refund a WooCommerce order to store credit
• What the customer sees
• Partial refunds and other cases
• Should refund credit expire?
• Other plugins that refund to store credit
• FAQ

When you can refund to store credit

Store credit refunds suit returns you accept as a goodwill gesture, where your own returns policy sets the rules. They also suit customers who would rather have credit to spend now than wait for the money to reach their card. Refunds that the law requires work differently:

• Online orders cancelled in the cancellation period (UK and EU). Customers who buy online can usually cancel within 14 days of delivery. You then have to refund them within 14 days of getting the goods back (or of receiving proof they were sent, if that comes first), using the same payment method they paid with, unless they have expressly agreed to something else. You can’t charge a fee for the refund. In the UK this comes from regulation 34 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and in the EU from Article 13 of the Consumer Rights Directive.
• Faulty goods (UK). When a customer is owed a refund for faulty goods under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 20 also says the refund must use the same means of payment unless the customer expressly agrees otherwise.

In both cases you can offer store credit, but the customer has to choose it. Ask them in writing and keep their answer, such as an email reply or a box they ticked on your returns form.

Outside these rights, for example when a customer changes their mind after the cancellation period has ended, your returns policy decides. Offering store credit only for these returns is common. Say so in your returns policy so customers know before they buy.

In the US there’s no single national rule, and most stores set their own refund policy. Some states have rules about how you show it. In California, for example, a store must display its return policy if it’s stricter than the usual return rights, including whether it gives a cash refund, store credit or an exchange.

We’re not lawyers, and the rules differ from one country or state to the next. If you handle a lot of returns, have someone who knows the law where you sell check your returns policy.

Before you start

• The order needs a customer account. Store credit is added to a customer’s account, so the refund button only appears on orders placed by a registered customer. For a guest order, create an account for the customer (or find their existing one), choose it in the Customer field on the order screen and save the order. The button then appears.
• Your site needs WordPress 6.5 or newer and PHP 7.2 or newer to run the plugin.
• Decide how the credit is delivered. Simple Store Credit can add the refund to the customer’s account balance (the default) or issue it as a credit voucher. A voucher is a code the customer enters at checkout, and they can spend part of it and keep the rest for later.

How to refund a WooCommerce order to store credit

Step 1: Install Simple Store Credit

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins › Add New Plugin, search for “Simple Store Credit”, then install and activate RelyWP: Simple Store Credit for WooCommerce. You can also download it from WordPress.org. The plugin adds a Store Credit menu to your dashboard and a Store Credit page to each customer’s My Account area.

Step 2: Check the refund settings

Go to Store Credit › Settings and open the Refund to Credit tab. The “Refund as Store Credit” button is switched on by default, so you only need to check three options:

• Button label. The default is “Refund {amount} as {label}”, which shows on the order screen as something like “Refund £25.00 as Store Credit”. {label} is the name you give store credit in the General settings.
• Deliver refunded credit as. Choose an account balance or a credit voucher. This option only shows if you use both.
• Credit log note. The text saved in the customer’s credit history. The default is “Refund for order #{order}”, where {order} becomes the order number.

Step 3: Set up the email the customer gets

By default, customers get the general “credit added” email whenever credit goes into their account. Its subject line is “You’ve received {credit_label}”, and it shows the amount and their new balance.

For refunds, you can switch on a separate email with its own wording under Store Credit › Settings › Email Notifications. It’s off by default. Its subject line is “{credit_label} has been refunded to you”, and you can edit the subject and message and send yourself a test email before saving. If you issue refunds as vouchers, the customer gets the voucher email with their code instead.

Step 4: Open the order and choose what to refund

Go to WooCommerce › Orders, open the order and click Refund below the order items. Enter the quantity or amount for each item you’re refunding, or type the total in the Refund amount box. Add a reason if you want one on record. Tick Restock refunded items if the products have come back to you and can be sold again.

Step 5: Click the store credit refund button

Beside WooCommerce’s own refund buttons (“Refund manually”, plus “Refund via” your payment method if it supports automatic refunds), you’ll see the new button, for example Refund £25.00 as Store Credit. Click it and confirm. Only click this one button, or the customer gets refunded twice.

The plugin then:

• records a normal WooCommerce refund on the order without contacting your payment gateway, so no money goes back to the card
• adds the amount to the customer’s store credit balance, or creates a voucher, depending on your setting
• adds an order note such as “£25.00 refunded to the customer as Store Credit.”
• sends the email you set up in step 3

If you refund the full order total, WooCommerce changes the order status to Refunded. A smaller refund leaves the status as it was. The refund can’t be larger than the amount still left to refund on the order.

Step 6: Check the customer’s balance

Go to Store Credit › Customers, find the customer and check that the refund appears in their credit history with the order number. The first time, try the whole process on a test order you placed with your own customer account, so you can see the email and the My Account page as well.

What the customer sees

Customers see their balance and history on the Store Credit page in My Account. The refund appears as a credit with your log note, for example “Refund for order #1234”.

To spend it, they shop as normal. A store credit tool on the cart and checkout lets them apply their whole balance or just part of it, and they pay anything left with their usual payment method. If you issued a voucher, they can type the code in the same tool or pick the voucher from a list there.

If you’re still deciding whether store credit suits your store, our guide to store credit vs gift cards vs coupons explains how each one affects your cash flow.

Partial refunds and other cases

• Part to the card, part to credit. You can split a refund. Refund some of the order through your payment gateway, then refund some or all of the rest as store credit, or the other way round. WooCommerce records each refund separately on the order.
• Orders the customer paid for partly with store credit. When you cancel or fully refund the order, the credit they spent on it goes back to their balance and any voucher they used is restored. You don’t need to add it back yourself.
• Orders that bought store credit. The button doesn’t appear on orders for gift cards or wallet top-ups. Refund those through your payment gateway, and the plugin takes back the credit the order added. If the customer has already spent some of it, their balance goes down as far as it can, and the rest comes off the next credit they receive.
• Stores that sell in more than one currency. Balances are kept in your store’s base currency, so a refund on an order in another currency is converted before it’s added.

Should refund credit expire?

Credit expiry is a PRO feature and is off until you turn it on. The default lifetime is 365 days, and customers get a reminder email 14 days before their credit expires. You can also give each type of credit its own lifetime, and entering 0 for a type stops that credit from expiring.

Be careful with refund credit. If a customer took credit instead of a refund they had a legal right to, letting it expire means they lose money you owed them. For those refunds, set refund credit to never expire, and keep expiry for promotional credit such as cashback.

Cashback works on the same balance, so if you also reward purchases with credit, our guide to offering cashback in WooCommerce covers the setup.

Other plugins that refund to store credit

Simple Store Credit is new, with 10+ active installs and no reviews on WordPress.org yet. If you’d rather use a plugin with more users, these three also add a store credit refund option to the order screen:

• WooCommerce Account Funds by Kestrel ($89 a year) adds a button on the refund screen that refunds the amount “via store credit”. Its documentation says it doesn’t email the customer about the refund, and store credit the customer spent on the order isn’t returned automatically.
• TeraWallet is free, with 20,000+ active installs and a 4.7 rating from 188 reviews on WordPress.org. Refunds to the customer’s wallet are part of the free version.
• Advanced Coupons includes store credit in its free version, with a “Refund to Store Credits” option when you refund an order.

We compared these and others in more detail in our roundup of WooCommerce store credit plugins.

FAQ

Can WooCommerce refund to store credit without a plugin?

Not directly, because WooCommerce has no store credit balance. The closest you can get is a manual refund plus a coupon. First click “Refund manually” on the order, which records the refund without sending money back. Then create a Fixed cart discount coupon for the same amount, limited to one use and to the customer’s email address. The drawback is that a WooCommerce coupon doesn’t keep any value left over: if the customer spends less than the coupon amount, they lose the rest.

Can customers ask for store credit themselves?

Simple Store Credit doesn’t add a returns request form. Customers ask by email or through your returns process, and you issue the refund from the order. If you handle a lot of returns, a returns plugin can collect the requests, and you then refund each order as shown above.

Can I add a bonus to encourage customers to choose store credit?

Yes. Some stores offer a little extra, such as 10%, to customers who pick credit instead of a card refund. The refund button can’t go above the order total, so refund the order amount as credit first, then add the bonus by hand from Store Credit › Add or Remove Credit. The docs explain how to add credit manually.

How do I see how much refund credit is still unspent?

The Reports page under the Store Credit menu shows how much credit has been issued and spent, with a breakdown by where the credit came from, including refunds. Unspent credit is money you still owe your customers, so ask your accountant how to record it in your books.

Can I undo a store credit refund?

Check the customer’s balance first, because the credit may already be spent. To take credit back by hand, use Store Credit › Add or Remove Credit. If the numbers on an order don’t match after a refund, the docs page on balances and refunds that don’t add up goes through the usual causes.

Summary

Refunding to store credit keeps the money in your store, and the customer can spend it straight away instead of waiting for a card refund. WooCommerce needs a plugin for this. With the free version of Simple Store Credit, you check the refund settings and the email, then use the “Refund as Store Credit” button on the order instead of a gateway refund. The refund to store credit docs list every setting.

Before you start using it, check your returns policy. For UK and EU orders cancelled within the cancellation period, and for faulty goods, store credit has to be the customer’s choice. For goodwill returns, your policy decides.