STORE CREDIT STILL NOT SUPPORTED??!! – Shopify Point of Sale (POS) Review

Shopify customers have been asking for six years but still, do not have a usable store credit function in Shopify. Just search ‘store credit’ in the discussion forums and post after post, Shopify Guru’s says it’s ‘coming soon’ all the way back to 2012. I run a brick and mortar store where we sell electronics. I have 10 employees; our average order value is $578 and we have 800-1000 orders every month between eBay and Shopify. It is a total accounting nightmare when a customer wants to exchange an item in-store. The current store credit function in Shopify is extremely error prone but also brings a tremendous risk of fraud. We also explored the ‘refund to gift card’ option but that as well has no controls to prevent errors or fraud. To be honest; at this point is absolutely appalling what is supposed to be a premier retail sales platform does not have this incredibly vital and basic functionality. With the current system, this is what happens. Customer buys an item for $100 Customer returns the item and wants to buy a different item for $250. We refund the original order to ‘store credit’ and restock the item. We create a new order, add the customer and the item to the cart, select payment method store credit. ANY DOLLAR AMOUNT CAN BE ENTERED!?!?! There is absolutely ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY OR CONTROL when using store credit as a payment option. This simple fact is insane. Not only does this present the possibility that a customer service rep my accidentally enters an incorrect store credit amount but it also presents the opportunity for fraud if they knowingly enter more store credit that they should. There is NOTHING to prevent a mistake; there is no accountability that the correct store credit amount for that customer was applied. The same issue exists with the supposed ‘issue a gift card’ work around. You can refund an order to store credit and then sell a gift card using ‘store credit’ but again the amount of store credit available is completely made up. There is NOTHING tying it back to the customer, sale amount, etc. The sale rep can enter any amount they want. They can sell a gift card and use ‘store credit’ as a payment option without any accounting controls !?!? They can sit there and generate gift card after gift card using ‘store credit’ as the payment option without anything stopping them… Lastly, even if you did use the store credit features there is one more major flaw. Here is an example Customer buys an item for $100 Customer returns that item; uses store credit to buy an item that is $250. ($150 additional paid) Customer returns again; they want to return the item for a FULL REFUND but the Shopify does NOT allow you to do it. When you attempt to issue a refund; the refund page only allows you to refund the $150 additional they paid. The initial $100 paid on the first order can ONLY be refunded to ‘store credit’. The customer is expecting a full refund for $250. If you manually try to edit the refund amount to make store credit zero and cash refund $250 it prevents you from doing it. It keeps the MAX cash refund at $150. Seems crazy that the ONE PLACE there seems to be a restriction in place is the one place you don’t want it. The customer standing there and they are expecting a full refund. Now the accounting is totally off as we have to refund $250 in cash and have NO WAY to accurately record those funds coming out of the register. This is definitely not the experience I was expecting from Shopify. If you are a one or two person operation you might be able to operate like this but for any serious retailer that has multiple sales reps and a significant volume of transactions, this simply won’t work. I know this will require you redesign how customer accounts are handled but this needs to be resolved already. Please take the necessary steps to put this into development ASAP. Thank you for your time.
Review by adamsanerson on Shopify Point of Sale (POS).