Discount vs. Store Credit
Drag the sliders to model your own campaign.
See how using store credit can impact your bottom line.
Campaign variables
Orders in the promotion, one per customer.
20% off in cash, or 20% of order value issued as store credit.
Share of customers who come back to spend their credit.
Gross profit — across 100 orders
Adjust the sliders to see the difference.
Model assumes one order per customer in the promotion, credit redeemed against a second order at the same AOV and margin, and that redemption is the only behavioural difference between the two scenarios. It deliberately ignores the overage effect and the acquisition cost you save on the second order — both of which push the store credit number higher.
Stop trashing your margins.
Steal Apple's playbook.
Direct discounts take an immediate bite out of gross margin and train customers to wait for the next sale. Store credit protects the margin, guarantees a second order, and keeps the money inside your business. Here's the maths.
The trap of the direct discount
When you offer a straight 20% off, you do two dangerous things at once: take an immediate, permanent hit to gross margin, and teach your customers that full price is for suckers.
Discount-acquired customers are loyal to the deal, not the brand. They churn faster than full-price buyers, they wait out your calendar, and every campaign has to be louder than the last one to move the same volume.
Worst of all, the money is gone. A $20 discount is $20 that left the building and is never coming back.
The store credit advantage
Apple doesn't discount hardware on Black Friday — it hands out Apple Gift Cards with eligible purchases. Giving 20% in store credit instead of 20% off does three things a discount can't:
- Margin protection. A $20 discount costs you $20 today. A $20 credit only ever costs you the wholesale cost of whatever they buy with it — and only if they come back.
- Guaranteed return trip. Unredeemed credit reads as a loss to the customer. That pull brings them back for a second order you'd otherwise have paid to re-acquire.
- The overage effect. Customers redeeming credit routinely spend beyond the balance, putting the difference on their own card.
- Urgency. Store Credit can have an expiry date to encourage customer back quickly. It also means the liability doesn't sit on your balance sheet.
Stop leaving money on the table.
Stork Credit is the Shopify-native engine for issuing, automating and governing store credit — cashback, win-backs, VIP rewards and refunds, all running on their own.