Order-value automations
Rules that issue store credit when an order is paid — every field on the form, and exactly how the credit amount is calculated.
An order-value automation runs every time an order is paid. It checks the order against your conditions and, if they all pass, credits the customer.
This is the rule type behind cashback ("2% back on every order"), spend thresholds ("spend €100, get €10"), and product-specific rewards.
Creating a rule
From the home page or the Automations list, click Add automation and choose Order value. Or click Browse all templates to start from a pre-filled rule.
Rules save as inactive. Activate them from the automations list when you're ready — only active rules run.
Reward
Credit type and amount
Fixed amount
The same amount on every qualifying order
Percentage
A percentage of the qualifying order value
Percentage rewards are rounded to two decimal places.
Calculation base
This decides which order value the percentage is taken from, and which value the minimum and maximum purchase amounts are compared against.
Amount before discounts (default)
The order value before any discount codes were applied
Amount after discounts
What the customer actually paid, with discount codes subtracted
Rewarding on discounted orders. The default rewards the full pre-discount value, so a customer using a 25% code still earns as though they paid full price. If you'd rather reward only what was actually paid, switch this to Amount after discounts — and check your existing rules, which all use the pre-discount base.
The base covers product discounts only. Shipping and taxes are never part of it, on either setting.
Applies to
Limits which line items count toward the reward.
All products — the whole order.
Specific collections — only line items whose product is in one of the collections you pick.
Specific products — only the product variants you pick.
When a rule is limited, only the matching line items count. An order with €200 of matching products and €50 of everything else is treated as a €200 order by that rule. If nothing on the order matches, the rule is skipped.
Eligibility
Decides which customers the rule applies to.
All customers
Anyone with a customer account on the order
Specific customer segments
Members of one Shopify customer segment
Specific customers
A hand-picked list of customers
Customers with specific tags
Customers carrying one of the customer tags you list
Store credit needs a customer record. When someone checks out as a guest, Shopify matches the order to a customer by the email they entered, or creates a new customer, and that customer is credited. To spend the credit, the guest signs in with the same email. An order with no customer at all can't be credited: with All customers it records a failed run reading "No customer ID found", and with any other option a skipped run reading "No customer on order".
Segment membership is checked live at the moment the order is paid, so a customer who joined the segment yesterday qualifies today.
Customers with specific tags
Add one or more customer tags. A customer qualifies if they carry any of them. Choose how the tags are compared:
Tag is exactly
is the same as one you listed
VIP matches VIP, not VIP-2025
Tag starts with
begins with one you listed
referral: matches referral:SUMMER25 and every other referral code
Matching ignores upper and lower case. Tags are read from the customer at the moment the order is paid, so a tag added seconds before checkout still counts. This makes tags the reliable choice for rewards triggered at checkout, such as referral codes. A segment built on the same tag can take a while to update.
Minimum and maximum requirements
Both are optional and are measured against the calculation base, using only the line items that survived Applies to.
Minimum purchase amount — the order must reach this value.
Minimum quantity of items — the order must contain at least this many items.
Maximum purchase amount — the order must not exceed this value. Independent of the minimum, so you can build non-overlapping tiers.
Uses per customer
Every qualifying order (default)
The customer earns credit on every order that passes the rule's checks
Once per customer
Only the customer's first qualifying order earns credit from this rule
"Once" is counted per rule. If a customer has been rewarded by one rule, other rules can still reward them. A customer is only counted as rewarded once the credit has actually been issued, so a failed credit doesn't use up their reward. Later orders from a customer who has been rewarded are skipped with the reason "Customer already rewarded by this rule (once per customer)".
Active dates
Optionally limit the rule to a date range with a start and end date, each with its own time and timezone. Leave both empty and the rule runs as long as it is active.
Useful for seasonal promotions you want to set up ahead of time — combine a future start date with an Active status and the rule begins on its own.
Store credit expiry
Controls how long the issued credit lasts.
Never expires
The credit stays on the account indefinitely
After a period
Expires a set number of days, weeks, months, or years after it is issued
On a fixed date
Every credit from this rule expires on the same calendar date
After a period is relative to each individual credit, so an order in March and an order in June each get their own countdown.
What happens when an order is paid
For every active order-value rule, in order:
Active period — is the current time inside the rule's date range?
Eligibility — does the customer qualify?
Uses per customer — for a once-per-customer rule, has this customer already been rewarded?
Applies to — do any line items match?
Minimum requirements — met?
Maximum amount — not exceeded?
Credit value — greater than zero?
Promotion stacking — if stacking is off, is this the highest-value eligible rule?
The first failed check stops the rule and records a skipped run with the reason. Every step is written to the run log, so you can see exactly where a rule stopped. See Run history.
Multiple rules on one order
By default every qualifying rule fires and the customer receives the sum of all of them. To issue only the single highest-value reward instead, change the setting in Promotion stacking.
Notifications
Notify customers by email is on by default. Choose which email the customer gets when credit is issued:
Shopify's store credit email, the default
Stork Credit email, your own Store Credit Alert template, which counts toward your monthly email allowance
Turn the setting off to issue credit without emailing the customer. Rules created before this setting existed keep sending Shopify's email.
To also show the earned amount inside your own order confirmation email, turn on Show earned credit in order confirmation email on the Checkout widget block — see Cart & checkout widgets.
Editing and deleting
Open a rule from the Automations list to edit it. Changes apply to orders paid after you save — credit already issued is never revisited.
Select rules in the list to activate, deactivate, or delete them in bulk. Deleting a rule keeps its run history and does not touch credit it already issued.
Your plan caps how many automations can be active at once — one on Free, ten on Grow. Deactivating a rule frees a slot. See Plans & billing.
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