Gift Cards & Store Credit: Shopify Checkout Display Logic

Last Updated: July 2026

Show gift cards and store credit at Shopify checkout as prepaid balances, not as substitutes for a real payment method: a gift card is applied through a code field and any leftover total is charged to a second method, while native store credit appears only for signed-in customers and must be applied in full. Getting this display logic right prevents failed orders, confused shoppers, and abandoned carts.

This guide explains how gift cards and store credit actually behave at Shopify checkout, when each should appear, how partial payments work, and how to control which payment methods show around them using Kedra Checkout Rules — no Shopify Plus and no code required.

Why checkout display logic for prepaid balances matters

Prepaid value is no longer a niche tender. The global gift card market was valued at roughly $1.24 trillion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $4.23 trillion by 2035 at a 13.06% CAGR, according to Precedence Research (2025). When a shopper arrives holding a gift card or store credit and your checkout hides it, mislabels it, or pairs it with an incompatible second method, you don’t just lose a sale — you strand money the customer already gave you.

Breakage makes the stakes concrete. Capital One Shopping research (2025) reports that roughly $21 billion in gift card value goes unused every year in the United States, with 10–19% of balances never redeemed. Some of that is forgetfulness — but some is checkout friction: a customer who can’t figure out how to apply a balance walks away. Clear display logic turns dormant liability into completed orders.

A one-sentence definition: payment method display logic is the set of rules that decides which payment options appear at checkout, in what order, and under what conditions — so each shopper sees exactly the methods that will actually work for their cart.

How gift cards and store credit work at Shopify checkout
When should you show gift card and store credit options?
How partial payments work
Controlling display logic with Kedra Checkout Rules
Best practices
FAQ

How do gift cards and store credit work at Shopify checkout?

They work differently, and the difference drives every display decision. A gift card is redeemed through a code field and applied to the order like a credit; store credit is a native tender tied to a customer account that behaves like a payment method. Treating them as the same thing is where most checkout confusion starts.

Gift cards are entered as a code during checkout, and the balance is applied against the full order value — including taxes and shipping. Per the Shopify Help Center on redeeming gift cards, if the balance doesn’t cover the whole order, the customer pays the difference with an additional payment method, and any unspent balance stays on the card for a future order. Gift cards can also be combined with discount codes.

Store credit — which Shopify rolled out as a native feature in 2024 — is different. It appears as its own line at checkout, but only under specific conditions. The Shopify Help Center on store credit states plainly:

“Customers can use their store credit as a payment method on your store only when signed in through customer accounts or using Shop Pay.”

That same page adds a critical constraint: “Only the full store credit amount can be applied as a payment method. Customers can’t select a partial amount of their store credit to pay for an order.” Store credit is all-or-nothing; a gift card can be split across several orders.

Gift card vs. store credit at a glance

Behavior	Gift card	Store credit (native)
How it’s applied	Code entered in a checkout field	Payment-method line at checkout
Requires customer sign-in?	No	Yes — signed in or via Shop Pay
Partial amount of the balance?	Yes — balance carries over	No — full amount only
Covers a partial order (pay rest another way)?	Yes	Yes
Combine with discount codes?	Yes	Yes
Transferable to anyone?	Yes (code-based)	No — tied to the customer

One more detail worth budgeting for: for Shopify stores created on or after May 12, 2025, orders that include store credit as a payment method are charged third-party transaction fees unless the store is on Shopify Plus with Shopify Payments activated.

Take control of what shows at checkout. Install Kedra Checkout Rules free and reorder, rename, or hide the payment methods around gift cards and store credit in minutes.

When should you show gift card and store credit options?

Almost always show them for redemption — the danger is not the balance itself but the other methods you display beside it. The gift card field and the store credit line should stay visible so customers can spend value they already hold; your display logic should instead govern the fallback methods that cover any remaining balance.

Use these rules of thumb:

Keep the gift card field available on standard carts. It’s how customers redeem, and hiding it strands prepaid value. Leave it on unless a specific product type can’t accept it.
Expect store credit only for logged-in shoppers. If your audience checks out as guests, store credit won’t appear for them — don’t build flows that assume it’s always visible.
Watch the fallback method on partial payments. When a gift card covers only part of the order, the remaining balance goes to a second method. If that method is cash on delivery, a shopper can redeem a balance and still refuse the leftover at the door — reconsider showing COD as a fallback on higher-risk carts.
Hide gift cards where they can’t be rebilled. On subscription carts, a gift card applies to the first payment only, so it should be hidden — see our guide to hiding one-time payment methods for subscription products.
Don’t drown the choice. Too many tender options next to a gift card field increases decision fatigue. Trimming and ordering methods reduces checkout paralysis from too many payment options.

The theme: show the balance, but curate everything around it so the shopper’s path to “paid” is obvious.

How do partial payments work with gift cards and store credit?

A partial payment is when prepaid value covers part of the order and a second method covers the rest — and on Shopify’s online checkout, gift cards are the native way this happens. The customer enters a gift card code, Shopify subtracts the balance from the order total (tax and shipping included), and the outstanding amount is charged to a card, wallet, or other enabled method.

This matters because Shopify’s online checkout otherwise accepts only one payment method per transaction — you can’t natively split an order across two cards. Gift cards and, in full-amount form, store credit are the built-in exceptions that let a shopper combine tenders. For a deeper look at combining prepaid balances with a second tender, see the power of partial payments on Shopify.

Key mechanics to design around:

Gift card first, remainder second. The balance is applied, then the shopper pays the difference. If the card exceeds the order, the surplus stays on the card.
Store credit is full-amount only. A customer can’t apply, say, $30 of a $50 store-credit balance — it’s the whole balance or nothing, then any remaining order total goes to a second method.
The fallback method is your risk surface. Whatever method funds the leftover balance inherits the usual fraud and cost trade-offs. That’s exactly what checkout-rule apps let you control.

How to control the display logic with Kedra Checkout Rules

Kedra Checkout Rules is a free Shopify Functions app that hides, renames, and reorders payment and shipping methods at checkout using point-and-click conditions — no Liquid, no Scripts, no developer. You can’t hide the native gift card code field itself (nor should you), but you can shape every payment method shown around it and after it. Here’s how.

Step 1 — Install the app. Open the Kedra Checkout Rules App Store listing and click Install, then grant access to Shopify Functions when prompted.

Step 2 — Reorder for the right fallback. Create a Payment Methods rule with the Reorder action so the method most shoppers use to cover a leftover gift card balance — usually a saved card or Shop Pay — sits at the top. Ordering methods by real usage lifts completion; see reordering payment methods for higher conversions.

Step 3 — Hide risky fallbacks on partial-payment carts. Add a Hide action targeting cash on delivery when the cart total or product type makes a redeem-then-refuse scenario costly. This keeps gift-card redemption open while removing the tender most exposed to abuse on the remaining balance.

Step 4 — Rename for clarity. Use the Rename action to give methods plain, unambiguous labels (for example, “Pay remaining balance by card”) so a shopper who just applied a gift card understands what the second method covers.

Step 5 — Apply conditions, not blanket rules. Attach each rule to a condition — cart total, product, collection, tag, or country — so your changes fire only where they should. Guest-heavy stores and subscription carts each need different logic; conditions keep one checkout serving all of them. This is the same conditional engine merchants use to hide payment methods by location.

Step 6 — Preview, test, activate. Use the preview, then run a real test checkout: apply a gift card, confirm the remaining balance routes to the method you intended, and verify hidden methods are gone. Activate once it behaves correctly.

Curate every checkout without touching code. Add Kedra Checkout Rules to your store free and build your gift card and store credit display rules today.

Best practices for gift card and store credit checkout

Never hide the redemption path. Keep the gift card field and store credit line visible so customers can spend value they already own — hiding them is how balances become breakage.
Design for guests too. Because store credit only shows for signed-in shoppers, make sure guest checkout still offers a clear way to redeem a gift card code.
Control the fallback, not the balance. Focus your rules on the second method that covers a leftover total — that’s where fraud, fees, and confusion actually live.
Match rules to cart context. Use conditions so subscription carts, high-value orders, and international orders each see the right set of methods around a gift card.
Re-test after every gateway change. Each time you enable a new payment method, run a partial-payment checkout to confirm the display order and fallback still behave.

Explore the full range of payment and shipping logic on the Kedra Shopify apps overview if you want to layer shipping rules or checkout validation alongside these payment rules.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can customers use a gift card and a credit card on the same Shopify order?

Yes. A gift card is applied as a balance against the full order total, and if it doesn’t cover everything, the customer pays the difference with a second method such as a card or wallet. This partial-payment behavior is native to Shopify checkout, and any unused gift card balance carries over to a future order.

Why isn’t store credit showing at my Shopify checkout?

Native store credit appears only when the customer is signed in through customer accounts or checking out with Shop Pay. Guests won’t see it. It also applies as a full amount only — customers can’t spend part of a store-credit balance — so if a shopper expects a partial application, that’s a platform limitation, not a bug in your theme.

Should I hide cash on delivery when customers pay partly with a gift card?

Often, yes, on higher-risk carts. When a gift card covers part of an order and COD funds the rest, a shopper can redeem the balance and then refuse delivery, leaving you exposed. Using Kedra Checkout Rules to hide COD as a fallback on those carts removes the risk while keeping gift-card redemption fully available.

Do gift cards work for Shopify subscription orders?

Only for the first payment. Shopify applies a gift card to the initial subscription charge, but it can’t fund the recurring renewals that follow, so the subscription lapses. Gift cards should therefore be hidden on subscription carts and kept available for one-time purchases, where they work as intended.

Can I reorder store credit and gift card fallbacks without Shopify Plus?

Yes. Payment method customization apps built on Shopify Functions work on Basic and higher plans, not just Plus. Kedra Checkout Rules uses that framework to reorder, rename, and hide the payment methods shown around gift cards and store credit — all with point-and-click conditions and no code.

Show the balance, control the checkout

Gift cards and store credit are prepaid revenue you’ve already earned — the job at checkout is to make them effortless to spend and safe to pair with a second method. Keep the redemption path visible, expect store credit only for signed-in shoppers, and curate the fallback methods so every partial payment resolves cleanly. Get the display logic right and dormant balances turn into completed orders instead of breakage.

You can build every one of these rules in minutes, on any Shopify plan, without code. Install Kedra Checkout Rules free and take control of how gift cards and store credit appear at your checkout.