Returns and refunds are undoubtedly a big headache for e-commerce merchants. Not only do refunds hurt an e-commerce business from a revenue perspective, but they significantly affect the many aspects of the business. With e-commerce evolving rapidly, the concept of refunds has become complex in recent years. Just to give an idea, the refunds would cost the American e-commerce industry a whopping $550 billion by 2020.
In order to cut down the number of returns and refunds, e-commerce expert came up with some nice ideas in the past couple of years. Store credit feature is one of them, and in this article, we discussed how Magento owners can leverage store credit functionality to reduce refunds and increase their revenue.
What is Store Credit in Magento 2?
A credit store is an amount restored to a customer’s account. Store credit may be used by the customers for their future purchases. The feature eliminates the need to credit the refund back to a customer’s credit card or their bank account. Instead, it stays in a customer’s account as virtual money that they can use to buy another item within the store. Store credit ensures a guaranteed purchase.
It builds customer relationships and keeps the sales cycle moving. Magento 2 store credit features simplify returns/exchanges and increase customer satisfaction. This feature is not a default functionality. A Magento store owner must use extensions to enable this feature.
Store credit functionality in Magento 2 comes handy in the following scenarios.
Returns and Exchanges:
When a customer returns a product and requests a refund, store owners can offer the store credit instead of cash to encourage repeat purchase.
Gift Cards:
Magento owners can also issue gift cards against a refund so that a customer can use gift it to their friends or family members.
Promotional credits
Promotional credits are known as coupons or vouchers that can issues to customers against refunds, where they can use them for a future purchase.
When to offer Magento 2 Store Credit?
1. The product fails to match expectations or standards
Poor quality products aren’t always the reason for returns. Even when a product is good, if it fails to match a customer’s expectation, it is highly likely to get returned. Therefore, it is important that product details such as photos, videos, details, specifications, etc. are accurate.
2. Delivering the wrong product
According to research, it is found that more than 50% of customers return their products due to vendors’ mistakes. Thus, custom-developed logistics tools are used to make sure whether the customers are receiving the right products.
Let’s look closer at the major aspects of Magneto store Credit extension and how to implement it on your store.
Magento 2 Store Credit Extension
This extension helps Magento store owners to benefit from
Flexible return policy
The plugin will ensure customer satisfaction and unopened items to return in 30 days and vendors approve a refund to your customers in the form of store credit. This adds value to their customers and encourages them to shop at your store. This increases the conversion rate of your store.
Automated Refunds as Store Credit
With the help of Magento Refund extension, store credit automatically calculates for a partial or full refund. As per your comfort, modules prefills the store credit on the memo page.
Easy store credit management
In this extension, customers can check their credit balance and redeem earned store credit for the purchased products on the store. Customers can also check their transaction history with the help of store credit balance updates. In the same way, business owners can view, add and remove store credit for each customer, send balance through emails, manage customer notifications, and find transaction history in-store credit.
Effortless Store Credit Redeeming
Clients choose Magento 2 Store credit payment option at checkout and redeem the gained store credits. Based on the Magento plugin, a store credit can be applied manually or automatically to the orders subtotal and allows merchants to use their store credit while creating a new order at the store’s backend.
Merchandise Credit & Promotional Credit
Two types of store credits are supported in this extension: One is Merchandise credit and the other is promotional credit. The first option deposits when customers return an item by shoppers for store credit instead of the original form of payment (cash or credit card). On the other hand, customers earn promotional credit automatically when they subscribe to a promotion offer. Store owners can earn benefits from” earn store credit rules” which help them to run and optimize marketing campaigns effectively.
Store credit vouchers:
Stores offer “store credit vouchers” automatic redeeming points from customer store credit balance once they purchase a product. However, customers who use store credit spend more than their credit balance that boosts sales and pre-transaction revenues.
Compatible with Third-party Magento 2 themes
Magento 2 store credit works with any third-party Magento2 theme. Thus, it is compatible with both the community and enterprise editions of Magento 2 platform. Magento 2 Store Credit extensions offer a better customer experience by offering the best return policy with numerous refunds and store credit options.
Merchants distribute customer credits, view transaction history, create marketing promotions and offers vouchers with the help of extensions. Shop owners offer customers more comfortable to shop from your store by using the store credit funds available in their store account.
Magento 2 Store Credit extension offers a free demo for all the store owners who want to check it before adding it to their stores. It does not require coding knowledge, just install it in a few clicks. It comes up with complete documentation and solution tips that avoid trouble during the installation process.
Conclusion
Product returns constantly changed the sales and revenues of the eCommerce store. Online shopping demands a proper return policy that makes returns painless. Accordingly, store credit policies have potential growth that improves store profits. Magento 2 store credit extension is a perfect tool helps to create effective return policy for customers, and maintains long-term relationships among customers, and increases conversation rates.