Cashback is available for customers on Enterprise plans.
What is Cashback?
Cashback rewards your customers with store credit or a discount code after they place a qualifying order. It is a simple way to encourage repeat purchases: a customer buys, earns cashback, and comes back to spend it.
You can run several cashback offers at the same time. For example, an always-on offer for every customer, a scheduled promotion, and an offer targeted to a specific segment. Each order can earn at most one offer, and Mage always awards the one worth the most.
Cashback offers can run alongside your points program. A customer can earn both points and cashback on the same order.
How Cashback Works
A customer places an order that meets the offer's conditions.
The cashback is earned and held for the offer's approval time. This holding period lets you cover your returns window before any credit is paid out.
Once the approval time passes, the cashback is approved and paid out automatically, either as Shopify store credit or as a single-use discount code.
If the order is later refunded or cancelled, the cashback is reversed automatically, even if it has already been approved and paid out. Partial refunds reduce the cashback in proportion to what was returned.
Cashback is always calculated on the product subtotal of the order. Taxes and shipping are never included.
Creating a Cashback Offer
From your Shopify admin, open the Mage Loyalty app.
In the left menu, click Cashback.
Click Create Offer.
Fill in the offer fields described below.
Set the Status to Active when you are ready to go live, or leave it as Draft while you set things up.
Click Save in the save bar at the top of the page.
Offer Fields
Field | What it does |
Offer name | An internal name for the offer. Customers do not see this. |
Reward method | How the cashback is paid out: Shopify store credit or a discount code. See Reward Methods below. |
Cashback type | Flexible amount or Fixed amount. See Cashback Amount below. |
Cashback amount | The value of the cashback. For a flexible offer you set an amount of credit per amount spent (for example 1 for every 100). For a fixed offer you set a single flat amount. |
Maximum per order | Flexible offers only. An optional cap on how much cashback a single order can earn. |
Discount code prefix | Discount code offers only. An optional prefix for the generated codes. Leave blank to use your store's default discount code prefix. |
Combinations | Discount code offers only. Choose which other Shopify discounts the cashback code can be used alongside: product discounts, order discounts, or shipping discounts. All are off by default, so the code is not combinable with other discounts. |
Who qualifies | Which customers are eligible: All customers, New customers only, a VIP tier, or a Shopify Segment. The VIP tier option appears when your store uses VIP tiers, and matches customers currently in the tier you choose. |
Require opt-in | When on, customers must opt in before their order qualifies. See the separate guide, Cashback - Capturing Opt-ins from a Popup. |
Maximum awards per customer | How many times each customer can earn cashback from this offer. Defaults to 1, so each customer earns once. Set it to 0 or leave it blank for unlimited, for example an ongoing offer that pays on every order. |
Minimum order amount | Orders with a product subtotal below this value do not earn cashback. Leave blank for no minimum. |
Limit to specific products or collections | Restrict the offer to specific products or a specific collection. Only orders that contain at least one of the selected items earn cashback. For a flexible offer, the cashback is calculated on the spend of the matching items only, not the whole order. You can target products or collections, not both. Leave it set to All products to apply to your whole catalogue. |
Approval time | The number of days the cashback is held before it is approved and paid out. Set to 0 to pay out instantly. |
Schedule | Run the offer always-on, or schedule a start and optional end date. |
Status | Draft offers never award cashback. Set to Active to go live. |
Reward Methods
Each offer pays out in one of two ways. You choose this per offer.
Shopify store credit
The cashback is added to the customer's Shopify store credit account and applied automatically at checkout on their next order. This is the best fit for ongoing, rate-based cashback.
Shopify store credit can only be spent at checkout when your store uses new customer accounts. If your store still uses legacy customer accounts, the credit will be awarded but customers will not be able to spend it until new customer accounts are enabled.
Discount code
The cashback is issued as a single-use, customer-locked discount code. The code appears in the customer's account, and you can also notify them by email or through Klaviyo. This is the best fit for opt-in promotions such as "$20 back on your first order", where the code gives the customer a reason to return. Discount code offers always use a fixed amount. Use the Combinations field to control whether the code can be stacked with your other Shopify discounts.
Customer notifications are off by default. To email customers when they earn cashback, turn on the cashback email templates on the Email Templates page. If you use Klaviyo, you can fire the cashback events instead and build the message in your own flows. This matters most for the discount code method, since a customer needs to be told their code. Store credit is applied at checkout automatically, so a notification is optional.
Cashback Amount
Flexible amount
Customers earn cashback in proportion to what they spend. You set how much credit they earn for every amount spent. For example, 1 of cashback for every 100 spent is the same as 1 percent. You can add an optional maximum per order to cap large orders. If the offer is limited to specific products or collections, a flexible offer earns on the spend of the matching items only.
Fixed amount
Customers earn the same flat amount on every qualifying order, regardless of the order value. Discount code offers are always fixed.
Approval Time and Cashback Expiry
Approval time is set on each offer. It is the number of days the cashback is held before it is approved and paid out. Use a delay to cover your returns window so you are not paying out cashback on orders that are later returned. Set it to 0 to pay out instantly.
Cashback expiry is a store-wide setting on the Cashback page. It controls how long customers have to spend their cashback after it is awarded. Store credit expires natively in Shopify, and discount codes are given a matching end date. Set it to 0 for no expiry.
Monitoring Cashback
The Cashback page lists every offer along with the revenue it has generated and the cashback it has paid out.
Click View Activity to see every cashback reward, its status, and the customer it belongs to. A reward moves through these states:
Status | Meaning |
Pending | Earned and held, waiting for the approval time to pass. |
Approved | Approved and paid out to the customer. |
Rejected | Did not qualify, or was rejected manually. |
Cancelled or Refunded | The order was refunded or cancelled and the cashback was reversed. |
You can also open any customer's page in the app and use the Cashback tab to see their store credit balance and cashback history, and to approve or reject pending cashback manually.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Leaving an offer as Draft. A draft offer never awards cashback. Set the status to Active when you are ready to go live.
Forgetting the award limit on an always-on offer. Maximum awards per customer defaults to 1, so an ongoing offer only pays each customer once. If you want customers to earn cashback on every order, set Maximum awards per customer to 0 for unlimited.
Customers not receiving their discount code. Customer emails are off by default. If you use the discount code method, turn on the cashback email templates on the Email Templates page, or notify customers through Klaviyo, so they receive their code.
Expecting cashback on tax and shipping. Cashback is always calculated on the product subtotal only. Taxes and shipping are never included.
Using store credit on legacy customer accounts. Store credit can only be spent at checkout with new customer accounts. If your store uses legacy accounts, use the discount code method instead, or enable new customer accounts in Shopify.