Black Friday store credit: three plays that don't deepen your discount

Black Friday 2026 is Fri 27 Nov 2026 and Cyber Monday is Mon 30 Nov 2026. Store credit gives customers a reason to come back without cutting the price on every order: it's spent like money at checkout, only by the customers you choose, and you set the amount and the expiry.

1. Bring lapsed customers back for the sale

About a week before Black Friday, give customers who haven't ordered in 90 days or more a small credit, say $10, that expires the day after Cyber Monday. They have a reason to open your sale email, and a deadline.

For 2026: send on Fri 20 Nov 2026, expire at the end of Tue 1 Dec 2026.

2. Bring the second order forward

On 1 December, credit everyone who ordered during Black Friday weekend with credit that expires on 14 December. It pulls the next purchase into the Christmas window instead of discounting the first one further.

3. Keep January refunds in the store

Holiday returns arrive in January. Shopify can refund an order to store credit instead of the card when the customer agrees, and a small bonus on top (5 to 10 percent) makes credit the better deal for them.

How to set it up in Shopify

Build the segment in Customers, then Segments: for example customers with at least one order and no order in the last 90 days.
For a handful of customers, open each one and add credit in the Store credit section, with Set expiry date.
For hundreds, use an app or a file: the free store credit CSV checker builds a file from a list of emails.
Send yourself a credit first, on your own customer account, to see what customers see.

CreditKit (our app) has a Black Friday template: pick the segment, the amount, the send date and the expiry date now, and it credits the whole segment on the day, with Shopify's email to each customer if you want it. Campaigns are on the Pro plan ($49/month, 10-day free trial); one-off batches from a file work on the Free plan up to 100 credits a month.

See CreditKit on the Shopify App Store

A short checklist

New customer accounts are on (store credit needs them).
Every credit has an expiry date, so unspent credit doesn't sit on your books for years.
Customers are told: credit nobody knows about rarely gets spent.
Your sale email mentions the credit and its expiry.

CreditKit is made by Peerware Ltd and isn't affiliated with Shopify. Shopify features described as of October 2026.