New Feature: Store Credit

Local Line is excited to launch our new store credit feature! This feature allows customers to pay for their order using store credit. 

Store Credit can be used in the following ways:

1. CSA (buy-down model) or farm credit
2. Pre-paid orders
3. Gift cards
4. Buyer referral reward/referral incentive
5. Refunds, or to compensate
6. Promotions/new customer incentives

Why we built Store Credit

1. We wanted to support our CSA customers. Store credit allows CSAs to track and automatically deduct customer credit from their share. Customers are able to seamlessly shop their products online and organize pickup (or delivery)! The process becomes even more seamless.
2. Things happen. Orders get packed wrong or products get damaged during transport. We wanted to give our users the option to offer store credit or gift cards to their customers when things go wrong!

Store Credit User Feedback

To help get store credit launch-ready, we used beta testing to capture user feedback while the feature was in development. Due to our awesome beta testers, we are happy to have built this great feature and have it available to all Local Line Supplier and Hub accounts starting October 9, 2020.

Steve from Just Farmin’ CSA

Located in Liberty Township, Ohio, Steve from Just Farmin’ CSA is thrilled to have the store credit feature. As a beta tester for this feature, Steve was able to transition their CSA model from a market-style pickup, where full share customers can choose 8 items weekly, to a buy-down CSA. 

“Customers are able to pick out what they want from our online store week to week and then pay with their share credit,” shares Steve. “This model has allowed us to get a better handle on inventory and understand our customer’s buying habits when compared to the market-style model we had before. We are moving more produce this year than any year before. Having this data allows us to start planning what we need to grow next season.”

Hermann from Wild Flight Farm

“We use this feature to offer customers store credit when something went wrong with their order,” shares Hermann from Wild Flight Farm. “It has saved so much time and is a great professional solution when a problem arises. It is a feature I have been waiting for!”

With over 1,300 customers, sometimes items are missed or damaged during transportation. The store credit feature allows them to integrate refunds or gift cards directly into their Local Line account. No more spreadsheets or email chains needed to track remaining credit owed to customers. 

Additionally, any customers who prefer to pay a farm share at the beginning of the season are easily accommodated through this feature. No more time spent tracking and subtracting orders from their share each week.

Bonnie from Richfield Farmers Market

Bonnie, the market coordinator at Richfield Farmers’ Market, is using the store credit feature for her markets’ online store in a very unique way! 

1. The power of produce program (POP) allows kids between the ages of 4 to 12 to receive $2 vouchers to spend on produce at the farmers’ market. This year they decided to continue the program but online! “Each month I add $2 worth of store credit per child in the family, multiplied by the number of markets in that month. I also send them a note using the messaging feature to welcome them to the program, ask them to use the credit only for produce, and to say they have credit available.” shares Bonnie. 
2. The Local Food is Essential campaign is a grant project to promote the sale of local products. The first 150 customers to share the post and sign up to their online store received $5 towards their first purchase, and one lucky winner received a voucher for $50. The store credit feature allows the team to update these credits to the correct customers in the system. 

“This feature has increased our sales for sure! About half of my sales in a week are POP Club participants, and I’ve had some additional signups and sales from the promotion.”,  exclaims Bonnie.

Here’s how to set up store credit:

Setting up store credit is easy!

If Store Credit is enabled in your account, click a customer's contact record. You will now see the Store Credit tab. Here, you can add and add store edit to any customer’s account. After a customer pays with store credit, it is automatically deducted from their account.

These are the steps:

1. Go to the Customers tab.
2. Click View next to a Customer.
3. Click Store Credit.
4. Type the store credit amount in the Add to account balance box.
5. Click Apply.

If for any reason you need to manually remove store credit from a customer, you can:

1. Go to the Customers tab.
2. Click View next to a Customer.
3. Click Store Credit.
4. Type the store credit amount you want to remove preceded with a minus symbol "-" in the Add to account balance box. For example, -25.00.
5. Click Apply.

How your customers pay with store credit: 

Store credit works as an alternative payment option for a customer. So, when store credit is set up for a customer, at checkout, they are able to pay with their credit. 

Customers that are assigned to a catalog that does not offer payment terms are prompted to apply their store credit at checkout. Whereas customers that are assigned to a catalog that offers payment terms can apply their store credit from their order detail view and pay for any remaining amount using their preferred method.

We hope you love this feature, and we will continue to enhance it over time, based on your feedback!