When a customer edits their order in a way that lowers the total — removing an item, switching to a cheaper variant, downgrading shipping — you owe them the difference. The Refund Method section lets you choose how that refund is issued: back to the original payment method, or as store credit.
What counts as a downgrade
Any edit that leaves the order total lower than what the customer originally paid. The most common cases:
Reducing a quantity (e.g., ordered 3, keeping 1)
Removing a line item (indirectly, via quantity → 0 or replacement with a cheaper item)
Switching to a cheaper variant (e.g., size L → size S where S is cheaper)
Downgrading shipping method, if that's enabled
In all of those, the edit finalizes with a refund owed to the customer. How that refund lands is the question this setting answers.
Option 1 — Refund to original payment method (default)
The refund is routed back through the same channel the customer paid with at checkout — credit card, PayPal, Shop Pay, gift card, etc. The customer typically sees the funds within 5–10 business days, depending on their payment provider.
Option 2 — Refund the difference to store credit
The refund is issued as store credit in the customer's checkout currency. Store credit is instant, doesn't go through the payment provider, and is available immediately for the customer to use on their next purchase.
You can change this setting any time — it only affects refunds issued after the change.
Note: This setting only controls refunds caused by Order Editing. Refunds you issue manually from the Shopify admin still behave exactly the way Shopify handles them.
What's next
Reversing Unpaid Edits — the other side of the equation: what to do when an edit owes you money and the customer doesn't pay
Automatic Shipping Cost Recalculation — one common source of downgrades