How to do trade-ins on Shopify POS

Short answer: Shopify POS doesn't have a trade-in transaction. Most shops ring a trade-in up as a named discount on the customer's purchase. That gets the customer out the door, but it skews your margins and reports, the receipt doesn't show a trade-in, and the item you took in never enters inventory. A better way is to record the item as bought in at its trade-in value, give the customer store credit, and spend that credit on the sale.

The usual workaround, and what it breaks

Ringing up a trade-in as a discount ("Trade-in: $40 off") is the common answer on the Shopify Community. It causes four problems:

• Margins look wrong. The discount reads as money given away on the new item, not as the cost of an item you bought.
• Reports can't tell trade-ins from sales promotions, so you can't see what the program costs or earns.
• The traded item isn't in stock. It sits in the back room with no product, no cost and no record until someone remembers to list it.
• There's no record of who sold it to you, which matters if your city or state has secondhand dealer rules.

A better way to run counter trade-ins

1. Attach the customer to the sale so the trade-in and any credit belong to their account.
2. Grade the item against written condition rules, and work out the offer from what it will resell for. Many shops pay more in store credit than in cash.
3. Record the item as bought in: its trade-in value is its cost. Create it as its own product with a quantity of 1 so it sells once and comes off the shelf.
4. Give the customer store credit for the value, then let them tender that credit on today's purchase. Credit on their account also covers what they don't spend today.
5. Keep a record of the item, the seller and the date, and hold it before resale if local rules require.

Using store credit at the register

Shopify POS accepts native store credit when the customer is attached to the sale. A few setup points, from Shopify's help center:

• Store credit needs new customer accounts or Shop Pay, and it has to be on for your online store before it works in POS.
• Staff need the Customers permission in their POS role to apply it.
• Stores created on or after May 12, 2025 pay third-party transaction fees on the part of an order paid with store credit, so factor that into your offers.

More on the options in store credit vs gift cards.

Check the rules where you are

Some states and cities treat a business that takes goods in trade or on consignment as a secondhand dealer. That can mean taking the seller's ID, keeping records for a set time, and holding items for days before you sell them, with stricter rules for jewelry and items with serial numbers. Check your city and state before you start, especially if you take in jewelry, electronics or anything with a serial number.

Reissue is being built to run this whole flow from a Shopify POS tile: grade, offer, credit on the customer's account, item into stock and a seller record, without the discount workaround.