How the Shop Works
The commerce module is a full shop: catalogue, stock, shipping, tax, discounts, checkout, orders, refunds and buyer analytics.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Commercial:
- Carts — the cart itself and its options
- Shop Insights — what buyers looked for
- Vendor Approvals — applications waiting on a decision
Architect Panel → Data:
- Datastores — then View Data on a cart table, where most shop administration lives
Architect Panel → Configuration:
- Platform Modules — the commerce module must be on
Administration lives in two places
Worth knowing before you start looking, because it explains why the menu seems short.
- Commercial holds three entries — Carts, Shop Insights and Vendor Approvals.
- Everything else is reached through Data → Datastores, opening a cart table with View Data. Rows there carry actions of their own: a shipping method offers Weight Tiers and Cut-off Times, a product offers Stock, Filters and Volume Pricing, an order offers Payments, Refunds and Basket Contents.
Those row actions are how most of the shop is configured, and they are easy to miss because nothing announces them.
The shape of it
- A cart is one shop, with its own options, permissions and payment methods. An installation can run more than one.
- Products are two levels — a master product carrying the name, brand, category and images, and its variants carrying SKU, price, weight and order limits.
- Stock is event-based, against warehouses.
- Shipping is methods with weight tiers, cut-off times and holidays.
- Orders carry lines, payments, shipments and refunds.
- Vendors allow a marketplace, where others sell through your shop.
Start with the cart options
They decide what the shop can do — whether prices are shown, whether reviews are on, whether SKUs and brands are visible, whether stock is tracked. Changing them later changes the shop under your customers, so decide early.
You are taking money
Which raises the stakes above most of the platform. Prices, tax, stock and shipping costs are wrong in ways customers notice, and a wrong price honoured is a wrong price you pay for.
Test a complete order — add to basket, check out, pay, refund — before opening to real customers, and do it again after any change to pricing or shipping.
Worked example
A distributor runs one cart with prices shown to signed-in trade customers only, parent-child products for size variants, two warehouses, and shipping priced by weight tier. Vendor applications are off, because it sells only its own stock.
Recommendations
- Look for row actions — most configuration is behind them.
- Settle the cart options before loading a catalogue.
- Place a complete test order, including a refund.
- Re-test after pricing or shipping changes.