Model catalogs, stores, taxes and orders once, then serve them to the storefront you choose. Community, Professional and Enterprise editions share the same engine.
The engine owns commerce. The storefront owns presentation. That separation is the reason the platform can serve a .NET site, a mobile app and a content system at the same time.
WebStore is not a template with a cart attached. It is a services layer, an administration console, a scheduler and a relational model, assembled for teams that need to run commerce as part of a larger .NET estate.
Start with the Community Edition to learn the model. Move to Professional when content, bulk operations and scheduled work become part of the daily routine. Choose Enterprise when the limits no longer fit the business.
The storefront can be ASP.NET MVC, another .NET client, a PHP or Java site, or a mobile application. The services answer the same questions either way.
Assortments, prices, promotions, tax, delivery, content and orders. The platform gives each one a place to live.
Each storefront gets its own domain, languages, currencies, presentation and assortment while the commerce engine stays shared.
Read the capability 02 / 18The same product can carry different prices in different catalogs, so retail, wholesale and partner audiences stay separate without duplicate records.
Read the capability 03 / 18Define product types for clothes, devices, media or services, then attach the attributes each type needs.
Read the capability 04 / 18Define when an offer applies and what it does, from percentage reductions to shipping or order level benefits.
Read the capability 05 / 18Build tax zones for geographic areas, assign tax categories to products and define the rates that apply.
Read the capability 06 / 18Group destinations into shipping zones that reflect carrier coverage, then expose the methods each zone supports.
Read the capabilityThe same capability looks different from marketing, engineering and daily operations. The role pages translate the platform into each perspective.
Campaigns, assortments, markets and margins all move at once. The platform should make the connections visible, not hide them in spreadsheets.
Open the role page 02 / 03A services layer, a standard .NET stack and extension points that do not require a permanent fork.
Open the role page 03 / 03One console for catalogs, orders, prices and content, with the routine tasks brought into the open.
Open the role pageEvery edition shares the core commerce engine. The differences are limits, operational tools and support terms.
The full core commerce engine for small and medium businesses, with source access and no licence fee.
More capacity and the operational tools that appear when a store becomes a business: content, bulk updates, import and export.
The Professional feature set without catalog, store or warehouse limits, with priority support and room for a multi vendor model.
Use the tabs to move from the storefront edge to the scheduled work behind it.
The storefront asks the services layer for a catalog, a product, a basket or an order. OData covers catalog style queries; WCF covers the interactive commerce operations.
Because the contract is a service, the client technology is replaceable. That is the practical meaning of a service oriented architecture in this product.
Catalogs, categories, products, prices, inventory, orders, customers, taxes, shipping and promotions meet in one console. Permissions decide who may change what.
Contextual help and video notes sit beside the screens in the original product. The console tour on this site illustrates the shape without pretending to be a live demo.
Imports, exports, order handoffs and confirmation emails are better when they run on a schedule and leave a trace. The scheduler is the place for that work.
Keep each job observable: last run, record count and outcome. A silent failure is more expensive than a visible one.
Read, watch or install. Each path answers a different question.
Use the free, open source edition to learn the model with one store, one catalog and a real administration console.
Go to the download page 02See how catalogs, products, orders and promotions are organized before you install anything.
Open the console tour 03Start with the introduction, then follow the installation notes, the services overview or the Orchard guide.
Browse resourcesBring the store count, catalog size, languages, tax markets and integration list. A short conversation will settle more than a feature checklist.