WP eCommerce Core Plugin
A WordPress eCommerce plugin rebuilt from the ground up, using the architecture patterns that modern applications deserve.
At a Glance
| Architecture | Domain-Driven Design (DDD) with 4 layers |
| Database | 59 dedicated plugin tables — 32 commerce + 27 ERP (zero wp_postmeta abuse) |
| Admin Panel | Full React SPA — no page reloads |
| REST API | 300+ route registrations across 37 controllers |
| ERP | Native Invoicing, Inventory, Purchasing, Accounting, CRM |
| Payment Gateways | 10 built-in (2 free + 8 premium) |
| Courier Integrations | Geniki Taxydromiki, ELTA Courier (Beta), ACS Courier (Beta) |
| Marketplace Feeds | Skroutz.gr, BestPrice.gr |
| Modules | 40 built-in (17 stable, 2 recommended, 21 beta) |
| Code Protection | ionCube-encoded licensing + Ed25519 integrity verification + 15 distributed sentinels |
| Requirements | PHP 8.2+, WordPress 6.0+, MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.6+, ionCube Loader 14+ |
What Makes It Different
The Admin Experience
The admin interface is a full React SPA (Single Page Application):
- No page reloads — navigating between products, orders, and settings is instant
- Modern UI — clean design with cards, badges, and data visualization
- Drag-and-drop dashboard — rearrange KPI widgets, revenue charts, order status charts, top products, and recent orders
- Real-time interaction — adding items to an order, applying coupons, filtering products all feels responsive
KPI cards with period change indicators, revenue area chart with dual Y-axes, order status donut chart, top products/customers rankings, recent orders table, and a period selector (7d, 30d, 90d, 1 year) — all powered by a unified REST endpoint.
The Database Architecture
While WooCommerce stores products as blog posts with metadata scattered across wp_postmeta, WP eCommerce Core uses 59 dedicated custom tables (32 commerce + 27 ERP):
wp_ec_products— each product is a proper row with typed columnswp_ec_product_variants— variations with their own pricing, stock, images, and shipping datawp_ec_ordersandwp_ec_order_items— clean order storagewp_ec_customers— separate from WordPress userswp_ec_categories,wp_ec_attributes,wp_ec_attribute_terms— proper relational data- Plus tables for reviews, coupons, tax, shipping, payments, invoicing, inventory, purchasing, accounting, CRM, and more
When you search for "products under 50 EUR that are in stock in the Clothing category," the database answers that with simple, indexed queries instead of joining the same meta table against itself multiple times.
The schema is managed through a file-based migration system (similar to Laravel or Django) — versioned, trackable, and reversible.
DDD Architecture
The codebase follows Domain-Driven Design with four clear layers:
Domain → Business entities (Product, Order, Cart, Customer...)
Application → Business logic services (CartService, OrderService, CheckoutService...)
Infrastructure → Database repositories, migrations
Presentation → REST API controllers, Admin controller, Storefront renderer
A proper Dependency Injection container with auto-wiring ensures services are registered in Bootstrap and resolved cleanly. Business logic is testable in isolation, new features don't require touching unrelated code, and the codebase scales without turning into spaghetti.
Feature Deep Dive
Product Management
- Simple and variable products with full variant management
- Per-variant everything — pricing, stock, SKU, images, shipping dimensions
- Sale pricing — fixed amount or percentage, on both products and individual variants
- Image gallery — featured image + gallery with WordPress Media Library integration
- SEO fields — meta title, description, slug management
- Automatic Greek-to-Latin transliteration — type a Greek product name and the slug is auto-generated in Latin characters
- Price range display for variable products (min-max)
- Per-product tax class override
Order Management
Orders have a full lifecycle with 7 statuses (pending, processing, on-hold, completed, cancelled, refunded, failed):
- Create orders from admin — search customers, add products, set addresses
- Edit existing orders — add/remove items, change status, update addresses and notes
- Bulk actions — select multiple orders, change status or delete in batch
- Smart stock management — stock reduces on order creation, restores on cancel/refund, re-deducts if reactivated
- Custom checkout fields — persist through the full lifecycle (checkout, order, emails, admin detail)
- Held stock system — cron auto-cancels unpaid orders after a configurable window
- Orphan order detection — find orders not linked to customers and clean them up
Payment Gateways
Ten gateways are built in — 2 free and 8 premium:
| Gateway | Highlights |
|---|---|
| Bank Transfer | Multi-account support (bank name, IBAN, BIC/SWIFT repeater) — Free |
| Cash on Delivery | Configurable surcharge amount — Free |
| Viva Wallet | Cards, IRIS payments, installments |
| Everypay | Card tokenization |
| Stripe | Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay |
| PayPal | Standard PayPal checkout |
| Nexi (Alpha Bank) | Alpha Bank card processing |
| NBG | National Bank of Greece card processing |
| Eurobank | Eurobank card processing |
| IRIS | Greek instant bank transfer |
All gateways follow a clean architecture (PaymentGatewayInterface > AbstractPaymentGateway > concrete implementation), making it straightforward to add new gateways.
Shipping System
- Shipping zones with multiple methods per zone
- Flat rate, free shipping (with minimum amount threshold), local pickup
- Table rate pricing — weight-based or price-based with configurable tiers (built-in, not a paid addon)
- Smart free shipping — when free shipping is available, paid methods hide automatically
Courier Integrations
Three Greek couriers are integrated:
Geniki Taxydromiki (SOAP/WSDL) — Stable:
- Test connection, create vouchers, download labels (A4/A5/Zebra ZPL), track shipments, shop lookup
ELTA Courier (SOAP with local WSDL) — Beta:
- Package creation, labels (A4/A6), tracking, service types (Standard, COD, Saturday delivery). Production mode requires explicit
WPEC_ELTA_ALLOW_INSECURE_PRODUCTIONopt-in due to plaintext-HTTP transport on the upstream endpoint.
ACS Courier (REST API) — Beta:
- Voucher creation, label download, tracking, shop lookup. Code-complete; awaiting production API key from ACS for general availability.
All three integrate at the order level — create a voucher, print a label, and track a shipment directly from the order detail page.
COD and island surcharges are automatic. Auto weight calculation from product data. Duplicate voucher prevention. Provider auto-detection from shipping method. Tracking events timeline with status indicators.
Tax System
- Multiple tax classes (Standard, Reduced, Zero, custom)
- Rates by country, state/region, and postcode
- Greek island tax rate detection (17% instead of 24%)
- Tax-inclusive or exclusive pricing
- Shipping tax calculation
- Per-product tax class override
Coupon System
- Fixed amount, percentage, and free shipping coupon types
- Minimum order amount requirements
- Usage limits and date ranges
- Usage tracking per coupon
- REST API for apply/remove/validate
Review System
- 1-5 star ratings with images
- Admin moderation (approve/reject/delete) and admin replies
- Helpful vote system
- Stats dashboard (pending/approved/rejected counts)
- Bulk actions and caching
Marketplace Integrations
Built-in integrations with major Greek marketplaces:
- Skroutz.gr — XML product feed generation + Smart Cart order integration for receiving and processing Skroutz orders directly
- BestPrice.gr — XML product feed generation with ISO-8859-7 encoding
Both generate compliant XML feeds automatically from your product catalog, with no third-party plugins required.
Customer Management
Customers have their own dedicated table (not piggybacked on WordPress users):
- Registered and guest customer tracking
- Smart resolution (user_id > email > create new)
- Auto-link when a WordPress user registers
- Duplicate detection and merge tool
- Customer stats (orders, spending, recent activity)
- Database-enforced unique email constraint
Email System
Built-in email templates for:
- Order Confirmation (to customer)
- Admin New Order notification
- Order Failed notification
- New Account welcome and Password Reset
- Support for
{custom_fields}placeholder in templates - Resend email endpoint via REST API
Native ERP System
WP eCommerce Core includes a fully integrated ERP system — not a third-party connector, not an external service, but native modules built into the plugin's DDD architecture with their own dedicated database tables.
Invoicing + myDATA
Full invoicing system with AADE myDATA integration for Greek tax compliance:
- Invoice series management — configurable series with auto-numbering
- PDF invoice generation — professional invoices from order data
- myDATA/AADE integration — direct API communication with the Greek tax authority
- Income classifications — proper Greek tax category mapping
- Invoice lifecycle — create, finalize, cancel, credit note workflow
Inventory / WMS
- Multi-warehouse support — manage stock across multiple physical locations
- Atomic stock operations — thread-safe adjustments preventing overselling
- Stock audit trail — complete history of every movement with reason codes
- Warehouse transfers — move stock between warehouses with tracking
- Low stock alerts — configurable thresholds per product/warehouse
Purchasing
- Purchase Orders — create, approve, send, receive workflow
- Goods Received Notes — receiving against POs with quantity verification
- Supplier management — supplier directory with contact details and terms
- Auto-reorder — automatic PO generation when stock drops below reorder points
- Cost tracking — landed cost calculations for accurate COGS
Accounting / General Ledger
- Chart of Accounts — hierarchical structure (Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue, Expenses)
- Journal entries — manual entries with debit/credit validation
- Auto-posting — orders, payments, and invoices automatically create GL entries
- Period management — fiscal year and period tracking
- Financial reporting — trial balance and account summaries
CRM
- Contact management — extended profiles with company info, tags, and custom fields
- Leads pipeline — visual pipeline with stages, drag-and-drop progression
- Activities — calls, emails, meetings, notes linked to contacts
- RFM analysis — Recency, Frequency, Monetary scoring for customer segmentation
- Communication history — full timeline of interactions per contact
Most WordPress eCommerce stores eventually need an external ERP (Entersoft, SoftOne, SAP). That means integration complexity, data inconsistency between systems, and additional licensing costs. With WP eCommerce Core, the ERP lives inside the same database, same architecture, same API. No sync needed.
The Module Ecosystem
Instead of installing 15-20 separate plugins, WP eCommerce Core comes with 40 built-in modules:
Stable Modules (12)
- Mega Menu — 40+ icons, descriptions, badges, featured products, mobile menu
- Image Optimization — WebP/AVIF, local + API processing, bulk operations
- Icons — 2,000+ SVG icons with search
- API Protection — Rate limiting, burst detection, ban escalation, monitoring dashboard
- Search — Modal with categories, recent/popular, keyboard navigation
- Abandoned Cart Recovery — Cart tracking, 3-email sequence, auto-generated coupons
- Advanced Wishlist — Multi-list support, modal selection, grid display
- SEO — JSON-LD schema, XML sitemaps, Open Graph, robots.txt
- WooCommerce Migration — Full store migration from WooCommerce (customers with logins & passwords, simple & variable products, categories, orders, tax, shipping, coupons, brands, reviews, cross-sells)
- Dev Images — Development image tools
- Dev Components — Component staging for migrations
Beta Modules (25)
Feature-complete modules in final testing: Contact Form Builder, Marketing & Tracking, Promotions, Product Labels, Stock Alerts, Recently Viewed, Store Locator, PDF Invoices, B2B/Wholesale, Points & Rewards, Request a Quote, Product Bundles, Upsell & Cross-sell, Order Tracking, Gift Cards, Flash Sales, Pre-orders, Quantity Rules, Delivery Date Picker, Product Q&A, Product Compare, Size Guide, Advanced Options, Split Orders, SMTP Mailer, GDPR Cookie Consent, Exit Intent Popup.
All modules can be enabled/disabled from a single admin page.
REST API
The REST API is comprehensive and well-organized. Every entity has full CRUD endpoints under the ec/v1 namespace:
- Products, Categories, Orders, Cart, Checkout
- Customers, Reviews, Coupons, Tax, Shipping, Payments
- Dashboard stats, My Account data
- Courier operations (vouchers, labels, tracking)
300+ REST API route registrations across 37 controllers, with a built-in OpenAPI 3.0 spec auto-generator that produces interactive Swagger UI documentation, accessible from the admin with an admin bar shortcut.
Admin Tools
| Tool | What it Does |
|---|---|
| Database Sync | Auto-run pending migrations |
| Optimize Tables | Run OPTIMIZE TABLE on all custom tables |
| Index Health Check | Visual display of database indexes |
| Fix Category Slugs | Greek-to-Latin transliteration fix |
| Duplicate Customers | Detect and merge duplicates |
| Orphan Orders | Link orders to customers, create missing records |
| Product Seeder | Generate demo products with realistic data |
| Delete All | Clean slate tools (with media cleanup) |
Better with Flavor Starter Theme
While the plugin works independently, pairing it with the Flavor Starter Theme unlocks the full potential:
- 29 React templates for cart (8), checkout (6), order received (6), my account (5), shop (1), categories (1), 404 (3)
- Visual Page Builder with 48 blocks and 8 page templates
- Header/Footer Builder with presets and drag-and-drop
- Shop features — product grid, quick view, AJAX filters, sidebar cart with free shipping progress bar
- Translation system — 260+ translatable strings with one-click Greek language pack
- Checkout field configuration — per-field required/optional/hidden with custom field repeater
- Performance optimizations — lazy loading, defer JS, WebP/AVIF, code splitting
Who Is This For?
Great fit:
- Store owners who want performance and simplicity over plugin juggling
- Greek businesses that need native courier, payment, and marketplace support
- Businesses that need invoicing, inventory, and accounting without a separate ERP system
- Developers who appreciate clean architecture and proper coding patterns
- Agencies building stores for clients who want lower maintenance costs
Consider your needs:
- Stores that need subscriptions or multi-currency (live per-shopper conversion / currency switcher) today — a single store currency (23 options) already works; per-shopper conversion is planned
- Businesses heavily dependent on a niche WooCommerce plugin with no equivalent
- Teams that need the largest possible developer community for hiring
Your store stays online and keeps taking orders — pages, products, checkout and your data are untouched, and nothing is ever deleted. Premium capabilities pause until you renew (premium payment gateways — cash-on-delivery and bank transfer stay available — the ERP suite, and premium theme modules), and updates, new installs and support stop. An opt-in grace period (14 days by default) keeps everything at full capacity while you renew; renewing restores everything instantly.
Roadmap
Near-term
- BOX NOW Lockers
- Shopflix.gr marketplace integration
Medium-term
- More Greek couriers (Speedex, Courier Center)
- Multi-currency (live per-shopper conversion + switcher; a single store currency already works), Subscriptions
- Express checkout, Advanced reporting
- External ERP connectors (Entersoft/SoftOne, Pylon)
Long-term
- International couriers (DHL, FedEx, UPS)
- Klarna buy-now-pay-later
- Partial refunds, Returns/Exchanges
- Full headless eCommerce API
Last updated: July 2026