E-commerce store

An online shop: a product catalogue with variants, a cart, checkout and payment, order management, fulfilment, and returns. Payments and tax handling are required, not optional.

You can change every choice once the builder opens.

Core features for the MVP

Product catalogue with variants, images, and stock levels
Category browsing and product search
Cart that survives a page reload and a return visit
Checkout with address capture, shipping options, and tax
Payment through a hosted provider, with webhook-confirmed orders
Order management for the shop owner, including refunds
Customer order history and status emails

Left for later

Discount codes and promotional pricing
Abandoned cart recovery emails
Product reviews and ratings
Multi-currency and regional pricing

Recommended stack

Section	Recommended
Language	TypeScript
Frontend framework	Next.js
UI and styling	Tailwind CSSshadcn/ui
Backend	Next.js server
API style	Server actions
Database engine	PostgreSQL
Database provider	Neon
ORM and data access	Drizzle
Caching	CDN cachingUpstash Redis
Authentication	Clerk
Authorization and roles	Role-based access control
Security	Input validationRate limitingCORS and CSRF protectionSecurity headers and CSPSecrets managementAudit logs
File storage	AWS S3
Search	Postgres full-text search
Background jobs and cron	Inngest
Email and notifications	Resend
Payments	Stripe
Hosting and deployment	Vercel
CI/CD	GitHub Actions
Monitoring and analytics	SentryPostHog
Testing	VitestPlaywright
Extras	SEOAccessibility (WCAG)BackupsDocumentation

Data model draft

Product

Something for sale, which may have several variants.

id
slug
title
description
status
categoryId
createdAt

Has many ProductVariants
Belongs to one Category

ProductVariant

A specific buyable version: size, colour, or pack.

id
productId
sku
optionValues
priceMinorUnits
currency
stockQuantity

Belongs to one Product
Has many OrderLines

Order

A completed purchase and its fulfilment state.

id
reference
customerId
status
subtotalMinorUnits
taxMinorUnits
shippingMinorUnits
totalMinorUnits
currency
placedAt

Belongs to one Customer
Has many OrderLines
Has one Payment

OrderLine

One variant, at the price and quantity bought.

id
orderId
variantId
quantity
unitPriceMinorUnits
titleSnapshot

Belongs to one Order
Belongs to one ProductVariant

Payment

The provider transaction backing an order.

id
orderId
provider
providerReference
status
amountMinorUnits
currency
confirmedAt

Belongs to one Order

Customer

Someone who has bought or has an account.

id
email
fullName
defaultAddressId
createdAt

Has many Orders
Has many Addresses