🌐 Language: 🇻🇳 Tiếng Việt · 🇬🇧 English (current)
Multi-Store — One admin, many online stores
Introduction
This document introduces Multi-Store, the plugin that lets a business run several online stores from a single admin: each store has its own domain, its own theme, its own language and currency, while sharing one platform and one place to manage everything. It is written for business owners and operations staff. After reading this page you will know what the plugin does, how far the free edition goes, what the Pro edition adds, and how Multi-Store differs from Multi-Vendor so you can pick the right model from day one.
This is the index page of the Multi-Store document set. The three other parts go deeper into setup, day-to-day operations and customization.
Document set
| Part | Contents | For |
|---|---|---|
| This page | The multi-store model, what the plugin does, Free/Pro comparison, Multi-Vendor comparison | Anyone considering more than one store |
| Part 1 — Setup | Install the plugin, create your first extra store, point the domain, add the Pro edition, verify, troubleshooting | Whoever installs the website |
| Part 2 — Operations | What data is shared vs per-store, tiered configuration, store administrators, cross-store products, reports, locking and deleting stores, conditions & rules | Platform owner and staff |
| Part 3 — Customization | Per-store branding and layout, on-screen text, staff permissions, developer notes | Administrators and developers |
👉 Try it live on the demo site: https://demo.s-cart.org
What Multi-Store solves
When a business wants several different stores or websites — one domain per brand, one language/currency per market, or separate wholesale and retail sites — the usual answer is to build several separate websites. The result: scattered data, several logins, duplicated running costs and no overall picture.
Multi-Store brings it all into one place:
- Many stores, one admin. Each store has its own domain, theme, language and currency — but you manage them all from a single admin.
- One shared platform. Products, orders and customers live in one system; nothing has to be rebuilt per website.
- Lower cost and effort. One installation, one place to operate, one place to update — instead of maintaining separate websites.
- Grow gradually. Start with one store and add more when you need them, without rebuilding anything.
flowchart TD
A["Root store<br>brand-a.com"] --- S[("One system<br>one database<br>one admin")]
B["Store 2<br>brand-b.com<br>own theme · language · currency"] --- S
C["Store 3<br>wholesale.com<br>own theme · language · currency"] --- S
When a visitor arrives, the system recognises the domain they opened and serves the matching store: the right theme, the right language, the right currency and that store's own catalogue.
What the plugin does
The free edition is enough to run for real with up to 3 stores:
- Create a new store with its own code, domain, theme, language, currency and per-language descriptions.
- Configure each store separately: contact details, logo, social share image, maintenance page, mail settings, and that store's selling settings.
- Assign data to a store: you decide which products, categories, banners and content pages belong to which store.
- Strict domain checking (STRICT): only declared domains open the website; unknown domains are refused.
- Safe store deletion: the system blocks deletion while a store still has orders, customers or suppliers.
The Pro edition adds what you need once you really run several stores:
- A dedicated administrator per store: hand a store to someone who signs in on that store's domain and only sees their own scope.
- Cross-store product publishing: push one root product into several stores, each getting an independent copy that keeps a link back for later re-syncing.
- Unified dashboard: compare revenue, order count and average order value across stores, with Excel export.
- System-wide product revenue report: rank root products by total revenue, including the revenue of every store copy.
- Lock / unlock a store: suspend a store without deleting anything.
Free edition vs Pro edition
| Feature | 🆓 Free | ⭐ Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Number of stores | up to 3 (the root store counts) | unlimited |
| Multiple domains, a theme per store | ✅ | ✅ |
| Own language and currency per store | ✅ | ✅ |
| Per-store configuration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Strict domain checking (STRICT) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Assign products / categories / banners / pages to stores | ✅ | ✅ |
| A dedicated administrator per store (signs in on that store's domain, with 2 preset roles) | — | ✅ |
| Cross-store product publishing (keeps a link to the source, re-syncable) | — | ✅ |
| Unified dashboard (revenue / orders / AOV across stores, Excel export) | — | ✅ |
| System-wide product revenue report (including every store copy) | — | ✅ |
| Lock / unlock a store | — | ✅ |
| Support | community | GP247 paid channel |
- Choose Free when: you are starting out, need at most 3 stores and manage everything yourself.
- Move to Pro when: you need more than 3 stores, want to hand each store to its own administrator, or need system-wide reporting.
Pro installs on top of the free edition rather than replacing it: once installed, the locked (Pro) menu items open the real screens and your existing store data stays exactly as it is. How to install: Part 1 — Setup.
🔗 Product page: gp247.net/en/product/multi-store-pro.html · Tiếng Việt
How Multi-Store differs from Multi-Vendor
Both plugins talk about "multiple stores", but they are two different business models, and they cannot be installed together on one website (the system blocks it to protect your store data). Choose correctly from the start:
| Criterion | 🏢 Multi-Store | 🛒 Multi-Vendor |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the goods | One owner — your own business | Many independent sellers |
| Model | Store chain / several brands of one owner | E-commerce marketplace |
| Domain | One domain per store | A single domain; each shop is a /shop/{code} page |
| Who lists products | You do, choosing which store they belong to | Each seller lists their own, the marketplace approves |
| Money flow | Money goes straight to your business, shared with nobody | The marketplace collects, keeps a commission, pays sellers per period |
| Who logs into admin | You (plus per-store administrators in the Pro edition) | Sellers use their own area and only see their shop |
| Right when | You want several websites/domains for one business | You want to invite other people to sell and earn a commission |
In short: Multi-Store is many stores of your own; Multi-Vendor is a marketplace for many sellers. If you need the marketplace model, see the Multi-Vendor document set.
⚠️ The two plugins are mutually exclusive. The installer refuses to install Multi-Store if a multi-vendor plugin is present (and the other way round), stopping before writing anything. To switch models you must uninstall the other plugin first.
System requirements
- PHP 8.3 or newer, Composer, MySQL/MariaDB.
- S-Cart 3.x with
gp247/core3.0 andgp247/shopinstalled. - No multi-vendor plugin installed on the same website.
- One domain per store, pointing at this same system — see Part 1 — Setup.
- Runs on ordinary shared hosting: no cron, queue worker or websocket required.
Q&A
Q1: Do I need to build a separate website for each store?
→ No. You install one system; each store is a domain pointing at that same system, and they are all managed from one admin.
Q2: Can each store have its own theme, language and currency?
→ Yes. Each store configures its own template, language, currency and many other settings — while sharing one platform. Which settings are per-store and which are shared: see Part 2 — Operations.
Q3: Should I choose Multi-Store or Multi-Vendor?
→ Choose Multi-Store if every store is yours. Choose Multi-Vendor if you want different sellers on one marketplace and you take a commission.
Q4: How many stores does the free edition allow?
→ Up to 3, including the root store. Move to Pro for an unlimited number.
Q5: What is the most valuable thing Pro adds?
→ A dedicated administrator per store, cross-store product publishing, the unified dashboard, the system-wide revenue report and store locking — all the things you need once you genuinely run several stores at once.
Q6: If I start on Free and upgrade to Pro later, do I lose data?
→ No. Pro installs on top of the free edition on the same platform; existing stores, products, orders and settings stay as they are.
Q7: Why can't I install it alongside a multi-vendor plugin?
→ The two models use the same store data in incompatible ways, and running both would corrupt it. The system blocks it deliberately; pick the one model that fits you.
Q8: Where can I try it before deciding?
→ The public demo site: https://demo.s-cart.org
📅 Last updated: 2026-09-21 · ✍️ Author: GP247