Build an E-commerce Store

There is no dedicated WooCommerce integration yet (it is on the roadmap). Today, e-commerce works through REST Passthrough for the catalog and store settings, plus widget-first storefront building for the shop, product, cart, and checkout pages.

WooCommerce registers its own REST routes under the wc/v3 namespace. REST Passthrough lets your AI drive those routes directly, so it can read and write products, categories, and settings without a dedicated BuildPress tool group. For the storefront itself, your AI builds standard pages out of design-system-bound widgets, the same way it builds any other page. Read more in REST Passthrough.

What you need first

• An active license, with MCP connected and set to Read + Write.
• One base builder chosen.
• Your design system marked ready before any page build.
• The WooCommerce plugin installed and active.

Step 1: Install and activate WooCommerce

Install WooCommerce from the WordPress plugin directory and activate it. Once active, its wc/v3 REST routes become reachable, which is what your AI uses to manage the catalog.

Step 2: Enable REST Passthrough writes

1. 1

   Open the Integrations page

   Go to WordPress Admin, then BuildPress, then Integrations, and find REST API Passthrough.

2. 2

   Turn the writes toggle ON

   Reads and writes are independent toggles. Reads are enough to list products, but creating or updating products and settings requires writes. Writes are refused unless this toggle is on.

3. 3

   Leave it on only while building

   Reads stay safe to keep on. Turn writes off again when you are done if you do not want your AI mutating third-party plugin data.

Step 3: Manage the catalog and settings

Your AI manages the catalog and store settings through REST passthrough against the wc/v3 namespace: products, categories, and store settings. Reads are always allowed once the reads toggle is on. Writes (creating or updating products, prices, and settings) need the writes toggle on. Every call runs internally through WordPress core under your user's capabilities and is written to the audit log.

Your AI discovers the WooCommerce namespace, creates the category if it does not exist, creates each product, then reads the results back to verify. You can also ask read-only questions, for example "List my WooCommerce products and tell me which are out of stock."

Step 4: Build the storefront with widgets

Build the shop, single-product, cart, and checkout pages as widget-composed pages, exactly like any other page. The design system, render verification, and header, footer, and menu wiring all apply. Dynamic product data binds through Dynamic Tags (Elementor Pro includes WooCommerce tags), never typed-in values.

Adding commerce to an existing site

If you already have a site and want to add a store, your AI can run a read-mostly audit first. It snapshots your pages, templates, menus, design system, and content model, builds a "missing pieces" report, and proposes what to add. Nothing is written until you approve, then the work routes into the design-system, foundation, page, and catalog flows.