Install the Companion plugin

The Companion plugin (Retail Store Companion) is the WordPress half of the storefront. WooCommerce still runs your catalogue, cart, checkout and orders; the Companion plugin adds everything the storefront needs on top: sign-in, the look-and-content settings, back-in-stock alerts, wishlists, review photos, payment hardening and more. It prints no web pages itself.

Before you start

Requirement	Value
PHP	8.0 or newer
WooCommerce	Required, and must be active first. Storefront payments are verified against WooCommerce 11.1.x. Brand features use WooCommerce’s built-in Brands, available from WooCommerce 9.6.
WordPress	Any current version. 6.9 or newer is needed only for the AI agents feature; on older versions it simply isn’t available.
HTTPS	Strongly recommended, and required for Facebook sign-in and AI agents.
Permalinks	Anything except Plain (see WooCommerce settings).
Your role	Administrator, to install plugins and to see the StoreFront menu afterwards.

The name you'll see

In Plugins, the Companion plugin is listed as Retail Store Compaion, version 0.4.3. The spelling is the plugin’s own; it’s the right plugin. In the admin menu it appears as StoreFront.

Install the plugin

There are two ways to install. Most stores should use the release zip.

Release zip (recommended)

weLabs supplies the plugin as a ready-built zip file named retail-store-compaion-0.4.3.zip (the number changes with each release). It already contains everything the plugin needs to run.

1. In wp-admin, go to Plugins›Add New Plugin and click Upload Plugin at the top of the screen.

2. Click Choose File, pick the zip file and click Install Now.

3. When WordPress says the plugin was installed, click Activate Plugin.

4. Check that a StoreFront menu now appears in the left-hand admin menu, just below WooCommerce.

From source (developers)

Use this route only if your developer deploys the plugin from its git repository. A raw checkout is not ready to run: two folders are built, not stored in git.

1. Place the repository in wp-content/plugins/ on the server.

2. Install the PHP dependency (a JWT library) with Composer, from the plugin folder:

   composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev -q

3. Build the admin screens. This needs Node 22 and npm:

   npm install && npm run build

4. In wp-admin, go to Plugins and click Activate under Retail Store Compaion.

To produce a release zip yourself, run bin/build.sh from the plugin folder. It builds the admin screens, installs the production dependencies and writes build/retail-store-compaion-<version>.zip.

Caution

WooCommerce must be installed and active before you activate the Companion plugin. WordPress won’t activate a plugin whose required plugin is missing.

What activation does

Activating the plugin makes a few one-time changes to your site:

• Creates six database tables for the data the storefront keeps outside WooCommerce:

  Table	Holds
  wp_rsc_wishlists	One row per shopper’s wishlist
  wp_rsc_wishlist_products	The products saved in each wishlist
  wp_rsc_newsletter_subscribers	Newsletter sign-ups (shown under StoreFront › Subscribers)
  wp_rsc_stock_notifications	Back-in-stock sign-ups (shown under StoreFront › Stock Notifications)
  wp_rsc_stock_notificationmeta	Extra details for each back-in-stock sign-up
  wp_rsc_contact_entries	Contact-page messages (shown under StoreFront › Contact Entries)

  Your table prefix may differ from wp_. If a deployment skipped activation (for example, files copied over with git), the plugin creates any missing table on the next page load anyway.

• Refreshes WordPress’s permalink rules, so the plugin’s addresses work straight away.

• Adds the StoreFront menu with Settings, Subscribers, Stock Notifications and Contact Entries.

• Schedules its daily background jobs (brand categories, trending categories and clean-ups). They schedule themselves the first time the plugin loads and first run about an hour later. See Emails and background jobs.

• Adds six emails to WooCommerce’s email list: verification, password reset, security alert and three back-in-stock emails.

Activation doesn’t change your products, orders, theme or existing WooCommerce settings.

After activating

The storefront can’t sign anyone in until you finish connecting it. Go straight on to Connect the storefront: set the Storefront URL and add the RSC_JWT_SECRET line to wp-config.php. Until the secret exists, the Social Login tab shows an amber banner, “JWT signing secret is not configured”.

Don't run two back-in-stock systems

The Companion plugin ships its own back-in-stock emails. Don’t switch on WooCommerce’s experimental built-in stock notifications (the WOOCOMMERCE_BIS_ALPHA_ENABLED constant) as well, or shoppers may be emailed twice. WordPress shows a warning if both are on.

Updating the plugin

1. Get the new release zip from weLabs.

2. Go to Plugins›Add New Plugin, click Upload Plugin and upload the new zip.

3. WordPress notices the plugin is already installed and offers to replace it. Choose Replace current with uploaded.

Your settings, headers, footers and the six tables are kept. If a new version changes a table, the plugin updates it automatically on the next page load.

If you take payments, check the dashboard afterwards for a payment plugin version notice. See Payments.

Deactivating or removing the plugin

Deactivating the plugin:

• Stops its scheduled daily jobs and cancels any “Sync SEO” run in progress.
• Leaves already-queued back-in-stock email jobs in place. They do nothing while the plugin is inactive.
• Keeps every table and setting, so reactivating brings everything back as it was.

While the plugin is inactive, the storefront loses everything that depends on it, including sign-in, your look-and-content settings and its payment helpers. Deactivate it only for maintenance.

Deleting the plugin removes its files only. The plugin has no uninstall routine, so the six tables and its settings (WordPress options whose names start with rsc_) stay in the database. If you need them removed, ask your developer or host to delete them after taking a backup.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
The StoreFront menu is missing	You’re not an Administrator, or the plugin isn’t active	Sign in as an Administrator and check Plugins.
StoreFront › Settings is blank	A from-source install whose admin screens were never built	Run npm install && npm run build in the plugin folder, or install the release zip instead.
A fatal error on activation	A from-source install without its PHP dependency, or PHP older than 8.0	Run composer install --no-dev, or ask your host to upgrade PHP.
WordPress won’t activate the plugin	WooCommerce isn’t installed and active	Install and activate WooCommerce first.

Next steps

Connect the storefrontSet the Storefront URL and add the wp-config secrets.

WooCommerce settingsThe WordPress and WooCommerce settings the storefront relies on.

RequirementsEverything both halves need, in one list.

Companion plugin for developersHow the plugin is built and extended.