commercetools InStore Adds Offline POS and Flexible Refunds

commercetools has introduced two updates to InStore, its solution for managing sales and customer service in physical stores. On October 30, 2026, InStore POS gained the ability to continue processing sales without a network connection. On November 5, the company added an option to override refund methods. These changes are intended to make checkout operations more resilient and simplify refunds involving multiple payment methods.

InStore POS Offline Mode

The new offline mode allows checkout terminals to continue serving customers when the network connection is lost. The system uses a locally stored product catalog, including prices and taxes. Store associates can add products to the cart, accept cash payments, and print receipts without access to commercetools servers.

The functionality is limited to products that customers take with them directly from the store. Transactions requiring a connection to external payment services, including card payments, are not available in offline mode.

To use the feature, a retailer must activate offline mode through a commercetools representative and configure workstation settings in InStore Center.

Order and Payment Synchronization

While the connection is unavailable, InStore POS stores transactions locally on the workstation. These operations receive cart identifiers with the OFF prefix, distinguishing offline sales from regular transactions.

Once connectivity is restored, the system synchronizes accumulated transactions in batches and creates the corresponding orders and payments in the commercetools Project.

This allows retailers to continue selling during network outages and then bring transactions back into their shared accounting infrastructure. However, until synchronization is complete, offline sales data may be missing from the central system. Retailers must account for that when reconciling orders, inventory, and financial performance.

Refund Method Overrides

On November 5, commercetools added Refund Method Overrides. Before processing a refund, a store associate sees the payout plan proposed by the system based on the retailer's rules. The plan specifies primary and fallback refund methods and how the amount is distributed among them.

Now the associate can change the proposed method together with the customer. For example, if the original bank card is no longer valid, another available payment instrument can be selected. When returning a gift, the money may be refunded to the gift recipient rather than the original buyer.

The feature supports both straightforward refunds and transactions involving multiple orders or payment instruments. If a payment provider rejects a payout, the associate can retry or switch to a fallback method without canceling portions of the refund that have already succeeded.

Cash payouts are consolidated and processed last, so the cash drawer needs to open only once per refund.

What Changes for Omnichannel Retail

Both updates affect the operational processes of physical stores rather than advertising or marketing tools directly.

Offline mode reduces the dependence of checkout operations on internet availability. Retailers can continue accepting cash payments and synchronize transactions once the connection is restored without creating a separate accounting system for those sales.

Refund method overrides make customer service more flexible, particularly when the original purchase was paid for using multiple methods or placed through another sales channel. The available refund options still depend on the retailer's configuration and the capabilities of connected payment providers.

For marketing and analytics, the important consideration is preserving order and refund information in the shared commerce system. These data are necessary for accurately calculating net revenue, refunds, and actual sales profitability across channels.

About commercetools and InStore

commercetools develops an enterprise ecommerce platform based on a composable commerce architecture. The platform provides APIs and components for managing product catalogs, carts, orders, customers, and other commerce processes, allowing businesses to build their own technology infrastructure for online stores and other sales channels.

commercetools InStore extends this infrastructure to physical retail, including stores, showrooms, pop-up locations, and service counters. The solution connects checkout operations, payments, returns, and retail hardware management with the platform's commerce data. It includes InStore POS for store associates and InStore Center for configuring stores, workstations, and business processes.

The October and November updates strengthen two important InStore capabilities: keeping sales running during temporary network outages and handling refunds flexibly across complex payment setups. For large retailers with both ecommerce and physical locations, this means more resilient operations while retaining a shared system for orders, payments, and accounting.

Sources

1. commercetools — InStore Release Notes: Offline Mode, October 30, 2026
2. commercetools — Use InStore POS Offline
3. commercetools — Refund Method Overrides, November 5, 2026
4. commercetools — InStore Overview