WooCommerce Multi-Location eCommerce Platform

Overview We are building a single WooCommerce application to power an age-restricted liquor delivery and pickup platform across 18 licensed retail locations in Rhode Island. The platform must detect a customer's location, route them to the correct store, and serve live, store-specific inventory — all from one codebase, one customer account, and one checkout flow. This is a substantial, multi-milestone engagement. We are looking for an experienced development team (not a solo freelancer) capable of delivering across architecture, custom integrations, compliance workflows, and a full multi-store rollout. What we're building Single-app geo-routing — browser geolocation or ZIP code fallback routes each customer to their nearest licensed store; store context is session-based NCR Counterpoint POS integration — live inventory sync from an MSSQL Counterpoint database using LocId per location, via a middleware integration layer (not direct WooCommerce-to-DB access) Age verification — AgeChecker.Net integrated into checkout, compliant with Rhode Island §3-4-8; server-side validation, audit logging, and admin reporting required Per-location loyalty program — custom-built service layer with home store assignment, points accrual/redemption, per-store rules, cross-store logic, and full transaction history PWA configuration — progressive web app support for mobile customers Admin portal — manage store rules, loyalty settings, promotions, delivery scheduling, and inventory mapping per location Stripe payments — integrated at checkout, validated against active store context Project milestones M1 — Foundation Architecture plan WooCommerce setup Multisite planning CI/CD pipeline Dev environment M2 — Integration Counterpoint connector MSSQL middleware Inventory sync Session architecture M3 — Pilot store Geolocation engine Store routing Pilot location live Age verification Checkout M4 — Commerce Admin portal Loyalty system Promotions Delivery scheduling Stripe M5 — Rollout Remaining 17 stores PWA Performance tuning Redis/caching M6 — Launch QA & security testing UAT Production launch Hypercare support We require fixed pricing per milestone with defined acceptance criteria before each milestone is considered complete. Time-and-materials proposals will not be considered. Technical requirements Proven WooCommerce custom development experience — multisite or multi-location preferred Strong MSSQL / SQL Server skills: stored procedures, joins, views, indexing, query optimization Experience integrating third-party APIs and building REST API middleware layers Familiarity with POS/ERP integrations (NCR Counterpoint experience a strong plus) Age-verification or compliance checkout workflow experience Redis, object caching, and session management at scale CI/CD pipeline setup (automated testing + deployment gates, not just source control) Stripe payment gateway integration PWA implementation PCI-DSS awareness in checkout architecture Team expectations We expect proposals from development teams, not individual freelancers. Your proposal should clearly identify the roles on your team (project manager, WooCommerce developer, backend developer, frontend developer, QA engineer, DevOps). QA should happen continuously throughout development, not only at milestone 6. We will host the application on our own infrastructure. You will be expected to support deployment to our environment and document the setup fully. Final assessment Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 45–60-minute video conference before a final decision is made. This is not a pitch call — we will use it to walk through your proposal in detail and ask technical questions about the architecture. Bring your technical lead — the developer(s) who will actually build this project must be present, not only a business development or account representative. Live technical scenario — be prepared to walk us through, in real time, how a customer gets routed to the correct store and sees that store's live inventory from checkout to confirmation. Screening questions Please answer all of the following in your proposal. Vague or generic answers will not be considered. 1 MSSQL / NCR Counterpoint How comfortable are you reading and querying MSSQL directly? Have you worked with SQL Server in a previous project — describe it specifically. Have you worked with NCR Counterpoint before, and if not, how do you plan to approach the integration (API/SDK, third-party connector, or direct DB)? How will you handle schema changes from future Counterpoint upgrades? 2 Age-restricted ecommerce Have you built or integrated age verification into a WooCommerce checkout before? Have you worked with AgeChecker.Net specifically? Describe your approach to server-side validation, audit logging, and compliance reporting under Rhode Island §3-4-8. 3 Multi-location loyalty program Have you built or integrated a loyalty program into WooCommerce before? What plugin or custom approach would you recommend for a multi-location environment where a customer may interact with more than one store? How would you handle loyalty data scoped to a customer's home store? 4 Single-app geo-routing architecture How would you build a single WooCommerce application that detects a user's location, matches it to one of 18 stores, and serves live inventory without separate websites? Describe your session management approach, inventory middleware, and how the cart behaves when a customer changes stores. 5 CI/CD pipeline When you reference a GitHub pipeline, does this mean a full CI/CD setup with automated testing and deployment gates before code reaches production, or simply using GitHub as source control? What review and approval process will be in place when multiple developers are working on the codebase simultaneously? 6 Post-launch maintenance What does your post-launch hypercare support include — duration, response time SLAs, and scope? After hypercare ends, can you offer an ongoing maintenance retainer? Who owns the codebase and all custom modules (integration layer, loyalty engine) upon project completion?