# InStore overview

Learn about commercetools InStore and how it works.

## What is commercetools InStore

commercetools InStore is a solution that extends your existing commercetools implementation into physical stores and helps you do the following:

- Take physical payments, including card-present credit and debit cards, stored-value and gift cards, pay on account, digital wallets, cash, and more.
- Manage the payment ecosystem and [physical devices](/instore/implement-instore/general/supported-hardware.md), including safes, cash drawers, most printer models, payment devices (PEDs), and scanners. It supports usage monitoring, search, remote activate/inactivate, and more.
- Accept returns and issue refunds based on business rules when handling receipted (retrieved) and non-receipted item and mixed Carts of merchandise purchased in any channel.
- Manage cash as inventory, including performing cash counts with denomination details, transfer tracking with reason codes, over/under reporting, printed bank deposit slips, and more.
- Provide a highly customizable frontend experience for in-store colleagues and deliver transaction and payment information to your Project, payment providers, receipts, and other downstream systems. Match the look and feel of your existing in-store experience to speed adoption by staff.
- Meet fiscal requirements, including flexible receipt customization and on-demand, inspection-ready dynamic reports for use during in-store audits.

InStore provides these capabilities through a number of [InStore components](/instore/general/overview.md#instore-components) and secure [APIs](/api/) that follow commercetools norms.

A commercetools InStore implementation consists of:

- [InStore components](/instore/general/overview.md#instore-components)
- [Your commercetools Project](/instore/general/overview.md#your-project)
- [Your third-party integrations](/instore/general/overview.md#third-party-integrations).

## InStore components

InStore is made up of the following components:

- **InStore APIs**: the microservice tier through which the InStore application fetches [Carts](/api/projects/carts.md), [manages payments](/instore/integration/payments/overview.md) and returns, and tracks session activity. You can use the InStore APIs to customize many aspects of the InStore POS experience, including translations and advanced UX customization.
- **InStore core functionality**: a foundational core application that provides the base InStore functions of payments, refunds, device management, and cash management.
- **InStore POS application**: made up of seamlessly interlocking composable [modules](/instore/implement-instore/modules/working-with-instore-modules.md) that provide core InStore functionality for checkout, discounts, customer lookup, transaction lookup, refunds, cash management, device management, and more. The InStore POS application is hosted and maintained by commercetools.
- **The InStore Center application**: a business-facing administration portal where your administrators configure global and location-specific settings. Certain functionalities of the InStore POS can be turned on, turned off, or customized by setting [administration parameters](/instore/customization/administration-parameters.md) in the InStore Center. Additionally, the InStore Center provides insights, metrics, and troubleshooting tools through its dashboard, transaction reporting, and cash audit functions.

## Your Project

You must have an existing [Project](/merchant-center/organizations-teams-projects#manage-projects) to manage or fetch the product catalog and create Carts for InStore consumption. The Project also supports payment information and other essential functions.

## Third-party integrations

The InStore POS is already integrated with two global payment providers: Stripe and Adyen. You can implement custom integrations with other providers by [setting up payment extensions](/instore/implement-instore/custom-payments/payment-extensions.md) and [building payment components](/instore/integration/payments/build-payment-components.md). If you operate in a fiscal country, you will need an account with [Fiscal Solutions](https://www.fiscal-solutions.com/), our fiscal integration partner. If you have questions about implementing additional third-party integrations, contact your commercetools representative.

## Related pages

- [Area overview page with navigation](/instore.md)
- [Next page: Get started with commercetools InStore](/instore/general/getting-started.md)
- [Search documentation and API specs](/search.md)