What’s New in FluentCart — Q1 2026 Roundup

We’ve been busy this quarter, I mean really busy. The FluentCart team shipped over 1,500 commits across free and pro versions, delivering significant improvements to product management, email automation, checkout experiences, and shipping.

More importantly, we delivered on our promises. Eight of our roadmap items shipped on schedule, and we kept the momentum going by squeezing in features beyond what we planned. This roundup covers what shipped, where we moved some items to next quarter, and what it means for your store.

Smarter Store Management

Building an online store means managing dozens of moving parts, products, pricing, inventory, shipping zones. We’ve made that job easier this quarter.

The bulk product management system got a complete overhaul. If you import or batch-edit more than a handful of products, you’ll feel the difference. We redesigned the import interface with better media handling, clearer progress tracking, and smarter column resizing so your data maps correctly the first time. For stores with hundreds of SKUs, this saves hours every quarter.

On the shipping front, we shipped multi-country shipping zones with a smarter interface. Instead of picking countries one by one, you can now group by continent, which cuts setup time dramatically for stores selling internationally. The accessibility got a boost too, shipping coverage and continent selection are now fully keyboard-navigable.

Inventory tracking received focused attention. We fixed issues with stock restoration when deleting test orders, and improved allocation logic across the board. If you’ve ever had phantom inventory issues after testing, those are gone.

Email That Sells

Email is still the most direct line to your customers. This quarter, we rebuilt how you create and manage email notifications.

The Visual Email Template Builder is now live. You’re no longer confined to template tags and text, you can build email layouts visually, with real-time previews. Need a multi-column layout? Drag and drop. Want to highlight a product? Inline editing. The builder integrates with your Gutenberg blocks, so templates you know how to make on your storefront work in email too.

Beyond the visual builder, we’ve improved email notification management across the board, including added notifications for Subscription renewals and expiration. The interface is faster, preview rendering is more accurate, and editing email templates feels less like configuration and more like design.

Payments & Checkout

Payment processing is infrastructure that should disappear, it either works perfectly or it ruins the sale.

We shipped Mercado Pago integration this quarter, bringing Latin American payment methods to your checkout. For stores with customers in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and beyond, this was a top request.

Similarly we’ve shipped Flutterwave gateway, that does the same for African businesses as Mercado Pago does for Latin America. This adds to the global accessibility we’re aiming for.

The checkout system got deeper improvements too. We introduced a new Fees API that lets developers inject custom fees programmatically, service charges, handling fees, payment method surcharges, whatever your business needs. The fees system properly calculates taxes, so you’re never guessing whether a fee is taxable.

We also hardened security across checkout components, closing SQL injection vulnerabilities and improving input sanitization. That work doesn’t show up in your store visually, but it protects your customers’ data.

Building with Blocks

More and more themes and page builders adopt WordPress blocks, and FluentCart is keeping pace.

The Expanded Gutenberg Block Library got significant work this quarter, we’re in progress here and shipping improvements every release. We’ve added new block types, simplified existing ones (the checkout summary block is now much cleaner), and fixed edge cases with block nesting and editor previews. If you build storefronts with Gutenberg, you’ll notice things “just work” better.

We also shipped Elementor Builder Compatibility, so Elementor users can build their stores without workarounds. WordPress Theme Compatibility got a refresh too, the core product display templates now work cleanly with a wider range of themes with FSE support.

Products, Pricing & Inventory

Stores sell different things, physical products, digital products, subscriptions. We’re expanding what FluentCart can sell.

Ghost Products shipped this quarter, a way to list items in your cart that don’t need inventory tracking or fulfillment. Useful for bundles, service add-ons, or virtual items. It’s a small feature that solves a real problem for stores with complex product mixes.

SKU-Based Inventory Management is now available, giving you fine-grained control over product variants and tracking. Combined with the bulk product management improvements, this makes scaling product catalogs much easier.

Under the Hood

Beyond the visible features, we’ve also invested in performance, security, and code quality improvements. We consolidated database migration helpers for better reliability across SQLite and MySQL, improved asset loading to be more extensible, and added Claude Code integration hooks for stricter model enforcement. The infrastructure that powers FluentCart got stronger this quarter.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

– Fixed duplicate invoicing edge cases

– Corrected downloadable file links breaking after editing

– Resolved test order deletion orphaning activity logs

– Enhanced tax calculation support for custom fees

– Improved Turnstile verification with invisible mode fixes

– Streamlined subscription renewal fee handling

– Fixed mini cart not appearing on instant checkout pages

– Enhanced product excerpt and description block editors

Roadmap Scorecard

At the start of Q1, we shared our roadmap with the community. Here’s how we did:

Shipped on schedule:

– ✅ Automated Subscription Renewal Reminders , Delivered

– ✅ Visual Email Template Builder, Delivered

– ✅ SKU-Based Inventory Management, Delivered

– ✅ Payment Gateway: Mercado Pago, Delivered

– ✅ Promotional Product Badges & Labels, Delivered

– ✅ Elementor Builder Compatibility, Delivered

– ✅ WordPress Theme Compatibility, Delivered

– ✅ Ghost Products, Delivered

In progress, shipping next quarter:

– 🔄 Expanded Gutenberg Block Library, Feature-complete, refinements ongoing

– 🔄 Accessibility Enhancements, Core work done, further improvements in progress

– 🔄 Localization & Translation Improvements, Phase 1 complete, ongoing expansion for language coverage

Moved to Q2 , more work ahead:

– ⏳ Built-in Subscription Management, Rescheduled to give it full attention

– ✅ Visual PDF Invoice Customizer – Already released ahead of Q2

– ⏳ EDD Migration Tool, Planned for Q2

– ⏳ Physical Product Attributes (Dimensions, Weight & Length), Moving to Q2

– ⏳ Divi Builder Compatibility, Next quarter priority

– ⏳ Streamlined Tax Setup Wizard, Scheduled for Q2

The items we moved to Q2 aren’t abandoned, they’re deprioritized to focus on stability and shipping what’s most critical first. We learned that trying to ship everything at once leads to quality issues, so we’re being intentional about scope.

Bonus: What We Shipped Beyond the Roadmap

Beyond our roadmap commitments, the team delivered several features that came directly from customer feedback and identified needs:

Bulk Product Management Overhaul: We completely rewrote BulkInsert and BulkEdit to handle large catalogs with a new ResizeableColumns component, enhanced media picking, and real-time progress tracking. Store owners with thousands of products can now update their entire catalog in a fraction of the time.

Custom Fees API: Developers asked for more control over checkout pricing, so we built a fluent API that lets you inject custom fees programmatically with full tax calculation support. This unlocked advanced pricing models like tiered handling fees, gift wrapping charges, and sustainability surcharges.

Multi-Country Shipping Zones: We heard from international sellers that setting up shipping rules country-by-country was tedious. We built a continent-grouped shipping zone system that lets you cover entire regions at once, cutting setup time dramatically.

Test Order Deletion with Batch Operations: A common pain point in testing: orphaned test orders cluttering your reports. We added bulk test order deletion with batch operations support and atomic database mutations to keep your data clean.

Improved Payment Gateway Security: Beyond the roadmap, we invested in hardening PayPal and Stripe processors, fixed critical SQL injection vulnerabilities across checkout components, and improved Turnstile verification with invisible mode fixes, keeping your store and customer data secure.

That’s 5 features the team delivered on top of the roadmap. We ship fast because we listen to what store owners actually need, not just what we planned in advance.

What’s Coming Next

Q2 is shaping up to focus on subscriptions, advanced product attributes, and builder compatibility for stores using Divi and other page builders. We’re also finalizing dynamic pricing infrastructure that started this quarter. Stay tuned, we have momentum and clear priorities.

FluentCart v1.3.17 – release note is available now.

Full Changelog