Announcing Spree Commerce 5.3 with Price Lists, Customer Groups and Events & Subscribers Engine
Spree 5.3 open-source eCommerce release is here – continuing the momentum of Spree 5 – the biggest and most transformative open-source release in the platform’s history.
For Business Teams:
- advanced pricing strategies for B2B, wholesale, regional, and marketplace use cases,
- customer segmentation with Customer Groups for personalized pricing, promotions, and experiences,
- admin-controlled promotions and adjustments giving store operators more flexibility and tools for building customer loyalty.
For Development Teams:
- event-driven extensibility for building custom workflows without modifying core code,
- Webhooks 2.0 with admin UI for enterprise-grade integrations,
- improved admin experience with a modernized UI and powerful developer tools.
Many of the improvements in Spree 5.3 unlock entirely new business models and integration patterns — especially through the new Pricing Engine and Events & Subscribers system, which allow teams to build sophisticated commerce experiences without heavy customization.
Spree 5.3 empowers teams to build exactly the commerce experience they need — whether B2C, B2B, marketplace, multi-tenant SaaS, or composable. And it keeps Spree true to its roots: open, flexible, powerful, and built for real-world growth.
Below is a breakdown of the major improvements in Spree 5.3, including the business impact of each.
New Pricing Engine (Price Lists) – B2B, Wholesale & Regional Pricing Made Easy
The new Pricing Engine is designed to natively support complex pricing models used across B2C, B2B, and global commerce — without hacking Spree core.
Admins can define price lists for customer segments, regions, specific organizations, or individual customer accounts. Pricing adjustments are driven by a configurable set of rules, unlocking an enormous range of advanced pricing use cases:
- Customer Group pricing — Offer different prices to VIP, wholesale, or B2B customers.
- Volume pricing — Automatic discounts when item quantity falls within min–max ranges.
- Zone-based pricing — Regional pricing based on customer location.
- User-specific pricing — Individual pricing for key accounts.
- Time-based activation — Schedule price lists with start and end dates.
- Bulk Editor — Use a spreadsheet-like UI to manage prices for multiple products in multiple currencies with ease, including keyboard shortcuts.
Business Value
- Massive increase in revenue sophistication — Support B2B negotiated pricing, contract pricing, and enterprise procurement workflows.
- Full multi-region support — Localized taxes, FX adjustments, or market-specific positioning from one unified backend.
- Lower cost of implementation — No custom development required for complex pricing scenarios.
- Marketplace empowerment — Vendors can manage their own pricing strategies within defined rules.
This is a game changer for multi-region brands, B2B distributors, white-label SaaS eCommerce platforms, and subscription-first businesses.
Customer Groups – Segmentation for Personalized Commerce
Customer Groups allow you to segment customers into defined groups for personalized experiences and targeted business rules.
- Flexible grouping — Create unlimited customer groups (VIP, Wholesale, B2B, Early Access, etc.).
- Price List integration — Apply custom pricing to specific customer groups.
- Promotion rules — Restrict promotion eligibility to certain customer segments.
- Easy management — Add and remove customers from groups directly in the admin.
Business Value
- Higher conversion rates — Personalized pricing and promotions drive engagement.
- Better customer retention — Reward loyal customers with exclusive pricing tiers.
- B2B enablement — Manage enterprise accounts, resellers, and distributors with ease.
Customer Groups unlock sophisticated CRM-like capabilities directly within your commerce platform.
Order Adjustments & Order Promotions – Flexible Order Management
A new admin experience for managing order promotions and order adjustments
- Order promotions — Manually add promotions to the order in the admin panel.
- Order adjustments — Manually add charges or credits to existing orders with streamlined payment/refund handling.
Business Value
- Customer service empowerment — Support teams can resolve issues without developer help.
- Flexible pricing corrections — Handle edge cases like shipping overcharges or goodwill credits.
Admin Order & Customer Notes – Better Team Collaboration
Add internal notes to orders and customers for better team communication and order tracking.
- Staff notes — Add internal comments visible only to admin users.
- Order history — Keep a record of important order-related communications.
- Team collaboration — Share context about special handling, customer requests, or issues.
Business Value
- Improved customer service — Context is preserved across team members and shifts.
- Reduced errors — Special handling instructions are documented and visible.
- Audit compliance — Maintain records of customer interactions and decisions.
Events & Subscribers Engine – Infinite Extensibility Without Modifying Core
The new Events Engine is a powerful event bus that allows developers to connect Subscribers to system events and build custom workflows without touching core code.
When something happens — an order is placed, a product is updated, or inventory changes — Spree publishes an event that your code can subscribe to and handle:
- Loose coupling — Connect and extend Spree without modifying core code.
- Multiple event types — Order, payment, shipment, product, customer, and more.
- Wildcard subscriptions — Subscribe to
order.*to catch all order events. - Sync or async — Run handlers immediately or via ActiveJob. Async by default!
- Custom events — Publish your own events from anywhere in your application.
What You Can Build With It
- Webhooks for internal systems or external partners
- Custom automation (e.g., “notify vendor when sales spike”)
- Streamlined ERP, CRM, OMS, or marketing integrations
- Fraud or risk scoring flows
- AI-driven recommendations, post-purchase actions, and segmentation
Business Value
- Build anything without forking Spree — Keep customizations isolated and upgrade-safe.
- Integrate with any system in a standardized way.
- Perfect for enterprise marketplaces or multi-tenant architectures.
- Future-proof architecture — The event bus makes Spree easier to extend than ever.
The Events Engine turns Spree into a flexible foundation for any commerce workflow.
Webhooks 2.0 with Admin UI – Enterprise-Grade Integrations
A completely revamped webhook system with full admin panel management, built on top of the new Events engine.
- Admin panel management — Create and manage webhook endpoints directly from Settings > Developers > Webhooks.
- Event filtering — Subscribe to specific events or use wildcards (e.g.,
order.*). - HMAC-SHA256 signatures — Secure payload verification for all deliveries.
- Automatic retries — Failed deliveries retry up to 5 times with exponential backoff.
- Full audit trail — Track every delivery attempt with response codes, timing, and error details.
- Multi-store support — Each store can have its own webhook endpoints.
Business Value
- Zero-code integrations — Connect to any external system without writing code.
- Enterprise reliability — Automatic retries and audit trails ensure data consistency.
- Security first — HMAC signatures prevent unauthorized webhook spoofing.
- Operational visibility — Track delivery status and debug issues directly in admin.
Webhooks 2.0 makes Spree a first-class citizen in modern integration architectures.
Tailwind CSS Admin Dashboard – Modern, Fast & Customizable
The admin dashboard has been completely rebuilt with Tailwind CSS, replacing Bootstrap entirely.
- Modern, clean, and consistent design language throughout the entire admin interface.
- Faster page loads and smaller CSS bundle size.
- Easier customization using Tailwind’s utility-first approach.
- Improved responsive design for mobile and tablet admin access.
Business Value
- Faster admin workflows — Cleaner UI means faster task completion.
- Lower customization costs — Tailwind’s utility classes make styling changes trivial.
This migration sets the foundation for a unified design system across all of Spree’s interfaces.
Admin Tables Component – Powerful Data Management for Developers
A new flexible table system for displaying resource listings in the admin dashboard with a powerful DSL for customization.
- Declarative API — Define table configurations with customizable columns, sorting, filtering, and bulk actions.
- Multiple column types — String, number, money, status, boolean, datetime, link, image, association, and custom partials.
- Query builder filters — Advanced filtering with autocomplete, select, date ranges, and more.
- Bulk actions — Select multiple rows and perform batch operations.
- Extensible — Add columns to existing tables, insert at specific positions, or create entirely new tables.
Business Value
- Faster feature development — Developers can build admin interfaces in minutes, not hours.
- Consistent UX — Standardized table patterns across the entire admin.
- Improved productivity — Bulk operations reduce repetitive manual work.
- Easy customization — Add custom columns to any resource without touching core views.
What’s Next – Spree 5.4 Preview
Spree 5.4 will include another batch of impressive changes:
- New REST API — Built around simplicity, ease of use, and performance (around 10x faster than API v2!)
- TypeScript SDK — Leverage the new API with great developer experience and type safety.
- Next.js storefront starter kit — Powered by the new API and TypeScript SDK.
- Multi-channel support — Build and manage a truly omnichannel experience.
Stay tuned — Spree continues to push the platform forward.
Spree Enterprise Edition – Support, Scale & Security
For businesses requiring advanced capabilities, Spree Commerce Enterprise Edition adds enterprise-grade features, support, and security.
Modular Enterprise Capabilities
Each module is delivered as a private gem for your Rails application:
Why Enterprises Choose Spree
- Unlimited Customizability — Build any workflow or integration.
- API-First — Perfect for composable architectures and mobile apps.
- Deployment Flexibility — Run on any cloud, region, or your own infrastructure.
- Scalable Infrastructure — Caching, load balancing, CDNs, autoscaling.
- Full Ownership — No vendor lock-in, full control of your IP.
Enterprise Security & Support
- Hardening of authentication, authorization & data protection
- Priority support for incident resolution
- Optional managed private cloud with 24/7 monitoring, autoscaling & SLAs
Why Spree 5.3
Spree 5.3 is a major step forward in:
- Pricing Flexibility — The new Pricing Engine unlocks B2B, wholesale, regional, and subscription pricing without custom code.
- Extensibility — The Events Engine makes Spree infinitely extensible while keeping customizations upgrade-safe.
- Developer Experience — Tailwind admin, Admin Tables DSL, and Webhooks 2.0 dramatically improve productivity.
- Enterprise Readiness — Customer Groups, order notes, and enhanced admin workflows support complex business operations.
If you want to build a highly customized commerce experience, Spree 5.3 is the most flexible, future-ready version yet.
We encourage you to try it out, upgrade your existing store, or reach out to the Spree team to explore Enterprise capabilities.
