Getting Started with Laravel and Lunar

Building e-commerce applications with Laravel has always required a mix of third-party packages and custom logic. Enter Lunar — an open-source e-commerce package built specifically for Laravel that gives you powerful tools to manage products, carts, customers, and orders while staying flexible and developer-friendly.

In this post, we’ll go through how to integrate Lunar into a fresh Laravel project and explore some of its core features.

1. Install a Fresh Laravel Project

If you don’t have one yet, start by creating a fresh Laravel application:

composer create-project laravel/laravel my-lunar-store
cd my-lunar-store

2. Install the Lunar Package

Next, pull in the Lunar package via Composer:

composer require lunarphp/lunar

Then, publish the configuration and assets:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=lunar.config
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=lunar.assets

Run the migrations:

php artisan migrate

3. Set Up the Admin Panel

Lunar ships with an admin hub for managing your store. Install it with:

php artisan lunar:install

This will guide you through creating the first admin user.

You can now access the admin panel at:

https://your-app.test/admin

4. Defining Products

Products are managed through the Lunar admin panel. You can create collections, attributes, and assign pricing.

But if you prefer code-first setup, you can use factories or seeder classes. Example:

use Lunar\Models\Product;

Product::create([
    'status' => 'published',
    'attribute_data' => [
        'name' => 'Sample Product',
        'description' => 'This is a test product.',
    ],
]);

5. Managing a Cart

Lunar provides cart functionality out of the box:

use Lunar\Facades\Cart;

$cart = Cart::create();

$cart->add(
    purchasable: $productVariant,
    quantity: 2
);

$cart->calculate();

You can then display cart totals in your frontend:

Cart Total: {{ $cart->total->formatted() }}

6. Orders and Checkout

When a customer is ready to checkout, you can convert a cart into an order:

$order = $cart->createOrder([
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
    'status' => 'pending',
]);

Conclusion

With Laravel + Lunar, you get a modern e-commerce foundation that’s extensible, integrates seamlessly with Laravel, and gives you full control over your store logic.

If you’re looking for a developer-friendly alternative to rigid SaaS platforms, Lunar is worth exploring for your next e-commerce project.