In various example embodiments, a system and method for consistent schema-less and scalable database storage are described herein. A data object is generated. The data object corresponds to a column of a table from a database. The data object includes information regarding an order that is placed over a network publication system. The data object is stored in the column of the table in the database. A request to access the data object is received from a device of a first user. The data object is transmitted to the device of the first user. The data is kept coherent during concurrent updates by using optimistic locks. The data is kept backward and forward compatible utilizing intermediate data structures common to both versions of the software. The data is kept searchable by using lookup indexes. The storage system is kept scalable by sharding data across many databases.