Customizing when using nopCommerce out of the box

I would like to reference the nop assemblies (i.e. using it out of the box without adding the source) in my solution and which would have the customization needed for my project over and above what nopCommerce offers.  Is this possible? If so can you point me to related case studies or examples?

You can reference assemblies in razor pages
but you can only do so much without changing the code

@using Nop.Core;
@using Nop.Core.Infrastructure;
@{
     var iWebHelper = Nop.Core.Infrastructure.EngineContext.Current.Resolve<IWebHelper>();
     var address = iWebHelper.GetStoreLocation();
}

<div>
     <a href="@address" target="_blank">
</div>

Alternatively you can use plugins to achieve outcomes without changing the core code