Key concepts

Every later guide assumes these definitions. SellingIO is a sync between a canonical catalogue and the channels you connect. The table is the closed vocabulary; the sections below expand the seven terms this page exists to define.

Terms

Term	Meaning
Merchant	The business that holds the SellingIO account and connects channels.
Canonical catalogue	The product record in SellingIO. Each connected channel is a projection of this record, not a second master.
Variant	A sellable form of a product in the canonical catalogue — size, colour, or another option the listing needs.
Channel	A place you sell: TikTok Shop, Shopify, or an offline store. Shopee is not a live channel.
Store	An offline shop, treated as a channel. Not the same thing as a warehouse.
Connection	The authorised link between SellingIO and one channel, created when you sign in with that channel's OAuth or add an offline store.
Warehouse	Where a stock number lives in SellingIO. Inventory syncs against warehouses, not against the channel name.
Stock number	The shared on-hand quantity on a warehouse. A sale on one connected channel drops this number; the other connected channels update to match.
Mapping	The link that says this canonical record is that listing on a channel, or this warehouse is that location on a channel.
Pull	Copy live listings from a connected channel into the canonical catalogue. A pull does not overwrite the channel.
Push	Write from the canonical catalogue to a connected channel. You choose what is pushed. This is a separate action from a pull.

Canonical catalogue

The canonical catalogue is the source of truth for products and variants. You enter a product once, or you pull listings that already exist on a channel. Either way, the record in SellingIO is the one later pushes and stock numbers refer to. See canonical catalogue for the product fields and workflow.

A listing that only exists on a channel, and has never been pulled or entered here, is not in the canonical catalogue.

Channel and connection

A channel is where you sell. A connection is the authorised link that lets SellingIO pull from that channel and, when you choose, push to it.

One merchant account can have more than one connection. Sync participates per connection; the stock number is shared on a warehouse. Disconnecting a connection stops the sync for that channel; it does not delete the canonical catalogue.

Live channels are TikTok Shop, Shopify, and offline stores. Shopee is not live. See what SellingIO does.

Warehouse

A warehouse holds the stock number. The default warehouse is the one new stock is assigned to unless you pick another. Set it during first-time setup — it is painful to change after listings and orders exist.

A store is a channel. A warehouse is stock. An offline store still maps to a warehouse; they are not the same object.

Mapping

A mapping is the join between SellingIO and a channel. Two kinds matter:

• Product mapping: this canonical product or variant is that listing on the channel.
• Warehouse mapping: this warehouse is that location on the channel.

Without a mapping, SellingIO cannot update the right listing or the right stock number. A pull creates product mappings from listings that already exist. A push needs the product to exist in the canonical catalogue first.

Push and pull

Pull copies inward. It is the first step after you connect, and it does not overwrite the live shop.

Push copies outward. Open a product, use its Channels tab, then push to the channel you want to update.

If you expected a live listing to change and it did not, check whether you pulled, pushed, or only connected. Connection alone does not write to the channel.

How to check it worked

Open any later guide and you can replace each of those words with the meaning in the table. You can say, in one sentence, that a pull fills the canonical catalogue and a push writes to a channel, and that a warehouse is not a store.

A channel listing is not the catalogue

The listing on TikTok Shop, Shopify, or an offline store is a projection. Edits you make only on the channel are not the canonical record until they are pulled. Edits you make only in SellingIO do not reach the channel until you push.

Pull is not a push

A pull never writes the channel. A push never creates the canonical record from thin air — the product has to exist in SellingIO first, either because you entered it or because an earlier pull brought it in.