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Core Concepts

These concepts appear throughout the docs.

Merchant​

The business using eshopOS to run commerce operations. A merchant may operate one or more stores and may connect external providers for payments, shipping, storefronts, and imports.

Store​

A store is the main operating workspace for catalog, orders, customers, inventory, shipping, and channel setup. Most records and settings are scoped to a store.

Channel​

A channel is a place where customers or operators interact with the store, such as an online storefront, point-of-sale workflow, marketplace, or custom integration.

Catalog​

Catalog covers products, variants, images, descriptions, pricing, and related selling metadata.

Inventory​

Inventory tracks whether sellable items are available and where they are expected to be fulfilled from.

Order​

An order represents a customer's purchase and the work required to fulfill it. Order-related views connect customer, payment, fulfillment, and shipping context.

Customer​

A customer record helps merchants understand purchase history, communication context, and store relationship. Customer data should be handled only for legitimate business use.

Provider​

A provider is an external service connected to eshopOS, such as a payment processor, shipping carrier, commerce platform, or courier API.

Developer integration​

A developer integration uses documented public APIs, SDKs, webhooks, and OAuth-style credentials. Internal dashboard and platform routes are not public integration contracts.

Test and Live Modes​

Test mode is for setup, sandboxing, and integration validation. Live mode affects real merchant operations. Keep credentials, callbacks, and provider accounts separated by mode wherever possible.