A practical guide to setting up source and destination stores
Step-by-step: how to think about your store architecture before you connect anything, which store should be your source, and how to configure destination roles for different use cases.
When you connect stores in SyncTec, one of the first decisions you make is: which store is the source, and which are destinations?
This guide walks through that decision — and shows you how to set it up correctly.
Source vs Destination: What's the Difference?
**Source store:** The store where you manage product data. When you update a product here, changes flow to all destination stores.
**Destination store:** A store that receives product data from the source. You can still edit products here, but those changes won't sync back to the source.
Think of it like a one-way street: source → destinations.
How to Choose Your Source Store
Your source store should be:
1. **The store where you manage products most often** — Don't pick your wholesale store if you mostly update the retail store
2. **Your main brand** — Usually your .com domain, not regional variants
3. **Stable** — Don't pick a store you're planning to rebuild or migrate
**Common patterns:**
- Main DTC store = source, regional stores = destinations
- Main retail store = source, wholesale portal = destination
- US store = source, international stores = destinations
Can I Have Multiple Sources?
Technically yes, but it's messy.
If Store A syncs to Store B, and Store B syncs to Store C, you have a chain. Chains get complicated fast.
**Better approach:** One source, multiple destinations. Keep it simple.
Setting Up Your Source Store
1. **Connect your source store to SyncTec**
- Dashboard → Add Store
- Authorize via Shopify OAuth
- Mark as 'Source' when prompted
2. **Verify products loaded correctly**
- Go to Products tab
- You should see all products from your source store
3. **Configure which fields should sync**
- By default, everything syncs (title, description, price, images, variants, etc.)
- If you want to exclude certain fields, set up field locking later
Setting Up Destination Stores
1. **Connect your destination store**
- Dashboard → Add Store
- Authorize via Shopify OAuth
- Mark as 'Destination'
2. **Map to source store**
- Select which source store this destination receives from
- Usually you only have one source, so this is automatic
3. **Choose what to sync**
- **All products:** Every product on source appears on destination
- **Selected collections:** Only products in specific collections sync
- **Selected products:** Manually choose which products sync
Common Architectures
**Architecture 1: One source, multiple regional destinations**
- Source: main-store.com
- Destinations: uk-store.com, eu-store.com, au-store.com
- Use case: Regional stores with same products, different currencies
**Architecture 2: One source, one wholesale destination**
- Source: retail-store.com
- Destination: wholesale.retail-store.com
- Use case: Separate pricing for wholesale
- Key setting: Field lock on price fields
**Architecture 3: One source, multiple specialized destinations**
- Source: main-store.com
- Destinations: premium.main-store.com, budget.main-store.com, outlet.main-store.com
- Use case: Different product tiers or customer segments
- Key setting: Collection-based sync (different collections to different stores)
Syncing for the First Time
Once your stores are connected:
1. **Review what will sync**
- Products tab → Preview
- Shows which products will be created/updated on destination
2. **Test with one product first**
- Select a single product
- Click 'Push to destination'
- Verify it appears correctly on destination store
3. **Sync the rest**
- Once you're confident, select all products (or a collection)
- Click 'Push to all destinations'
- SyncTec will batch-process the sync
Ongoing Management
After initial setup:
- New products: Automatically sync (if real-time sync enabled) or manually push
- Product updates: Automatically sync changes from source to destinations
- Collections: Sync collections so products are organized the same way everywhere
- Field locks: Adjust which fields sync as your needs change
Common Mistakes
**Mistake 1: Choosing the wrong source**
If you pick your wholesale store as source but manage products on your retail store, you'll constantly fight the system.
**Mistake 2: Not using field locking**
If stores need different prices, lock price fields. Otherwise every sync will overwrite prices.
**Mistake 3: Syncing everything when you need segments**
Don't sync your entire catalog to a specialized store. Use collections to sync only relevant products.
Advanced: Changing Your Source
What if you picked the wrong source?
You can change it, but it's a bit involved:
1. Disconnect all stores
2. Reconnect stores with new source/destination roles
3. Re-sync products
Better to get it right the first time.
Final Thoughts
Source and destination roles are foundational. Spend time thinking through your architecture before connecting stores.
Ask yourself:
- Where do I manage products?
- Which store is the single source of truth?
- Do all destinations need the same products, or different subsets?
Get this right, and everything else is easy.