Tenant-facing help topic. Canonical English source for the in-app Help Center guide ("Channel groups — put a SKU online, take it offline") and for the support/RAG assistant. Audience: merchants using Sugibana Flow. No internal implementation details beyond what a tenant can observe in the UI.
What is a channel group?
A channel group (also written "sales-channel group") is a list of the SKUs that belong to one sales channel. Each channel has an Online group and a Stop group, and putting a SKU into a channel's Online group is how you say "this SKU sells here". Taking it out is how you take it off that channel.
That is the whole idea: a channel group is a membership list, and membership is the on/off switch for selling that SKU on that channel. You'll find the groups on a SKU's Groups tab, and you can change them in bulk from the SKU list.
The one-sentence model
A SKU sells on a sales channel when it is a member of that channel's Online group (e.g. Amazon — Online, PrestaShop — Online). Membership is the switch: it decides whether Sugibana Flow keeps that channel's listing stocked and up to date.
The three controls and how they interact
| Control | Where | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Online group membership | SKU page → Groups tab, or bulk from the SKU list | "This SKU sells on this channel." Stock updates flow to the channel automatically. |
| SKU status (Active / Draft / Paused / Archived) | SKU page header | "May this SKU sell at all?" Only Active SKUs send stock to channels — on any channel. |
Stop group ({channel}-Stop) | Stop toggle on the SKU page | Per-channel emergency brake for one SKU. Overrides Online membership. |
They answer different questions: status = "sellable at all?", Online membership = "on which channels?", Stop = "temporarily muted on this one channel?".
What happens when you ADD a SKU to an Online group
Membership is added immediately; what else happens depends on the state of the store:
- Already listed on the channel and linked — the SKU's current stock re-syncs right away, and from then on every stock change is pushed automatically.
- Exists on the store but not linked yet (you created it there yourself) — you get a Link suggestion to confirm on the Channels tab. Sugibana Flow never links or publishes silently in this case, so a duplicate listing can never be created by joining a group.
- Not on the store, group has auto-publish enabled — a publish is queued and the product is created on the channel.
- Not on the store, auto-publish off — membership only. The gate is open, so the SKU will sync as soon as a listing exists/is linked.
Adding a SKU to a group never invents stock: the channel receives the quantity Sugibana Flow actually has available.
What happens when you REMOVE a SKU from an Online group
Each group has a configurable remove behaviour:
- Push zero, then pause (the default): quantity 0 is pushed to the channel — the listing shows as unavailable to buyers — and the SKU stops receiving updates on that channel. The listing itself is *not* deleted from the store.
- Pause only: membership is removed and updates stop, but the last pushed quantity stays live on the store. Use with care: the store can then oversell if stock moves elsewhere.
Removal never deletes the product on the channel; it only controls stock and syncing.
SKU status: the master switch (all channels at once)
- Setting a SKU to Paused or Archived pushes quantity 0 to every channel it is grouped into and stops all further pushes. Buyers see it as unavailable everywhere.
- Setting it back to Active re-pushes its real available quantity, so it does not sit silently at 0.
- A Draft SKU never pushes.
The Stop group ({channel}-Stop)
Placing a SKU in a channel's Stop group mutes ALL stock pushes to that one channel — even while the SKU remains in the Online group and stays Active. It is the per-SKU, per-channel emergency brake (e.g. a listing dispute on one marketplace). Use the Stop toggle on the SKU page; take it out of Stop to resume normal syncing. An empty Stop group is normal — it simply means nothing is currently stopped on that channel.
Listings created on the store side mirror back automatically
If you (or a colleague) publish a product directly on the channel — in the PrestaShop back office, in Amazon Seller Central — Sugibana Flow notices and converges automatically:
- Sweeps compare the store with your catalogue (PrestaShop: nightly, Amazon: every few minutes).
- A SKU found live on the channel but missing platform state is added to the channel's Online group automatically, activated if it was still a Draft, and its stock is synced to the store.
- Paused and Archived SKUs are never reactivated automatically — those are deliberate states you chose, and the mirror respects them (the SKU is enrolled, but stays muted until you reactivate it).
- SKUs in the channel's Stop group are ignored entirely by the mirror.
Why this matters: a listing that exists on a store but is unknown to the platform receives no stock updates — after the first sale the store's own counter hits 0 and the product silently stops selling even though you have stock. The mirror closes that gap within one sweep cycle.
Where every action is recorded
All of the above is logged, per SKU:
- SKU page → Activity feed: joined/left a channel group (and what that did — synced, publish queued, link suggested, zeroed), status changes with their channel effect, and automatic mirror actions.
- Dashboard → Recent Events: one entry per affected SKU (including automatic mirror entries), each linking directly to the SKU.
If a quantity on a channel ever looks wrong, read the SKU's Activity feed first — it shows what happened, when, and which flow did it.
FAQ
I see two similar groups for one channel (e.g. "PrestaShop — Online" and "prestashop-Online"). Which is real? The one with members is the real, managed group. Older workspaces may carry an empty machine-named duplicate from an earlier system version; the platform always uses the populated group, and empty duplicates can be deleted safely. Empty {channel}-Stop groups are NOT duplicates — they are the (currently unused) emergency-brake container and should stay.
I removed a SKU from the Online group — is the product deleted from my store? No. By default its quantity is set to 0 (buyers see it unavailable) and syncing stops. The listing remains on the store.
Why does my store show 0 for a SKU that has stock? Most common causes, in order: the SKU is not a member of that channel's Online group (check Groups tab — though the mirror now fixes this automatically), the SKU is Paused/Draft/Archived, or it is in the channel's Stop group. The SKU Activity feed shows which one applies.
I created a product in my store's back office. Do I need to do anything in Sugibana Flow? Usually not. The mirror sweep will detect it, enrol it, and start syncing stock (nightly for PrestaShop, within minutes for Amazon). If the product matches an existing SKU by reference, it links to it; you'll see the action in the Activity feed. To make it sellable immediately, add the SKU to the channel's Online group yourself.
Does adding a SKU to a group push my whole stock to the channel? It pushes the SKU's current *available* quantity (on hand minus reserved), and keeps it in sync afterwards. It never pushes more than you actually have.