In Magento, Configuration scope refers to ability of a configuration parameter, product, category, attribute definition, or customer management setting to apply to a specific view.
You can switch configuration scope at the left top corner in Magento Backend:
- Default config (Global): This option refers to the entire Magento installation.
- Website level: Websites are ‘parents’ of stores. A website consists of one or more stores. Websites can be set up to share customer data, or not to share any data
- Store: Stores are ‘children’ of websites. Products and Categories are managed on the store level. A root category is configured for each store, allowing multiple stores under the same website to have totally different catalog structures.
- Store View: A store needs one or more store views to be browse-able in the front-end. The catalog structure per store view will always be the same, it simply allows for multiple presentations of the data in the front. 90% of implementations will likely use store views to allow customers to switch between 2 or more languages.