Database Design for Real-World E-Commerce Systems

This paper discusses the structure and components of databases for real-world e-commerce systems. We first present an integrated 8-process value chain needed by the e-commerce system and its associated data in each stage of the value chain. We then discuss logical components of a typical e-commerce database system. Finally, we illustrate a detailed design of an e-commerce transaction processing system and comment on a few design considerations specific to e-commerce database systems, such as the primary key, foreign key, outer join, use of weak entity, and schema partition. Understanding the structure of e-commerce database systems will help database designers effectively develop and maintain e-commerce systems.