Nowadays, it is a common practice to go for ecommerce rather than a traditional way. The main reason behind it is that it saves your time and money. Instead of visiting the shopkeeper to buy any product you can purchase it from an online store sitting at home and that too in your pyjamas if you want.
Ecommerce is growing fast and online sellers are getting to notice that they need a reliable e-commerce database software. Most of the sellers find themselves in a dilemma as to which database to choose for an ecommerce website. They come with different requirements, features and functionalities. Some even ask about the best database design for their ecommerce website.
If you want to run an e-commerce site, and especially if you want to prevent the big players from eating all of your lunch, you need a really good database. What does a really good database look like? It has the right tables. It has the right indexes in those tables. It is schema’d to support bulk data loads and hit-and-run queries. If you’ve been scouring the web looking for quality examples of real e-commerce php database design, let me suggest that you give up the hunt! Get our E-Commerce Database that includes e-commerce database example , e commerce database schema , database schema for e commerce website . We don’t just offer pretty pictures; our solution is completely developed for use on live commercial systems – systems with tens of thousands of products and hundreds of orders per day.
If you are trying to build an ecommerce website, you might need a best database design with tables, key fields and analyze your data scheme. The purpose of this article is to show the pros of the MySQL database configuration design for e commerce website by using the sample data scheme based on a shopping cart system.
Ecommerce Database Features
Scalability
The best eCommerce databases provide resiliency and speed at scale. To ensure your site can keep pace with your customers, look for a cloud database built with masterless architecture and advanced replication functionality. Macy’s, for example, recently turned to DataStax Enterprise to power its Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales; the database was able to accommodate millions of requests per second with 100% uptime.
Security
Major data breaches get splashy news play and create endless “FUD” (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) in the minds of customers and investors alike, apart from leading to potentially catastrophic fines and penalties. The last thing you want is for your company’s name to end up on the major data breach list. To avoid breaches and data leakage—as well as the accompanying bad press and irate customers—look for an eCommerce database that provides advanced security features. Leading databases offer identify management for authentication and authorization, encryption, auditing and compliance, and more.
Performance
Your eCommerce database needs to be ready to handle a large influx of traffic that may come your way at any time. Otherwise, the customer experience will suffer as folks head to your site only to be greeted by pages that take forever to load—if they even resolve in the first place. According to Kissmetrics, 40% of visitors will abandon your site if it doesn’t load within three seconds. For the best results, look for a cloud database that seamlessly scales to accommodate traffic peaks.
Control
The data your organization controls is one of your most important assets. You can’t afford to give up any control over the sovereignty of your data—for both regulatory and business reasons. When searching for an eCommerce database, look for a solution that provides data autonomy, i.e., the ability for your organization to retain complete control over your data—whether you’re using a hybrid cloud, a public cloud, a private cloud or your own data center, or moving from one to the next.
MySQL.
MySQL is an open-source relational database system. The majority of the web hosting providers bundle MySQL in their basic packages. Hence, it is popular among both amateur and professional web designers.
Key Features:
- Scalability: It increases the scalability and security of the database
- Business Oriented: Ecommerce sites can leverage business-oriented sophisticated applications
- Technical Support: Offers robust technical support and fights potential cyberattacks
- Easily Applicable: Reduced risks and costs. Lesser complexity in development, deployment, and management of crucial applications
Pros:
- Offers better data recovery capability
- Folks without a programming background can quickly learn its foundational features
- Being an open-source tool, it provides complete flexibility in data customization
- The low-cost structure makes it a more feasible option for small-size businesses and entrepreneurs
- The adjustable data development process for small and heavy applications
- Easy integration with Apache web engine
Cons:
- Queries don’t respond after you restart or refresh the software
- Over-dependence on third-party plugins
- Linux OS makes data operation more complex
Pricing:
Its pricing plan starts at $2000, $5000, and $10,000 for MySQL Standard, Enterprise, and Cluster Carrier Grade editions, respectively.
Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS).
Amazon RDS is a stable and capable relational Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) that is at par with other competent offerings from Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is a good option for experienced data scientists, users, and digital-native companies.
Key Features:
- Data Backup & Security: Offers dedicated secure connection and backs up data automatically through its inbuilt feature
- Flexible: It offers the option to scale computing resources or increase the storage capacity of the database through a single API call
- Scalable: You can scale up to more than the capacity of the single database deployment for read-heavy database workloads
- Easy to Use: Amazon RDS offers access to the abilities of a more familiar MySQL, Oracle, or Microsoft SQL Server database engine
Pros:
- Processes heavy workloads in a single database system
- You have to pay only for the number of resources you use at any point in time
- Get easy access to Oracle, MySQL, and Microsoft SQL database among others
- Flexibility and increasable storage through simple API request makes it a favorable option among programmers
- Offers stable and robust performance
- Plenty of controls and features for users
- Responsive and capable customer support
- Leverage big data tools seamlessly through its EMR service
Cons:
- Offers limited auto-scale capabilities
- Absence of physical servers prevents users from checking server logs
- Relatively costlier than other DBMS options available in the market
Pricing:
Amazon RDS is a ‘free to try’ tool. Users can pay for only those resources that they use. You can leverage On-Demand or Reserved Instance to pay for its services.
It might look overwhelming to pay for resources used, but you can easily estimate your monthly bill through its AWS Simple Monthly Calculator.
Oracle RDBMS.
Oracle RDBMS is one of the most object-relational DBMS tools that has introduced some crucial capabilities in its latest version. It enables businesses with enterprise-scale database technology that can be stored on-premises or in the cloud.
Key Features:
- Pluggable Databases: This feature reduces the risk of data consolidation and also lowers down resource consumption. It also allows independent backup and recovery of the pluggable database
- Performance: It offers concurrent execution of union branches to reduce query execution time and wait time along with improved SQL elapsed time
- Efficient: The latest version provides a more significant database, captures less space, higher security features, and processes your online database fast
- Flexible: Oracle RDBMS can be run on a personal computer or sophisticated supercomputer with the same efficiency. Its active design triggers a highly compatible referential system
Pros:
- Users can create partitions to achieve greater administrative control over the data
- Offers greater data security and smooth transactional process
- Efficient optimization of complex queries
- Dynamic support is provided for seamless integration with various platforms to assist the development of applications with different technologies
- Its smart suggestions help developers work more accurately and efficiently
- Offers sturdy and stable performance
Cons:
- Its pricing plan is not feasible for startups and smaller enterprises
- Client applications get automatically plugged-in
- The design looks a bit outdated
- Consumes a lot of resources and lags while dealing with significant stored procedures
Pricing:
The cost of Oracle RDBMS varies based on the size and type of business you have, along with the existing software solutions being used in your IT infrastructure.
Therefore, you’ll have to get in touch with their customer support executive to the exact pricing information for your business.
Infinity — A Flexible Work Management and Online Database Platform
The first thing you’ll notice about Infinity is how flexible this online database software is. And when we say flexible, we’re talking Van Damme doing the splits between two moving trucks flexible.
You can build customizable frameworks and processes using an unlimited number of boards within your workspace and structuring each board to follow your data flow.
Items in your workspace can be organized into folders, subfolders, and tabs. There are 15+ attributes to add to your items such as date, labels, text, checkboxes, formulas, and attachments.
Looking to organize your e-commerce orders by date in a calendar view? Want to group your employees by department? Infinity database software offers multiple views—including Table, Columns, List, Calendar, Gantt, and Form—that allow you to see your data from a different angle, as well as filter, group, and customize options to display it in a way that makes the most sense.
“It is an incredible product that beats the heck out of Trello and a half-dozen other platforms. Stefan is responsive and they are always enhancing it.” – Allen Gwinn
The Zapier integration lets you connect Infinity to over 2,000 other apps including Gmail. Infinity also has an integration with Clockify that enables you to track time spent on tasks within Infinity, review timesheets, and create reports. The Trello integration allows you to import all your data from Trello within seconds.
No need to worry about running out of storage if you’re migrating a big data database online—Infinity has plans that start from 50 GB and go up to 5,000 GB. We use Digital Ocean servers located in the US and industry-leading Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting infrastructure.
Key Features
- Infinite Structure—Infinity is the only database system you’ll need to process heavy workloads. Its unique structure makes it a breeze to add, create, organize, and manage data in boards, folders, and subfolders in an endless number of ways.
- Different Views—With Infinity, you can visualize data in 6 ways—List, Column, Table (spreadsheet-like way, most suitable for databases), Gantt, Calendar, and Form. Gallery and Document View coming soon!
- Customizable Attributes—Pick from 15+ attribute types: date, labels, checkbox, text, etc. and tailor them to your project’s needs.
- Drag & Drop Interface—Add and order elements in your workspace within seconds.
- Filters, Group & Sort—Customize which data to see and how.
- Templates—Dozens of ready-made templates for CRM, employee management, and more.
- Team Collaboration—Device synchronization enables you to work with your team in real-time.
- Document Management—Easily add documents to share with team members or organize within your personal workspace.
- Data Import/Export—Infinity lets you import Excel and CSV data and organize it your way but also export your boards and folders and share them outside your team.
- Data Sharing—Make your boards public and share data with stakeholders and partners outside Infinity.
- Multi-Select—Select and edit your data in bulk to organize workflows more quickly.
- Task Management—Assign and organize tasks by progress or project phases.
- Activity Tracking—Not only you can set access permissions but also track your team’s recent activities in real-time to make sure no one misuses your organization’s resources and prevent suspicious activities but also collect employee behavior data and use it to optimize productivity.
- Progress Tracking—Check off completed tasks and track overall project progress.
- Access/Permission Control—Set up data access permissions on the role and individual level and customize who can see and edit your data.
- Automatic Backups & Data Recovery—Never lose valuable information.
- Clockify, Trello, and Zapier Integrations—Connect to thousands of third-party apps, import data from Trello, and track time for your tasks.
Anything Else You Should Know About Infinity?
- An all-in-one place for data storage—Use Infinity to store any type of information you need: databases, documents, images, team information, metrics and reporting, and much more.
- Unlimited customization—Organize your database in any way you like: from different views to advanced filtering, grouping, and sorting options. Only show the data you want, the way you want to.
- Simple task management—Keep track of all changes to items or boards using the Activity Log, communicate with team members via the Comments Section, customize task alerts in Notifications, and share your work with people outside Infinity using the Public Board.
INFINITY TIP: Add as many filters to your database as you like to show/hide data based on different criteria.
Infinity provides dozens of templates customized for different projects and industries, including education, events, HR, marketing, sales, product development, project management, real estate, and others.
Lightspeed Retail
Lightspeed Retail is a complete point of sale (POS) and inventory management tool that simplifies time-consuming tasks like inventory and employee management, so you can focus on taking care of your customers and growing your business. Access detailed sales reports in minutes and easily identify best-selling items or use the built-in customer profiles to provide personalized service that will increase customer loyalty.Read more
Key benefits of using Lightspeed Retail
We’re dedicated to building not just the best point of sale, but the best business management tools:
– Desktop & iPad: Process payments on the floor and engage your customers by getting away from the counter.
– Inventory Control: Track your stock, submit purchase orders, and even set up automatic re-order points.
– eCommerce: Extend your retail presence by syncing your existing inventory to your integrated web store.
-Loyalty: Highly targeted rewards program with a branded customer-facing web-app to track points.
-Payments: everything you need to process sales and get paid in one place.
-Accounting: A seamless integration between your point of sale and accounting software for a painless day at the office.
What are the Benefits of Using Database Software?
A capable database helps enterprises in enhancing their access to heaps of data generated regularly.
The primary purpose of an efficient DBMS is to ensure easy access and sharing of data among different stakeholders.
Here are some of the essential benefits of using database software in an organization:
1. Reduced Data Redundancy.
Database software tools are somewhat unlike file-based systems, where sometimes multiples copies of the same file are stored at different locations or at even at various data centers that may lead to data redundancy.
Today’s DBMS software leverage a single database, and any modification in the files are reflected immediately.
Hence, it eliminates the chance to retrieve any duplicate data.
2. Efficient Data Integration.
The practical implementation of a database reflects an integrated organization.
Organization-wide access to data helps different stakeholders to analyze how data of one process is affecting other operations and vice-versa.
3. Consistent and Compliant Data.
Consistent data is essential to meet compliance and enforce accountability. Different versions of the same data can create confusion and chaos.
Efficient DBMS ensures that the user can share corresponding data at all points of contact.
4. Data Security.
Cloud computing has enabled today’s databases to become more secure against cybersecurity threats.
Aside, a robust system to give access to authorized users makes it a reliable system to store and manage large amounts of enterprise data.
5. Backup and Recovery.
DBMS is equipped to take automatic backups of the data at regular intervals.
It is also capable of automatically restore the database to its previous state in the event of any crash or system failure.
Conclusion
Data is the backbone of every business and without data, businesses are incomplete or dead. So if we talk about an ecommerce business then obviously it’s a web-based business with data at the core of everything you do. Data is the king. Not the queen, but the king because the better you understand data, address issues with it and improve your overall customer experience through analysis and understanding of that data, the better your business will perform. As you build your ecommerce company in 2022, be sure to invest in a stable database that meets your needs and requirements.
Choosing the best database and designing it according to ecommerce business is a major component of ecommerce website development. A great database design not only reduces the time-to-market and cost, but also ensures the consistent performance of your ecommerce site.