School of Information Systems

The application of database in E-Commerce

05 Jul 2023

As technology continues to evolve, it made it clear that e-commerce continues to evolve and help businesses as well. Before the internet and technology were invented, customers physically entered physical shops to purchase goods and request services. Today, customers can purchase products online in their own homes and even obtain overseas products. This shows that businesses that use e-commerce must learn how to handle the e-commerce system. In 2020, there’s been estimated to be 12-24 million e-commerce globally.

Of course, all existing e-commerce have their defense systems to continue to develop their e-commerce. Talking about defense, we know that e-commerce can never be separated from using databases. The database here is the key or the most fundamental thing in using e-commerce. The database itself is an application that will store all our data sets.

The database is used in e-commerce to process data that continues to change. The main purpose was to store, retrieve and track data that changes based on the product’s status. Whether the product’s status is available, unavailable, on the way, out of stock, discontinued, or increased price, the data is automatically changed and stored in the database. The database must be high quality to avoid business consequences such as inaccurate analysis and unsuitable business strategies. Some common types of data that databases store and track for e-commerce include:

  • Product information
  • Customer information
  • Transactional information

Each database always has a certain API that will create, manage, access, copy, and search for the data contained in it. Therefore, database design is carried out with a process to determine the contents and data settings that may be needed later to support the entire system design that will be made. The database also uses some terms that we may often hear, such as :

  • Table
  • Column
  • Row
  • Redundancy
  • Primary Key
  • Foreign Key
  • Compound Key
  • Index
  • Referential Integrity

While E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce) itself is a service that is used to carry out a transaction, be it sales or purchases online, with data purchasers in the form of software or the like. Transactions that occur in E-Commerce itself consist of Business to Business (B2B), Business to Customer (B2C), to Customer to Customer (C2C). To use an E-Commerce site itself, of course, we have to design a data table which, of course, requires a database.

Based on characteristics, a good and effective database design for e-commerce involves three main parts, there are:

1.       Database Coverage

Scope refers to the planned database functionally. The database, relation, and index table structures are all based on the functionality of the e-commerce platform.

2.       Database Type

The type can vary from a relational database to a NoSQL database or hybrid approach, depending on the requirements and the data structure it has.

3.       Database Infrastructure

Depending on the application used, the use of cloud services is the most reliable thing for infrastructure problems because cloud-based storage services are faster and more efficient than on-premises infrastructure data or data centers.

The core function of database design in e-commerce and its application:

1.       User Management

This structure explains that the user table contains all user details and user_payment to store user payment details. This structure provides more granular data control.

2.       Product Management

This structure explains that the other two separate tables are the discount table, product_inventory, and product_category, which are connected to them through database relationships; this approach provides the greatest level of flexibility to the database system applied.

3.       Shopping Process

This structure explains that the core of the e-commerce process is connecting users with products. Most of the architectural design efforts were made to simplify the shopping process carried out by users on the e-commerce platform. In this example, structure hopping_session and cart_item are temporary data stores that only store information about the current user’s shopping session until the order is confirmed and the data is moved to a permanent storage table with payment details (order_details, order_items, and payment_details).

The reason why many e-commerce uses databases is that database provide many benefits. The few benefits of using a database in e-commerce include the following:

  • Attracts a large
  • Tracks data
  • Better HR Management
  • Managing Data and CRM
  • Reduce time on organizing
  • Avoid Human Error
  • Analyze data in various
  • More efficient in carrying out inventory
  • Help users have easier access to the required
  • Planning Business Growth
  • It can help maintain
  • It can help businesses protect data while only authorized users can access it.
  • It can help businesses restore and backup data that has been damaged or contains an error
  • Help pinpoint potential customers and business
  • Help businesses evolve and adapt to the marketing environment

Database, e-Commerce, Database benefit, core function

References :

https://www.grin.com/document/280494

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/ecommerce-pros-and-cons-1141609

https://kc.umn.ac.id/16296/3/BAB_I.pdf

https://wpforms.com/ecommerce-statistics/

https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/9789811245992_0015#:~:text=In%20an%20e

%2Dcommerce%20application,and%20further%2C%20maintain%20the%20inventory.

Andreopoulou Zacharoula, C. K. (2011). E-Commerce and DataBase Technology in SmallMedium Wood Enterprises in Greece. Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle, 1-11.

Davis, E. (2016, September 5). Understanding 4 Database Types, for Ecommerce. Diambil kembali dari PracticalEcommerce: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/Understanding-4- Database-Types-for-Ecommerce

Rojas, N. (2019, April 2). The Role of the database in E-Commerce. Diambil kembali dari Trellis: https://www.trellis.co/blog/the-role-of-the-database-in-e-commerce

Gabrielle Tifara Hutomo, Clarestine Felicia Johan, Ananda Putri