UNIVERSITY OF THE PEOPLE (UoPeople)

CS 2203-01 - Databases 1

Lutalo Martin

BSc. Computer Science

CS 2203-01 - AY2025-T4 / Programming Assignment Unit 2

Instructor Baraka Laiza

24th April 2025

Database design for an e-commerce company

1. Concept of a conceptual data model

A conceptual data model is a high-level schema of a database system that outlines what

data needs to be stored-not how it will be stored. The conceptual model identifies the

central entities for a business domain, along with their attributes and relationships,

without technical implementation details. This model is beneficial in describing how data

about products, customers, orders, and inventory are related to perform business

transactions for an e-commerce company. As described by Nalimov (2021), conceptual

data models provide a visual representation and organized description of business entities

and their interrelationships.

2. Entity definitions and relationships

Entities and Attributes:

 Product:

 ProductID (Primary Key)

 ProductName

 Description

 Price

 Category

 Customer:

 CustomerID (Primary Key)

 FirstName
  LastName

 Email

 Phone

 Address

 Order:

 OrderID (Primary Key)

 OrderDate

 TotalAmount

 CustomerID (Foreign Key referencing Customer)

 Inventory:

 InventoryID (Primary Key)

 ProductID (Foreign Key referencing Product)

 QuantityInStock

 WarehouseLocation

Relationships:

 A Customer can place multiple Orders (One-to-Many).

 An Order can include multiple Products, and each Product can appear in multiple

Orders (Many-to-Many, resolved via OrderDetails table).

 Inventory tracks the stock level of Products (One-to-One or One-to-Many depending

on structure).

3. Logical and physical table design

Logical tables:

Customer (CustomerID PK, FirstName, LastName, Email, Phone, Address)

Product (ProductID PK, ProductName, Description, Price, Category)

Order (OrderID PK, OrderDate, TotalAmount, CustomerID FK)

OrderDetails (OrderDetailID PK, OrderID FK, ProductID FK, Quantity, SubTotal)

Inventory (InventoryID PK, ProductID FK, QuantityInStock, WarehouseLocation)

4. Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram

To visually represent the relationships and constraints:

Entities:

 Each entity will be a box labeled with attributes.

Relationships:

 Lines will connect entities, showing cardinality (e.g., one-to-many relationships

between Customer and Order or Product and Inventory).

 Participation constraints will indicate required or optional relationships.

The ER diagram illustrates the key components of the database, including entities,

attributes, keys, and relationships. It indicates the following:

 Entities: Product, Customer, Order, Inventory, and OrderDetails

 Relationships:

 Customer places Order (1:N)

  Order includes Product (M:N through OrderDetails)

 Product has Inventory (1:N or 1:1)

Cardinality and Participation:

 One customer can place many orders (total participation from Order).

 Orders must contain at least one product (mandatory participation).

A product may or may not be in stock (optional participation from Inventory).

6. ER diagram code

Table Product {

ProductID int [pk, increment]

ProductName varchar

Description text

Price decimal

Category varchar

Table Customer {

CustomerID int [pk, increment]

FirstName varchar

LastName varchar

Email varchar

Phone varchar

Address text

Table "Order" {

OrderID int [pk, increment]

OrderDate datetime

TotalAmount decimal
 CustomerID int [ref: > Customer.CustomerID]

Table OrderDetails {

OrderDetailID int [pk, increment]

OrderID int [ref: > Order.OrderID]

ProductID int [ref: > Product.ProductID]

Quantity int

SubTotal decimal

Table Inventory {

InventoryID int [pk, increment]

ProductID int [ref: > Product.ProductID]

QuantityInStock int

WarehouseLocation varchar

Differences Between Conceptual and Physical Design

1. Conceptual Design:

 Purpose: Conceptual Design focuses on the logical structure of the

database, including entities, attributes, and relationships. It answers what
the data represents and how it should interact within the system.

 Role: In this scenario, it helps visualize how Product, Customer, Order,

and Inventory interact, allowing stakeholders to understand database
structure.
  Output: Entity-Relationship diagrams showing logical connections.

2. Physical Design:

 Purpose: Physical Design deals with the technical implementation,

specifying how the data is stored, retrieved, and optimized for
performance. It answers how the data operates on a physical server or
platform.

 Role: Defines how the e-commerce database will be physically stored and
queried, ensuring data integrity and optimization.

 Output: Structured tables with primary and foreign keys, storage

specifications.

The database system achieves operational efficiency for administrators and clarity for
stakeholders by taking into account both conceptual and physical design.
 References

Elmasri, R., & Navathe, S. B. (2016). Database systems: Design, implementation, &

management (13th ed.). Pearson. ISBN 978-0-13-397077-7.

Vidhya, V., Jeyaram, G., & Ishwarya, K. (2016). *Database management systems*.

Alpha Science International. https://www.auhd.edu.ye/upfiles/elibrary/Azal2020-

01-22-12-28-11-76901.pdf

Groves, M. (2025, April 24). Data modeling explained: conceptual, physical, logical.

The Couchbase Blog. https://www.couchbase.com/blog/conceptual-physical-

logical-data-models/

Nalimov, C. (2021, September 22). What is a conceptual data model? With examples!

https://www.gleek.io/blog/conceptual-data-model.html

Ellie. (2022, July 6). Conceptual vs Logical Data Models - What are the key differences?

[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex6wszg2XZ8