Designing a database schema for an online merch store involves identifying the entities involved, their attributes, and their relationships. Here's a simplified schema to get you started:
Entities:
1. Users
2. Products
3. Orders
4. Categories
Attributes:
1. Users:
- user_id (Primary Key)
- username
- password
- address
- phone_number
2. Products:
- product_id (Primary Key)
- name
- description
- price
- stock_quantity
- category_id (Foreign Key referencing Categories)
3. Orders:
- order_id (Primary Key)
- user_id (Foreign Key referencing Users)
- order_date
- total_price
- status (e.g., pending, shipped, delivered)
4. Categories:
- category_id (Primary Key)
- name
Relationships:
- Each user can have multiple orders, but each order belongs to only one user.
- Each order can contain multiple products, and each product can be in multiple orders (many-to-many relationship). This relationship is typically resolved using an intermediate table, often called OrderDetails or something similar, which links orders to products and also stores quantities.
- Each product belongs to exactly one category, but a category can have multiple products.
Additional Considerations:
- You may want to consider adding tables for managing payments, shipping details, and possibly reviews/ratings for products.
- Incorporate proper indexing for efficient querying, especially on commonly used fields like user_id, product_id, etc.
- Implement proper data validation and constraints to ensure data integrity and consistency.
- Consider scalability and performance optimization techniques as your store grows.
This schema is a basic starting point and can be expanded upon based on specific requirements and additional features of your online merch store.
