Page 165 - DCAP306_DCAP511_E-COMMERCE_AND_E-BUSINESS

E-Commerce and E-Business

displayed in a user-friendly manner for the customers to access the products conveniently. E-Commerce
Web sites contain various products that are listed for the customers to view and purchase. Hence, it is
necessary to categorize the products into related search groups so that the customers can easily search
the product.
The basic architecture of the Web site application includes designing product catalog that provides
details of the products. To create such a catalog, it is important to design architecture that involves the
following procedure:
1. Design a database for storing product catalog that are sub-divided into various departments and
categories.
2. A Structured Query Language (SQL), Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, CSS
code is written to access the data and make the product catalog functional.
3. Add data to the product catalog that defines product attributes such as color, size, and so on.

4. A product search engine must be provided and the site administrator must be provided with a
private section in order to manage the online product catalog.
Once the catalog is built, the next step is to offer products for sale by integrating the products with
shopping cart functionality and order-processing system. This will help to handle credit card
transactions and e-mails with details of orders.
The products must be categorized to maintain the product information for effective browsing in the
Web site. The merchant is provided with a product category form during the process of adding a new
product to the Web site. The figure 13.2 depicts the product category form of an e-commerce Web site
which helps in categorizing the products according to the listed category in the Web site.

Figure 13.2: Product Category Form

Source: http://www.php-shopping-cart-tutorial.com/managing-categories.htm
In the figure 13.2, the product category form is used by the manufacturers to advertise their respective
products on the Web site. It consists of Parent, Category name, Logo, and Description of the category.
The Category Name specifies the category in which the product can be advertised. Description refers to
the description of the product and the picture URL links the Web page to the specific image of the
product.

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