Ecommerce schemas become messy quickly because they combine catalog structure, transactional state, payment flows, and operational fulfillment logic in one system.
Intent
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Why this guide exists
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The core model usually includes customers, products, carts, orders, payments, and inventory, each with different lifecycle and ownership rules.
Customers and products usually behave as foundational entities.
Orders and payments are transactional records that must preserve history.
Inventory often needs operational tables distinct from catalog tables.
Orders often outlive carts, payments, discounts, and fulfillment steps, so the schema has to reflect that durability clearly.
Keep carts separate from confirmed orders.
Use order items to preserve line-level purchase history.
Consider whether shipment, refund, and return workflows deserve separate entities early.
Example
A cart is temporary and editable. An order should usually become historical and auditable once confirmed, even if payment or fulfillment changes later.
Inventory and payments are often handled by different workflows, and forcing them too tightly into the order table creates long-term schema pain.
Inventory needs stock visibility, location, and movement logic.
Payments need transaction attempts, settlement state, and provider references.
Do not hide both systems inside generic order status fields alone.
A quick review before writing final migrations helps prevent expensive downstream fixes.
Check whether product, order, and payment responsibilities are clearly separated.
Check whether order history remains readable after payment or fulfillment updates.
Check whether inventory logic can evolve without restructuring the whole catalog.
Checklist
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