E-commerce Architecture | System Design for E-commerce Website

To sell and buy the goods and services we have to develop a system that helps the seller to connect with customers or customers can connect with multiple sellers. For this, we developed different E-Commerce architectures that we see in this article, components of E-Commerce architecture, and advantages of E-Commerce all these topics will be covered in this article.

E-Commerce Architecture types

• Client-Server Architecture
• Two-Tier Architecture
• Three-Tier Architecture

Client-Server Architecture

In this architecture, the client(browser) sends the requests to the server, and the server processes the request if a request is valid then it responds with the requested data to the client. The client hosts the user interface(UI) while the server hosts the business logic and database.

Advantages:

• This architecture has a clean separation of concerns between the client and server.
• The server becomes overloaded with many client requests.
• It is easy to manage, and the data can be easily delivered to the client.

Disadvantages:

• Clients systems can get a virus or any malicious scripts if any are running on the server. 
• Extra security must be added so that the data does not get spoofed in between the transmission. 
• The main problem can be server down. When the server is down, the client loses its connection and will not access the data. 

Two-Tier Architecture

The two-tier architecture have consist of mainly two components:

1. Client layer: It consists of the web browser, mobile application, or the other UI that user interacts with.This front-end client makes requests to the server.
2. Server layer: It handels both the application logic and data storage/management.This single back-end server acts as a both the application server and the database server.

Advantages:

• It is simple to develop and deploy
• The client only communicates with one backend system
• All data logic and validation is handled on the server

Disadvantages:

• The server has to handle client requests, business logic and data storage. This can result in performance bottlenecks.
• Scalability is limited since it is not easy to scale client and data tiers independently.
• Less flexibility since presentation and data logic are coupled on the server side.
  

Three-Tier Architecture

The three-tier architecture is best architecture to develop a good E-commerce site. In three-tier architecture we seprates database and server that eliminate the problems we found in two-tier architecture. Three-tier architecture separates the presentation(UI), business logic and data storage layer into three distinct tiers.

• Client tier: Client tier is frontend layer consisting of components like a web browser, mobile application or other interfaces. This layer sends the users request and displays the response of server.
• Middel tier: This application server layer handles all the business logic and computational tasks. It receives requests from the client, communicates with the database to get or update data,performs calculations and other application specific tasks, and passes results back to the client.
• Data tier: This backend layer consists of the database servers that store and manage data. It can be a relational database like Oracle or a NoSQL database like MongoDB. The application server uses protocols like JDBC, ODBC to interact with this database tier.

Advantages:

• Separation of concerns between tiers makes application modular, flexible and easier to maintain.
• Each tier can scale independently to handle increasing loads.
• Web server can connect to multiple app servers, which in turn can connect to multiple database servers, allowing high scalability.
• Supports redundancy and failover capabilities for high availability.

Disadvantages:

• It can introduce complexity into a project. Managing three separate layers (presentation, application, and data) can be challenging, especially for small-scale applications, and it might lead to increased development and maintenance costs
• The additional layers can introduce performance overhead. Each request or transaction has to pass through the different tiers, which can slow down the system, particularly if there’s a lot of data to be transferred between layers
• Scaling can be more challenging in a three-tier architecture. While it’s possible to scale each layer independently, it often requires significant effort and resources to ensure that the system scales seamlessly
• Communication between layers can introduce latency in the system. When requests and responses need to traverse multiple layers, it can result in slower response times

Components of E-Commerce Architecture

Client Tier

This front-end tier consists of the interfaces customers interact with to shop online. It includes:

• Web browser: The web app frontend accessible from a browser.
• Mobile app: Native iOS or Android apps for mobile shopping.
• Payment gateways: For processing credit card and online payments.

Web Server Tier

The web server tier handles HTTP requests from clients:

• Web servers like Apache, Nginx serve the website pages and assets.
• Application servers like Tomcat, JBoss host the backend application logic.
• Reverse proxy servers provide security, load balancing, and caching.

Application Tier

This middleware tier implements the core business logic:

• Components for catalog management, order processing, inventory management.
• Application middleware and services.
• Authentication, authorization and accounting systems.

Database Tier

• This back-end tier stores and manages all data:
• Relational databases like MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server.
• NoSQL databases like MongoDB for big data storage.
• Caching systems like Redis and Memcached.
• Data analytics systems.

Advantages of E-Commerce Architecture

• Scalability: The architecture allows each component like web servers, app servers and databases to scale up or out independently to handle increasing traffic and load.
• Availability: E-commerce architectures often incorporate redundancy and failover to ensure high uptime. For example, multiple web servers can be provisioned behind a load balancer for redundancy.
• Performance: Caching mechanisms like Redis and CDNs help boost performance by reducing load on the databases. Asynchronous processing and message queues also improve response times.
• Security: Firewalls, SSL encryption, access control and other security mechanisms can be incorporated in the architecture. Segregation of components also limits damage in case of breaches.
• Maintainability: Modular tiers and well-defined interfaces between components allow easier maintenance and upgrades. Individual tiers can be modified without affecting others.
• Flexibility: Components can be provisioned and scaled dynamically to account for traffic fluctuations. Cloud infrastructure provides flexibility to spin resources up and down.
• Cost efficiency: Scalable architecture implemented on cloud infrastructure allows paying only for required resources reducing overall costs.
• Reliability: The architecture can incorporate redundancies and failover to deliver reliable services with minimal downtime.
• Compliance: Architecture can be designed to comply with regulations related to data security, privacy etc.

Applications of E-Commerce Architecture

• Online retail: E-commerce architectures are most commonly used to build online retail stores and shopping websites like Amazon, Walmart, eBay etc.
• Travel portals: Airlines, hotels, car rentals, and travel aggregators like Expedia use E-commerce architectures for their booking platforms.
• Food delivery: Food ordering and delivery platforms like Grubhub, Seamless leverage these architectures.
• Media streaming: Netflix, Hulu and other video/music streaming applications are built using E-commerce architectures.
• Marketplaces: Architectures power multi-vendor marketplaces like Etsy, Craigslist.
• On-demand services: Uber, Lyft, UrbanClap and other on-demand platforms use these architectures.
• Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe are also built on similar models.
• SaaS delivery: SaaS services leverage E-commerce architectures with payment gateways integrated to support subscription billing.
• Gaming: In-app purchases in games rely on E-commerce flows in the game’s architecture.

Conclusion

E-commerce architectures have evolved from simple client-server models to sophisticated multi-tier architectures in order to support the massive growth in online transactions and demands for scalability. The separation of concerns between presentation, business logic and data tiers enables E-commerce platforms to be highly robust, secure and extensible.Key architectural patterns like service-oriented architecture (SOA), microservices and the use of cloud computing have further increased flexibility and scalability of modern E-commerce platforms. Companies can now quickly provision or deprovision computing resources from the cloud to handle changes in traffic.