Database Schema – Packaging Products and Services Together

ArchitecturedatabasedesignMySQLPHP

I’m trying to “conceive” the business logic of this website that has many activities, that the users can build their “combo” and get discounts depending on their choices and how long they are willing to pay for their plan (1, 3, 6 and 12 month plans).

I’m having a hard time trying to come up with a solution, while keeping the database normalized and with proper relations, without having to resort to JSON-encoded data in the database fields. The system must stay generic enough to fit many businesses types that relies on plans/activities. I need to know how to structure my tables.

Scenario: For example, in case of a gym, will have bodybuilding, yoga, boxing, body pump. If the person choose bodybuilding and boxing, they will have a discount. If they add yoga, boxing and bodybuilding will keep the discount but will add the yoga without any discount to the price. If the person decides to pay 12 months upfront, they will get a bigger discount.

Bodybuilding + Body Pump

Bodybuilding..$70 | 28% discount
Body Pump.....$70 | 
Total........$100

1 month  - $100 / month
3 months - $ 91 / month
6 months - $ 75 / month

Bodybuilding + Body Pump + Yoga

Bodybuilding..$70 | 28% discount
Body pump.....$70 |
Yoga..........$90 | No discount
Total........$190   

1 month  - $190 / month
3 months - $171 / month
6 months - $158 / month

I’ll be using PHP and MYSQL but that doesn’t matter much, only the RDBMS part.

Edit for clarification: What I really looking for is a database schema for packaging products (or in this case services) together under a single price/offer. Each product must also exist in the system as a standalone product.

I still need the ability to report on sales (and profit) by product even if that product was sold as part of a package.

I would need the ability to report on package performance.

Best Answer

At a Minimum You need:

A Promo Header Table - Holds exactly what you get with the Promotion (Free item, free shipping, $$ off)
A Promo-Requirements Tables (I to meany to Promo's, Hold all the requirement if the promo) Each record is one Requirement, Requirements can be "must be and item of Brand X" or must be SKU 1234, or order total must be >50$ (When i did this is had a row type flag that told me what kid if Requirement it was.)
A module that is good a checking if an order meets a promotion's Requirements.

Unfortunately, I can't give you an exact ERD, because the promo conditions vary so much from business to business, so it's up to you make it as complex or simple as you need. For example, do you need Promos by SKU?, By Category, by subcategory?, by brand?, do you need to exclude certain SKUs?, brands? Category's? shipping locations?

Lastly make sure you make this thing easy to maintain and adjust, because just when you think you covered all your bases the business team will come up with some new crazier promo the no customer on earth will understand how to use.

EDIT: *Now that I better understand your question here what you need:*

Package Header Table and a Line Items Table, The Package Name and Description is stored on the header, The Lines hold the Items (including the Item prices when sold as part of that package).

You need a way to adding a Package to order. When that is done add then each item in the package as a regular line item but have a extra fields to specifies that the item is part of a Package and the PackageID.

It is then up to you to decide how you want to code the order Print out, Either just print a package total, so the customer doesn't know the line item prices, or print it normally but add with the package description.

Related Solutions

Database Schema for Pricing Products (packages, promotions, qty based, limited time offer…)

Although its a 3 years old thread, still I'm replying it thinking that it might be helpful to somebody.

Table Structure
Table_Offer
--------
ID FK
Name   
start time  
end time   

MandatoryGroup
--------
ProductId (FK to product)

MixGroup1
--------
ProductId (FK to product)


MixGroup2
--------
ProductId (FK to product)


Table_offerDetails
------------------
ID PK
offerId (FK to table_offer)
MandatoryProduct(FK to MandatoryProducts.productID
firstProduct ( fk to MixGroup1.productId)
secondProduct (FK to MixGroup2.productId)

Offer
----
 ID    name    startDate  EndDate 
---    ----     --------   ------
1       COMBO   


MandatoryGroup
-------------
 ID    name 
 ---   ---- 
1      A
2      B


MixGroup1
---------
 ID    name 
 ---   ---- 
 3      P      
 4      Q

MixGroup2
---------
 ID    name 
 ---   ---- 
 5      x      
 6      Y
 7      Z



 OfferHeader
-------------
ID  Customer count(B) B_disc time_disc  stat_disc DiscTotal orderPayableTotal
--  --------- -------  ----   --------  ---------  --------  ------------    
1     BOB     2         20      5         2

OfferDetails ------------

 ID   offerID   MandatoryProduct     1stProduct    2ndProduct
----  -------    ---------------     ----------    ----------
1       1         A                     P              X
2       1         A                     P              Y
3       1         A                     P              Z
4       1         A                     Q              X
5       1         A                     Q              Y
6       1         A                     Q              Z
7       1         B                     P              X
8       1         B                     P              Y
9       1         B                     P              Z
10      1         B                     Q              X
11      1         B                     Q              Y
12      1         B                     Q              Z

To construct an offerDetails , you must provide a mandatory , a mixgropu1 and amixGropu2. So caseB , has only 2 offers as follows :

1 A and 2 B, 2 Q, 1 S, 2 X and 1 Z
2B 2Q and 2X =2 offers
1A 1Q and 1X=1st offer
1B 1Q and 1X=2nd Offer ... etc other combinations are vivid.

Other offers are based on business logic: For quantity offer discount: create query to find the count of B in an offer for a customer . lets call it QTYB. find QTYB %2 and multiply it with quantityOffer value ( which is $20)

For statistics offer, Just add another bit called earnedPoint for a customer's purchase. and set the earnedPoint an expiry date. earned point can be the same as purchased amount. Check if the purchased amount >=$X , them issue discount as per policy.

Similar is the comparison of order time if its before 5PM and after 10AM then issue 5% else issue 10% discount.

Practical thesql schema advice for eCommerce store – Products & Attributes

I think the key thing here is flexibility. Since there are different types of products with each having different set of attributes, it would be fair to assume that product as well as attribute types will change. So it isn't very convenient to include attributes in the product tables.

Here is what you could do:

have a table of product types
have a table of products with a many-to-one relationships to the product types table
have a table of attribute types
have a table of (many-to-many) relationships between product types and attribute types
have a table containing attribute type, attribute value, product primary key

This design allows a huge flexibility. The tables are normalized, there is no redundancy, there is no need to alter any table schemes if the definition of a product changes. If the database is properly indexed and other search optimization techniques are implied as thorsten müller suggested, this solution will work.