I've got 6 weeks to produce an on-line shop!!

a "back end" generally refers to a database. For anything dynamic, (a on-line store is dynamic), you will most certainly need a database.

Dont reinvent the wheel
the Ecommerce functions you are looking for have been made before, in your choice of programming languages,
for free, for pay,
supported, unsupported
hosted elsewhere, self hosted
paypal
credit cards
delivery
et al
Google online store script search
then its just a relatively simple thing to stylesheet & match the appearance of the rest of the site

the time consuming part is data entry for items

goodluck on your business.

Would a Mals E-Commerce package replace any database that I need?

Would a Mals E-Commerce package replace any database that I need?

Yes,
mals is externally hosted
which may be a negative to the employer

there are similar (also free) scripts to install on your servers
that are also easy to setup
read this - do this
read that - do that
may come with live support for the first xx days that a (pimply 17 year old techno kid) help person can configure if needec

I should have added that this is for a College project.

I have got to create the web site in Dremweaver, my design work has been completed in Fireworks. How easy is it to attach a Mals E-commerce back end into a dreamweaver website?

I should have added that this is for a College project.

I have got to create the web site in Dremweaver, my design work has been completed in Fireworks. How easy is it to attach a Mals E-commerce back end into a dreamweaver website?

Mals just needs 'buy now' buttons, that link to the mals site you create when you sign up for them to host your shopping cart.
http://www.mals-e.com/how-it-works.php

Is there much coding involved?

Anyone had any experience of Mals?

On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is it to combinde Mal's with a Dreamweaver webshop?