phpurchase ecommerce package with genesis

[jds]

I purchased genesis a little over a week ago and have implemented it on www.amishleben.com. I'm pretty impressed with it's features. I also bought phpurchase and have been in the process of integrating it. What I would like to do is develop a site pretty much like: http://www.wilsonfabworks.com/
This site was developed using wordpress and phpurchase (don't know if they are using genesis). It is one of the showcase sites featured on the phpurchase website.
One of the things I like about wilsonfabworks is the Categories (of products) in the right sidebar. It shows product categories and subcategories and makes for clear and easy navigation. I have been reading a lot of posts about custom post types and taxonomies and it seems to me that perhaps this is how this feature was built on this site. One especially useful post regarding phpurchase integration that I found is: http://mondaybynoon.com/2010/08/09/w...e-cart-part-2/
I know how plugins work but I have not actually used very many of the 1000's that are available for wordpress. Are custom post types and taxonomies the way to go in building this kind of feature or are there better ways to do it.
JD