Overview
What is Miva?
Miva Merchant is a point-and-click, online store development and management system that allows merchants to build their online store through a web browser, and lets developers provide aftermarket enhancements for the online store.
Miva is the sweet spot for mid-size companies who want better than off the shelf!
If your looking for best-in-class B2B eCommerce features.. look no further.
Easy for Beginners to Use, Powerful Enough for Larger Businesses, Flexible Enough to Meet Specialized Needs
Review from a "non-tech" business owner
Innovative Company
Powerful Built-in Features & Extensibility
Why Linentablecloth.com left Miva Merchant
Miva Merchant Review
One of the best ecommerce shopping carts available
MIVA Merchant. Almost Perfect.
Miva Merchant Review
Merchant’s Perspective – Used Miva For Many Years, But Had To Move On
Miva Merchant, a solid and affordable platform for e-commerce
A bit long in the tooth, but still a solid option.
Miva Merchant - in it for the long haul
As we are a Miva Merchant Partner, we provide workflow and add-on tools for the Miva Merchant platform. In addition, we run our …
Popular Features
- Order processing (6)7.777%
Pricing
What is Miva?
Miva Merchant is a point-and-click, online store development and management system that allows merchants to build their online store through a web browser, and lets developers provide aftermarket enhancements for the online store.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.
What is Wix?
Wix is a free, hosted website builder, designed to be user-friendly and customizable without requiring coding from the user. It is well-known for its eCommerce solution, which allows users to build an online store.
Product Demos
MIVA Demo copy 2
Miva – Business Consulting WordPress Theme Download, Installation and Import Demo Content
MIVA - Illusion (demo)
REPAY for MIVA Demo
Miva demo video
Features
Online Storefront
Features for creating an online storefront with a browse-able product catalog.
- 8.6Product catalog & listings(2) Ratings
Products are easy to browse; listings include descriptions, photos, 360-degree views, and/or videos.
- 8.6Product management(2) Ratings
Product catalog can be easily updated.
- 9.1Bulk product upload(2) Ratings
Admins can upload products in bulk using spreadsheets.
- 8.6Branding(2) Ratings
Storefront is part of a unified customer experience of the brand across channels (social media, physical store, website, etc.)
- 9.1Mobile storefront(2) Ratings
Customers can easily shop on mobile devices; storefront is responsive or mobile optimized.
- 8.6Product variations(2) Ratings
Products with variations or configurable options are easy to list and easy to browse.
- 7.8Website integration(2) Ratings
Integrates with an existing company website or blog.
- 8.6Visual customization(2) Ratings
Users can customize the look & feel of the storefront; storefront is visually attractive.
- 5.5CMS(2) Ratings
Beyond product catalog, includes basic content creation and management features such as blogging capabilities.
Online Shopping Cart
Features that facilitate the collection of items so that customers can purchase them as a group.
- 7.3Abandoned cart recovery(2) Ratings
Saves contents of abandoned carts and allows customers to purchase on a future visit; may send a reminder email to the customer and/or a report to the merchant to help convert abandoned carts into sales.
- 7.8Checkout user experience(2) Ratings
Easy for customers to view shopping cart and checkout; maintains a consistent, trusted look & feel.
Online Payment System
Features related to processing online payment for eCommerce purchases.
- 7.6eCommerce security(2) Ratings
Security measures are in place to prevent a breach of sensitive payment information.
eCommerce Marketing
Features related to marketing for eCommerce websites
- 8.1Promotions & discounts(2) Ratings
Includes tools for offering and redeeming coupons, promotional codes, and time-based discounts.
- 6.9Personalized recommendations(2) Ratings
Display or recommend certain products depending on the customer’s identity or shopping/browsing history.
- 6.8SEO(2) Ratings
The platform & templates help users create the right website infrastructure (pagination, page headers, titles, meta tags, url structure, etc.) to increase the site’s visibility in search engine results.
eCommerce Business Management
Features related to business management and administration of eCommerce operations
- 9.1Multi-site management(1) Ratings
Administrators can manage multiple storefronts or websites under one umbrella.
- 7.7Order processing(6) Ratings
Includes tools or integrations for order processing.
- 7.1Inventory management(2) Ratings
Includes tools or integrations for managing inventory.
- 7.7Shipping(2) Ratings
Includes tools or integrations for order fulfillment of physical products.
- 8.1Custom functionality(2) Ratings
Users are able to customize the functionality of their eCommerce operation with custom code or add-ons.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is Miva?
Miva is an ecommerce platform which provides businesses with a flexible website and fully-customizable catalog and checkout system with control over the look, content, and functionality of their online store.
Miva is invested in its core competency as an ecommerce platform provider, continuously developing solutions to modern merchants’ most pressing needs. The vendor states Miva excels at supporting businesses whose complex product catalogs or specialized industry requirements have proved too challenging for other ecommerce platforms to handle. With over two decades of experience serving businesses that sell everything from aftermarket parts and fresh-caught seafood to custom diamond rings and swimming pools, Miva invites sellers to bring them the problems other platforms can’t handle.
How Miva Supports a Ecommerce System:
- Interface provides web management for non-technical users
- Platform designed to enable B2B and DTC sales on a single website
- Extensive native functionality minimizes the need for third-party apps and plugins
- Unlimited product variations for high SKU count (from thousands to millions) catalogs and dependent SKUs
- Managed ERP integrations with Miva Connect
- Back-office integrations through Miva’s JSON API
- Built-in subscriptions and reordering for frictionless repeat purchasing
- Online sales quotes help sales teams automate their sales processes
- Custom product builders help customers bundle products into kits and custom orders
- Advanced shipping logic supports complex shipping and compliance requirements
- Smart pricing options for customer and rule-based pricing
Miva Features
Online Storefront Features
- Supported: Product catalog & listings
- Supported: Product management
- Supported: Bulk product upload
- Supported: Branding
- Supported: Search & filter
- Supported: Mobile storefront
- Supported: Product variations
- Supported: Website integration
- Supported: Visual customization
- Supported: CMS
- Supported: Customer service tools
Online Shopping Cart Features
- Supported: Abandoned cart recovery
- Supported: Tax calculator
- Supported: Shipping calculator
- Supported: Checkout user experience
Online Payment System Features
- Supported: PayPal integration
- Supported: Returns & refunds
- Supported: Single-click checkout
- Supported: eCommerce security
- Supported: B2B features
eCommerce Marketing Features
- Supported: Promotions & discounts
- Supported: Personalized recommendations
- Supported: SEO
- Supported: Product reviews
- Supported: Customer registration
eCommerce Business Management Features
- Supported: Multi-site management
- Supported: Order processing
- Supported: Inventory management
- Supported: Accounting
- Supported: Shipping
- Supported: Custom functionality
Additional Features
- Supported: Online Sales Quotes
Miva Video
Miva Integrations
- Mailchimp
- Avalara
- QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
- QuickBooks Desktop Premier
- QuickBooks Desktop Pro
- PowerReviews
- Authorize.net
- Visa Acceptance Solutions (CyberSource)
- ShipWorks
- PayPal Payments Pro
- Endicia
- ShipStation
- Affirm
- Chase Paymentech
- PayPal Express Checkout
- PayFlow
- UPS
- FedEx
- USPS
- Canada Post
- StoneEdge
- 4psite
- King Webmaster
- FirstData Global Gateway
- Intuit Merchant Services
- AccurateTax
- eBridge Connections
Miva Competitors
- Shopify
- Volusion
- WooCommerce
- BigCommerce
- Magento Commerce Cloud (formerly Magento)
Miva Technical Details
Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
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Operating Systems | Windows, Linux, Mac |
Mobile Application | No |
Supported Countries | All |
Supported Languages | English |
Miva Downloadables
- Marketview Liquor was struggling using a custom in house shopping cart that hindered their business. They chose Miva to unlock their online sales potential.
- Crown Automotive is a Business to Business specialist selling Jeep parts, they needed to expand online and only Miva could handle all of their unique requirements.
- Coolest Shoes in California ran into lots of problems with open source PrestaShop and switched to Miva to streamline their operational issues and keep them focused on their business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Miva Customer Size Distribution
Consumers | 0% |
---|---|
Small Businesses (1-50 employees) | 90% |
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees) | 8% |
Enterprises (more than 500 employees) | 2% |
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(29)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Miva is a versatile eCommerce engine that caters to both B2B operations and businesses of all sizes. Users appreciate the platform's high level of customization, allowing them to tailor the customer experience and backend connections to their specific needs. This flexibility extends to design and code adjustments, making it easy for users to optimize their sites for SEO and Google snippets. Miva prioritizes security by ensuring compliance with PCI/PDA-SS requirements, giving customers peace of mind when it comes to protecting their data. The platform also seamlessly integrates with popular third-party services like PayPal, Power Reviews, Shipworks, and Authorize.net.
Miva Merchant goes beyond being an online cart and offers a robust templating system and powerful customization capabilities using Miva Script. Customers find it to be a cost-effective choice for comprehensive e-commerce systems that provide all the necessary functionalities at an affordable price point. The platform has gained popularity among developers for its ongoing development, responsive support, and active community. One of its standout features is its user-friendliness, even for non-tech-savvy individuals, thanks to its intuitive interface and excellent customer service available 24/7. With Miva, users can create functional and user-friendly websites that remain under their control while striking a balance between ease of use and customization options.
The platform's configurability allows businesses to overcome security and SEO challenges effortlessly, while its ability to handle high traffic loads without issues ensures seamless operations even during peak periods. Miva serves as a reliable backend sales platform, providing modern front-end interfaces for retail and wholesale customers while offering integrations to automate various processes. Users value Miva's exceptional customer support, with knowledgeable staff delivering timely and insightful responses. Many online companies rely on Miva Merchant for merchandising and content management, particularly those offering a wide range of products.
However, some users have encountered challenges such as MAP pricing implementation, inventory management with POS systems, and integrating live data feeds. Despite these hurdles, Miva Merchant has been successfully utilized to create and launch ecommerce websites, providing wireframe design, strategy, implementation, and ongoing support. Users appreciate the platform's powerful and customizable nature when building online storefronts for clients. They have managed over 1000 products seamlessly through Miva Merchant, allowing customers to place orders, track shipments, and create accounts. The flexibility and customization options of Miva Merchant have received praise for facilitating unique online store designs and streamlined workflows. Its extensive community of developers enables the creation of custom templates, giving stores a unique look and feel. In addition to the built-in scripting language and modules, users have found that Miva Merchant offers further customization options to meet their specific needs.
The exceptional assistance provided by Miva's support staff, online documentation, and user community has been commended by users. This level of support is particularly valuable for users who may be new to the platform or facing technical challenges. Miva Merchant has proven to be a cost-effective and flexible choice for many businesses seeking an ecommerce solution.
However, it is worth noting that some users have experienced reliability issues with hosting, as well as a lack of critical management features and delayed updates when compared to other ecommerce platforms. As a result, some users have chosen to migrate from Miva Merchant to alternative platforms like Shopify and Big Commerce, citing cost and feature considerations as key factors in their decision.
Despite these challenges, Miva Merchant continues to come recommended by service providers due to its flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and feature set. The platform remains popular among developers and businesses alike for its ability to create and manage online catalogs and ecommerce projects effectively. With its customizable design options, secure infrastructure, powerful integrations, and ongoing development support, Miva proves to be a trusted solution for those seeking full-featured ecommerce systems.
Limitless Customization Options: Users appreciate the platform's limitless customization options, with several reviewers stating that they can fully customize their store design and functionality to accommodate any design elements. They find it convenient to use external API options via XML and JSON, which adds even more flexibility to their customization capabilities.
Easy to Learn and Use: Many users find the platform easy to learn and program, specifically mentioning PHP, JQuery, and other programming languages. Some reviewers have praised its user-friendly interface and intuitive features, making it effortless for them to navigate and utilize the platform effectively.
Solid Architecture and Reliable Performance: The solid architecture of the platform is highly appreciated by users who find it reliable. Several users have mentioned that they trust the platform's performance as the company invests in its future development, ensuring a stable and dependable experience for their businesses.
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User-Friendly Admin Area: Some users have found the Miva admin area to be not very user-friendly and outdated in terms of its user interface UI. They have expressed frustration with navigating and using the admin area, which can make managing their online store more challenging.
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Limited Theme Engine: Several users have mentioned that the current Miva Merchant lacks a clean and standards-compliant theme engine like WordPress, making it less desirable compared to other options. This limitation restricts their ability to customize the look and feel of their online store according to modern design trends.
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Cumbersome Page Content Editing: Users have pointed out that editing page content in MIVA is a cumbersome and old-school task, lacking a WYSIWYG editor. This means they need to rely on manual HTML coding or use external tools for editing content, which adds complexity and time-consuming steps to their workflow.
Based on user reviews, the most common recommendations for Miva are to consider its power, affordability, and functionality. Users highly recommend it for businesses with unique needs and coding knowledge. They suggest investing in support and customization, including hiring expert programmers or development teams. Users also emphasize the importance of attending Mivacon conferences, engaging with documentation and forums, and taking advantage of Miva's robust support services. Additionally, reviewers advise evaluating the size of the business and desired level of control before choosing a platform. They recommend comparing features, exploring hosting options, and considering costs to ensure Miva's flexibility meets specific business requirements.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)- Customization of the platform is limitless
- External API options via XML and JSON
- Easy to learn and program (PHP, JQuery, etc)
- Solid Architecture - Reliable
- Invests in the platform for the future
- Native Integrations
- Mobile App
- Passwordless Login / Wallet
- Product catalog & listings
- 100%10.0
- Product management
- 100%10.0
- Bulk product upload
- 100%10.0
- Branding
- 100%10.0
- Mobile storefront
- 100%10.0
- Product variations
- 100%10.0
- Website integration
- 80%8.0
- Visual customization
- 100%10.0
- CMS
- 50%5.0
- Abandoned cart recovery
- 80%8.0
- Checkout user experience
- 80%8.0
- eCommerce security
- 100%10.0
- Promotions & discounts
- 100%10.0
- Personalized recommendations
- 70%7.0
- SEO
- 80%8.0
- Multi-site management
- 100%10.0
- Order processing
- 100%10.0
- Inventory management
- 100%10.0
- Shipping
- 90%9.0
- Custom functionality
- 100%10.0
- Ability to add new websites rapidly
- Standard language for our ERP to talk to one platform
- Customization has enabled more return customers
- Easy to Use
- Scalable
- Works how we need it to
- Offer customizable kits to customers
- Allow customers to build and save part numbers on demand
- New features like Pagebuilder will help us improve marketing efforts and simplicity.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Implemented in-house
- Fact Finding / Evaluation
- Wireframe
- Testing
- Go Live
- User Training
- Unexpected Problems with External Connected Software
- Reliable
- Consistent Answers
- Knowledgeable Support Reps
- Truly always ready to help
One of the best ecommerce shopping carts available
- Expandable Functionality: Store functionality (gift certificates, coupons, shipping,etc) can be customized via code on the page templates, or third-party services/modules can be integrated to add features. Even better is that more and more of the third-party features are being built into the core features with new releases!
- Design: The store design can be fully customized to accommodate almost any design elements. Access to the page template code allows you to make customizations such as adding third-party code snippets (order tracking, live chat software, etc), adding if/then logic statements for dynamic customization, or to add a full custom design to the entire store.
- Security: PCI/PDA-SS compliant - There are not a lot of carts out there that are fully PCI compliant, and this is especially critical now (credit card companies are really beginning to crack down on this).
- The Miva admin area hasn't been the most user-friendly in the past. However, the admin in the the upcoming new Miva Merchant 9 Release has been completely revamped, is VERY user-friendly, and is formatted for desktop as well as mobile devices.
- Some fairly standard ecommerce functionality like Gift Certificates, Coupons, Sale Prices, etc have previously required third-party modules or template customization. However, many of these features are being built into Miva Merchant upcoming releases.
Miva is very well suited for small business to enterprise level business sites or for stores that require lots of customization.
- Clients are able to easily make changes to products/categories, and they are able to control many other aspects of the site with additional customizations (and additional features that Miva adds in with new releases...) Products/categories can be mass-uploaded via a flat file (eg excel spreadsheet, text file, etc) to add/update thousands of products at a time which definitely makes for increased efficiency.
- Clients have excellent support available whether directly through Miva support or the strong online Miva community. If there's a problem with something, you're not stranded by yourself with no way out or completely relying on an open source community.
- General versatility, though changes commonly require the aid of a true Miva developer to implement
- Compatible with many payment gateways and a fair assortment of third-party services
- Developers employed directly by Miva to handle merchant projects are personable and responsive to most requests
- Prospective and established merchants considering the Miva platform should be warned that they've recently implemented an onerous new fee when more than one person accesses the store admin area at any given time. Specifically, Miva merchants will now be on the hook for $50 per additional simultaneous user per month. If we had remained on Miva, this would have increased our annual costs of using the platform by at least $3,000, perhaps more. The president of Miva claims this is standard for SaaS e-commerce platforms, but I know of none that do and this change makes their platform incredibly unattractive for merchants who expect their business to grow in the future. Furthermore, certain third-party services can be detected by the Miva HQ tracking system as admin users, also triggering an additional seat fee.
- Exorbitant pricing for adding some basic features that feels like a petty cash grab. For instance, we opted for the $1,000 mobile optimization package and received a bare bones mobile-friendly site with no appearance refinements aside from crudely plopping our logo at the top. They forgot to optimize a few key pages, like the product search results, and it seemed like whoever did it rushed through the work in an hour or two. Other projects they helped with went better, but there's frequently minor coding errors we've had to clean up ourselves.
- Features released with updates practically always require developer assistance to test and properly enable.
- Issues that should be treated as bugs are instead left for third-party modules to correct. For example, if a wholesale customer adds items to their cart before logging in, those items retain the standard retail price when the order is placed. We informed Miva tech support of this, expecting that they might look into fixing the problem, but were instead told that we should buy an add-on module that forces a cart recalculation at checkout. Why should this be the responsibility of an extra module to correct? It should be noted that a year or two ago Miva purchased the Emporium Plus plugin catalog, including the cart recalculation module, yet that is still omitted from the core platform.
- Ever increasing support costs associated with the platform, despite it lacking features common to all major eCommerce systems
- Customer experience is significantly lacking compared to other store platforms
- Most third-party eCommerce service providers don't support Miva or require hefty implementation costs because of Miva's dwindling usage
- Volusion,Magento,Magento Community Edition,Shopify,Bigcommerce,3dCart
Since we migrated from Miva, conversions have markedly improved, order fulfillment takes half as much time, responding to customer service requests is centralized and immensely easier, and we have literally dozens of new and valuable features available that we can consider making use of in the future, all included as part of the new platform and easy to roll out. We can even get in touch with knowledgeable and personable support staff in mere minutes, no Design Club membership or extra charge needed.
As is very apparent here, others have different perspectives on Miva; some far better, one or two perhaps worse. I am certainly not unbiased, but I have tried in this commentary to be as level headed and honest as I can about our company's experience with Miva and why it was ultimately not simply appropriate, but required for the health of our business that we make a change to something better. Whether you're considering launching a new online store or perhaps doing a migration, I will only advise that you read and learn as much as you can about Miva and the company backing it. The official website paints a very rosy picture in simplified bullet points, and many developers who specialize in creating Miva stores have chimed in here and elsewhere sharing far more glowing opinions than mine. However, as the old saying goes the proof is in the pudding and, if you're looking for an e-commerce platform that you hope to use long term, do everything in your power to be sure it's one you genuinely believe you'll be happy with, not simply the platform preferred by an outside company or developer handling the project.
- Implemented in-house
- Unable to migrate orders and customer accounts from previous platform
- Required many third-party modules so that the Miva store had basic functionality
- Extensive custom programming was needed to implement common store features
- Create product categories
- Assign products to categories
- Add and configure basic shipping methods
- Highly inconsistent support availability. They proclaim they offer 24/7 support, but we had an issue with an engine update they installed for us breaking the ability for customers to place orders on our store and it took no less than 4 hours for us to get help. Was on hold listening to muzak for a solid hour before a someone answered and said she'd have a developer check what the problem was and reach out later. Repeated emails and calls to our designated account manager were unanswered until the following day. Most other times we called their general support line it took a half hour before a human answered.
- Adding new custom content pages requires you to note and manually assign all necessary modules for each page. Pages cannot be easily duplicated.
- Customer records in the Miva admin are bare bones, offering just their saved address and possibly wish list data. You have to go to the orders section and do a search there if you want to see someone's actual order history. No ability to add internal notes about a customer account.
- Extremely limited report tools included with the core platform, which the company seems to have little to no interest in expanding.
- When you purchase third-party modules, they commonly require that you license them on an annual basis if you want to stay up to date, typically somewhat less than the initial purchase cost. Otherwise, you only receive technical and security updates for a single year. The Miva system does not alert you if a module has an update available, even if there's a severe issue, instead you have to manually check that one by one.
Why We Pick Miva Merchant
- Price Groups. This feature is beneficial to the developer and their customers because it allows creation of as many groups as needed. Developer can change the price of products based on membership in a group. They can also assign price change to all or certain products in a group. Registered customers benefit from membership discounts, which encourages customer loyalty.
- Availability Groups. This feature is excellent because it allows developer to control what categories and products customers see in the store based on membership in a group and only visible to customers who registered and are a member of that group.
- Manage Orders. End users like the Manage Orders features. Orders have various filters available such as Order Number, Date Range, Order Status, Batches and Batch Report. The most useful feature is the Batches which is a collection of orders, grouped together and given a name with just 1-click.
- Coupon capability. If end users want to offer coupon discount, they will have to purchase through a third-party. It will be an excellent feature to have.
- Product layout. The product layout from previous Miva Merchant is much better. Merchant 5.5, the product “Code, Price and Quantity in Basket” is at the bottom of the product instead of with “Colors”, “Size”, and “Quantity” on the right hand side. Custom image sizing does not display well.
- More Custom Fields/Dropdown options. Our end user has to purchase Addendum from a third-party to use the custom field.
- Some of our customers are having problem viewing our store after we upgraded to Miva Merchant 5.5. Our products page is empty.
- Miva Merchant's platform offers flexibility for everything from template editing to overall configuration.
- Miva Merchant gave me the ability to build a store for my customers that met all of theirs needs without hiring a team of programmers.
- Miva Merchant allows me to enter products, upload images (with auto thumbnail), change navigation tab with little or no programming skills.
- Vendor implemented
- Professional services company
- Love Miva Merchant's PR8 Reference Guide. Instructions were easy to follow and implement. It's like a Miva Bible.
- Creating/assigning price group is a breeze. Simply create the products once and assign.
- Customization is my most favorable feature!
- For me, Payment Setting, is probably the most cumbersome to perform because there are multiple steps you have to perform before you can disable it.
Miva Merchant - Superb.
- Easy to use by the customer.
- Easy to use by support staff
- Easy to configure for any situation with numerous modules and built in functionality. And - its always your data.
- Safe and secure - passes all security tests
- Honestly, I am aware of no areas that need improvement at this time. The crew at Miva are always working to bring enhancements.
- Our company is 7 years old, and we have made the INC 500 list two years in a row. 2012 and 2013. I have to give some credit to Miva Merchant - easy, fast, substantial. The ROI is there - and quickly.
- Implemented in-house
- building a duplicate site alonside the existing - which we did but setting a second virtual server, and then to go live - renaming the domain