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Miva is a versatile eCommerce engine that caters to both B2B operations and businesses of all sizes. Users appreciate the platform's high …
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.
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- Order processing (6)7.777%
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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
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.miva.com/miva-ecommerce…
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- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
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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.
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- Competitors
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- Downloadables
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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
Lotus Sculpture outgrew Yahoo Stores and moved to Miva to keep his business on track.
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 |
|---|---|
| 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 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.
Reviewers rate Order processing highest, with a score of 7.7.
The most common users of Miva are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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% |
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(29)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
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- 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
(1-8 of 8)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Miva is the backend sales platform for our websites. They provide a very modern front end for our retail and wholesale customers as well as many integrations to automate our processes. One of their key strengths is customer support, so I've had a great experience working with them and our outside development team addressing our specific needs and functions. If they don't already have a module you can add on, they can either build it, or there are many outside development teams who can tackle the problem for you. The support staff at Miva are incredibly knowledgeable and US based, so an answer is always delivered in a timely manner, and probably with deeper insight than you'd ever expect! Miva works with their customers at such a personal level that I feel comfortable reaching out to any number of people at their company from the CEO all the way down and can expect a human response!
- Customer support
- Customization
- Documentation
- Flexibility
- Integrations
- Usability
- Wholesale sales
May 30, 2022
Powerful Built-in Features & Extensibility
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have been using Miva for 10+ years. We run a company that sells building and maintenance supplies to the self-storage industry nationwide. Miva was initially recommended to us by a developer who did custom programming. It took us a while to get our footing and the product seemed complex at first because of our specialized needs. Over the years a few things happened: We became more comfortable with the product, Miva continuously rolled out refinements and we came to appreciate that a lot of what seemed like complexity was really a very robust and capable system that allows for significant customization. We looked at leaving Miva early on, but are glad we stayed. Most stores will find Miva just what they need right out of the box. Others, like us, may use Miva's built-in scripting language, pay for some custom development, or use one of the many free or paid modules to customize the product further. We have found the forums, support staff, online documentation, and Miva's own and 3rd party developers to be exceptional. Some people gripe about the price - we did too- but after reviewing many of the other options in our case we would pay the same or more, for a lot less.
- Robust and logical admin interface
- Great templating system and scripting
- Excellent documentation and support
- Lots of features may initially challenge some users who are used to carts with basic functionality and drag and drop design, shortcodes, and the like
- Some editing of the website will require tech-savviness. For example on some larger updates templates will need to be edited to enable some new functionality
- Most add-on modules provide bigger system functions to drop in, occasionally again with some tech savviness or professional installation or configuration possibly required. Some often requested smaller functionality has to be custom developed probably because the module developers focus on the bigger products. For example, I see frequent requests for the ability to buy products by dimensions, or someone wants to add a date and time stamp of some sort. If they either self-developed or subsidized development or had some other way to foster the development of smaller drop-in blocks, modules, or templates that might be something useful to consider for the future.
January 18, 2016
Miva Merchant Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Miva Merchant ecommerce design and development is at the core of our organization. We try to solve any ecommerce pain points our clients may experience. The Miva Merchant platform is extremely flexible and open to customization without the ability of the end-user breaking pertinent functionality.
- Streamlined software updates without breaking existing design/functionality.
- Totally flexible front end UI – the sky is the limit – we haven’t run into anything we can’t do on the Miva platform
- PCI/PA-DSS compliance/certification of the platform – in lieu of recent events (Target, etc.) this is definitely a strong point of the Miva merchant platform
- Integrated social capability is currently lacking (can be added, though)
- Automated feed services to third parties is missing (again – can be added as an add-on)
- Admin could be more user friendly (I hear that will happen in PR9)
December 23, 2015
One of the best ecommerce shopping carts available
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Miva Merchant as an ecommerce solution for my clients. Miva Merchant is easily capable of handling everything from smaller stores/individual sales to large and enterprise level businesses. The design is fully customizable in Miva, so I can implement my own or others' custom designs into a store and also adjust the code for SEO, google snippets, etc. Miva is extremely secure and passes all PCI/PDA-SS requirements which is extremely important. Miva is fully compatible with a number of popular third-party services like PayPal, Power Reviews, Shipworks, Authorize.net, etc and can be easily integrated with others.
- 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.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Established retail company launched an online store with Miva Merchant over 5 years ago. Early on it was a very suitable platform and met our needs well, particularly its somewhat unique versatility. However, things have been in steady decline for some time. Their hosting was incredibly unreliable and lacked critical management features for no good reason. What you get initially with Miva is really only the shell of a proper online store. Things have gradually gotten better in regard to the features included, but companies who've been on the platform for years and paid for third-party modules and specialized development work receive no benefit. They're consistently about three years behind the pack compared to other major eCommerce platforms and have recently resorted to questionable tactics to increase the revenue they derive from people who use their system. I do feel some online merchants with highly specialized needs could find the customization options offered by Miva compelling, but the start up and ongoing costs for a real storefront are quite severe and lack many useful features compared to other more popular store systems.
- 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.
December 15, 2014
A bit long in the tooth, but still a solid option.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Over the years, I have created several websites for clients using MIVA Merchant. It has been used to create an online storefront. The software is quite powerful and includes many options. I like to use it for clients who need more than just a basic online storefront.
- The ability to use commercially available modules is a big plus for MIVA Merchant. It has helped me create websites that have more advanced features such as rewards programs, custom shipping settings and checkout fields.
- MIVA Merchant has been around for a long time and it has a very helpful community.
- The software is very stable - I've run into very few problems with upgrades.
- The user interface (UI) of the admin area is quite antiquated. There have been some slight improvements in recent years, but this really looks like an app that has been around since the 1990s.
- While designing a website to use MIVA Merchant isn't terribly difficult for an experienced designer, it has been surpassed by just about everything else out there. It doesn't have a clean, standards-compliant theme engine like WordPress, etc.
- MIVA has moved hosting for their software to their own service, which isn't cheap. And their hosting accounts come with very little disk space (although it is PCI compliant).
- This is not a content management system (CMS). For anything that a client wants to update, I usually try to pair MIVA Merchant with a WordPress powered main site. Editing page content in MIVA is a very old-school task. It doesn't even come with a WYSIWYG editor, though you can buy one from their module store.
- Doesn't appear that too many new modules are coming out these days.
March 21, 2014
Miva Merchant makes sense for our business
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Many of our customers use Miva Merchant. We develop software that integrates with the shopping cart, and we also implement websites who use Miva, either for the entire site or in conjunction with other packages. Miva provides a great balance between ease of use and ability to customize.
- Ability to design the entire page from opening to close. We can implement any desired design into the package.
- A robust API that allows us to program additional features to work with the shopping cart.
- Excellent hosting capabilities, but without a requirement that users MUST host with them.
- A strong community of users who offer support and advice, as well as active participation in the forums by Miva's own employees.
- Currently there is no coupon capability out of the box. I'm excited to see this new feature that's expected to be in the upcoming release.
March 20, 2014
Miva Merchant - Superb.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Miva Merchant on all of our sites (4-5 at any time). Miva Merchant is highly configurable and easy to use. There has never been an issue we could not overcome - from security to SEO. Additionally, we have put it to the load test - having been featured on the Dr. Oz show twice, it handled all traffic with no issues whatsoever. We also installed it on a cloud setup with multiple load balancers and virtual servers - and no hiccup whatsoever.
- 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.