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MIVA Merchant. Almost Perfect.
Updated April 29, 2015

MIVA Merchant. Almost Perfect.

Timothy Schneider | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

v 5.5 PR8

Modules Used

  • ToolKit (Emporium Plus)
  • Ship by World Zone (Emporium Plus)
  • Ship by State Zone (Emporium Plus)
  • HTMLEdit5 (ADS)
  • Ultimate Coupons (Sebenza)
  • Ultimate Wishlist (Sebenza)
  • Tax (Avalara)
  • Shipping SuperMod (eMediaSales)

Overall Satisfaction with Miva Merchant

We use MIVA Merchant as our platform of choice for developing both online catalog and eCommerce project for clients. While we might consider WordPress for clients with a very small inventory, MIVA is the only other platform we use. The ongoing development of the platform, responsive MIVA support and the active community of developers make this a very good choice for us.
  • Ongoing development. MIVA has, over the years, added features and functions to the platform that keeps it both secure and feature-rich. With recent releases, for instance, MIVA is PCI compliant and many of the most used 3rd party modules have been incorporated.
  • MIVA Support. Support is responsive and can be very technical.
  • Active forum of developers. This is a great resource for those times when a client has asked for a function I've not seen used in MIVA. Developers on the MIVA forums often have suggestions or solutions to share.
  • The internal search function is somewhat basic. Ideally the a search would potentially use multiple data fields.
  • Selling digital items for download isn't yet an option.
  • MIVA isn't responsive so that it reduces nicely on mobile devices.
  • We have lost some business due to lack of easy MIVA connectivity with popular POS systems.
  • For the most part, focussing on MIVA as the primary eCommerce platform my company offers has been very positive choice for me and my clients. The choice of MIVA has allowed me to focus on learning a singular platform where I have the ability to modify the look & feel as well as the function of the store. For my clients, MIVA presents an easy to use administrative interface (Magento, by comparison, is a nightmare) with plenty of functionality.
  • Magento,osCommerce,WordPress,Avactis
MIVA Merchant is a good choice for both developers and store owners with small to medium size businesses. The platform is secure, feature-rich, easy to modify and easy to administer. MIVA Merchant is actively being developed and so constantly improving via both the official production updates and the committed third party module developers.
Few scenarios would cause me to steer a client toward another platform for a catalog or eCommerce project. Other than the monthly hosting cost (generally around $50 per month for MIVA), comparable platforms offer no great benefit over MIVA. I do have clients that have opted to have small eCommerce projects developed in WordPress, which does often have a lower cost and shorter production time. I would also offer the WordPress option to clients selling soft goods or needing a responsive site as these aren't MIVA features yet.

Using Miva Merchant

For most clients, the MIVA Merchant platform, in combination with 3rd party plugins from ADS, Emporium Plus, eMediaSales and Sebenza, has all of the bells and whistles they need. While MIVA is lacking in a mobile friendly option and the ability to easily sell soft goods like mp3's or eBooks, these additions are coming to MIVA soon. The lack of connectivity to popular POS systems is also a negative for us. We will certainly continue to offer MIVA Merchant to clients.

Miva Implementation