Miva Merchant is an eCommerce platform that provides enterprise level features and customizability, while still offering the usability and customer support one would expect from a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution.
3.5/5
Pricing
Miva offers a “Free 30 Day Trial.” I use quotations because to access that trial you have to enter your credit card information and purchase a month-long plan. If you cancel that plan before 30 days are up, you’ll receive a full refund.
When you sign up for your plan, you’ll receive a free SSL certificate and register your domain name, but you should expect to pay for both the domain name and the SSL certificate after the first year.
Usability
While there is no conventional free trial available, as I mentioned above, Miva does offer free developer accounts you can use to play around with the platform. You will also be fully refunded for your first month’s purchase if you decide to cancel Miva Merchant within 30 days.
When you first sign up for Miva, you’ll enter your personal information along with a credit card number. You will be billed immediately. Then a set-up Wizard will guide you through creating a new (or implementing an old) domain name. You’ll choose an SSL Certificate option and a pre-made theme for your store.
Design
With such an impressive feature range, I expected a lot out of Miva’s themes collection. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed with what I found.
Although Miva’s templates are clean, modern, and fully responsive, I was crestfallen to discover that Miva only offers twelve themes (eleven if you exclude their blank canvas theme). Most shopping carts come with significantly more options. And, despite sales representatives’ assurances that they’re working on expanding their selection, in the past six months, Miva has only added one theme.
Features
Miva Merchant comes with loads of features built-in. In fact, Miva includes so many features in their basic plans that I had to double-check I wasn’t reading an extended features list for exclusively high-volume sellers.
You can find Miva’s full features list here. Here’s my abbreviated version.
Storefront Features
Unlimited product features: List unlimited products, categories, and attributes.
Product images: Upload unlimited product photos (but keep in mind that more images use more bandwidth). Add specific images to fit your attributes and enable product zoom.
Quick view: Customers don’t have to navigate away from your main product page to view a product more specifically.
Upsell and Cross-sell: Display related products and recently viewed products.
Sell digital products: Allow customers to download their purchases from your site.
Faceted search: Faceted (filtered) search lets customers search for products by price, size, and other attributes. This is a particularly nice feature, usually only available with enterprise level software.
B2B selling options: Set up custom pricing and shipping options. Feature a “Request a Quote” button on your product pages.
Wish lists: Allow customers to save the products they are considering purchasing. Market to them appropriately.
Conclusion
Miva Merchant is excellent for merchants who are looking to grow. Because Miva comes with enterprise-level features and extensive customizability, I feel comfortable saying that many mid-size to large stores could benefit from a partnership with Miva.