Miva Merchant is a dynamic storefront development and management system that enables merchants to create, enhance, and maintain an online storefront presence easily, all from their web browser. From easy point-and-click look and feel enhancement to advanced management of order and customer data, Miva Merchant can do it all.
Miva Merchant includes a complete set of step-by-step wizards to simplify the process of building a store, for E-commerce beginners. It also includes an Advanced Administration mode, for those users who are more familiar with the inner workings of an online storefront, which allows access to an assortment of built-in features. Aftermarket modules integrate seamlessly, providing additional features and flexibility, thanks to Miva Merchant's modular architecture.
Key Features & Benefits
Powerful Store Design Tools
Miva Merchant 5, with Store Morph Technology[tm], provides you with complete control over your entire online store design. Use the built-in store template, or modify pages to suit your specific business needs. You can even create a completely custom set of pages.
Specify the content and position of each component on any page to fully control the appearance of each page. With Store Morph Technology, it's easy to insert components from third parties to display additional content on your store pages.
Simple 'Point + Click' controls allow you to specify fonts, colors, button labels, navigation bar settings, product layouts, and more. The 'Advanced' mode lets you manipulate the underlying code for those settings. Miva Merchant 5 also provides access to the HEAD and BODY tags, which can be edited for each page individually or globally.
Catalog Management
Miva Merchant 5 enables you to build up your online store as large as you like. The software has been designed with no limitations on the number of products, categories, or sub-categories you can create. You also have the ability to assign a product to as many categories and sub-categories as your business needs.
Product descriptions can be entered with plain text, or enhanced with HTML. Assign thumbnail and full-size images to display your products in detail. With Custom Fields, you can enhance existing product information by defining your own product fields to be shown on the Product Display screen. Create fields for any form of product data, such as ISBN, UPC, Manufacturer, etc.
Product attributes can be assigned to define product characteristics, with the ability to add additional prices or weight with each attribute option. Multiple attribute display types include drop-down boxes, radio buttons, text fields, and more. If several products have the same attributes, create an attribute template to quickly assign them. Changes can be made to the single attribute template, and applied to all products referencing it.
Inventory Tracking and Product Merchandising
The extensive inventory tracking system in Miva Merchant 5 allows you to keep track of what products you have on hand, and can even notify you when an item is out of stock. Display customized messages, telling your customers how many are available, or if stock is running low. You can even hide out of stock products from your customers.
Draw customers' attention to complementary products to help boost sales with related products. You can assign an unlimited number of related products.
Utilize the upsale feature to suggest a product at checkout, based on the order total, or on specific products in the order. Discounts may also be applied with an upsold product.
Order minimums enable you to require customers to meet a certain order total or product quantity amount. If not met, a custom message can be displayed to your customers.
Order Processing and Customer Management
Batch your orders at the end of the day, run a batch report to analyze order data, and even process your orders through your payment gateway right from within Miva Merchant 5.
Provide security for your shoppers. Encrypt sensitive payment details with order encryption. Your customer's payment information is locked with a pass-phrase that you create, to help prevent stolen data.
Send confirming e-mail messages when customers place orders. You can also receive your own e-mail notifications when new orders are received. Notification emails can also be copied to a third party for drop-shipping, among other uses.
With the customer management system in Miva Merchant 5 your customers can create accounts, providing them easy access to their account details and addresses. Offer special pricing and products when registered customers sign-in to your store.
Shipping Calculation and Payment Processing
FedEx and USPS shipping calculators in Miva Merchant 5 retrieve real-time shipping rates based on weight and distance. The UPS shipping module connects to MIVA servers to retrieve current shipping rate tables.
MIVA Merchant 5 also provides a number of table-based shipping modules to help you offer a range of shipping options to your customers. These enable you to build your own shipping rate tables to meet your business needs.
MIVA Merchant 5 has a wide variety of built-in payment modules, designed to work smoothly with industry leaders. These payment modules were designed in partnership with the Payment Gateway providers, to ensure security and ease-of-use. Just turn it on, enter your account information, and the payment module does the rest.
For a convenient, one-stop solution, try MIVA Payment. Tightly integrated into Miva Merchant 5, MIVA Payment features advanced fraud screening, an online Virtual Terminal, and order processing directly through the Miva Merchant 5 administration interface. Coupled with our world-class customer service, MIVA Payment offers you a complete credit card processing solution.
The ability to accept other forms of payment, such as PayPal, electronic checks, and COD, is also included. If you have your own credit card processing terminal, you can choose to accept credit cards for manual processing.
Data Access and Storage
Import your existing product, customer, and category data directly into MIVA Merchant 5 for faster setup of your online store. With the included import utilities, quickly set product inventory levels, assign products to categories, create new customer accounts, and more.
To work with your store data offline, you can conveniently export your customers, products, categories, affiliates, and orders with multiple export utilities built into Miva Merchant 5. All of your data is exported to a secure location on your website.
The additional MIVA Synchro utility provides real-time product, customer, and order synchronization between your Miva Merchant 5 store and QuickBooks.
The new MIVA-SQL database technology enables you to harness the power of SQL for enhanced database performance without the need for an SQL-compatible server. Miva Merchant 5 is also configurable for use with a MySQL database system, for increased performance and security.
Affiliate Programs and Marketing Services
Promote your online store with an affiliate program. The affiliate tracking system built into Miva Merchant 5 enables you to create affiliate partners for your store, with individual commission levels based on order Traffic, customers referred, or a combination of both.
An online affiliate account system lets affiliates see their earnings, retrieve store links and banners, and view your program agreement. Track affiliates' earnings and payouts through a simple affiliate management system.
MIVA also offers additional marketing services, all of which are available through the Miva Merchant 5 administration interface:
- Work seamlessly with MIVA Mailer, the mailing list management and email distribution system.
- Fully integrated, MIVA Marketplace offers online pay-per-click search advertising, powered by FindWhat.com.
- Take advantage of MIVA Submit, a suite of search engine optimization and web presence enhancement tools.
Easy-to-Use Administration Tools
The Miva Merchant 5 administration interface for your online store is web accessible, so there is nothing to install on your computer. You can access it from anywhere in the world, with any web browser. Once logged in, the straightforward navigation tree directs you to all aspects of your store settings.
Version history tracking records each change made for many of the store design components. The version recall feature enables you to experiment with your look, and create alternate versions, without risk. Links to your online store provide an easy way to view changes while you work.
Create unlimited administrator accounts, with access groups to limit access to specific store management duties. For example, limit a group of administrators to viewing and editing the product list only.
Maintenance mode enables you to close the store for maintenance, so changes are not being made while customers shop. A customizable message can be displayed to all visitors while your store is temporarily down.
MIVA Merchant 5 is connected to the MIVA automated update server, providing direct access to the latest software updates. The MIVA update server notifies you of available patches, offering an optional automated installation.
Modular Architecture
MIVA Merchant 5 is specifically designed so developers and aftermarket vendors can create customized modules to easily expand the functionality of your store.
The built-in module interface provides access to all modules in your store. Here you can remove modules you do not wish to use, and install modules purchased from third party developers.
Modules automatically appear in the appropriate section within your administration interface. Simply activate the new module, configure the module settings, and go. No complicated programming or tricky installation routines.
Our large module aftermarket provides an unlimited number of new features and services. Context-sensitive 'Extras' buttons link you directly to MIVACentral.com, the world's largest collection of third party modules for Miva Merchant 5. You will be linked to relevant modules for the section of the administration interface you are working with, providing you with suggestions for which modules work best in that area.
Documentation and Support
MIVA Merchant 5 includes a comprehensive online Help system, with complete, relevant information. Each topic is available at the click of a mouse directly through the Miva Merchant 5 administration interface. Detailed instructions explain how to accomplish the task at hand, and provide information to help you learn how to use the tool most effectively for your business.
The entire Help system is easy to browse via a detailed table of contents. Each topic also provides related topics, and directs you to reference information explaining common tools in detail. A glossary provides quick, accurate explanations of terms you will encounter as you learn about E-commerce.
Active user communities support idea sharing and skill building for online businesses using Miva Merchant 5. Software developers and store designers create innovative new modules and templates to extend the functionality of your store, without limits. These are available at MIVACentral.com, along with books, tutorials, and training from an array of knowledgeable providers.
Finally, MIVA offers expert support and training. Experienced professionals work with you, on the phone, or by e-mail, to support you in achieving E-commerce success.
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