Ecommerce Websites Built On The Miva Merchant Platform

We built our first ecommerce website way back in 1996 and it is nothing short of amazing the progress that has been made since then. Today, any small business can have an ecommerce compliment to the traditional revenue channels. Not only that, but the degree of sophistication available to the small to medium sized merchant rivals that of the biggest retailers at a fraction of the cost.

What Is Miva Merchant & Why Do You Use It?

Miva Merchant is shopping cart software. Miva writes the software all ecommerce sites require in order to conduct business online. It involves accepting items placed in a virtual shopping cart by shoppers as well as the secure transfer of payment (usually credit cards) information from the shopper to the merchant in order to complete the purchase.

We didn't start out building our ecommerce sites with Miva Merchant. In the early days, we used any number of serviceable shopping cart solutions but were never quite satisfied with the way we'd have to conform operations to the limitations of the software rather than the other way around. That began to change somewhere around 2003 when we discovered Miva Merchant.

Not only is Miva Merchant quite cost effective for small businesses, it is constructed to be as user friendly to the non-geek crowd (i.e. the vast majority of retail merchants) as can be reasonably be expected. You'll still need to know how to surf the web and use email and the more computer literate you are the better off you'll be. But Miva Merchant is designed with you, the end user, in mind and makes every attempt to shield you from the complexity of operating an ecommerce site, something it does remarkably well.

To be perfectly honest, you could create a Miva site for yourself without any help from Javelina Design -- though we certainly discourage this approach :)

Miva Merchant Is A Modular Platform

The Miva platform is modular by design meaning there is a bare bones, core functionality to the software beyond which site owners can add extra features in the form of "third party modules" at extra cost.

This is a great way to keep the overall price of the software low while allowing growing businesses to add functionality to their sites as needed or desired.

Examples of extra features include loyalty programs, gift certificates, wish lists, registries, mailing list management and much much more. Such functionality can usually be added for $50 - 150 per feature.

As Ecommerce Evolves, So Does Miva Merchant

Miva Merchant is continually under development as the rapidly changing world of ecommerce continues to evolve. Therefore, barring a complete revolution in how online commerce is conducted, your site will not become obsolete.

Miva Merchant Pricing

Our purpose here is not to provide firm quotes. Any price you may end up paying will be part of a custom quote tailored to your needs. That said, we understand your wanting some ballpark figures, so here goes...

  • $100/month: includes Miva Merchant software and web hosting for your ecommerce site
  • Very small stores of 10 or fewer items could be even less
  • Large stores with 500+ products will almost certainly be more
  • Price does not include other ongoing costs such as SSL certificates (about $200/yr) or merchant account transaction fees (this will be between you and your credit card processor).
  • Please call 928-202-6019 for more information and complete estimate of costs

If you are new to ecommerce or just wondering if you should give it a try, read this page...