Top Ten Myths About Miva Merchant

Miva Merchant was created in the 90's, so it's been around the block. From version 1 to the current version 5.5, there have been company buyouts, complete redesigns, management changes and other history that has left a trail of myths regarding Miva Merchant. Today, Miva Merchant has become one of the leading shopping cart platforms available, with tens of thousands of sites and a solid management company providing superior support. So let's go over some of these myths and bust 'em one at a time!

Myth 1: Miva Merchant is limited in how your store can look.

Busted: Take a look at these Miva Merchant sites and you'll see that Miva Merchant 5.5 is so flexible, you can do anything you want with the look and feel. You're not stuck with old HTML, either, as CSS templates are available to use as the foundation for your design.

Myth 2: You can't set up a Miva Merchant site unless you're a programmer.

Busted: Most Miva Merchant sites operational right now were set up and are maintained by non-programmers. You can even easily set up a very professional layout using a Miva Merchant skin. Of course, you could have a more unique design by hiring a professional designers and/or coder, just like anything else, but it's certainly not necessary.

Myth 3: Updates are difficult and expensive.

Busted: Updates are simple. In the admin, just click the update button and it streams the update on its own. There's no cost for upgrades since Miva Merchant is Software As A Service (SaaS) and updates are included.

Myth 4: Miva Merchant links are not search engine friendly.

Busted: The major search engines spider Miva Merchant URLs just fine. However, Miva Merchant 5.5 includes link redirects to shorten and simplify links both for search engines and for customers to remember easily.

Myth 5: Miva Merchant is expensive - like a thousand bucks!

Busted: Sure, you can buy a Miva Merchant license for $995 if you want to use it on your own server. But most users simply "lease" a Miva Merchant license as part of their hosting. There are many excellent hosts who specialize in Miva Merchant hosting, or you can host your store with the company itself. The vast majority of Miva Merchant sites pay $60 per month or less - including the Miva Merchant license!

Myth 6: You have to buy expensive add-ons to add functionality.

Busted: Miva Merchant is truly modular, meaning third parties can develop add-ons called modules to add functionality to your store. You can see at Miva Merchant's module store here that modules are very inexpensive, usually between $20 and $90. Compare that to having customization done for your "free" open source shopping cart. Also, with competition amongst module developers, you get the best functionality at the most affordable price. Modules are also one-time purchases, so adding functionality does not build up your monthly fees.

Myth 7: Miva Merchant has limited payment methods available.

Busted: By default, Miva Merchant comes with Innovative Gateway, Authorize.Net, Check Payment, COD, Google Checkout, First Data Global Gateway, Credit Card Payment with Simple Validation, Payflow Link, Payflow Pro, PayPal Website Payments Standard, PayPal Website Payments Pro, Amazon Simple Pay, and Checkout by Amazon. Other payment methods are available with inexpensive add-on modules.

Myth 8: Miva Merchant has limited shipping methods available.

Busted: By default, Miva Merchant comes with Base + Weight Shipping, Flat Rate Shipping, Minimum or Weight Shipping, FedEx(R) Shipping Cost Estimate, U.S.P.S. Online Rate Calculation (Domestic & International), Price Table Based Shipping, Quantity Based Shipping, UPS Domestic Shipping Calculator, Weight Table Based Shipping. Many other shipping configurations are available with inexpensive add-on modules.

Myth 9: Support is terrible or outsourced to India.

Busted: Company support is world class and based at company headquarters in San Diego, California. But the real value is in the Miva Merchant user and developer community. There is a user forum where users and developers gladly help each other. I've been involved with Miva Merchant for over 10 years and I can tell you no other shopping cart has such a close-knit community that is so happy to help each other. If you do need to hire someone, you're not stuck with a Google search and a gamble, you can find developers and designers in the forums, and get recommendations (or warnings) before you hire anyone. For those who have lost thousands of dollars to over-promising developers, this is a huge benefit.

Myth 10: There's little or no Miva Merchant documentation.

Busted: Here is the official documentation page for Miva Merchant. Additionally, there are many sites that have extra helpful information. This includes my video tutorials - many are free, and subscriptions for more advanced tutorials are highly affordable. You can find more Helpful Links here, and I'm going to be doing a "Miva Merchant Sites to Bookmark" blog post here in the next few days.

I hope this has helped alleviate some concerns for people who have not gotten the latest information about Miva Merchant. I endorse the shopping cart and the company wholeheartedly.

If you have heard any other myths, please comment here and we'll see if I can bust them, too!

Thanks for input from @GlendaleDesigns, @markatmiva, and @Miva_Merchant!