One of the undisputed leaders in the ecommerce world is MIVA. Its MIVA Merchant is a storefront development and management system that integrates product and category management, shopping cart, order processing, and credit card processing. You can use MIVA to create and manage multiple online stores from any computer connected to the Internet. MIVA offers the ability to custom configure processing modules, such as an Internet payment gateway and shipping routines, which integrate with MIVA Merchant.

Miva Merchant has a complete set of wizards to simplify the process of building your store. The browser based administration interface provides access to a number of more sophisticated tools to maintain your catalog. Upsell merchandising and order fulfillment are included. Miva's modular architecture enables deep-down customization for your storefront.

Miva Merchant is built on what is referred to as an "open modular architecture". This means that developers can create modules (plug-ins), by coding to the Miva Merchant API, which can be added to the software in order to increase functionality. The plug-ins can range from payment/shipping modules to modules that can add different fulfillment options. Miva Corporation has a network of experienced developers that will offer these modules to end-users of Miva Merchant for a fee.

If there is a feature that you need and cannot seem to find it inside the software anywhere, contact Miva Technical Support by email. Ask if Miva Merchant has the capability you are looking for. If not, you can contact some of our technology partners to see if they offer the specific service. The chances are that one of them will. Some of the more popular features that work really well with MIVA are UPS Integration, recurring billing system, Downloadable Software, and more. Pretty much, whatever you can dream up, MIVA probably already has a plugin that will work for it.

MIVA Merchant has two different modes.

The Simple Administration Mode is meant to help new users quickly begin to build their online store by following an easy-to-use, multi-step wizard. Just select Create Store Wizard from the menu on the left and follow all the steps. This wizard will create the store and will invoke all the wizards needed to configure your store.

Usually the Simple Administration mode is powerful enough to create a store and maintain it. If you need more flexibility, though, you can use the Advanced Administration Mode, by clicking on the Switch to Advanced Administration link on the top right side of the page. In this mode, you still have access to the wizards present in the Simple Administration Mode. Select Wizards from the menu on the left and you will find the Create Store Wizard there. Once your store is created you can reach the configuration wizards under "Stores" > "YourStoreName" from the menu.

For full details simply visit MIVA's site at: http://www.miva.com.

Tags: PC, Mac, Computers