Miva Merchant 5.5 is renowned for its SMT feature.  It makes the online store completely and totally customizable to the storeowner’s specifications through an advanced template system.  With its use of basic HTML commands, SMT is extremely user-friendly and provides total control over each store page’s content and layout.  SMT also gives storeowners the ability to create additional pages (such as “About Us,” “Contact” or “Map” pages).  SMT allows Miva users to truly fine-tune every aspect of their site with easy to use templates and make their business function the way they want while simultaneously making their site stand out amongst the competition.

As enhancements, updates and new features are added to Miva Merchant, the storeowner will be the first to know.  In the Domain Settings/Upgrade Settings, you can specify when exactly you would like to be made aware of new updates (at each login, daily or weekly).  You can also check for new or not yet installed updates at any time with the Upgrade Wizard.   

The Streaming Update concept allows Miva Merchant 5.5 users to improve their stores and enjoy new features without requiring them to rebuild or reinstall their stores.  Furthermore, version 5.5’s new upgrade system ensures that the installation of new updates will be successful before making any permanent or final changes to a store.  This way, you are guaranteed that your store will not crash during the upgrade process.

The newest version of Streaming Update is an electrifying ten times faster than previous update systems. Upgrades that used to take 10-20 minutes to install will now take only 1-2 minutes.

Miva Merchant is now 100% compliant with the new PCI PA-DSS guidelines that all e-commerce merchants must follow by July 2010.  This is a big deal for any site that accepts credit card payments.  If your site stores credit card or other confidential information, your shopping cart must be compliant with the new PA-DSS.  If your site is found to be non-compliant with the PA-DSS then you can face increased fees, penalties, serious fines and your store could even be taken offline.  The majority of shopping cart applications on the market are not going to be PA-DSS certified by the July deadline.

ControlScan has developed a strategic partnership with Miva Merchant to provide all-inclusive PCI compliance and security across any and all sites utilizing Miva Merchant Hosting.  Sites protected by ControlScan receive a seal from the company notifying their customers that they are protected.  Generally, after posting this seal on their site, businesses will see profits increase because the seal creates a sense of trust and safety.  Trust, safety and security are three major keys to success in the world of e-commerce.

Miva skins are graphical design and layout interface templates that have been created for many different types of stores and online businesses.  Skins generally cost less than $250.  Therefore, they offer storeowners a simple and inexpensive way to make their site stand out and function properly.  Purchase and installation of skins is a cheaper customization method than outsourcing to a web developer, which can get rather pricey. Check out the Miva Merchant Skin Store to see the wide variety of skins for sale to Miva storeowners.

Also included in the skin purchase are exclusive buttons, background images, banners and images.  For an additional $49, Miva will install the skin for you.

Miva Merchant 5.5 allows its users the ability to purchase third party software and plug-ins known as modules.  Miva Modules are great for the business owner because they are easy to install and allow complete customization of their sites (without having to do any costly outsourcing to generate custom programming).

Developers are consistently creating new and improved Miva Merchant modules since there has been a steadily growing market for these add-ons.  There are numerous modules available; including templates to change the physical appearance and experience visitors get from your e-commerce site.  These modifications even go far and beyond the powerful ability of version 5.5’s Store Morph Technology.

Other modules available focus on functions such as email management, ordering and shipping, marketing and promotions and the general management of your store.  With such an abundance of Miva Merchant modules on the market, those involved in the e-commerce industry will be surprised by their ability to completely customize their online businesses.

The new Miva Merchant 5.5 uses an integration module known as Miva Merchant Synchro that connects the program with Intuit Quickbooks.  This allows for the efficient transfer of data between the two programs.  For those who run online businesses, this means no more wasting hours importing and exporting data. 

Product, customer and inventory information can be updated or added in Quickbooks and when synchronized, the data will be updated in Miva Merchant.  Synchronization is fully customizable and can be automatic or set for scheduled times. 

For those times when you do not wish to have your data synched, you can choose to ignore changes in either Quickbooks or Miva Merchant.  Additionally, you always have the option to create a log, which will store all synchronization records in case of error or confusion.

Miva Merchant Synchro can be used with multiple storefronts and/or Quickbook files, satisfying all the needs of the management of your online business.  Setting up your stores is a snap with the easy setup wizards.  Furthermore, this program easily integrates with your Miva Merchant Mailer mailing lists.

The meta and title tags of a web page are the key elements that search engines use in order to index and rank web pages. Most times, these tags remain invisible to the visitors of a site because they are in the head section of the HTML document. Meta tags provide information regarding page content and consist of keywords describing the page’s subject matter. Choosing and implementing meta tags based on the targeted keywords of each and every page is the first step to running a successful online business.

For storeowners with numerous products or services, the creation of exclusive meta tags for each and every item can be a somewhat daunting and time consuming process. Thanks to Miva’s SEO templates, this procedure is simplified considerably. With Miva Merchant 5.5, you can attribute unique descriptions, keywords and titles to the bulk of your pages by simply editing three page templates. These templates are known as Storefront, Category Display and Product Display.

The Storefront template allows you to create and easily apply the most effective meta tags and title for your home page. On the other hand, with the category and product display templates, you can quickly and painlessly create and apply tags and descriptions to all individual product and category pages.

An exciting component of the new Miva Merchant 5.5 is its integration of affiliate marketing programs.  Miva Merchant 5.5 will track and save commissions and payouts to affiliates.  Furthermore, with this feature, affiliates are easily able to download links and banners for your store.

With Miva Merchant and cPanel hosting, it is not necessary to have any files installed on a hard drive to manage your store.  Since Miva is a web-based program, you can access your control panel at any time from anywhere in the world from any type of mobile device (cell phone, laptop, PDA, etc.).  As long as you have Internet access, your store is at your fingertips.

Storeowners no longer have to concern themselves with the ever-changing and confusing sales tax rates and regulations.  AccurateTax’s partnership with Miva Merchant is designed to simplify the sales tax procedures so that you have time to focus on the operation of your business.  Since everything is maintained on the AccurateTax.com servers, there is no need for storeowners to do anything.  All sales tax calculations and reporting will be handled for you.