Miva Merchant - development & Design Integration / Customization
Customization | Modules | Overview | Key Features | New in 5 | Full Feature List | Store Morph | Demo
More Miva Merchant Client Case Studies
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Recent Miva merchant Client Case Studies
Client: Stampotique Originals, Phoenix, AZ
Stampotique Originals approached us to upgrade from Miva Merchant 4 to Miva Merchant 5.5. What started as a simple project grew into a complete site re-design, retail store, wholesale store as well as a WordPress blog for the client.
We imported and edited all existing products, created new images, incorporated image zoom on the product page (CSS) so visitors can preview the larger product image without leaving the page or even clicking on anything. A project idea section was needed, where the owner can show finished artwork, give instruction on how to create it and list all products used with instant add to cart buttons - all dynamically via the admin area.
A wholesale store was needed as well… Retailers can apply to become a wholesaler, and once the application is approved by Stampotique, they are send a username and password that enables them to enter the wholesale store and see the wholesale pricing. A quick order page was constructed for wholesalers that use the print catalog and know the product numbers for easy and quick bulk ordering. There are many more Miva customizations that went into this store – too many to list them all here…
Miva Merchant 5.5 Store - some additional integrated modules:
- Tell a Friend Miva Module
- Meta Master - SEO Module for Miva Merchant
- Ultimate SEO Links
- Category Tree Template
- Product Template Manager - create multiple display templates that can then be assigned to products. By having this ability each product in your store can have its own display template... or you could assign several products to one template.
- Scot's Mailing List
- Item Manager - great module if you are a Miva Merchant developer - and it's free!
- Welcome & Forgot Password Email - Let your customers know you care. The Welcome Email module will allow you to automatically send an email to your customer upon account creation on your storefront. This is great for sending special incentives, customer information, or anything else you could think of.
- Ultimate Wish Lists & Save Baskets - Registries / Wish Lists are a popular component of all successful online stores. Giving your customers the ability to create wish lists increases the odds that the customer will return to purchase their desired products. This also allows your customer to tell their friends and family about their wish list, which in turn is telling them about your online store presence and increasing awareness.
Customer Satisfaction:
Our business, Stampotique Originals, was started in 1996 primarily as a retail storefront. We had website presence but most of the sales were not through the site. Over time the business changed and the website and wholesale became the majority of the revenue. The site never really changed its appearance as we were not knowledgeable in changing a secure storefront especially one as complex as MIVA. We decided to close the retail store and move the internet and wholesale businesses home. Now the need for a professionally designed web based storefront for both retail and wholesale was a must. We were convinced that MIVA Merchant was a very powerful shopping cart but felt that it was very rigid and not flexible. We started talking to various designers but learned that few had much exposure to MIVA. On a lead, we contacted Sabine and James at Glendale Designs and after our first meeting realized that MIVA was a very customizable storefront in the hands of real MIVA professionals. Through the next several weeks, the site began to emerge. The process was definitely not one sided. Sabine and James would listen to ideas we had and then they would send us sample pages. With over 1500 different stamp images and the desire to expand the product offerings beyond just rubber stamps, the project grew. Then the complexity doubled with the decision to have both a retail and wholesale site from the same storefront.
Bottom line, we believe it must have been a real challenge for Sabine and James to basically start from ground zero, working with products that they are really unfamiliar with and create the site as you see it. It is one thing to work with clients that are site design savvy, but in our case, we do not speak that language. They have been very patient in teaching us how to revise the site to keep a dynamic appeal. It is clear that their real goal in site design is to understand and convert the clients’ ideas to a web design, teach the client how to alter and change that design, and then step back, For us, it is nice to know that even though they want to step back, they are only a call away to stand us up if we trip and fall.
Client: Live Superfoods, Bend, OR
Live Superfoods specializes in raw, live foods and supplements to provide you with all the benefits these remarkable products have to offer. Glendale Designs worked closely with Live Superfoods to redesign their site and migrate it from AgoraCart to Miva Merchant 5. And we had to work fast to get the store up and running before the end of 2006. The Miva look and feel has been completely customized and we added functionality versus MM5 out of the box.
A blog (the Live Superfoods Community) was added that lets the staff of Live Superfoods announce new products as well as recipes and other important industry news.
Miva Merchant 5.5 Store - some additional integrated modules:
Customer Satisfaction:
A year ago I purchased an existing ecommerce business - www.livesuperfoods.com - that was sorely in need of a site upgrade. The original store was built on an open source shopping cart, for which I wasn't able to find competent support. I knew I needed to move to a shopping cart that had a healthy third-party ecosystem, so after investigating a half dozen options, I decided on Miva Merchant 5. The decision was largely made because of how impressed I was by the quality and professionalism of the Miva developers I interviewed. I think I interviewed most of the developers on Miva's roster before deciding on Glendale Designs.
Sabine Sharp from Glendale managed the project. Migration went very smoothly. Sabine's familiarity with the Miva architecture and feature set was really obvious. She had the new site up and running - fully functional - in less that 45 days. No snags. No interruption of revenue.
As I look back on my first year of owning this business, I'd have to say that hiring Glendale Designs was one of the best decisions I made. I continue to work with Glendale Designs and consider them a valued member of my team. I would recommend them to everyone except my competitors.
Client: Trafalgar Books, VT
Trafalgar Books hired us to develop their second Miva Merchant site. The first one, Horse and Rider Books was a migration from Miva 4 to Miva 5.5 concentrating on equestrian books while Trafalgar Books is featuring arts and crafts books with fabulous color photographs, step-by-step instructions, patterns, templates, stitches, and finishing techniques for every do-it-yourself craft project.
Site design and customized Miva Merchant 5.5 integration and organic search engine optimization.
Customer Satisfaction:
Glendale Designs had done such a great job redesigning our equestrian books retail site, www.horseandriderbooks.com, that when it came time to develop one for our craft books we immediately went to them. They were very patient in answering all our questions, giving us suggestions on how to turn our many ideas into a functional site, and addressing any problems immediately. As a result, www.trafalgarbooks.com is a clean, professional site where we can effectively market our books. I’d recommend Glendale Designs and Sabine Sharp to anyone, whether you’re looking to build a new site or redesign an existing one.
Miva Merchant 5.5 Store - additional integrated modules:
Client: Strawberry Hill Interior Designs , AZ
Inspirational Home Decor
Strawberry Hill Interior Designs has been created to inspire you to create a special space. A space that is your retreat, your sanctuary, your home. A space to inspire, dream and celebrate life.
Strawberry Hill came to us originally looking for search engine optimization and online marketing assistance. They had an existing OS Commerce store; however, their current developers didn't want to integrate any of our SEO recommendations. After further functionality needs analysis the decision was made to migrate the store into Miva Merchant 5.5 and also give the site a completely new look and feel.
Design and integration - customized Miva Merchant 5.5 shopping cart, Organic Search engine optimization and search engine optimization for Miva Merchant Store, online marketing.
Miva Merchant 5.5 Store - additional integrated modules:
- Ultimate SEO Links
- Ultimate Coupons - The ultimate solution in coupon management. Ultimate coupons allows you to create several types of coupons... from Checkout coupons to Free Shipping Coupons and Group Coupons.
- Category Tree Template
- Ultimate Gift Certificates - allows your customers to purchase gift certificates that can only be redeemed at your website. These certificates can be created via auto-vending or by creating them manually.
- Item Manager - great module if you are a Miva Merchant developer - and it's free!
- Metatags Helper version 5 - Metatags Helper module gives you the ability of dynamically including unique metatags and page titles on all your product and category screens, assisting you in meeting your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) objectives.
Customer Satisfaction:
Integrity, Honesty, Commitment
Expertise, Experience, Efficiency
Loyalty, Professionalism, Reliability
Humor, Heart and Soul
All Blend Together
To Create “The Dream Weavers”
James and Sabine Sharp of Glendale Designs
These two incredible people have supported my dream of creating a beautiful new web site from the moment I first spoke with them. They have followed through with the process of transferring my site, renewing certificates, updating information, adding new product, pictures and designs, all being done professionally, efficiently and promptly. Sabine’s design of the site, the delicate quote template she developed and her attention to detail have come together to create my new, beautiful, inspirational site.
Sabine and James are both people of conscience, integrity and kindness. It is comforting to know that I have these two gifted web designers working for me and the prosperity of my business.
Terry Prince Sims
Owner/Designer
Strawberry Hill Interior Designs
www.strawberryhillhome.com
Client: Indian Traders , AZ
Indian Traders is based in Gilbert, Arizona and provides everything Pendleton as well as Hopi Indian and Native American Indian Jewelry and other Indian related items.
Curtis originally approached us to ‘fix’ some modules on his current site, integrate some new functionality and help him with his search engine efforts. This quickly resulted in a great working relationship and we decided to give the site a completely new look and feel. Curtis maintains all content and products himself – we showed him where and how to integrate new pages and page content as well as post header text into categories and other places – no need to maintain separate html pages outside of Miva to post additional information. Everything is in one place and one admin now, which makes the maintenance of the site much easier.
Site re-design and Miva Merchant 5.5 integration - customized Miva Merchant 5.5 shopping cart, Organic Miva Merchant search engine optimization, online marketing.
Miva Merchant 5.5 Store - additional integrated modules:
- Ultimate SEO Links
- Google Analytics Tracking
- Category Template Manager - create multiple display templates that can be assigned to categories. Gives you complete control over the entire look and feel of the category page. Included features are multiple templates, breadcrumbs, sub-category listings, product sorting, full pagination control, category best sellers, and more.
- Product Template Manager -create multiple display templates that can then be assigned to products. By having this ability each product in your store can have its own display template... or you could assign several products to one template.
- Category Tree Template
- Item Manager - great module if you are a Miva Merchant developer - and it's free!
- Image Extra - gives you the ability to add additional images/product views to each item
- Mini Basket Display - lets you calculate shipping prior to checkout and gives a 'running total' of dollar amount and items in your basket amongst other things
- Sort Shipping Plus Free Shipping Option
- Template Data Feed - generates product feeds for Google Base, Shopzilla, Yahoo and a Google XML site map.
- Metatags Helper version 5 - Metatags Helper module gives you the ability of dynamically including unique metatags and page titles on all your product and category screens, assisting you in meeting your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) objectives.
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Customer Satisfaction:
Last November (2007) Glendale Designs reworked the entire look and feel of our website. We were very happy with both the professionalism and final product that they developed.
In the search to find who I wanted to work with for the project the availability by phone was a critical issue for me. Sabine was cheerfully available each time that I called with questions or suggestions. I would without question hire them to do any future projects that will undoubtedly arise in the future.
To give you an idea of how their redesign has benefited us, the following statistics indicate to me what a success it was:
Pages per visit: Increase of 50%
Bounce Rate: Decrease of 27%
Time on Site: Increase of 10%
Traffic and conversion rate have actually fallen by about 25% & 15% respectively but these have been a factor of reducing advertising methods that were non profitable and also I believe a function of current economic conditions. The conversion rate figure may have also been hurt by an increase in telephone orders over the previous time period, our customers tend to be substantially less comfortable with the internet than most.
Curtis Liles
Owner
IndianTraders.com
Client: Majestic Gems , AZ
Majestic Gems is a USA based company providing quality products at great value. Their clients include collectors, professional jewelers and fine retailers.
Site re-design and Miva Merchant 5 integration - customized Miva Merchant 5 shopping cart, Organic Miva Merchant search engine optimization, online marketing.
Miva Merchant 5 Store - additional integrated modules:
- Ultimate SEO Links
- Google Analytics
- Category Template Manager - allows you to create multiple display templates that can be assigned to categories. Gives you complete control over the entire look and feel of the category page. Included features are multiple templates, breadcrumbs, sub-category listings, product sorting, full pagination control, category best sellers, and more.
- Category Tree Template
- Discount by Quantity - Offer a discount by quantity of items in the basket. An unlimited amount of discount levels can be created for various basket quantities, i.e. 1 to 3 items = 5% discount, 4 to 7 = 10%, 8 or more = 15%, etc.
- Lost & Found Orders - Display the contents of baskets before and in most cases, after the order is finalized with this MIVA Merchant module.
- QuickStart Toolbar
- Item Manager - great module if you are a Miva Merchant developer - and it's free!
Click here for More Miva Merchant Client Case Studies
Client Samples for Miva Merchant Website Design and Miva SEO / SEM
American Pet Classics, GA - Miva Merchant SEO, Google Adwords, Google Analytics
Artificial Plants & Trees, NJ - Miva Merchant 5 functionality and product integration only
Cottonwood Cupboard. CO - MIVA Merchant Shopping Cart
DuoJo, AZ - Miva Merchant 5 design integration & Miva SEO / SEM
Computer Training Source, Inc, IL - Miva Merchant 4 SEO and SEM advice
Exotic Tearoom, CA - Miva Merchant 5, Organic Search Engine Optimization
Goods For Giving, FL - Miva Merchant 4 SEO / SEM and Miva module assistance
Horse & Rider Books / Trafalgar Square Publishing, VT - Miva Merchant 5, Organic SEO
Indian Traders, AZ - customization and design integration into Miva Merchant 5
Kickass Electronics, AZ -
Design, Logo, Miva Merchant 5.5 - over 18000 products!
Kitchen Collage of Vail Valley, CO - MIVA Merchant 5 Shopping Cart
Live Superfoods, OR - Site re-design & Miva Merchant 5 integration
Magestic Gems, AZ - SEO / SEM, site redesign and Miva 5 development
Master Plaques, IN -
Miva Merchant 5.5 site - highly customized
Parade Acres Tack, NH - MIVA Merchant 4 Store
Pelham Saddlery, NH - MIVA Merchant 4, Open UI/Custom, Adobe Contribute
Prettywood Tea, IA - SEO and Miva module integration
Savage Kas, FL - Miva Merchant 5.5,customization and SEO
Skindeep III, AZ - Miva Merchant 5.5 SEO / SEM and Miva module installations
Stampotique, AZ - Miva Merchant 5.5 mall - retail and wholesale section
Strawberry Hill Interior Designs, AZ - SEO / SEM Miva Merchant 5.5 integration
Tatianas Designer Resale Boutique, NY - MIVA Merchant Shopping Cart
Tea Time World Wide, MA - MIVA Merchant 4 Shopping Cart, Open UI/Custom
The Riding Shop, NY - MIVA Merchant 4 Shopping Cart
Trafalgar Books, VT - Miva Merchant 5.5 site
Vail Wine , CO - Site re-design & Miva Merchant 5.5 integration
