ECOMMERCE SHOPPING CART SOFTWARE FOR ONLINE STORES

We're an organic and sustainable woman's clothing company and have been using Miva Merchant for about 2 years now. Howard, the co-owner, is a graphic designer by trade and worked with companies from Urban Outfitters to Burton before starting Stewart+Brown with his wife. Because of our emphasis on design, it was essential for us to have full control over look, feel and layout and we chose Miva Merchant for that reason.

Contact: laura@stewartbrown.com

The Stewart+Brown Story

Can you please tell us some background about your store? Stewart+Brown is an environmentally friendly clothing line that started in Husband and wife Karen Stewart and Howard Brown's garage back in 2002. We began with wholesale distribution and in 2006, launched e-commerce with Miva Merchant. Having an online storefront has helped our business expand in size as well as visibility and gives shoppers who may not live near a retailer or ours, a chance to get whatever they want. What do you believe is the greatest advantage of Miva Merchant? The greatest advantage of Miva Merchant, for us, is the ability to customize. If I see a cool feature on another popular site, I can find some way to emulate it using Miva Merchant.

Why did you choose Miva Merchant? Over time, I've been more and more comfortable customizing Miva Merchant to fit our needs. The support forums and community have been really helpful when troubleshooting and it's nice to know that modules can be added to encompass anything I might need. The user interface is so simple that anyone in our office who is not a web developer can make changes to products, inventory and images. What other shopping carts did you consider and why was Miva Merchant better? We looked at a variety of other shopping carts. The original web developer, Ross Peterson, picked miva for us because of our company size, budget and his familiarity with the product.

Stewart+Brown Stats: Launch Date: November 2006 (Redesign Oct. 2008) Product Count: 250 Site Traffic: We get a lot of magazine press as well as features on various shopping sites and blogs that generate a steady flow of traffic. We also have a lot of loyal customers that return for more than one visit. Traffic has been up since our redesign and we think it's due to the ease, visual appeal and usability that a well designed Miva Merchant framework provides. Web Host: Modwest Store Development: Howard, the co-owner of Stewart+Brown, is a graphic designer by trade. He's designed for a number of companies like Burton and was the original art director for Urban Outfitters and Anthropology. He does most of the design, sends me the comps and I make it happen in Miva Merchant from there.

Helping To Make Their Store A Success... Below is a list of additional modules and tools that Stewart+Brown uses to enhance their Miva Merchant store. All of these are available now at MivaCentral. Inventory Manager - by Viking Coders Ultimate Gift Certificates™ - v5- by Sebenza Customer Order Confirmation - HTML Email Template v5 - by ADS My Favorites QuickList v5 - by ADS Tell a Friend v5 - by ADS