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Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

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    Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

    I am a bit confused...

    Is there a NATIVE Miva module for reviews in MM9?

    Also, is there a more robust related products module (one that actually takes in what products were purchased with other products)???

    Or do we still have to rely on toolkit for this?

    (Also, if someone can include the link for all the MM9 features here, that would be greatly appreciated.)
    Mark Romero
    ~~~~~~~~

    #2
    Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

    Native as in built in? No there's not. There's the Sebenza module, ToolKit, and PowerReviews. Sebenza also has the suggested products mod (as does ToolKit).

    Here's the link: http://www.miva.com/new-miva-version-9

    Scroll to the bottom and click the red button to see the rest.
    Thanks,

    Rick Wilson
    CEO
    Miva, Inc.
    [email protected]
    https://www.miva.com

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

      Rick, can I suggest that you folks do something on the app store for the Tool Kit page to make the links stand out better? Until you hover over them, there's no way to tell that any of the text is a link, and at first I thought the link to the 'how to' for setting up reviews with the Tool Kit was missing.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

        Well, that's a head scratcher...

        There are FREE ecommerce platforms out there that have been around far SHORTER than Miva Merchant has, and they have built-in review modules. They also have third-party Also Bought / Automatic Cross Seller modules starting at $10.

        So our choices are either the (for all intents and purposes) unsupported Sebenza module costing $120 or the power reviews costing $80 PER MONTH, or ToolKit (inexpensive, but not the easiest to use)???

        WHY?????

        (Although I guess I should try to be a little happy that volume pricing and coupons are finally, FINALLY built in.)
        Last edited by Siamese-Dream.Com; 12-16-14, 02:43 PM.
        Mark Romero
        ~~~~~~~~

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

          @leanne

          We'll get the links fixed today on the product description. They formatting got lost when we transferred it from Emporium Plus.
          Brennan Heyde
          VP Product
          Miva, Inc.
          [email protected]
          https://www.miva.com

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

            Hey Mark,

            The Miva Merchant module developer community has been in a holding pattern for some time and for a variety of reasons, which I won't get into here. While we are still sorting out some unknowns, many of us are gearing back up and/or actively developing new module solutions on a number of fronts.

            Normally we don't like to divulge what we are working on too much, but I can say that both Ratings & Reviews and Suggested Products are on our active dev list, and I suspect there are others in the works from other developers in the community as well.

            With that, the Miva module market as we know it has to change. As Miva adds more and more core/stock features, a good thing, this impacts what retail offerings developers in the community can bring to market, greatly reducing the volume seen in the golden years of Miva Merchant modules.

            In order to develop an innovative/robust solution, deliver detailed documentation, provide solid support, compete with other offerings and eat 30% through the app store, $10 is simply not going to cut it for a legitmate retail module in todays world. As a result, Miva module prices must go up, with the remaining developer pool fully aware that there must be value and support behind these increases.

            The alternative is a service/recurring revenue model, but that isn't always a good fit depending on the specific need/solution and we see those prices going up extensively as well. Many of these services are making the push for enterprise accounts, leaving small, medium and large stores behind.
            Last edited by Dan - Glendale Designs; 12-16-14, 04:14 PM.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

              WHY?????
              Honestly Mark, because we'd rather focus on great features that work and leave some out, then focus on getting the checklist complete and put out crappy bloatware.

              Go try doing advanced inventory at the attribute level on one of the carts you mention, or volume pricing at the attribute level, or get 3k orders a day during the holiday season, or using conditional logic on your page templates to get a truly custom site, or customize checkout for conversation optimization, etc...

              We focus on quality features first and foremost and frankly a $120 reviews solution that's a one time cost is a good deal and makes it that much less likely that we'll actually add a Reviews functionality imminently because a) they're not that complex and b) there's better stuff for us to focus on.

              I assure you when you see what's coming in 2015 feature wise, you'll be happy we're not screwing around trying to knock out a low end reviews module.
              Thanks,

              Rick Wilson
              CEO
              Miva, Inc.
              [email protected]
              https://www.miva.com

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                Don't go with the Sebenza module. They have zero support.

                And Rick, is it REALLY that hard to build it in? If Miva has all these advanced features as you say, I'm sure you can handle something simple like customer reviews. It seems like you're forgetting about the things that actually bring new customers in.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                  Eric,

                  No it's not that hard at all to build in (and we may at some point). Right now there's two new Review modules coming from long standing and very well supported Miva Developers.

                  We could certainly put 200 hours or so into building one and release it into the core, but those 200 hours could also be spent building another feature that a third party dev can't effectively build.

                  For example, we're going to be adding:

                  1. Saved baskets, wishlists and registries. We think we can do these in a way that's unique to us and not simply mimic what a third party dev can do.

                  2. Gift Certificates

                  3. More fine control of the SEO Settings

                  4. Points Redemption

                  5. Multi-Add To Cart

                  These are all slated to be done soon (some by the Conference, some soon after). All of these are currently available to Miva via Sebenza modules, but as you said, they're non supported.

                  So we took a look at what the hole's are from the lack of Sebenza module support, prioritized the hours we have to spend and put Reviews toward the bottom of the list for the reasons I mentioned above.

                  And frankly if the 2 new modules are priced well, well supported and filled with good features, we may not get to Reviews soon, simply because there's hundreds of other interesting features we can uniquely be working on.

                  If the third party market though doesn't come through in a meaningful way, then of course we'll step in and fill it, or if it becomes something we can uniquely fill, we'll come in and fill it.
                  Thanks,

                  Rick Wilson
                  CEO
                  Miva, Inc.
                  [email protected]
                  https://www.miva.com

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                    I can understand that there is a complex relationship between Miva and third-party module developers. They both need each other to expand the core of Miva Merchant users - something that benefits Miva, third-party developers, and ultimately, us merchants.

                    I guess what concerns me is that it seems like the Philosophy of Miva is a little bit too REACTIVE to designing modules and would prefer it to be more proactive.

                    For example: the reason I never bought the Sebenza Reviews module was because it WAS a Sebenza module.

                    Now if Miva had created a Reviews module and charged a bit MORE for it and it came with the excellent support for which Miva is known then I would have bought it.

                    Same thing with the affiliate management. The built in one in MM is a bit lacking. But if Miva had built an advance module and charged for it, then I think people would purchase it.

                    Of course, this is easy for me to say. I am sure there are all sorts of business considerations. Also, I don't know whether other merchants would be willing to buy an "after-market" module that was developed by Miva; they may feel resentment toward Miva for it NOT being native to the shopping cart.
                    Mark Romero
                    ~~~~~~~~

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                      I'm not going to say that we'll "never" sell modules we develop as separate add-ons, but I can say right now that our plan is not do that. We feel there is a (mostly) clear line of what's ideal for the core versus third party and our goal is that our core business model justifies adding these features.

                      I do also think a combination of Reviews (both App/Module level and Provider level) along with quality control standards by us, can go a long way to repairing the damage done when modules like Sebenza all but get abandoned. Frankly the "Sebenza" situation is collateral damage from the transition from "the old Miva" to "the new Miva".

                      For example, look at a Retargeting tool like AdRoll or a social tool like Social Rebate or AddShoppers, and it's pretty obvious those are good as plug-ins to an ecommerce platform like Miva.

                      Then you look at something like you mention the Affiliate program and that needs to be fixed by us for sure (along with the ones I mentioned above and some other smallish stuff).

                      The grey area to me comes into the more highly specialized features, for example say a streaming media module, or Vendor and PO management, algorithmic related products, to name a few.

                      So yes we try and straddle that line. Most third party devs who build features as opposed to services (like an AdRoll or AddShoppers), know there's risk and likelihood that over time things get rolled into the core. I think they're mostly looking for enough foresight from us, so they can make educated ROI decisions.
                      Thanks,

                      Rick Wilson
                      CEO
                      Miva, Inc.
                      [email protected]
                      https://www.miva.com

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                        Mark (and Rick), I actually don't think a "Useful" also bought IS an easy module. In fact, I think its one of the hardest and any decent solution is going to take the Store owner MANY, MANY hours of data input.

                        To be credible, you need to make sure you don't have "People who bought Men's underwear also bought: Frilly Fairy Dresses." (And yes, that's an actual result of when LLBEAN first did Also Bought. Problem is, you don't know who buys what for whom or why. That requires a LOT of data analysis, and additional data points from the Store Owner. Now, if you ONLY sold, say "guns"...you are not going to have that kind of problem. But even if you say sold

                        Even in your store, you are going to make better return by focused add ons. For example, matching a bracelet to a dress, rather than relying on something like ALSO bought. (This is especially true if few orders have more than one item anyway.)
                        Bruce Golub
                        Phosphor Media - "Your Success is our Business"

                        Improve Your Customer Service | Get MORE Customers | Edit CSS/Javascript/HTML Easily | Make Your Site Faster | Get Indexed by Google | Free Modules | Follow Us on Facebook
                        phosphormedia.com

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                          @ Bruce:

                          I can understand what you are saying, and they are good points.

                          The only thing that I can counter with is that Viking Coders had a basic automatic module for MM4, and I LOVED it.

                          I guess it was not that popular though because they never made an MM5 version of the module.

                          Heck, I would be ok with using the standard, static module if only it would dynamically hide products that are out of stock (my understanding is that out of stock products are still displayed by the built in related products module).
                          Mark Romero
                          ~~~~~~~~

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                            #1 I'm pretty sure the related products loop has inventory...don't think default template uses it though.

                            #2 You may have liked it cause it was easy an put a 'feature' in that you wanted :) ...question is, did your CUSTOMERS like it? Did it increase order value?
                            Bruce Golub
                            Phosphor Media - "Your Success is our Business"

                            Improve Your Customer Service | Get MORE Customers | Edit CSS/Javascript/HTML Easily | Make Your Site Faster | Get Indexed by Google | Free Modules | Follow Us on Facebook
                            phosphormedia.com

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Are There Native Reviews or native Related Products From Purchase History in MM9?

                              #1 I'm pretty sure the related products loop has inventory...don't think default template uses it though.
                              So is that something that can be taken care of with MVT???

                              does Merchant have something along the lines of "pre-query hooks" that are similar to wordpress where you can have a function that modifies the query right before it is sent to the database?

                              #2 You may have liked it cause it was easy an put a 'feature' in that you wanted :) ...question is, did your CUSTOMERS like it? Did it increase order value?
                              Well, I absolutely DID love the ease of use. I can't argue with that.

                              While not ALL products benefited, I would say that some benefited particularly well. there were of course anomalies, but over the long run, it would even out.

                              Also, as a merchant, it was almost as useful as a poor-man's "demographics analyzer," because even if it might seem weird, you did at least get some insight into what commonly bought items were. and it would show us when our designated cross selling items were not working (meaning we needed to change how we were presenting the value of the upselling items.)
                              Mark Romero
                              ~~~~~~~~

                              Comment

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