What is the Miva Multi-Domain Feature?
One admin. Multiple storefronts. Your way.
Miva's Multi-Domain feature enables you to operate more than one storefront on separate domains or subdomains using a single Miva backend. This is ideal for businesses managing multiple brands, regions, or customer segments while keeping operations streamlined with centralized data and flexible catalog control. It allows you to manage all your sites from one admin panel.
Each storefront can have its own unique look and product offering, but is centrally managed under one Miva store admin. While customers see distinct stores, you the Merchant can access everything you need on one streamlined backend.
Two Ways to Use Multi-Domain
Option 1: Multiple Domains - Single Store (Catalog Subset Mode) gives you flexibility in branding and product visibility while keeping everything under one set of data — faster to set up and easier to maintain. Processes like emails, order history, and payments remain global across domains.
Option 2: Multiple Domains - Multiple Stores (Additional Storefront with Separate Store Licenses) gives you complete separation between stores — ideal if your brands, rules, or customers shouldn’t overlap.
Single Store vs. Multiple Stores
Before you start, decide your approach:
Option 1: Sell a subset of your catalog from your main Miva store on a new domain.
A single store powers multiple domain storefronts. Each storefront shows a unique subset of products and has a different design, but they all share the same backend: customer data, order history, payment methods, etc. Perfect for running niche campaigns or segmented brands on top of a unified operational core.
With Multi-Domain configuration set to Catalog Subset, the secondary site sells only a select subset of your primary store’s products.
This setup is perfect if you want to creatively target niche markets or campaign-specific domains (e.g. holiday shop, clearance outlet) while avoiding duplicating inventory management and backend setup. You get multiple branded storefronts, but only one master catalog and operational backend.
You can assign the secondary domain a completely different Template Branch, so it can have a totally different design or look (i.e. new theme, templates, navigation) even though it’s backed by the same database.
Option 2: Build additional stores (separate store managed in the same admin)
Requires an extra store license). This setup lets you create multiple separate stores, each on its own domain (or subdomain), each with its own catalog, settings, and design—but all managed through one Miva Admin panel.
Each of these additional stores behaves like a full independent storefront: they can have different products, pricing, shipping rules, marketing, and customer interfaces. They don’t share inventory or storefront look-and-feel with the primary store.
Important setup note: You’ll need to request a separate Miva store license for each additional store you create under the same admin.
Considerations for using Option 1: Shared Data, Features, and other important information.
Note: You will be using the same store with different branches
Things to consider when using Multi-Domain feature Option 1—especially when implementing brand segmentation, region-specific storefronts, or seasonal campaign sites.
Global Data Architecture Limits Domain Independence:
Breaks brand separation expectations by:
While each domain can show different products and have its own design, core data (like customers, payments, orders) are shared globally:
Customer accounts are shared across all domains. Customers logging into one brand/domain will see order history, subscriptions, and wish lists from other domains as well.
Subscriptions, even if tied to a product not shown on one domain, will still appear on all domains.
Payment methods and cards are globally stored, and editable changes apply to all domains.
Coupons, Discounts, and Gift Certificates Are Not Domain-Aware
Coupons and price groups work across all domains—they are not limited to a specific domain unless manually enforced through catalog subsets or custom logic.
Usage limits (like 1 use per customer) are enforced globally—not per domain.
Gift certificates can be redeemed on any domain, even if intended for one.
For example, if Domain A runs a 20% coupon, a customer from Domain B can use that code there too, unless heavily restricted. That’s hard to explain in marketing communications.
3. Email & Notification Handling Is Tied to the Default Hostname
Abandoned cart emails, payment reminders, and subscriptions are always triggered by the primary branch of the default hostname.
This means if you’re operating multiple brands, your abandoned cart or billing emails may show branding or links from the wrong domain.
4. Sitemap and SEO Implications
Miva’s built-in sitemap generation only applies to the default hostname.
For other domains, you must manually generate and manage separate sitemaps.
Risk of cross-domain sitemap conflicts unless you implement strict server rules.
Note: Search engines might index “Domain A’s” sitemap under “Domain B’s,” resulting in poor SEO hygiene or indexing errors.
5. Order Processing & Feeds Centralized on Default Hostname
Product feeds, email templates, and background processes (e.g., subscription billing) all run only on the primary/default domain.
This can lead to misalignment if multiple domains are active and meant to operate independently.
Multi-Domain URI Import Module
As of version 10.13.00, Merchants can import URIs to individual Multi-Domain storefronts using the Single store Multi-Domain setup using Multi-Domain Import Module in Data Management. This feature is designed to make it easier to manage storefront-specific URL paths during setup or ongoing updates.
With the Multi-Domain Import Module, you can bulk import URIs and assign them to specific domains using either: Domain Code (code of the Multi-Domain record), or Domain Host (domain name)
This import Module simplifies:
Setting up a new multi-domain storefront with unique URIs
Overwriting or replacing automatically generated URIs
Bulk-updating URI paths
Maintaining brand-specific URL structures across different domains
When Multi-Domain Option 1 Is a Good Fit, using Multiple Domains - Single Store
- You want marketing flexibility with different storefronts but share backend data.
- You’re okay with customers using one login across all domains.
- You understand limitations and can use catalog subsets and customizations to mask global logic.
When Multi-Domain Option 2 Is a Good Fit, Multiple Domains - Multiple Stores
- You need full brand separation (isolated emails, customers, discounts, reports).
- You require domain-specific rules, such as regional shipping or payment options.
You rely heavily on sitemap automation across multiple domains.
Ready to Explore Multi-Domain?
Create a support ticket to learn what the next steps are to add Multi-Domain to your Miva Admin.