You will see in the box labeled "Manager" your administrative login.  You will need to create a store code which can be anything you want (including numbers) and a store name which again can be anything you like (spaces can be included in your store name).  From a marketing stand point we recommend using the name you want your customer to think of when they think of your store, preferably your domain name. 

If you click on the "Owner" hyperlink the right frame will display the demographic information that you entered during setup.  You can modify this if you wish.  Next click on the "Layout" link and choose "Miva Merchant Look & Feel".  You can of course choose "Kool Kat" but most Miva Merchant users use the Miva Merchant Look & Feel and design related issues on this site only address the Miva Merchant Look & Feel.    You can choose the Kool Kat to see how it looks (and see why many people have chosen not to use it) and then switch back to the Miva Merchant Look & Feel. 

Please note that it is wise to experiment before you invest a lot of time designing and customizing your store.  Miva Merchant will let you switch from one layout to the other but all layout and design factors will be lost if you do so.

Next click on "Settings" and you will see the screen below.  The "Units of Measurement" defaults to "pounds" but you can enter text you want to label the shipping weight of your products e.g. kilos, lbs., oz., units, etc...  Please note that this does not play any role in calculating the shipping weight and charges associated with them for your customer.  The shipping charges are calculated based on the numeric weight value you assign to each product AND the shipping module you will setup (shipping tutorial).

The "Basket Timeout" defaults to 60 minutes which is probably a suitable period of time for most people.  This is the maximum amount of time of inactivity that the customer can have before the shopping cart will drop the basket contents - i.e. A customer may add a book to his shopping cart and not check out because he wanted to make a sandwich, he may even logoff and log back in and he will continue to see the same book in his shopping cart.  If he spent more than 60 minutes away then he will not find that book still in the cart when he checks again.  You may increase (or decrease) the time limit but we find 60 minutes a very reasonable amount of time. 

The "Price Group Overlap" seems in our opinion to be out of place in this location.  It would probably have been more appropriately placed under the "Price Groups" section.  That being said, you have two choices here "Lowest" or "Highest".  Price overlap occurs when you have a situation where one of your products has different prices (e.g. retail vs. wholesale, or Silver Member - Gold Member - Platinum Member) and a customer is assigned to more than one price group (either purposefully or accidentally).  This is setup under the Price Group section (see tutorial).  We recommend that you change the default of "Highest Price" to "Lowest Price" but it really depends on whether you want the customer to get the lowest price he is eligible for or you prefer to guarantee the maximum price you can get just in case the customer was inadvertently put in a lower price group. 

The "First Order #" is fairly obvious and can start at whatever number you like.  It is defaulted to 1000.

The "Sales Tax Calculation" allows you to set state based sales taxes (where the cart calculates based on where the items are shipped to - again this is configured elsewhere) or to make it the shopper's responsibility to select whether he should be taxed or not.  The other options relate to VAT (Value Added Tax in Canada, Germany, or general VAT).

Currency formatting will give you the choice of the symbol that will go next to the price you assign to your products.  You can choose to use the US Dollar, The Euro, or a generic currency symbol.

Now, you are ready to add your store so go ahead and click on the "Add" button in the bottom right hand corner of your screen!  Your store is now created and a new screen will pop-up with a lot of selections to configure your newly created store.  You can also go and take a look at your storefront by going to http://YOURSITE.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv It looks very empty, huh! :o)

To move on to the next Step by Step tutorial "Adding a Category" click the button below.