It is very important that the technology you have built your business on is supported and maintained by developers. Magento is the eCommerce platform that needs to be supported by developers, so the rule applies here, too.
First, it is safer to use a platform that is supported by engineers. Second, it is cheaper in terms of cost-effectiveness to use the supported technology because engineers spend fewer hours to add new features and maintain existing ones. So, in short, switching from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is important because it increases safety and ease of use while reducing the maintenance costs.
Magento 1 End of Life
As soon as the end of life for Magento 1 has come, it is important that you switched to Magento 2 in time. Even if you still didn’t, you should think about the migration in detail.
The thing is, Magento 2 brings more interesting features that make the use of the Magento platform even easier. In addition, Magento 2 offers the increased performance for the website compared to Magento 1. Moreover, Magento 2 is more mobile-friendly, which ensures a better experience for mobile users. As a result, those eCommerce websites that have their target customers preferring to buy from online stores using their mobile devices, are going to benefit from migration the most.
However, the migration process is not going to be very easy. The major issue is that migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is more like re-platforming than a simple upgrade. The thing is, Magento 2 has got another architecture, and because of this, your themes are not going to transfer, and your Magento 1 extensions are not going to be on Magento 2. In addition, not all of your data are going to be transferred automatically, and some of them will need to be migrated manually. Therefore, make sure to allocate enough time for the migration.
Magento 2 Benefits
Anyway, Magento 2 has got enough benefits. Practically, it is a whole bunch of benefits, starting from the increased performance and ending with a better administrators panel. However, the most important advantage of Magento 2 is better performance and scalability.
Better Performance and Scalability
Improved performance and scalability allow the google search engine to improve the ranking for the online store.
Php 7 support
Magento 2 supports PHP versions starting with PHP 7.1 so if you are using PHP 7, you are going to like this feature. However, if you still don’t, you will get all benefits of PHP 7 with Magento 2.
Improved Cache
Magento 2 contains minimized Javascript to reduce browser operations on the customers’ devices and provides great tools for image compression. In addition, Magento 2 has got improved caching for static pages.
Modernized Checkout
Magento 2 can checkout more customers at the same time. Moreover, Magento 2 checkout consists of 2 steps while Magento 1 uses as many as 6. This is going to improve the number of customers and power up the revenues. With faster checkout, you are going to have more successful sales. In addition, with Magento 2, customers can request a super quick guest checkout and still have a chance to create the account with one click on the Thank you page.
Better SEO
Magento 2 has got features aimed to boost SEO efforts, including but not limited to rich snippets and SEO-friendly URLs. In addition, Magento 2 ensures image optimization, and a chance to use canonical tags for categories and products.
Advanced Security
After the end of life, Magento 1 will not have any more security patches. This means that the online stores running on Magento 1 are going to be vulnerable to cyber-attacks of various kinds. As a result, the hesitation to switch to Magento 2 might cost you your store and possibly even customers’ sensitive data. Such kind of vulnerability is very risky in terms of reputation that might be hugely hurt in just one day as soon as cyber-attacks are often aimed to steal financial information and personal identities. And only one such attack might cost you years of gaining your reputation and your customers back.
Better Customer Experience
With Magento 2, customers are getting quicker operation of the online store, improved and eased checkout, and better functioning of the online store when using mobile devices. It is simply easier for customers to find the product they want with Magento 2. This means improved sales for your store.
Easy Extensions Update
Magento 2 has got the improved process of updating HTML5, LESS, and CSS3. These and other extensions are updated quicker and easier in Magento 2. If your store is running on Magento 1, you are going like this one a lot after you migrate to Magento 2.
Database Segmentation
Magento 2 offers a split structure of the three categories of Product Data, Checkout, and Orders. This kind of embedded segmentation ensures that there is no overload for the database. This means that the admin panel might be loaded for a long time but the frontend is working perfectly fine.
Enhanced Administration Tools
Magento 2 has got a cleaner administrator’s panel. With no clutter and simplified product uploads, the admin’s task is easier. Customization is easier too. Moreover, Magento 2 provides payment gateway integration like Paypal does together with the offered core payment methods. Moreover, Magento 2 is going to be updated consistently, and this benefit is practically the most important thing why we all migrate to Magento 2.
Does your eCommerce Store Needs Migrating to Magento 2?
If answering short, yes you probably do need to migrate your store. First of all, Magento 2 offers future-readiness to the newest technologies and features including but not limited to LAMP stack - Linux, Apache/Nginx MySql, PHP with latest techniques such as Database Clustering, Full Page Caching, Performance Monitoring through New Relic, Blackfire.io, Pagebuilder WYSIWYG CMS, Extended Reporting through Magento Business Intelligence as well as Magento Shipping.
Moreover, Magento 2 introduces Magento PWA Studio which offers a transformative experience to consumers and merchants in how they conduct their business through mobile. Smaller businesses are going to like Magento 2 the most. Read the guideline on how to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2.
The great news is that Magento 2 Open Source is an open-source version of Magento 2 that is free of charge, so if you use Magento 1 open source version, you are not going to pay for it after migration. Though free Magento 2 does not come with technical or account management support, it still offers all features that are used in Magento 2 Commerce to enhance conversion, efficiency, and scalability.
Truly, a migration process is not all roses but the issues are pretty well described. For example, SoftLoft had described one of the migration issues in the blog post devoted to Magento migration, namely editing products in the admin panel after migration.
Summary
Rome wasn’t built in a day, so if you are still thinking about migration but are not sure, it is today to make a decision. Replatforming is not easy but consider it the investment in your online store. It will pay off with more sales and higher revenues. Unfortunately, the end of life of Magento 1 has come in June, and the faster you migrate to Magento 2, the better for your store. If there are any issues with the process, SoftLoft is here to help you.
