According to Buildwith, 9% of the world’s eCommerce sites are powered by Magento. Following Adobe’s purchase of Magento for $1.7 billion last year, it’s time for the entire eCommerce ecosystem to acquire more market share.
So while the Magento 1 is still a highly functional and powerful platform, Magento officially declared that they will stop all support for this platform in June, 2020. So right now, the question is: Is it worth the effort for Magento 2 Migration?
Sure, we can see a lot of potential in Magento 2, and we wish that the Magento 2 Migration could be as easy as pie. But life isn’t that simple, and Magento 2 migration actually takes a lot of effort. If you want to migrate to Magento 2 (and you must), you should always consider this post before you pull the trigger.
What is Magento 2 and why it is necessary?
Magento 2 is the second version of the eCommerce platform that has been used by 25% businesses. It is officially announced in November, 2015, and since that, Magento 2 has been the most popular eCommerce platform to run, with a revamped user-friendly interface.
There are three separate editions to Magento 2:
- Magento 2 Open Source (formerly known as Community Edition) — This is the free version that is suited for either small businesses or businesses that want to build from the ground up.
- Magento 2 Enterprise Edition — A premium version that is tailored towards medium and large size businesses. It has all the features found in the Open Source edition but comes with added features including extensive management tools and marketing options. Quotes for using this edition starts from $22,000 a year, which is significantly higher than most SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platforms.
- Enterprise Cloud Edition — This SaaS option eliminates the need for self-hosting and provides the same features as the Enterprise edition. Prices to utilize this service have been quoted much higher than the Enterprise Edition.
Although the previous Magento 1 edition is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms available, with exceptional themes and extensions to support, it is still really slow to load, and the backend admin user interface isn’t so friendly. Magento 2 is the perfect solution, as it is good enough for the most tech-savvy, coming with better responsiveness and advanced features. The admin user interface is extraordinary to see and use.
Magento 2 Migration: Is it worth the effort?
Short answer: Yes, it is worth the effort to migrate to Magento 2. You should upgrade to Magento 2 as soon as possible because of these 5 reasons:
- Support ending
- Better performance
- Improved backend admin
- Responsive design
- 2-stage checkout process
- New MSI feature
1, Support ending
As we’ve mentioned before, Magento will end all the support for the Magento 1 versions, starting from June next year. After that, if you run into any possible bugs or defects on security, you are totally on your own. The bugs won’t be fixed, and updates will not be released.
2, Better performance
Most importantly, Magento 2 is better than Magento 1. In fact, the overall website performance is increased by 20%. It is a HUGE improvement, especially important when considering large eCommerce stores that can hold several thousand products.
This improvement is achieved primarily through full page caching, reducing server load while increasing page load time. User experience is improved, and you should, over time, see an improvement to your SEO rankings as well.
3, Improved backend admin
The old backend admin of Magento 1 is quite difficult to understand, navigate, and use, for those without advanced technological skills. To help you, Magento 2 can sort products using the new grid view, which is perfect for average users.
4, Responsive design
People are now using more and more mobile into searching and surfing the Internet, as well as make purchase and contact customer service. It is critical for any website to be mobile responsive, which is sadly not one of the traits of previous Magento 1 version.
Magento 2 is responsive, so it will help attract mobile users to your store. A responsive design means that your site will display properly and perform well on devices of all types and sizes.
5, 2-stage checkout process
The new checkout has also been improved. Rather than the original six-step process, which was arduous for all but the most patient and determined buyer, eCommerce stores built on the new system can offer a two-stage checkout process.
One of the goals of running a successful eCommerce store is to remove any barriers to buying that might exist. The more barriers we put in front of customers, the more opportunities there are for them to abandon their shopping cart and potentially go elsewhere. While there are other factors to consider, ease of checkout is an important one.
6, New MSI feature
Since Magento 2.3, we have a new game-changing feature named Multi-source Inventory, or MSI. In fact, Magento MSI allows merchant to manage all inventory sources without any third-party extensions or platforms. With Magento MSI, it’s possible to link multiple inventory sources to one or multiple websites. This is the future of eCommerce websites.
Should we migrate to Magento 2 now?
For all the aforementioned benefits, the answer is yes, we should move to Magento 2 immediately. However, you still need to consider these things before doing the Magento 2 Migration.
In many instances, the move from a deprecated version of software to its newest incarnation is a relatively smooth process. However, the move from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is not an upgrade to a newer version of an old system, but a migration to a different system entirely.
If you’re considering migrating to Magento 2, there are some issues to consider before you make the move—and before you put yourself in a position to migrate to Magento 3 in a few years time. Here are the biggest issues to be wary of:
1. Data & Image migration isn’t easy
The whole process of Magento 2 Migration isn’t simple for newbies to make, as it isn’t 1-button installation. If you don’t really know how to migrate to Magento 2, make sure to contact any Magento services for proper migration.
2. Custom extension issues
For developers who use custom extensions in their Magento 1 system, these extensions will not be supported in Magento 2, so developers will need to rewrite their modules to work with the new system. If you purchased extensions from other authenticated developers, you should contact them for Magento 2 extension versions.
3. Theme and template issues
The custom themes and templates that designers develop for Magento 1 will not work in Magento 2, so much of the design work will need to be redone from Square One.
According to the Magento migration overview, the migrating to Magento 2 is “20% larger” than the average Magento 1.x upgrade — and that’s not taking the above issues into account. All of these issues mean that you, as a Magento 2 user, will be stuck working on Magento 1 in their live environments, while rebuilding everything in Magento 2 on a development server until these issues are ironed out, which could take months. Or, worse yet, they may be unfixable issues that lead you to re-building custom extensions or abandoning your website template.
2 Comments
Great Blog, Surely Magento 2 migration worth it Magento 2 is coming up with far more upgraded features to overcome the Magento 1 conflicts. new features like streamlined admin panel, better checkout experience.
At first I was very skeptical about the switch from magento 1.9 to magento 2, but it is really worth it. As with everyone, you always have to get used to something new.