So your eCommerce store is running on Magento 1 and you are wondering if all the noise around migrating to Magento 2 has any substance? Well, the short answer to that is a vehement YES. Simply put, the risks of not moving to Magento 2 are far too high.
Of course, what you need to do before making the migration is to get a buy-in of stakeholders, detail a migration plan, and also review store SEO. Here is a guide that handholds you through the steps required before you make the much needed migration.
Importantly, let us look at some of the compelling arguments that make a strong case for migration, in detail:
Must Move Arguments
#1. End of life for Magento 1
First up, Magento has discontinued any support for Magento 1 as of June 2020. What this means is that if your store continues to run on Magento 1 post June 30, 2020, not only will you be responsible for maintaining your site’s security and PCI DSS compliance, Adobe will also not respond to any queries on security issues. Besides Magento 1 extensions are no longer available on the Magento repository post August, 2020. The fact that the Magento team isn’t developing any platform improvements, also automatically means being rendered non-competitive.
#2. Lack of security for Magento 1
The decision to not migrate to Magento 2, is literally a decision to compromise with your store’s security. Running an unsecure version translates into :
- Loss of PCI compliance
- No fix for any bugs
- Vulnerability to hacking
- Site slowdown
Essentially then, what you have at stake isn’t just store data but also sensitive customer data.
Should Move Arguments
#3. Enhanced Performance
A big advantage with Magento 2 is its improved speed. Some of the features that contribute to Magento 2’s enhanced performance include:
- Php 7 support
- Varnish caching
- Bundled Javascript
- Tools for image compression, and more
Not only does this have an impact on customer experience, but also on the site bounce rates and enhanced search engine optimization results.
#4. Improved Checkout process
Magento 2 offers a significant improvement in the user experience on account of its enhanced checkout process. This is made possible due to the following features:
- Simplified 2 step checkout process
- Email recognition of returning users and instant purchase feature
- No page reloading on addition of new products
- Guest check out
It is estimated that Magento 2 offers an average of 38% faster guest checkout as compared to Magento 1.
With the above features leading to quick checkout, lower cart abandonment rates are a given!
#5. Responsive Website
Magento web design also lends itself to responsiveness, which means that your eCommerce store offers a great shopping experience on the mobile screen as well as on the desktop. Site responsiveness in turn also has an impact on search engine rankings.
#6. Efficient Admin Interface
When you are dealing with a large number of products, the admin interface impacts your efficiency. Magento 2 comes with an admin panel that is high on user-friendliness. With the drag and drop functionality setting up new products is far quicker. Additionally, with the ability to customize the admin panel to suit your bespoke requirements, improved management of products and orders are a given.
#7. Easy Extension updates
As opposed to Magento 1 where upgrading of any extension is a laborious task, HTML5, LESS and CSS3 enable smooth upgrade of extensions when it comes to Magento 2.
#8. Database Segmentation
Unlike Magento 1 that came with a single database for customers, admin and developers, Magento 2 has a split database comprising of a) product data b) checkout c) orders. This separation ensures that there isn’t a database overload and that load from website checkouts, order management activities, website browsing, merchandising activities is scaled down.
#9. SEO friendly
Magento 2 comes with features that go a long way in enhancing the site’s SEO efforts. Some of these include:
- SEO friendly URLs
- Canonical tags for categories and products
- Rich Snippets
- Image Optimization, and more
#10. Caching
Simply put, caching refers to the ability to store frequently used pages so that the page load time is significantly lowered. With Magento 2 having full page caching as an inbuilt option, improved loading time is a given. It also has improved browser caching for static content. Additionally, the varnish caching ensures that you do not have to install any third party modules.
#11. Improved Testing
With Magento 2, the added advantage that developers have is the ability to check if the customization they are incorporating does not impact the core functionality, negatively. The fact that the testers do not have to learn PHP to write these test cases, is an added advantage. Instead functional testing can be done with the help of the Magento test Framework, an open source cross-platform solution. Not only does it enable you to develop functional tests quickly, it also offers the ability to run several tests together.
#12. Payment Gateway Integration
With well-defined APIs, seamless integration of third party modules is extremely easy. Not only can you integrate payment gateways such as Paypal, Braintree, the Magento Enterprise version also integrates with WorldPay and CyberSource. You can rest assured that Magento payment provider gateway, allows creating secure and PCI- compliant integrations with payment services
#13. Version Updates
With new, improved versions offering enhanced functionality, keeping the store updated is what helps you leverage the many benefits that are on offer. Additionally, you can also leverage the strength of the Magento community that comes to aid should you need any inputs.
#14. Latest technology stack
With Magento 2 you work on upgraded and improved versions of tech stacks. Some of the common minimum versions supported include:
- PHP 5.5
- MySQL 5.6
- HTML5
- CSS3
#15. Customized Product attributes
Magento 2 offers you the advantage of choosing your own image, colour or text for your products. That it can go a long way in depicting the products that you have, far more effectively and therefore enhance sales, is a given!
#16. Improved Magento Module Store
With extensions and integrations available on the Magento store vetted by the Magento team, you can rest assured that all of them are of high quality and that their installation is seamless too.
#17. Improved scalability in terms of checkouts
For a large eCommerce store, improved scalability as far as checkouts are concerned are invaluable. Magento 2.0 with PHP 7 is seen to process as much as 135K more orders per hour. So ahead and hear those sales registers ring!
#18. Enhanced catalogue options
Magento 2 also offers the opportunity for scaling up catalogues. Not only are the catalog pages seen to load between 47%-56% faster, with the enhanced ability to handle configurable products, the customer will be spoilt for choices at your store.
#19. Enhanced user experience
It stands to reason that with improved performance, an easy check out process, site responsiveness and more, the overall user experience is heightened. In turn this leads to repeat customers , better reviews as also word of mouth publicity for your business, which can turn out to be invaluable
#20. Cost-Effective
While migration comes at an upfront cost, if one were to look at the long term perspective, Magento 2 costs far less to maintain and adds to the overall efficiency.
Your eCommerce store deserves the Magento 2 advantage! Go ahead and create a unique and engaging shopping experience.
Should you need any help with Magento migration services, we would be happy to help!