Magento is the most popular platform for online stores. It is flexible, scalable, and highly customizable. The very first version was released in 2008, and since that time Magento took 20% of all online stores in the world.
The latest version, Magento 2, was released in 2015. The feedback from thousands of customers and their own developer ideas allowed the platform to be faster, more powerful, more scalable and easier to use.
Sooner or later you will have to replatform your current website to the newest Magento 2 as it a necessary step for every online store that seeks to increase sales and overperform the competitors. And although the creators of Magento 2 have made migration to the new platform relatively simple, the business owners still not sure whether it is reasonable.
Let’s review the things to know before replatforming to Magento 2 and why it is good to upgrade to the newest version.
The benefits of Magento 2
- Increased speed. The Magento 2 online store pages are loaded on average 50% faster than Magento 1. Therefore, more users stay on the site and complete the order. In addition, the increased speed has a positive impact on SEO, its features were also expanded in the new version of the platform.
- A more convenient admin panel. Content management in Magento 2 has become more user-friendly and intuitive thanks to drag and drop menus, drop down lists, filters, flexible admin panel settings, and more. All this allows the administrator to do more in a shorter time.
- Built-in testing. From now on, you will be able to test changes before applying them on your site. It helps to avoid errors and make the necessary changes to the site in a simpler and quicker way.
Simplified order processing. Making an order is one of the most important stages in the relationship between the user and the site, which directly depends on the level of conversions. In Magento 2, the process of ordering significantly improved. In particular, there is no longer a need to specify a type of credit card, and data about the first order will fall into your personal cabinet, even if the user has already registered after the order.
As a result, Magento 2 has become more convenient, functional and fast, which directly affects the conversion rate of the online store and, thus, its profit.
What to know before replatforming to Magento 2?
1. No official support
The main reason to move the online store to Magento 2 is that since June 2020, Magento will officially stop supporting the Magento 1 platform. The platform will no longer release updates for modules and extensions. Moreover, they will stop releasing the security patches – your customers’ data will be at risk. Since migration is a rather complicated and lengthy process, it’s worth starting the replatforming now to have time to complete all the steps correctly.
2. You can’t upgrade the Magento 1 theme
The theme is a key component of e-commerce website layout and interface. So, it is very important to use a similar interface in Magento 2. However, it is impossible to migrate the theme from Magento 1 to Magento 2. Therefore, in such cases, there are several possible solutions: customize the new theme to look identical to the previous one or create a Magento 2 theme from scratch to fully meet the requirements of your business.
3. Magento 1 extensions don’t work on Magento 2
The extensions allow adding some extra features to the website. Like themes, the new extensions will not work on the old platform. There are also two possible solutions: built the new extension from scratch or use another one with similar options.
4. Possible reduce of the website efficiency
It may include loss of important data, slow work during migration, and lower positions in search engines. To avoid that, hire a developer to maximally optimize the online store on Magento 1, avoid replatforming in the periods of high loads, and inform the customers about the website upgrade.
5. Third-party modules integration
With the older version of the e-commerce platform, you may use the older versions of the third-party modules. Migrating to Magento 2, consider your current instruments – maybe there are better and more effective solutions – for warehouse management, CRM, etc.
Based on previous experience, we can safely say that the replatforming the online store to Magento 2 is a very complicated process that requires great preparations. Therefore, we strongly recommend hiring a team of e-commerce developers to help you migrate without losing important data.