Adobe announced its acquisition of Magento in May 2018. Soon thereafter, they announced that support for Magento 1 will be discontinued. As you’ve probably heard by now, the date that support will end has been set for June 2020. If you’re currently still using Magento 1, it’s time to migrate to Magento 2. Here are all the details about the new version.
What is Magento 2?
Magento 2 is the latest version of the popular Adobe eCommerce software solution. Here are the basics you need to know about this software to see if it’s a good fit for your website.
Future-Readiness
You want your eCommerce business to evolve with technological advances, so Magento 2 is flexible and forward-thinking to posture your business for change. It uses the newest technology and features like Apache/Nginx MySql, LAMP stack – Linux, PHP with the latest versions of each. It also uses techniques like Full Page Caching, Database Clustering, Performance Monitoring through New Relic, Blackfire.io, PagebuilderWYSIWYG COMS, Extended Reporting through Magento Business Intelligence, and Magento Shipping. To transform the way consumers and merchants do business through mobile, this software introduces Magento PWA Studio to harness Progressive Web App technology.
Flexibility
Magento 2 offers interoperability and flexibility via APIs. Over time this allows merchants and partners to adjust to the changing eCommerce environment far into the future.
Multiple Versions
Adobe offers multiple versions of Magento 2 to best suit your business needs.
- Magento 2 Open Source – If you run a small business, this free, open-source version may be right for you. It does not come with account management or technical support. It also does not have some of the capabilities tied to conversion, efficiency, and scalability that Magento Commerce 2 has.
- Magento Commerce 2 – Medium to large businesses will likely need this version as it comes with extensive marketing, management, B2B, and business intelligence options.
What Does Discontinued Support of Magento 1 Mean?
For all Magento open source 1 sites, software security patches will be supported through this June. For Magento Commerce 1 sites, software support will remain active through this time frame as well. This means your current M1 site will be secure and compliant, but only until June 2020. In addition to the overall impending transition to Magento 2, Magento’s Community Management team released this reminder:
“Magento software support and/or security maintenance apply only to Magento software and does not apply to third party extensions or customizations. Maintenance of extensions, customization or other modifications to the Magento codebase, including compliance with security and privacy standards (PCI, SOC, ISO, etc.), are the express responsibility of the merchant.”
What does this mean for you and your eCommerce business? Well, in short, you’ll need to migrate your site over to Magento 2. And now we can confidently advise: you’ll want to do this sooner, rather than later.
Once the discontinuation date passes your Magento 1 eCommerce store will no longer be secure. If any bugs pop up, they can be fixed, but it will require a certified developer. If your store has not been migrated to Magento 2, published as a live site, and QA’ed for any issues, you stand the chance of losing functionality on your platform, thus losing revenue.
There are currently more than a quarter of a million merchants using Magento Commerce worldwide. While we don’t have an exact number, many thousands of businesses may be migrating to Magento 2 over the next few months.
Why Should I Migrate to Magento 2?
With the end of support for Magento 1 coming this June, get started on your migration now. Here are a few reasons to migrate to Magento 2.
1. Better Performance
You can increase your search engine rankings and sales with a faster eCommerce site. Magento 2 sites will run on average 20% faster than Magento 1 sites.
2. Improved Admin Interface
If you found Magento 1’s user interface confusing, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. The new version offers a user-friendly experience designed for the most non-technical users. You’ll be able to navigate the tools and add new product listings quickly and easily.
3. Mobile-Friendly
As more customers shop on smartphones, it’s important to have a site that caters to their needs. Magento 2 prioritizes mobile commerce. Customers can have an even further enhanced experience with the PWA Studio release in Magento 2.3.
4. Streamlined Checkout
The 6-step checkout process from Magento 1 has been streamlined to 2 steps in Magento 2 — that’s almost as effective as Amazon’s 1-Click Ordering function. The new Instant Purchase feature offers returning customers a fast checkout by storing payment credentials and shipping information. Sites with easier checkouts yield increased sales. According to a 2018 study by The Baymard Institute, 26% of people who abandon their cart at checkout do so because of a long and complicated checkout process. Salvage those sales by streamlining your checkout process.
5. Magento 1 Security Patches Will be Discontinued
You’ve worked hard to build your eCommerce business. Don’t allow your business to be vulnerable to hacks. Once security patches are discontinued your business could be at risk.
6. No Innovation on Your Site if you Stay with Magneto 1
To stay competitive in the eCommerce landscape you need to evolve with technology. If you keep your site running on outdated software you could lose out on sales to other sites with updated technology that gives customers the best possible shopping experience.
How do I migrate to Magento 2?
If you’ve decided Magneto 2 is the best option, here are the basic steps for migrating your site.
- Review your current site data and extensions. Figure out which extensions are part of the Magento 2 code. Simplify your migration by removing outdated and redundant data from your Magento 1.x database. You may find you need far fewer customizations for Magento 2 than you did with Magento 1.
- Build and prep your Magento 2 store for migration. As a best practice, replicate your Magento 1.x database to provide redundancy in case you have unexpected issues. Use the replicated database as the source data for your migration.
- Perform a dry run. You should cease all administrative activity on both your Magneto 1x and Magento 2 during both your migration test runs and actual data migration. Go through all the migration steps on your testing environment before you start migration on the production environment.
- Use the Data Migration Tool to start migrating your data. After your dry run is complete you can start your actual data migration. The tool migrates customers, catalogues, orders, shipment, and your core configuration. This tool will not seamlessly migrate your custom data, admin rights, media files, and custom technical aspects.
- Migrate Magento 1 theme to Magento 2 and make User Interface level changes. Make changes to your migrated data as needed.
- Update incremental data after migrating data by gradually collecting the data updates that have been added in the Magento 1 store (for example, new orders and reviews). To transfer these updates to the Magento 2 store go into Delta mode.
- Make your site live. Once your site is functional you can go live and resume taking orders.
Need Help Migrating Your eCommerce Site to Magento 2?
It’s important to get the ball rolling on your migration now so you can keep your business safe and running properly. If you have yet to identify a team to help execute your migration to Magento 2, we can help. Get in touch with Donny, our CEO & Head of Development here to discuss your Magento 2 migration project.