Support for Magento 1 is due to come to an end in three short years. That means it’s time to talk about what you really need to consider when moving to from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
Working in client services at Diligent means I’ve had the opportunity to oversee numerous completed Magento 2 projects over the last year, with more currently in development. I’m pleased to say each project has been delivered on time and within budget, and we believe the success of each one has been down to the thorough definition phase with the project’s dedicated manager at the beginning stages.
We’ve taken time to understand each client’s business goals, objectives and long term vision for their brand online, which helps our team to leverage creative ecommerce solutions that are tailored to their needs.
Based on this experience, and insight into each project — some of which I’ve directly managed myself — I wanted to share my top 5 things that you need to know before you move from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
1. The Benefits of Magento 2
Magento 2 has superior functionality and manageability compared to its predecessor. Magento really took it to a whole new level and created the most user-friendly and balanced ecommerce platform yet! New features include:
New-user friendly admin panel — users can customise the panel so important business information can be quickly accessed. This means each panel can be personalised to each user helping improve the productivity of managing products, orders and customer data
New admin security — now only one person can be logged in per admin user account. If a user tries to log in with the same admin account, other users will be logged out
Manage on the go — users can now access their store easily via a tablet or mobile devices
Improved speed — 50% faster page load speed across checkout pages and catalogue to improve customer experience
Checkout scalability — Powered by entirely new, next-generation architecture, Magento 2 it can handle much more than Magento 1
Secure payments — Magento 2 offers built-in integration with payment gateways like PayPal, Braintree, and Authorize.net
2. To Re-Design or not Re-Design?
Migrating to Magento 2 is not only a great opportunity to ensure your site looks is as cutting-edge as the underlying software but opportunity to refresh specific site areas that you want to focus on. Maybe HotJar is telling you some features on your PDP aren’t being clicked on as much as you want them to, well now is the time to revisit Design and UX to make your website future-ready.
Either way, your checkout will be re-designed to pull your branding/styling through to the new checkout experience on Magneto 2.
Some of our clients have opted for a full re-design when migrating and this has allowed us to sit with them and review their Analytics, testing results alongside their ecommerce goals, to create a website experience that’s truly performance focussed.
3. Extensions Refresh
Over time your website can collect extensions that you might only use for a matter of months while a new process is being ironed out. Now all of those skeletons in the closet can be cleaned out, assessed and re-built to improve functionality.
We can work with you directly to source suitable extensions and modules that will replace the ones you want to keep, but a good starting point is the new Magento Marketplace. Plus, all of our hand-chosen Technology Partners are Magento 2 ready, so you can rest easy!
4. Long Term Ecommerce Success — Time to Prepare
Preparing for long term ecommerce success on Magneto 2 needs to begin now as it takes time, careful planning and strategy to ensure an easy and successful migration. By taking points one to three in this post on board, you can start laying out your roadmap and setting your key milestones now to ensure a smooth transition.
It goes without saying that Magento 2 is a big opportunity for merchants to improve their ecommerce experience online, not just for their customers, but for their internal teams as well. But how long will it take? Based on experience, we believe retailers should give themselves at least six months to migrate between Magento 1 and Magento 2. If you want to redesign your site and add new features, the process can take even longer. It’s time for retailers to start planning their move now, before support for Magento 1 ends, otherwise, you might see cracks beginning to appear in your online store.
Five. The Cost of Moving to Magento 2 — an Investment in Success
Magento 1 and Magento 2 rely on totally different core frameworks. Most media outlets, bloggers etc are terming the move as a ‘migration’ but behind the scenes, the entire site is being re-built from scratch on the new framework with better code, performance, checkout experience and customisations.
The cost of moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is very much dependent on the complexity of your current website as well — how many integrations, front end and back end customisations, modules/extensions and any bespoke tweaks made there, store views etc — will all influence the time required, and therefore the cost, to re-build your website on Magento 2. If you really want a fast turnaround, then we’d definitely recommend working with an experienced agency.
Magento’s stats show that for both standard and complex Magento 2 site re-builds, the majority of the resource and cost goes towards the front end, customisations, extensions and integrations. Magento has built a tool for Developers, which is available in GitHub, to help streamline the process though and it’s what we use when completing our migration projects.
We can help!
Working with an agency that has proven success and experience with designing, developing and launching Magento 2 projects on time is key to the agency selection process.
The multi-award-winning Diligent team has a great deal of Magento 2 ecommerce experience for fashion and lifestyle brands and is helping its clients to drive measurable results.
