As you may well have heard, Magento announced the official End of Life (EOL) date for Magento 1. As of June 2020, Magento 1 websites will no longer be supported leaving the 250,000 retailers who currently use the platform with just 11 months to migrate to the new and improved Magento, version 2.
If you are one of these retailers, you may be worried about how these changes are going to impact your business and what you should do next? Migration is a complex and timely process; you should consider your options now and ensure you choose an experienced agency (like us!) to complete the project.
Time for an upgrade?
EOL for Magento 1 is fast approaching, but they’ve been kind enough to provide enough time and information to make the transition as smooth as possible for the community. But only if you act quickly. Magento’s blog reinforces the impact of their announcement, confirming software support for both Commerce and Open Source versions through to June 2020.
Upgrading to Magento 2 is more than just a migration, it is effectively a new platform. To ensure a smooth transition, Magento merchants should treat the process as they would a new site, leaving plenty of time to complete the build before M1 support ends. Magento 2 provides even more functionality than previous versions, with additional eCommerce features including:
- Faster loading times
- Engaging shopping experiences
- A responsive experience on any device
- More flexibility for customisable features
- Enhanced B2B and B2C features
- Guest and Two-Step Checkout
- Easier maintenance and upgrades
Aiming to extend functionality and make it a more attractive platform, Magento 2 brings major technical improvements to front and backend development as well as enhanced performance.
Back in September 2018, Magento quoted impressive figures for it’s adoption, commenting that they’re “seeing tremendous community and market momentum for Magento 2 as a whole, now with more than 2,000 available extensions, new capabilities launching quarterly, and over 8,000 new quarterly Magento 2 site launches on top of 30,000 existing Magento 2 sites.”. And now, with the launch of Magento 2.3 in recent weeks, clearly a Magento 2 upgrade has a lot to offer, but naturally, you’ll be wondering just how a migration will affect your eCommerce site.
How will this affect your business?
Although a daunting prospect, upgrading your website’s platform should be viewed as an opportunity. Magento 2 offers new features that can enhance growth and improve user experience. This transition presents a time for innovation, reflection and improvement, giving businesses the push to consider what is working well and what needs to be reworked to optimise results for the future.
Not upgrading to Magento 2 could present some unnerving risks. Your website will no longer be supported meaning all retailers still using the platform when EOL takes place will be easy targets for website attacks, server attacks, spam attacks and general security breaches. Additionally, when newer versions of PHP, MySQL and other related technologies become deprecated, Magento will not be releasing patches which will leave stores uncompliant with PCI regulations and open to heightened security threats.
You must consider your competition too. New eCommerce sites are already being designed and developed with Magento 2, increasing your competitor benchmark. Ultimately, our aim is to prepare you so if you choose to upgrade, the project takes place with minimal disruption or downtime.
Planning your migration
If you’re looking to take the next step with your website, then an upgrade to Magento 2 could be a step in the right direction. The countdown to June 2020 is on, providing an exciting opportunity to take advantage of performance improvements and security enhancements of Magento 2.
Although Magento 2 has been around since 2015, it is still considered as relatively new and many agencies don’t yet have experience working with it. As our preferred platform and an official Solutions Partner, we only build in Magento.
This article goes through some of the pros and cons to consider when moving across to Magento 2. Contact us to discuss your Magento 2 migration requirements and how we can successfully help you.
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