The Death of Magento 1: Get Ready to Upgrade to Magento 2 

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The end of life of Magento 1 is right around the corner. In September 2018, Adobe announced that the company would end support for Magento 1 in June of this year. And, if you haven’t migrated your online store to Magento 2 yet, your time has run out — you need to set a plan and execute it. 

Here, let’s explore what this means for your online store. 

• A summary of what current Magento 1 users can expect
• An insider view of the details of replatforming to Magento 2 

Here’s why you need to migrate your online stores to Magento 2 right away and how you can make it happen. 

In a Nutshell, How Will These Changes Affect Current Magento 1 Users? 

Magento 2 was released several years ago and includes enhanced features and updated systems for online stores. Since then, the company has been focusing more on the new platform and less on the old. The death of Magento 1 has been 

For some time now, Adobe has planned to shut down services for Magento 1. These services include support for Magento Commerce 1, formerly known as Enterprise Edition, and Magento Open Source 1, formerly known as Community Edition. Support includes quality fixes and security patches. 

So, any online stores that are still hosted in Magento 1 on June 1, 2020 will no longer have access to crucial updates or support from Adobe. 

What Happens if You Don’t Install Security Patches Regularly? 

Magento’s internal developers are continually on the hunt for vulnerabilities. They then find solutions for these holes in the system and offer them to Magento users. Security patches are a necessary component for websites that store sensitive data. 

Since all eCommerce stores use product and customer date, no access to security patches makes your website vulnerable. Without them, you put you and your customers at risk. 

Furthermore, you have a minimum standard of legally-mandated security measures that you must comply with. And, in less than a couple of months, Magento 1 stores will technically no longer be in compliance. 

So, you need these patches to keep you and your customers’ data safe and to avoid legal consequences. The only way to avoid them is to replatform your store. And, you now have less than two months to make it happen.

You may want to scan your site now to make sure you aren’t already vulnerable. 

Do You Have to Replatform to Magento 2? 

For one reason or another, you may not be super keen on the idea of moving to Magento 2. The short answer is that you can migrate your operations to any eCommerce platform you like. But, you need to think it through. 

So, here are some key considerations for replatforming.

1. Your new platform must have the capacity to handle your traffic volume.
2. Your budget must be able to pay for associated costs. 
3. Your new platform must be able to handle your growth goals. 
4. Your new platform must fit with your product offering. 
5. Your new platform must have the required integrations/add-ons/apps. 
6. Your new platform features must be able to facilitate your operations. 
7. You must consider your internal resources/staff. 
8. Your new platform must connect with all marketplaces you use. 

If you’ve been operating in the Magento 1 framework, it’s likely that Magento 2 will deliver the most compatibility with your processes. But, this may not necessarily be the case. So, if you find that Magento 2 isn’t the right solution, you should shop around and diligently research all available options. 

What Other eCommerce Platforms Should You Research? 

Countless eCommerce platforms are available for your consideration. At Gorgias, we have three favorites: 

1. Magento 2 – The latest version of Magento, a trusted platform for robust needs 
2. Shopify – The most user-friendly option for small to medium-sized stores
3. Shopify Plus – An enterprise version of Shopify for large retailers

Ultimately, you will want to consult with a developer who has experience with eCommerce replatforming to help you determine which solution is right for you. But, a switch from Magento to Shopify wouldn’t likely offer an ample solution. If you were to consider that switch, you would need to look into Shopify Plus. 

Recommended: Magento vs Shopify: An Honest eCommerce Platform Comparison

Now, Here’s What Convert Digital Had to Say About Replatforming out of Magento 1

Convert Digital is a web design and development company that specializes in eCommerce. They have worked with popular merchants like Cadbury, Cygnett, Puma, and O’neill to create thoughtfully-designed online shopping experiences. So, we asked them for an insider perspective so we could share it with our users who may still be running stores on Magento 1. . 

Q. When did you start offering Magento 2 development services to your clients?

1. Convert Digital were early adopters of the upgraded platform. We started offering Magento 2 when the platform was released in November 2015, before Magento 1 even had an end-of-life date. Initially, we worked predominantly with Magento Community but quickly started offering the Enterprise Commerce solution as our client’s needs grew. More recently, we have been working with Magento Cloud – a Magento SAAS offering.

Q. What is the scope of services you provide to Magento users?

1. Our service offering for our Magento clients is focused on design (both UX and interface), development of the platform, and systems integrations. We start any project with a thorough requirement gathering session to understand what the client wants to achieve before making a recommendation about an approach and what tools we need to pull out of our toolbox.

To kick off a Magento 1 > Magento 2 replatform, we would start with a requirement gathering session directly with the client then move into planning the platform and ecosystem structure that meets the needs of the client’s business. This architecture phase ensures that we’re creating a solution that takes all of the client’s existing (sometimes legacy) business tools into account and integrates new features and tools (like Gorgias!) into their brand new ecosystem. Often, we find that the older Magento 1 sites have unrequired extensions. 

And, our focus with a replatform is to create a clean slate, utilizing as much of Magento 2 core as possible. The key commonality across all upgrade projects is the data migration phase – where we take all customer, product and historical sales data from the Magento 1 and migrate them to Magento 2. This is often a very big job but Magento offers a great suite of tools to handle this part.

When it comes to front-end design and updating the look and feel of the site we’re migrating, our UX audits are a goldmine of information and opportunity! We analyze existing store data in conjunction with a visual overview to learn how users are interacting with our client’s site to design a shiny new experience aimed at hitting the client’s business goals. Usually, these goals fall into lead generation, revenue-driving or database growth.

For the strategy side of things, we prefer to partner with trusted SEO & marketing experts to take their advice on how to approach URL redirects and SEO management. When a business has invested heavily in building an SEO reputation, a migration can really affect their position if not handled correctly.

Q. How long does migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 typically take?

1. Once we map out the requirements for the replatform a migration typically takes between 12 – 16 weeks. However, a simple site with minimal integration can be completed in as little as 6 – 8 weeks.

Q. Do any of your clients still host their stores with Magento 1?

1. Yes! We have a handful of clients on our books that are still working with the Magento 1 platform. Most are SMB’s who are defining their business requirements to make an informed decision on how to approach the upgrade.

Q. Are Magento 1 users experiencing unnecessary difficulties that could be resolved by making the switch to Magento 2?

1. Merchants on Magento 1 will find that it is becoming increasingly difficult to add new features to these stores, as fewer extension developers support Magento 1 and shift focus exclusively towards Magento 2 feature development instead. Merchants who have a B2B element to their business are also better suited for Magento 2, which offers a host of native Commerce features

specifically created for this type of trade. Another feature that was been highly anticipated and praised is the Magento MSI – the multi inventory feature that allows merchants to easily manage inventory across multiple warehouses.

Q. What do you think will happen to online stores that put off migration until after the June 2020 deadline?

1. The major risk is that Magento will no longer provide 1st party security patches for the platform. Beyond this, nothing inherently dramatic will happen to stores that are still working with Magento 1 after the June deadline. 

Beyond the security threats, the only major change will be that these online stores will unlikely be able to add new features to their stores and will have a tougher time fixing on-site bugs.That being said, our strong recommendation is for all sites to be off Magento ahead of June 30th.

Q. What data migration tools do you recommend (if any)?

1. Magento offers a Data Migration Tool that efficiently allows for the moving of all product customer, order and store configuration data directly into Magento 2. Sometimes we also work with RapidFlow, a powerful data import extension available for both Magento 1 and Magento 2. Very useful for bulk importing products. It can be used in integrations that use flat files as an alternative to API.

Q. What are the top features of Magento 2 that Magento 1 does not have?

1. There are many features we’re excited about with Magento 2. To highlight some, Magento 2 supports the latest PHP version (5.6x and higher) which significantly improves the overall speed of a site – a major conversion benefit. In addition to this, full-page caching which allows for processing of more order per hour, and a PCI compliance element – which offers a more secure transactional experience for site users. 

There are plenty of out of the box integrations available directly in the base Magento install itself – tools like Braintree, Paypal Express, Amazon Pay, Dotdigital, Signifyed, Klarna, Yotpo, Multi warehouse, B2B (commerce) as well as a drag and drop page editor. The one we are most excited about is a multi-store inventory (MSI) that allows enterprise clients to manage store inventory from multiple locations.

Q. Is there anything else that you think online retailers should know about making the switch to the updated platform?

1. Invest your development budget into creating an optimal store experience – not bug fixing and security maintenance – if you can. Today’s landscape has really demonstrated how important a stable, secure and user-relevant online experience actually is. 

As budgets become stretched and every dollar spent demands an optimal return on investment, consider whether your development budget is better used to manage a legacy platform or invested into a migration where your online store objective becomes entirely focused on meeting the needs of your customers.

Conclusion

Now, you should understand that your Magento 1 store needs to be migrated to another platform. And, you have less than two months to finish a job that is likely to take more than six weeks.  Convert Digital is open to help you make the transition and you can contact them today to get started. 

Is Magento 1 still supported? 

Adobe will provide quality fixes and security patches for users through June 1, 2020. After this date, they will only offer support for Magento 2. 

Ashley Kimler is an eCommerce specialist who has been selling online and helping both small businesses and enterprise companies with their online sales marketing for nearly 15 years. Follow @gorgiasio and @ashleykimler on Twitter to read more expert advice.