Do I really need to upgrade to Magento 2?
The long-short of it is, yes.
At some point, if you’re running Magento 1 and plan on continuing to use the Magento platform you’ll need to make the switch.
In this case, it’s less a question of ‘if’ but a discussion of ‘when’.
Remember, according to Magento’s blog they’ll only continue software support until June 2020. This includes things like security patches, bug fixes, and will slowly start increasing the price of development costs for Magento sites.
To help you, we’ll answer the most commonly asked questions about upgrading to Magento 2!
What level of customisation does it have?
Because of the way Magento 2 has been designed it mean’s you’ll have the ability to customise your sight in a way that simply wasn’t possible in Magento 1.
You’ll be able to do more things out of the box. If you remember in order for Magento 1 to do certain functions you’d have to buy plug-ins. Sometimes those plugins weren’t updated regularly or in timing with security patches and would then break.
New extensions on Magento 2 follow the Sales as a Service model and are billed as a monthly subscription to ensure they stay updated in line with any patches from Magento.
You may initially be looking at an increased cost in plugins but we’ll discuss this with you to find the most economically viable solution for your business and growth plans.
Why will this be beneficial to me or my customers?
There are so many benefits to switching to Magento 2 in the next year. Here are a few we’re looking forward to!
Advanced search functionality
We’ve all experienced this we go to a brand site in search of the product we’re ready to buy. Only to pop the name of the item in the website search bar and have it not return the product. Then you’ll likely go to Google or your trusted search engine repeat the search and be directed to the correct brand page with the product you want to purchase.
The new search function in Magento 2 will have what’s called an elastic search on both the website for your customers and on the back end (admin) side — so everyone can find exactly what they’re looking for faster and easier.
Advanced shipping
Many of our existing clients phone up asking to make relatively simple changes to their shipping offerings. However, in Magento 1 this can be quite a complicated process and may take a substantial amount of time — either to build a solution or to try and find a plugin for that specific functionality.
However, Magento 2 will have easy to configure shipping offerings, including cost, carriers, and even a table of rates. This can be especially useful if your business delivers its own products and needs flexible shipping and delivery options for local or national customers.
Improved payments
Magento 2 allows you to incorporate a large variety of payment solutions including Square Payments, Amazon Pay, Braintree, Paypal and other one-step checkouts with multiple payment options some including bank transfers.
Additionally, Magento 2 will enable the option for your customers to instantly purchase products from your store similarly to how they might use other online sellers like Amazon and eBay.
When is the best time to migrate?
The best time to start a migration project is anywhere from 2 to 7 months or longer before you intend to have the new website up and running.
You’ll probably be surprised by the volume of decisions you’ll need to make! Migrating data and building a completely new site on the Magento 2 platform is a complicated project with lots of moving parts.
Many of the decisions and issues may require your direct input and consideration before proceeding. Given the size of some businesses, you may also need approval from other parties before proceeding.
For this reason, we recommend starting your migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 as soon as possible. The sooner you start the conversations the sooner you can prepare for the new platform.
What can you do during the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2?
One of the best parts about building your website on a new platform is updating your website design. Sometimes you can be restricted by existing templates or themes — upgrading will give you more freedom to explore options for a new design!
You can consider adding new options to existing functions or incorporate things like Omnichannel purchasing.
Or even better, you can start looking to replace old integrations which may be impacting your website.
How much will it cost to switch to Magento 2?
The basic costings for Magento 2 will be different than Magento 1. However, the longer you try to hold onto your Magento 1 website the more cost might be added to simply maintain or keep your site running.
This is because new or existing developers will prefer to put hours into the new Magento 2 websites and may not want to work on Magento 1 anymore. The lack of developers willing to work on the project may mean you’ll have to pay a premium for the service.
Unfortunately, it’s how things work in the technology industry, legacy systems are difficult and costly to maintain. We recommend our customers consider upgrading sooner rather than later because it can help keep your site and business more secure.
The important thing to remember is, upgrading your e-commerce platform is a lot like upgrading other technology in your home — there comes a time when the items you have become too old and they break, stop working, or simply don’t meet your needs anymore.
So, why not head all that off at the pass and start the upgrade process today!
We’ve got decades of experience building and developing e-commerce platforms – plus, we’ve recently done several data customer, product, and business migration projects to newer platforms like Magento 2.
Our expert in-house team will do all the heavy lifting so you can focus on running your business.
For the most accurate costings for a migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 we recommend you book a FREE business audit today!
