Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration Explained

Magento 1 End of Life

Magento 2 migration has become imminent. If you’re an owner of a Magento shop then I’m sure you are, to some extent, aware of the Magento 1 terminal condition. It’s been gossiped about for a while and even expected to happen as early as in 2018 but now has become official - there will be no more updates and patches as of June 2020. 

And we’re not only speaking improvements or new features - this also concerns security and maintenance patches. The entire software will slowly become more and more obsolete and prone to errors, data leaks and whatnot.

What’s more, the third-party plugins manufacturers have already largely switched to Magento 2 leaving the trusty, old version to eventually expire completely.

Start planning Magento 2 migration right away

Depending on when you are reading this, you may have about a year to proceed with migrating your store to Magento 2. It may seem like a lot of time, but actually, it’s only about enough.

I’m not telling you to migrate tomorrow, but you should at the very least start planning today. The Magento 2 upgrade is not a simple update and because of the multiple technological improvements, your best (and only) option will likely be to rebuild the site from the ground up. You’re looking at weeks or even months of planning, assessing and development.

What you gain with Magento 2?

If it sounds like a lot of hassle it’s probably because it is. But it is worth it. Magento 2 is faster, more feature-rich and user-friendly. Many features you currently need a custom plugin for, may very well be available out of the box in Magento 2. Making the pages load up to 20% faster can drastically improve your conversions and decrease the checkout abandonment rate.

As certified Magento developers, at Magently we have lots of experience with Magento 1 and 2. If you have any doubts, just have us audit your site and see how it all applies to your business. 

Choose your steps carefully

The migration is like going to be a significant event in your business's lifetime. A new store brings new possibilities - you can finally revamp this vintage 2000’s layout, get rid of these dust-covered extensions you forgot what they even do, introduce some long-wanted features and simplify the code structure.

It all sounds really great and uplifting. Except - don’t do it. Or at least don’t do it all at the same time. If something goes wrong and your sales drop by 30%, you want to be able to point at the guilty immediately and it’s really hard when you just changed literally everything about your shop.

At Magently, Magento 2 migration is our core service. We can help you make all the tough decisions and audit your shop. Feel free to drop us a line or schedule a call. We’re there to get you started!