Today’s post is a collaboration between Deploy eCommerce and Prostack. Deploy is a specialist Magento agency with a wealth of experience in e-commerce development and integration.
Magento 1 has served businesses brilliantly since it’s launch in 2008. Over that time, the pace of change in e-commerce had accelerated to the point where incremental updates to Magento 1 weren’t going adequately support that pace.
Magento 2 is the result of years of research and development and is very much a platform with significant opportunity not just to handle the requirements of a modern e-commerce business, but also provide the environment for growth and evolution.
We know that running anything outdated on the Internet is always a risk, and with Magento 1 no longer receiving maintenance and security updates, it’s important to think about a path to upgrade. Let’s explore some of the benefits of moving to Magento 2, as well as some of the new features to look forward to.
Why should you upgrade?
– Security: Adobe are no longer issuing patches for Magento 1, which is bad news for the security of the product. This means that any vulnerabilities that may be discovered will not be patched, which could leave your store open to exploit. Whilst we at Prostack run a comprehensive suite of security tools, if your software is vulnerable this could cause problems- deletion of data, theft of sensitive information, and malware infection are all risks associated with running outdated software.
– Performance. Magento 2 has significant improvements to performance and scalability. Not only is it capable of handling more visitors per hour, but pages also load around 30-50% faster, and we know that faster page loads can have a direct effect on visitor engagement. Magento 2 also has better integration with caching systems, including native Redis and Varnish support.
– Customer (and owner) experience: Magento 2 introduces a number of improvements to the user experience, both from a store owner and a visitor’s perspective. The checkout process is streamlined to be faster, simpler and requires less information from the customer, which can boost conversion rates. Magento has also made improvements to search (and now utilises Elasticsearch as the default engine) in order to make it quicker for your customers to find the products they want. For store owners, the admin interface is now much less cluttered and easier to navigate.
How straightforward is the process?
In the early days, there was some trepidation at the prospect of moving to Magento 2 and that was understandable. But with Magento currently hitting version 2.4, not only can merchants be comfortable with the platform’s stability, but there is also a good degree of positive evolution since the launch of Magento 2.0 too. For example, in the early days of M2 release, not all Magento 1 extensions had Magento 2 equivalents. That’s rarely the case now, and the Magento 2 marketplace could be considered quite mature. Also, the pace of e-commerce means as new technologies hit the market, they will be built with Magento 2 integration in mind. So at some point, merchants still on Magento 1 may find their competitors who have migrated may have an advantage. That’s not to mention the topics of security and vulnerabilities that an unsupported platform brings.
How can Deploy help?
At Deploy, we’ve undertaken a good number of varied migrations from Magento 1 to Magento 2. Not just our own clients, but also clients who approached us to help them migrate. Every project is different of course, and some migrations are a little more involved than others, but in reality, there isn’t anything to be concerned about. We can migrate efficiently and effectively, both from a time and budget perspective. In fact, it’s probably more complicated to migrate to a different platform, as more challenges exist around data migration and the learning curve of managing a new platform. We’ve even seen a number of businesses looking to move back to Magento after experiences of migrating to completely different software.
We’re always happy to try to help people understand the process, what their own migration specifically might look like and share the benefit of experience.
How can Prostack help?
At Prostack we have expertise in running both versions of Magento and understand the complexities of each. Here’s how we can help ensure your migration goes smoothly:
– Advice and support: We can help get your Magento 2 project off to a flying start by ensuring you’re running the right server for your needs, traffic levels and store size. Whether you’re working with an agency partner (such as Deploy) or handling the process in-house, our expert team is here to help.
– Optimised server environments: We can offer tuned and tailored stacks designed specifically for Magento 2, including modern PHP versions, Elasticsearch (the new default search engine), caching layers (Redis, Varnish) and for more advanced requirements, asynchronous message queues such as RabbitMQ. We also perform regular health check-ups on your server to make sure you’re getting the best performance possible.
If you’re interested in exploring our Magento 2 hosting options, click here to chat with us and find out more.
If your project is more in-depth and could benefit from Deploy’s expertise, check out their website at www.deploy.co.uk.