“Change is the only constant in this world, and if you don’t change with the time, the time will make you history”
The above quote holds completely true in general as well as in business both traditional and e-commerce. Speaking of eCommerce industry, Magento has been ruling the arena for years. If reports are to be believed, Magneto powers over 250,000 online stores and holds 14% of the market share for e-commerce.
In one of the updates, it was announced that Magento will no longer support 1.x versions starting from November 2018. This created a sense of urgency among the online store merchants to prioritize their shift to Magento 2.0 rather sooner than later. Sensing the need of the hour, Magento has released an official update stating that it will be providing Magento Commerce 1 support through June 2020. Serious contemplations are being made by online store merchants whether they should migrate their store from Magento 1 to Magento 2. If you are already using Magento 1.0 and have made decision to upgrade to the latest version, the best way is to avail Magento2 upgrade servicesfrom an expert provider. Here are some things that you should know before you go ahead with the migration:
5 Things To Know Before You Migrate to Magento2
1. Magento2 Migration Challenges
Let’s cut the crap and face the truth – migrating to the latest iteration of Magento, by no means, the easiest of upgradation processes. The architecture and database design of Magento2 is completely different from its former versions. Though Magento has estimated that the upgradation to the latest version is just 20% larger as compared to the Magento 1.x upgrade, yet the amount of time and efforts required to move to Magento 2 varies on numerous things, like, the number of customizations involved, the number of extensions running on your store, and general complexity.
2. Extension Migration
Migration of the pre-installed extensions on your store to Magento2 could require some additional effort. You must have been using multiple extensions on your e-commerce store to augment its functionality. If you are using several third-party extensions on your store, it could be possible that you have come to realize that there are some extensions that you use frequently and need some upgradation, while there are some that are hardly used.
Before you start doing extension migration, it is suggested wise to shortlist the ones that you want to be in your upgraded store and discard the ones that are offering redundant features. Once you are done with the shortlisting task, it would be imperative to check whether the upgraded versions are available for the ones you’ve shortlisted. If yes, extension migration would become an easy task. If not, you’ve to built those same extensions from scratch for your new store (Magento2) rather than doing an extension migration task.
3. Theme Migration
Theme migration is an important part of this latest upgrade. Magento2 aims at delivering seamless shopping experiences to the customers, which gives you a plus point and advocates the support of Magento2. Since Magento2 is different from Magento 1 in many aspects, the themes from your old e-commerce store (Magento 1) might not be directly moved and utilized in Magento2 store.
Instead, when you move to Magento2, you’ve to built theme for your new store from scratch like several extensions which are not upgradable. In order to provide your customers with a robust, interactive and responsive website, you will need to work on the custom theme development.
4. Performance Consideration
Despite proper planning and implementation, it is quite possible that the migration from Magento1 to Magento2 may not work perfectly and you may encounter some errors. Always be ready to expect some weird error messages. And, don’t need to panic. Many times, the migration process doesn’t always run as smooth as it is expected and getting a few error messages is normal; simply reach out to a certified Magento expert or a Magento development company to fix things up.
5. Don’t forget to check your server compatibility
Before you start doing the migration, you would be required to check your server compatibility with Magento2. Always check the server requirements for Magento 2, then only begin the upgradation.
The bottom line
Making a move to the latest iteration of Magento may not seem feasible at first sight but it is the best decision that you will ever make for your online store. If you want to stay abreast of the latest advancement in the e-commerce community, you should consider making a shift from Magento 1 to Magento 2. While the migration could be a boring and monotonous process, right planning and precise execution can make things easier for you. As suggested in the beginning, it would be wise if you hire a certified Magento expert who knows what works best for your store and securely migrate your data to Magento2 store without any data loss.
