This overview provides guidance to the Magento 1. x store owners who are looking to move to the latest Magento 2. This will help you determine how to approach your migration process.

Do need to migrate to Magento 2?

Magento announced that they will be ending support for Magento 1. x by June 2020. Even though their support has not ended yet, it is clear the days of Magento 1. x is numbered.

If you are likely to stay on Magento 1, the below points have to keep in mind:

• No Security patches released for Magento 1. x versions once support ends;
• No new innovation or features will be added on Magento 1. x because all of the innovation that is needed to stay competitive is happening on Magento 2;
• Risk of hacks, as Magento 1 will become increasingly vulnerable as the code grows older;
• Magento 2 stores come with a competitive advantage based on features and functionality

Running unsupported software is extremely risky, so we would recommend you to move to Magento 2 at the earliest if you have not yet done so. The time required for migration can vary based on your existing site, but a safe bet is to allow a minimum of 3 months. Again remember, this time duration is totally dependent on the level of customization you have done on the existing Magento 1 website.

What does Magento 2 offer?

Magento 2 was released back in 2015 as the latest version of the Magento eCommerce platform. Magento 2 utilizes the latest technologies and versions of LAMP stack – Linux, Apache/Nginx MySql, PHP as well as other techniques like Database Clustering, Full Page Caching, Pagebuilder WYSIWYG CMS, Extended Reporting, Performance Monitoring through New Relic, Blackfire.io. Magento 2 also introduces Magento PWA Studio in the 2.3 version to harness Progressive Web App technology and transform the way consumers—and merchants—conduct business through mobile.

Magento 2 offers beneficial features that resolve issues many encountered with Magento 1 such as:

• Improved Performance: Magento 2 sites will run on average 20% faster than Magento 1 sites. Highly performant sites have been proven to increase sales and improve search engine rankings.
• Minimal Checkout Process: Magento 1 has a six steps checkout process, while Magento 2 offers a simple 2 step checkout process and the Instant Purchase feature. With Instant Purchase merchants can now offer returning customers a faster checkout experience by using previously-stored payment credentials and shipping information to skip checkout steps altogether, taking them to a confirmation purchase page. These user experience helps to increase sales.
• Responsive Admin Interface: Magento 2 offers a clean, responsive, user-friendly experience where even the most non-technical users can find tools and add new product listings with ease.
• Mobile-Friendly: With more customers than ever shopping on smartphones, it is imperative to have a mobile responsive site. Magento 1 sites did not deliver optimum performance on mobile devices, but Magento 2 makes mobile commerce a priority. With the release of Progressive Web Application (PWA) Studio in Magento 2.3, customers can take their mobile performance even further.

Prerequisites with a Magento 2 migration

Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 involves core changes including database structures, and themes, and working with a new API. To avoid data loss and downtime, you will want to have a migration expert.

At the same time of migration, you can consider the website upgrade/update and work with specialists in user experience and technology to get your E-Commerce site fit for the next level of digital growth.

How to plan migration?

1. Review extensions and data on your current site. Determine which extensions are now part of the core Magento 2. Focus on minimal customization on Magento 2 than they had on Magento 1. Also, take time to remove outdated and redundant data from your Magento 1.x database to simplify your migration.
2. Build and prepare a Magento 2 store for migration in a dev server. It is best practice to replicate your Magento 1.x database and use that database as the source data for your migration;
3. Test Migration: Before you start migration on the production environment, follow the best practice of going through all the migration steps on your development environment. It is best practice to halt all administrative activity on both Magento 1.x and Magento 2 during your migration test runs as well as during the actual data migration;
4. Start your migration process. Migrate customers, catalogs, orders, shipment, and core configuration. However, customized data, admin rights, media files, and certain other custom technical aspects do not get migrated in this process. If you need to do any changes to the migrated data you can process it;
5. Choose a Theme: Migrate Magento 1 theme to Magento 2 and make User Interface level changes, while doing so you can focus on design revisions to keep trending UI;
6. Update incremental data. After migrating data, you will then have to continuously collect the data updates that have been added in the Magento 1 store (such as new orders and reviews) and go into Delta mode to carry these updates to the Magento 2 store;
7. Testing: once the migration has been completed in all aspects, do complete testing to make sure ready to go live. The developers can foresee the most common bugs and work them out here.
8. Plan Go live: Deploy the migrated data to the production server. Now that your Magento 2 site is up-to-date and is performing normally, you can cut over to the new site!

What does it cost?

Every E-commerce store is different. The level of effort to migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2 depends upon how you have developed your existing site and its level of customization, the theme you choose(improving upon the User Experience (UX)), the volume of data to migrate, the number of extensions you have to purchase. All these will further determine the cost of migration to Magento 2. If hire professional Magento support service for the migration, the cost is as low as $13/hour.

An experienced partner for your Magento 2. x migration

Aatoon Solutions is a leading digital agency focused on Magento development and helping B2B and B2C brands to grow their online channel. We are confident to help you to migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2 with the highest quality and within your budget.

Hurry up and get started with a cost-effective Magento 2 migration service from Aatoon Solutions! Click here for a free estimation!