How to migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2 - A comprehensive guide

Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 has been one of the most commonly discussed topics in the world of eCommerce. Magento 2 was made available in 2015. Subsequently, Magento declared it will end its official support to Magento 1 in 2020. This makes the migration to Magento not only desirable but also necessary.

Why you should migrate to Magento 2

As mentioned above, support to Magento 1 ends 2020. Here’s a list of the six most important reasons why migration from Magento 1.x to Magento 2 is important for your Magento store.

Security

Once the official support to Magento ends, security patches for different versions of Magento 1.x will no longer be offered. That means, if you continue running your Magento website on Magento 1.x, you’ll be exposed to a variety of risks and threats, many of which may have no official solution.

Competition

When your store is practically the only store that hasn’t migrated to Magento 2, you are at a severe competitive disadvantage. So while your competitors enjoy all the innovations that will continue happening on Magento 2, your Magento 1 website will be left out.

Mobile friendly

From regular shopping to special holiday purchases, an increasingly bigger proportion of e-commerce businesses come from mobile devices. Magento 2 is better optimized for mobile phones as compared to Magento 1.

Performance

In the e-commerce industry, better performance leads to better business, increased revenue and higher conversions. Magento 2 enables up to 66% faster add-to-cart server response times than Magento 1. Hence, Magento 2 becomes your best bet for growth.

Checkout

The number of steps for checkout has been slashed in Magento 2, marking a significant improvement in the buying process. Magento 2 offers the Instant Purchase feature which lets repeat customers purchase faster.

Interface

Magento 1 had an interface that wasn’t always friendly. Magento 2 has delved deeper to find the exact pain-points and made the new interface extremely user-friendly. Adding new products, editing product features or simply looking for tools has become easier with Magento 2.

Pre-migration checklist for moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2

Before you carry out the actual migration, you’ll want to prepare your site for the migration. Here’s your pre-migration checklist for Magento 1 to Magento 2.

1. Filter your data: As you move to a better more sophisticated technology, you don’t want to carry outdated data or data that’s no way relevant to your business needs. There’s no point loading the new system with stuff that will only hog resources without ever being useful. So begin by removing data that’s not going to be useful.
2. Critique your site: This is perhaps the best time to have a close look at your site and seriously consider upgrading it. Advanced technology like Magento 2 will produce even better results if your site reflects the current trends in e-commerce store design. Magento 2 offers better opportunities and you don’t want to be left out just because your site isn’t equipped to encash them.
3. Build redundancy: Despite all your planning, there’s always a small risk of some kind of data loss. To safeguard yourself against it, make sure you replicate your Magento 1.x database. When you are actually implementing the migration, use this replicated database as your source for migration, without disturbing the original.
4. Prepare to freeze admin activities: When you begin the dry run or the actual migration, continuing your administrative activities can alter your database. That would result in a patchy migration with some loose ends. To prevent this, go through a drill to prepare your business to stop all admin activities when you practice dry run and actual implementation of migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
5. Finalize your blueprints: Unless absolutely critical, don’t waver from your original plans. Sticking to what you had planned will produce the best results. Changes that have not been factored in, can slow down or weaken your migration and even make it more expensive.

Final remarks on Magento migration

Magento 2 is considerably superior to Magento 1, the migration may appear more challenging than what you had originally bargained for.

In any case, the migration is compulsory; otherwise, you’ll face security threats and won’t be able to handle the competition.

From the year 2020, this migration will not be a choice, so you might as well begin early so that you have more time to plan out things better.

If you need help, a competent Magento web development company can make the migration more efficient and easier for you.

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Priya Patil is a Quality Analyst in Infigic Technologies.A Grocery App Development Company, I love to share her thoughts on Social media platforms.