Why Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 Is Critical for Your eCommerce Growth

If your online store is still running on the Magento 1 platform, you might as well shut your business for good. Why? Magento 1 reached its official end of life in June 2020. That’s more than 5 years now! Running your store on Magento 1 means not only are you missing out on new features but also exposing your store to unnecessary risks. How? The platform no longer receives any security updates or bug fixes. In short, your store is harder to maintain and incompatible with modern eCommerce stores.

Therefore, migrating your Magento 1 store to Magento 2 is not just a technical upgrade but an extremely necessary one! The upgrade ensures that your store is set up for long-term growth, is secure, and delivers top-notch performance. If you are still unconvinced why you need to opt for a Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration service, keep reading. This article discusses why migrating from Magento 1 to Magento is critical for your store’s growth.

Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration Service: Why It Is No Longer an Option

We understand why merchants are reluctant to make the shift from Magento 1 to Magento 2. They might not have the budget for it or simply wish to avoid the disruption. However, what merchants need to realise is that the longer they keep putting off the decision, the greater the damage to their store’s long-term success. With no new features or security updates, you are effectively telling your customers to shop elsewhere.

Apart from this, cybercriminals can exploit security vulnerabilities in your store and access sensitive data. This can lead to substantial financial losses and undermine your store’s reputation. Moreover, Magento 1 and Magento 2 are miles apart in terms of performance. Given that customers value seamless shopping experiences, your Magento 1 store is already out of the contention. Therefore, it is time to engage a professional Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration service to help you bridge this gap.

Here are the top reasons to consider the Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration service right away:

1. Magento 1 is Officially End of Life

As mentioned earlier, Magento 1 reached its end of life in June 2020. That means that Adobe no longer provides any updates or official support for the platform. With no updates or security patches, the platform is vulnerable against modern threats. Also, it is incompatible with modern eCommerce tools. After all, why would any developer try to ensure compatibility with an eCommerce platform which has reached its end of life. Resultantly, Magento 1 stores are known to suffer from performance issues and broken integrations.

2. Magento 2 Offers Performance Boost

Migrating to Magento 2 offers numerous benefits, including a noticeable improvement in the speed. In other words, merchants can expect faster page loading times and efficient data handling. As you may already know, page loading times are one of the key factors in Google’s search engine rankings algorithm. Therefore, the faster the page loading speed, the higher the rankings in search engine results pages.

Apart from this, Magento 2 supports full-page caching by default, thereby reducing server load. Magento 2 supports the latest PHP versions, contributing to better processing speed and memory usage. All this has a positive impact on the user experience as users demand that websites loading in under 2 seconds. If a webpage’s loading time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability of bounce goes up to 32%, indicating the importance of fast websites.

3. Adobe Ecosystem

One of the key benefits of shifting to Magento 2 is that it can be integrated within the wider Adobe Ecosystem. As you may know, Adobe is more than just Photoshop or the PDF reader software. It offers a wide range of eCommerce tools, including the Adobe Experience Manager, a content management tool. Furthermore, you can integrate with Adobe Sensei and Adobe Analytics which can further streamline store management. With Magento 1, integrating with other Adobe tools can prove to be a challenge.

4. No More Magento 1 Extensions

One of the top reasons merchants prefer Magento is because of its customisation. Every aspect of the store can be customised with the extensions and custom code. With Magento 1 reaching its end of life, developers are no longer creating extensions for Magento 1. Even the existing extensions don’t get any new features or support. Therefore, Magento 1 customisation can prove to be highly challenging.

5. Security Risks

With no security patches being released, Magento 1 stores are easy targets for cybercriminals. They can exploit the known vulnerabilities which were never patches, making it easier to gain access to sensitive information. From customer’s personal information to payment details, everything is at risk. Even if you have set up third-party security tools, they can quickly become obsolete due to the platform’s limitations. On the other hand, Magento 2 receives regular security updates, meaning you don’t have to worry about losing sensitive information to cybercriminals.

6. Magento 2 Offers Better Mobile Responsiveness

According to Statista, mobile devices account for most of the eCommerce traffic and sales. Therefore, having mobile responsive websites is very important for a store owner. Magento 2 is designed with a mobile-first approach. From the themes to the checkout experience, Magento 2 is optimised for smaller displays and touchscreens. On the other hand, Magento 1 does not come close to Magento 2’s mobile usability. Of course, customisation can be done to come close to Magento 2’s level, but this can be quite costly. On top of it, even a minor change can be difficult to implement.

7. Marketing Advantages

Another key advantage that Magento 2 holds over Magento 1 is in terms of marketing. Magento includes a wide range of features that improve your search engine rankings and overall visibility. For instance, it supports better structure data markup, customisable meta tags, and improved URL structures. All these are critical to your search engine optimisation strategy. To improve your search rankings, check out the detailed guide on on-page and off-page SEO. Moreover, Magento 2 can easily integrate with Google Analytics, CRMs, ERPs, and more. This means you can set up comprehensive marketing campaigns and track the data more accurately.

8. Magento 2 Is Future Proof

Adobe has no plans for replacing Magento 2 anytime soon. What does it mean? In simple terms, Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration ensures that your business is set for long-term growth. You’ll be on a platform which benefits from official support, regular security patches, new features, and more. Furthermore, Magento 2 supports the latest integrations and you can find thousands of extensions to add new features.

9. Improved Workflow

Magento 2 offers a much-improved admin panel which makes it easier to process orders, upload products, and manage customer information. Apart from this, interactive dashboards provide detailed insights into the business, allowing you to make data-driven decisions. Overall, the improved workflow can save you and your team hours of manual work every week.

Magento 1 vs. Magento 2

In short, Magento 2 is better than Magento 1 in all aspects.

As you can see for yourself, Magento 2 is not just a marginal improvement over Magento 1. Instead, it is whole new and much better platform. Beyond this, Magento 2 offers the following business benefits:

These metrics should be enough to convince why you need to hire a professional Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration service provider. Yes, you would need to spend some money on the migration but you’ll recover this cost in no time at all! After all, better mobile responsiveness and faster loading times have a direct impact on the sales.

Final Thoughts

Again, staying on Magento 1 is no longer an option! Migrate now and set up your store for long-term growth. It won’t be long before your revenue drops to a level where it is no longer enough to sustain the operations. It is time for you to search for a professional Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration service provider. If you are worried about losing data or Magento 2’s complexity, don’t worry. Top service providers migrate all your data to Magento 2 and also provide you/your team with user training. Once again, while Magento 1 feels familiar, your business cannot afford it any longer.