Are you still running your eCommerce business on Magento 1.x? In an utterly competitive market, you should upgrade your eCommerce platform to the latest Magento 2.x version. Adobe announced the end-of-life and support for Magento 1.x on 30th June 2020.
Since its release in November 2015, Magento 2.x is being promoted as the best solution for businesses to succeed and thrive in digital commerce. For the purpose of this blog, we will discuss why it’s time for you to move on from Magento version 1.x.
5 Reasons to Move from Magento 1.x
Around the globe, eCommerce retailers have successfully built their online stores using Magento 1.x. However, Magento 1.x has faced a host of challenges in recent times as it has reached its end-of-life (EOL). As eCommerce technologies continue to advance, companies using Magento 1.x are becoming less competitive than those using other eCommerce platforms.
Following the aforementioned official Adobe announcement, customers can no longer avail of Magento support services on its version 1.x. To that end, here are five primary reasons to move your business from Magento 1.x:
1. Insufficient Security
Data security is critical for every eCommerce business. With its EOL, Magento 1.x does not receive any security updates from Adobe. This makes it vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches. In fact, among the latest cases, Magento 1.x stores suffered over 2,000 cyberattacks in September 2020.
2. Performance Issues
Website speed and performance have been among the major issues with Magento 1.x in recent years. For instance, Magento 1.x continues to depend on “traditional” hosting techniques, which can reduce its loading speed and adversely impact the user experience.
On the other hand, cloud-based hosting platforms provide fast and consistent loading speed and performance.
3. Higher Cart Abandonment
Among its limitations, Magento 1.x refreshes the webpage whenever the shopper adds a new item to their shopping cart. This can frustrate most shoppers, thus leading to cart abandonment. Contrarily, Magento 2.x uses an Ajax-based shopping cart that does not reload for every new item.
4. Customized Templates and Designs
The latest versions of eCommerce platforms feature customized templates that are easy to integrate with your eCommerce branding. Other advanced functionalities include personalized product recommendations and recovery of abandoned shopping carts. Magento 1.x does not provide these functionalities.
5. High Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
With Magento 1.x, eCommerce companies face a high TCO primarily due to maintenance and support-related costs. On the other hand, cloud-powered eCommerce platforms have lower TCO due to their subscription-based pricing model (which includes regular maintenance and software updates).
Apart from these, eCommerce businesses using Magento 1.x face a variety of challenges, including the following:
- Magento 1.x stores are less competitive in the marketplace — primarily as they miss out on updated eCommerce features and enhancements.
- Magento 1.x customers are also more likely to commit violations related to industry regulations (for example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or PCI-DSS).
- With version 1.x, development teams cannot implement Magento headless commerce (as it is not supported). This means they cannot “decouple” the frontend and backend of the traditional Magento monolithic platform, thus missing out on the benefits of headless commerce CMS.
Benefits of Magento 2.x
Launched in June 2015, Magento 2.x offers its users a host of benefits like a user-friendly interface, simplified checkouts, and flexibility. According to SimilarTech, Magento 1.x is used by 39,214 websites, while Magento 2.x is used by around 51,556 websites.
Why should eCommerce businesses migrate to Magento 2.x?
1. Seamless Integration with the Latest Technologies
Magento 2.x is easy to integrate with the latest technology, thus resolving the website’s speed and performance issues. With Magento 2.x, you no longer have to install any third-party tools on your eCommerce server. Additionally, this version has in-built support for the latest PHP versions (5.5x to 7), thus improving the store’s speed and security. Magento 2.x also includes in-built tools to optimize images on the server.
2. Enhanced Security
Unlike Magento 1.x, Magento 2.x is packed with security features like data encryption, the AES-256 algorithm for storing sensitive customer data, and data ciphering using SHA-256 hash. These features are effective for safeguarding your eCommerce store from cyberattacks and data breaches.
3. Administrative Functions
The Magento 2.x admin panel has a host of user-friendly functions, including the ability to:
- Upload new products along with images, descriptions, and videos.
- Track the latest activities on your eCommerce store, including searched items, average order sizes, and the latest orders.
- Transfer data from Magento 1.x to Magento 2.x using the in-built data migration tool.
4. Faster Checkouts
With Magento 2.x, online shoppers can quickly check out their instant purchases in just two steps. On the other hand, they had to go through a 6-step checkout process in Magento 1.x. Faster checkouts are crucial for lower cart abandonment and higher conversion rates.
Magento 1.x to 2.x – Migration challenges
Considering the lack of support for Magento 1.x, eCommerce stores need to migrate to Magento 2.x. However, this migration process has its share of challenges.
1. Compatibility Issues
Magento 2.x uses a variety of extensions that are not compatible with Magento 1.x. This may require your Magento development team to create the extension from scratch. This is an expensive and time-consuming process — the more the extensions, the more the compatibility issues.
2. Different Architecture
Magento 2.x has a completely different architecture than Magento 1.x. For instance, the PHP tool in Magento 2.x has new libraries and functionalities than the PHP version used in version 1.x.
Considering these migration challenges, eCommerce companies need a qualified Magento solution partner with expertise in both the Magento versions.
Successfully Carry Out Magento Migration with Ignitiv
As a certified Magento development agency, Ignitiv can help you carry out a smooth migration from version 1.x to 2.x with minimum downtime. Besides migration, Ignitiv also offers development services in Magento implementation to meet your business needs.
Our team of professionals can help you set up and run a successful eCommerce store on the Magento platform. Interested in learning more? Contact us today!
