Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2

With Magento 1 support ending by June 2020, it is very important for merchants to migrate their stores to Magento 2.
There is nothing to panic about this migration, but we know there might be a lot of questions about the transition. Here are a few that might be going through your mind, along with their answers.

What if I want to continue with Magento 1?

Functionally there will be no impact on the existing stores that are working in Magento 1, however the main concern is the security of the store and data. Magento will stop providing security patches for the 1.x.x versions once the support period ends. This means that the stores can be exploited as vulnerabilities come up in the future. Even if we ignore the Magento 1 code itself, we will have to keep services like PHP and MySQL updated with the latest server and security patches, which can be incompatible with the Magento 1 code.

What about the data that I have in Magento 1?

The main concern for a lot of companies migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is how their data will be managed. Honestly, that is not a concern at all. Magento has provided a Magento 2 Data Migration Tool that will help you efficiently migrate all your products, customers, orders, store configuration, promotions, pages, and other data (such as third-party module columns/tables) to Magento 2. There are adjustments you can make to the Data Migration Tool if you don’t want to migrate some data or want some customizations during the migration.

Sounds Exciting! What’s the plan?

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As H. Stanley Judd once said, “A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.” One of the most important phases of this transition is planning. There is a lot to migrate, so it should be well planned. You should also check the new features of Magento 2 before migrating – Magento might be handling the changes for which your customizations were made.

1. Server: You will probably need a new server, as the PHP versions supported by Magento 1.x versions are different from the Magento 2.x server. If you are using Docker, you can possibly keep the two instances on the same server.
2. Theme: This is the best time to give your store a new look with a new theme. The new default theme provided by Magento, Luma, is awesome in its own way. Moreover, you can use it as a base/parent theme to create a new theme for your store.
3. Third-Party Modules: This is one of the big reasons to start working on your migration now. You will need the latest third-party modules for the integrations done early. 97% of the third-party module providers have already prepared the new modules that are compatible with the Magento 2 versions. For the last 3%, you’ll need to factor in custom integrations.
4. Customizations: All of the customizations will have to be re-coded to match the new Magento 2 architecture.
5. Data Migration: As shared above, this is nothing to worry about. The data migration will be handled by the Magento 2 Data Migration Tool. However, you will have to do some background work to make this the tool work. You will have to list out all the columns & tables that were added to Magento database structure for supporting any customization or third-party integration. You’ll then need to update the XML of the Magento 2 Data Migration Tool by adding these additional columns/tables in the XML structure provided by the tool.

Will the data migration be 100% perfect?

May be not 100%, but the data migration tool will help you migrate 90% of your data effortlessly. The remaining 10% needs to be taken care by some additional queries. For example, Magento 2 is built on a responsive theme. The pages in Magento 1 were not responsive and had tables, so it will be essential that the pages are restructured to match the new standards of HTML, etc.

How will I benefit from this migration?

To keep it short and simple, you will have everything new and efficient!
There will be a lot of benefits from this migration, including:

1. Sales Optimization: Many people use their mobile phones for purchasing the products online. In fact, eMarketer predicts that mobile eCommerce will overtake that of desktop and laptop devices as early as 2021. Magento 2 is mobile friendly and the Luma theme is based on a responsive design. This will improve the experience customers have on their devices.
2. Checkout Optimization: Magento 2 has optimized the checkout section, which now consists of only two steps: Shipping Information and Payment Information (Review).
3. Performance Optimization: Magento 2 supports Varnish Cache, which will improve the server response time for all activities. It is also possible that some of the customizations done in your store will be included in the new features of Magento 2, which will make your store light and load faster. This is the right time to remove any non-required customizations lying on the store in form of a disabled module. This migration will give you a chance and time to rethink how you can optimize your site further.

Besides these changes, Magento 2.x introduces some new inbuilt features. Some of these features are available for Magento Commerce & also in specific release versions. The B2B Module is available since Magento Commerce 2.2.x release, rest are available since 2.3.x releases.

• B2B Module (Magento Commerce)
• Page Builder (Magento Commerce)
• Multi Source Inventory
• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
• GraphQL
• Google ReCaptcha
• Elastic Search

Though this migration requires some time and effort, it will leave you with a Win-Win situation. Learn more about migrating to Magento 2 and how Perficient Digital can help.