Probably every business owner has been wondering whether it is necessary to upgrade Magento to the latest version. This applies especially to those merchants whose Magento 1 store is running smoothly, has no performance issues, and brings good revenue. Why mess with success, right? But this is a faulty judgment. Keep reading to find out the reasons why the Magento upgrade is impossible to ignore. Also, we’ll discuss the benefits of using the most recent release of the software and introduce the easiest way of your store migration.
Why Upgrade Magento?
It has been announced that Magento 1 will no longer be supported beginning June 2020. So the company recommends its users to perform the transition to the newer versions of Magento. As we all know, changes in software usually bring many new features, opportunities, and innovations.
So, the benefits of using Magento’s latest versions include:
- Due to the improved scalability and performance, Magento’s loading time (homepage, product and category pages) became approximately 20% faster than in the previous versions.
- Software’s responsive frontend design has enhanced its search-friendliness.
- The checkout process has been significantly simplified and became much faster. Now it’s available even for the unregistered users (Magento determines registration through the email). It is also possible to register an account after the checkout.
- The quality of searches and user experience was improved with the help of Elasticsearch.
- The setup of new extensions and modules has become more straightforward, and owing to the use of HTML5, Less, require.js, and CSS3 they can be easily modified.
- Ajax cart adds items to the shopping cart without the necessity of reloading the page; thus, the checkout process has become less frustrating. This function has significantly reduced the number of abandoned carts.
- The new admin interface has decreased the time needed to manage the store. It became more user-friendly. With the newly-added drag-and-drop function, even users with less extensive tech skills can easily modify the Magento store.
- Improved integration with popular extensions provides out-of-the-box functionality (e.g., PayPal, Braintree, etc.).
Possible Ways of Magento Migration
Even though the transition to the newer versions of Magento seems inevitable, store owners try to postpone it. They understand that this switch will practically mean the full migration of the store’s data to a new cart (due to the drastic differences in versions’ functionality). And it’s a rather daunting task that requires thorough planning and implementation process.
Migration can be performed by the merchants themselves, in case they possess deep coding skills and are not afraid to damage the store. Also, the market is full of professional developers who will eagerly perform the task, but this means extra costs, and there’s no certainty that the store would work smoothly. Or, as an alternative, one can turn to the automated migration service (e.g., Cart2Cart). This tool has been specifically designed to help merchants make the transition process as easy and trouble-free as possible without impacting the store’s performance.
How To Perform Magento Migration Automatedly?
Prepare for Magento Migration
- Check your store for outdated and inconsistent information, delete all the unnecessary data and images. This guide might also help you perform the audit.
- Copy all the data to an external device to exclude its possible loss. Also, it is recommended to keep the latest backup copy of the store after the migration is completed.
- Follow the tutorial and install the new Magento store. By the way, if you want to see how your current Magento store will look on the most recent version of the software, go for the free Migration Preview Option. Therefore, you’ll be able to transfer some of the data to Cart2Cart’s test store (it will be live for three days) and decide whether the platform will suit your needs.
- Additionally, you can use the Migration Estimator to find out the exact price of a particular migration.
- Install Magento 2 Passwords Migration Plugin in case you are upgrading your store to Magento 2.x and wish to save your customers’ passwords. Here’s the detailed guide on the setup procedure.
Setup Source & Target Carts
First of all, you need to specify Magento as your Source and Target cart. Next, fill in the stores’ URLs. Connect the two carts with the help of Connection Bridges (download and extract them to the root folders).
Also, should you have any questions, here’s a video guide on how to set up the Connection Bridge:
Choose data and additional migration possibilities
Follow the Migration Wizard and select the data you wish to migrate to your new Magento store.
Besides, you can choose some of the additional options that would ease the migration process (please keep in mind that it is not obligatory):
- You can save the links from the Magento 1 store with the help of “Create 301 redirects to your Target Store” option.
- If you want to save order IDs, it is recommended to choose “Preserve order/customer IDs on Target store.”
- Select “Migrate customers’ passwords” to give your customers the possibility to log in to the new store using old passwords.
At this point, you can also map order statuses and customer groups (just choose the desired definitions).
Run Demo Migration
It is highly recommended not to skip the Demo Migration step. You will be able to transfer up to 30 data entities within just 30 minutes. This is an excellent opportunity to test the functionality of the automated migration service and check your store on a new platform.
Start Full Migration
If you’re completely satisfied with the results of the Demo Migration, it is time to start the Full Migration of your Magento store. Just click the Start the migration button, and the data transfer will begin.
Please note that the migration process doesn’t interfere with the performance of your store, and you can continue your ordinary business activity.
Post-Migration Checklist
You will receive an email notifying that the Full Migration of the Magento store has been completed. Now it is highly recommended to do the following:
- Check your store for common errors, register a few new customers, make test purchases, etc.
- If you wish to transfer all the new data that has appeared on your old store during or after the migration, use the Recent Data Migration Service.
- Inform your clients about the upgrade of the Magento version and urge them to notify you should any troubles arise.
Generally speaking, the migration process is not as scary as it seems, especially with the right tools at hand. So, if stability is your priority, you should definitely consider upgrading to the latest version of Magento.
