Magento is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the world. It empowers e-retailers as w ell as start-ups, small- and mid-sized businesses, and established enterprises to build and manage strong online presence. According to a study, there are more than 250,000 live Magento stores being operated online. Almost 12% online retail stores are built on Magento, of these only 11,000 stores are built on Magento 2 and rest are still operated on Magento 1. This means a majority of stores still run on Magento 1 and online retailers are reluctant to move to Magento 2. Why should I move to Magento 2? This is the common question that Magento community has faced since the release of Magento 2. There are several reasons why Magento store migration has become inevitable. This post specifically discusses 17 benefits of availing Magento 2 migration services.

17 Reasons to Opt Magento 2 Migration Services

The name Magento 2 itself says that it is an enhanced version of Magento 1. Is that enough to invest in the platform? No. There is more to it. Magento has announced that it will not support any version of Magento after June 2020. The end of life (EOL) of Magento is June 30, 2020. This indicates that Magento will not implement any security patches or quality fixes to Magento 1 post EOL. This makes the Magento store migration important.

You are set to benefit from the Magento store migration in the following ways.

1) Improved Page Speed:

Various studies have already confirmed that Magento 2 is about 20% faster than Magento 1. This will encourage users and their customers to shop more and make quick decisions. Today, all businesses are trying to host their stores online. Owing to this, a buyer has more options to choose the right product. According to various studies, most people would quit if the pages do not load within 3-5 seconds. So, do you want that to happen?

The platform features an in-built caching platform that assures the faster loading speeds. In addition to this, the platform can also handle several product catalog page, without affecting the store speed. This makes it an easy choice for retailers who may want to build large online stores comprising hundreds of products across categories.

2) Improved Mobile Responsiveness:

A study by Outerbox states that almost 79% of people have purchased online using their smartphones. During the holiday season 2019, every third purchase was made through a smartphone. With mobile responsiveness gaining traction, do you want to lose on the traffic? Magento 2 ensures that your website is compatible with all smartphones and their operating platforms. Magento has released a Progressive Web Application (PWA) Studio, which allows customers to enjoy a seamless mobile experience. This allows store owners to boost their customer engagement as well as conversion rate. The PWA Studio is available in Magento 2.3 and it is updated regularly by Magento.

3) User-Friendly Checkout Process:

The checkout on Magento 1 is little complicated as it involves six steps. However, Magento 2 has a simple and quick 2-step checkout. There is an instant purchase feature, too. This instant purchase feature is added to target returning customers. They can add the product to their cart and make a quick checkout in two steps by accepting the previously stored payment credentials and shipping information. The stores that have quick checkout pages and offer easy seamless shopping experience has seen rise in sales over the last few months.

4) Design Templates:

Aesthetic appeal is a must have for any eCommerce store. Magento 1 also had templates, but most customers were lost in long checkout process or non-responsive designs. However, Magento 2 is equipped with attractive design templates that can adjust itself to any screen resolution.

5) Improved Security Features:

The popularity of eCommerce has grown rapidly over the last few years. Having said that, the online stores are vulnerable to online threats due to the stored payment information. Knowing this, Magento has adopted strict security measures. Some features include:

• Improved password management using two factor authentication and Google ReCAPTCHA.
• Assured flexibility in permissions and file system ownership
• Supports use of random Magento URL
• Improved clickjacking prevention exploit
• Improved prevention from cross-site scripting attacks
• Free security scan tool that monitors different websites and provides updates on security risks and malware

6) Flexibility and Scalability:

Magento 2 enables users to utilize its out-of-the-box features effectively. They can use the various extensions offered by system to improve the overall performance of their store. These extensions are easy to install and much affordable than those available in Magento 1. This is because the use of HTML5, require.js, and CSS3 makes the modifications easier.

7) Easy Integration with Legacy Systems:

Every eCommerce store owner uses a variety of software to conduct the business. These may include customer relationship management software, inventory management software, and enterprise management software. Magento 2 makes the integration easier. Although this feature was available in Magento 1, it was slower than expected. The messages sent by Magento to these systems were delivered late or sometimes lost in transmission. Added to it, tracking the lost messages was always challenging. This is where Magento 2 Enterprise edition makes a difference. It features Rabbit MQ, which conducts efficient monitoring of message exchange between enterprise software and Magento. If any message is undelivered to the relevant system, then the feature facilitates easy message exchange.

8) Search Friendly:

Magento 2 is proven to be more search friendly than Magento 1 because it is equipped with Elasticsearch. However, this option is only available with Magento Enterprise edition. This option helps improve the quality of searches; so, users also find it easier to search their desired products in minimal time. Elasticsearch can easily handle a large volume of search queries at any time. Currently, it can handle search queries in more than 33 languages and their translations. Also, customers get the right suggestions when they enter wrong spellings. The Elasticsearch also offers synonym management. This feature is available through Magento Admin.

9) Security:

It is one of the main concerns of shoppers as well as eCommerce store owners. As more people are buying online nowadays, there is also increase in incidents of cybercrime. Magento 2 utilizes strong data encryption better than Magento 1. It utilizes the AES-256 algorithm that is robust enough to protect sensitive information such as credit card or debit card passwords, shipping module passwords, and so on. The confidential information entered by the user is then decrypted as well as hashed with another SHA-256.

10) Improved Testing Framework:

Many store owners have complained over the years that regression testing was a bit complex with Magento 1. Now, it is simplified in Magento 2 which has an in-built framework for testing. It doesn’t matter, whether your store is simple or complicated with several features, you can easily run automated tests through it to ensure a seamless customer experience.

11) Easy View of Customer Journey:

The system is equipped with an advanced dashboard that offers an easy view of customer journey. It allows you to access all the information related to your store at one place. You can easily analyze the information such as number of orders placed in a day, the last order placed, most viewed items on the website, average order amount, most searched keywords, and so on. With this information in your hands, you can easily revise the website to meet the changing customer demands.

12) Get Future Ready

Magento 2 is built on newest technologies and is equipped with various features which make you future ready. Some features include LAMP stack – Linux, Apache/Nginx, PHP, MySql, and so on. These technologies are supported by the latest version of techniques such as full page caching, database clustering, performance monitoring through New Relic, extended reporting through advanced business intelligence tools, and so on. As indicated before, Magento 2 has introduced PWA studio, which is transforming the way merchants and consumers conduct business.

13) No Database Overload:

What does that mean? In Magento 1, customers used to face lag at times due to database overload. This overload was caused due to the single database that existed. Everyone right from website administrators to developers to customers – all used a single database. However, Magento 2 Enterprise edition brings a big relief. It offers three database options for customers, administrators and developers, so there will be no load when all use it at the same time. This means, while customer is placing the order or browsing the website, the administrator can streamline product data for a better order management, and developers can experiment or add features that may assure a seamless journey online. This segmentation has also helped improve the shopping experience of a user. In short, the enterprise edition enables development experts to scale the databases and allocate different databases to drive multiple website activities at any time.

14) Supports Video Streaming:

Although video streaming to boost product promotion is not a new thing, it has gained immense popularity in recent years. This is because almost 71% of customers believe that seeing a product video is the best form of gaining product understanding. Magento 2 allows store owners to add videos from sites like Vimeo or YouTube to improve their branding.

15) Easy Product Upload and Management:

Many Magento 1 users complained of difficulties in product uploading. However, Magento 2 facilitates easy product upload through an easy-to-follow, step-by-step uploading process. This enables store owners to expand their product inventory with ease.

16) A Key to Advanced Promotions:

Most eCommerce store owners would agree that customized promotions is the key to attract customers to their store. This is why they have been keen on using eCommerce platforms that offer them access to features that support their customized campaigns. Magento 2 allows store owners to utilize personalized payment methods, cross sell and upsell offers, and other features to lure their customers. These features are available in Magento 2’s advanced promotion rule builder. This rule builder also allows store owners to decide the content that they want to share with their customers such as specific gift coupons and discounts based on their browsing behavior to ensure their purchase. In addition to this, there is a Dotmailer integrated into the store that allows you to produce automated marketing campaigns for sharing across various channels.

17) Advanced Analytics:

Although analytics is nothing new, the advanced analytics in the Magento 2 enables you to keep an eye on important business information. The advanced reporting feature of the analytics enables you to track the store reports from the admin panel. You can easily track 20 reports at any time.

As the benefits of Magento store migration to the newest version is well introduced through this post, it is important that you partner with a trusted Magento Migration services like Futurism Technologies. Being a leading digital transformation company, we have had the privilege of helping eCommerce clients like you to seek advantage of Magento 2 migration services. Many of our clients have already leveraged the features of Magento 2 to drive sales across their stores as well as improve their customer satisfaction. What are you waiting for!