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Last September, Magento announced that it would end support for Magento 1 in June 2020. This means that many businesses will have to migrate their Magento 1 stores to Magento 2. It is natural for users to be wary of various issues associated with migration. However, you may also see this as a chance to build a website that is faster, better, and more reliable.

Let us look at the factors that’ll help you determine the course of action that you must take with respect to your e-commerce website in the foreseeable future. The ideal target is to have a store that has the same familiar look and feel as before but a whole different engine underneath. Still not convinced? Read on.

Who will be Affected?

Estimates suggest that only 4% of the 420,000 websites running Magento are using Magento 2. Which means, this news affects around 95-96% of all Magento users. Since the support will officially continue till June next year, it is the right time to have a Magento development service migrate your site from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

What to expect from Magento 2?

Magento 2 is significantly better in terms of its functionality as compared to Magento 1 which had several limitations. Some of its attributes are as follows:

• Loading time is faster by 50%.
• Several payment gateways mean that it is more secure.
• There are new features for both B2B and B2C.
• The platform is responsive which means that it works on any device.
• The admin panel is intuitive and user-friendly.
• Enhanced flexibility means that you can personalize it and update the extensions with relative ease.

Risks of Moving to Magento 2

Now that we have established the benefits of having Magento 2 over Magento 1, let us dig into the risks

involved so that you can properly assess your options. After all, migration is not a smooth process and presents its own challenges.

One of the biggest concerns, especially for small vendors is the cost involved in the migration. You will have to hire Magento developers who have prior experience in the migration process.

• You have to build the theme from scratch. You can’t port your Magento 1 themes to Magento 2 directly.
• Some of the extensions that you are using may not be available for Magento 2.
• The migration process takes time. Even a simple site might take 3 to 6 months to migrate.
• There are inherent risks with the SEO which can influence the inbound traffic.
• The licensing for the Enterprise Edition comes at a steep $18000-$22,000 per year.
• Magento 2 comes with its own technical difficulties and stability issues as it is based on new technology.

The Risks of Remaining on Magento 1

Once Magento withdraws support from Magento 1, the websites still using it will become vulnerable to a plethora of cyber-crimes.

That aside, the existing websites, which are already slow and difficult to navigate, will see a further decrease in traffic.

Why you Need Experienced Developers to Migrate

You are going to need Magento development services that work with you to successfully plan and implement your Magento 2 website. Without any sort of disruption or impact on sales.

Experienced Magento development services will be able to give you a breakdown of the process, scheduling the process, and effectively managing it. This will decrease the chances of delay and make sure everything goes in an orderly manner.

They will assist you in reviewing your business goals and deducing what features you are going to need for your brand new Magento 2 Store.

Ultimately, this all leads to the installation and designing on the Magento 2 system that matches your current one.

Lastly, the developer should be able to test and debug the new setup and give it a dry run before going live.

Conclusion

On an average, the migration process takes 3 to 6 months. You must plan your migration keeping this in mind. Delaying it any longer will have an adverse effect on your user experience even though you may still be able to use Magento 1. You must also consider that the plugins and apps that you use may end support sooner than the end date of Magento 1.

It won’t be long before the Magento 1 websites go obsolete. If you don’t want to join the pile of abandoned projects, you must take prompt action. A change is imminent. Why not go for it now? The benefits far outweigh the risks. Hire a Magento developer today!