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Magento 1 End Of Life: It’s Coming Faster Than You Think

14 Oct 2019

Mike Patel

Magento 1 End Of Life: It’s Coming Faster Than You Think

Is Magento 1 Shutting Down?

After over a decade of being up and running as one of the top e-commerce platforms on the web, Magento is finally making the bold transition to close its legacy commerce platform.

Thousands of businesses and websites are going to be affected by this massive change as customers and users of the Magento 1 platform are being encouraged to make the transition to the brand new Magento 2 platform.

So why is Magento 1 coming to a close?

Why should you start your migration to Magento 2 now?

Why is Magento 1 Finally Shutting Down?

Why is the e-commerce website shutting down their original platform to migrate to the new one? Just like anything on the web and in the world of software, things quickly become outdated. It is natural that after almost 11 years of launching their initial platform that Magento would be moving to a new platform offering faster speeds, more features, and all-around better service for their users.

Unfortunately, this migration doesn’t come without a cost. Here

Setting Your Expectations for the End Life of Magento 1

Though the transition is expected to make some considerable improvements to their platform, you shouldn’t expect the migration to be simple or easy. Middle-sized businesses that don’t have a lot of platform or coding customizations can expect what Magento may refer to as a “simple transition.” You can expect a simple migration to take anywhere between 3-5 months to complete.

If you are planning on bringing in sorts of customizations from your Magento 1 platform to Magento 2, you should plan for an elongated timeline. Any types of customizations that you want to set up on the new platform or bring with you will set you back another few months on your migration. This includes anything from

– Custom themes that you have or want to add to your account

– Custom templates that you are using on your site

– Any type of personalized layouts that you are using

If you have anything like this currently or want to add this to the new platform, experts estimate the migration to take 7 or more months.

Larger businesses and/or businesses that have customizations plus any type of other software integrations can expect much longer migrations. Regardless of your expectations or the type of set-up you have, you really should get the migration process start as soon as possible.

Top Reasons to Start Migrating Now

As you know, Magento is ending support of their Magento 1 product in June 2020. It’s coming faster than you think and all who went through their migration won’t say it enough:

“Give yourself plenty of time!”

1) The End is Inevitable

Whether you want to admit that the end of this e-commerce platform is coming or not, you need to realize that it is not going to be around for much longer. Magento is ending all security and maintenance to the platform as of June of 2020. After this time, they will not be providing further assistance or support for the platform.

2) Developer Sources Are Going to Become Scarce

The closer that we get to the deadline of Magento 1, the more preoccupied skilled developers will be. Unless you are planning on brushing up on your software and coding, you are going to need some type of experienced developer to make sure that you transition all of your coding and information safely and securely. This is going to help you prevent the failure and the loss of critical information as you work on transitioning to Magento 2 or another e-commerce platform.

To make sure that you are as prepared as possible for the shutdown of Magento 1, you should get in touch with a developer or team as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the harder it is going to be to find one. You don’t want to be caught in a bind during or after the platform shutdown.

3) Support is Going to End

Once again, unless you have a lot of experience and skills in working with the platform, you need to be considering how you are going to make this transition. The closer that we get to the close date, the fewer the agencies that are still be going to providing service and support for Magento 1.

Even if you happen to find an agency that will continue to find support for this platform, you should be careful. More agencies will drop off as fewer businesses abandon the platform or transition to other platforms. Either that or that these niche agencies will be able to charge astronomical rates for staying on this legacy platform.

4) Problems with Partnering Software and Services

Another major issue that you could be facing with the closing of the platform is with the other companies, tools, applications, and software that you are using in integration with the platform. As we get closer to the end date of Magento 1, we can expect to see that payment providers and other software applications that integrate with the partner will stop providing services or integration with the platform.

5) Magento 2 Has Built-in E-commerce Tech

Whereas its predecessor maintained relationships and integrations with popular, reputable e-commerce platforms such as PayPal, their new platform has these features already integrated. With one less aspect of the platform that you have to customize and manage, Magento focused on making the transition to this platform easier by giving you everything that you need when you get there.

6) Speed

Another reason that you should consider starting your migration now is the unparalleled speed benefits that you can reap the benefit of on the brand new Magento 2 platform. They have announced that you can expect to see 50% faster page load speeds across the platform, including catalog pages, shopping carts, and more.

Page speed and page load times are one of the most critical factors in facilitating a great experience for your customers. If you don’t want your conversions to suffer from having slower page speeds, migrating to the new platform is something that you will need to do.

7) Better Admin Software

Magento has taken a deep analysis and consideration of

– The best features and functionalities or Magento 1

– What was lacking in Magento that they could improve on Magento 2

In that, they have made some noticeable changes and updates to the administrative functionalities of the platform that make it easier to use. Sort and filter your information by the key metrics and data pieces that are the most important to your business. They also offer a deeper level of customization and personalization so that you can cut to the metrics and information that you need as quickly and easily as possible, saving you and your team time and energy.

8) New Page Builder

Having an effective eCommerce platform is all about creating the best and most fluid experience for your customers and website visitors as possible. The new page builder available on Magento gives you an even greater selection of visual and functional tools that you can use to tailor your image to your target audience.

The Magento 2 page builder is easier and more intuitive to use than the previous platform. This makes it much easier for you to make changes that you need to, on your own, without having to hire a specialized agency to make the changes and updates for you.

9) Ongoing Updates and Maintenance

One thing that should be a priority when transitioning or migrating e-commerce platforms is making sure that you are going to get the support that you need. That means being sure that the platform is going to be maintained and updated, and that you are going to have access to the safest, most effective, and the most current version of the platform.

After transitioning to Magento 2, you are going to have ongoing support and maintenance options available for your e-commerce website. Make sure that you migrate to Magento 2 as soon as you can to make sure that your website is safe and working optimally for your business.

10) Better Built-in SEO

SEO is still a major marketing component for getting your e-commerce website to rank well. Magento 2 is leaps and bounds better than Magento 1 in terms of covering more bases with high-quality search engine optimization for your website. Get more organic traffic to your website when you migrate your current site from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

Moving Forward

Since we are rapidly moving toward the deadline of Magneto 1, you should be taking steps to work on migrating to the new platform now. This will help you make sure that your migration goes as smoothly as possible, and also prevent any disasters and pitfalls that come from delaying the migration.

Mike Patel

Mike Patel is a digital marketing enthusiast, innovator and President of a leading Digital and E-commerce Development Agency in Dallas, Texas. Mike holds a BS, Computer Science degree from Wayne State University and is a key player in the E-commerce development and digital marketing industry since 2004. The scope of technology in his extensive experience of more than 15 years ranges from Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click) management, E-commerce SEO, Google Shopping Ads and more.

Magento 1 End Of Life: It’s Coming Faster Than You Think

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