Intro
For a business owner choosing to upgrade your site’s Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce) backbone, it can be scary to think about making major changes. But migrating to the Magento 2 version brings significant benefits:
- Better performance with up-to-date code supported by developers
- Support for new security patches and improvements
- Change to PHP 8.1 for the most compatibility across the web
An older version of Magento might still work–for now. But the day will come when it will not be supported or will suffer because it is not compatible with more modern websites and apps.
If you still have questions about how to get started with upgrading or switching eCommerce hosts, Jamersan can help.
Now, let’s get into the benefits of Magento migration in more detail.
Magento vs Magento 2: Reasons to Migrate
Besides the high ROI, an upgrade or migration to Magento 2 (Adobe Commerce) opens up new pathways to success. A business owner looking for an agile online catalogue image solution should look no further than this platform. It offers advanced eCommerce features and many other capabilities for Internet 2.0 operations.
Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce) is now out-of-date, as its framework has lagged behind current developments and is no longer receiving programming updates to stay active. This provides plenty of incentive to update to the new platform. Let’s dive into several more.
Magento Offers Future Readiness
Magento 2 gives your site Future Readiness by offering all the newest technology features. These features include PHP and other techniques like Database Clustering, Full Page Caching, Performance Monitoring through New Relic, Blackfire.io, PageBuilder WYSIWYG CMS, Magento Business Intelligence, and Magento Shipping.
What to Expect with a Magento Migration
If you are migrating, you need to expect to make a list and backup of your data. The site owner will update database structures, themes, and API. It also involves creating a test server to run everything beforehand. You may want to consider partnering with an expert to minimize downtime.
What Magento Edition Is Right for Your Needs?
What is Magento? A cloud-based eCommerce platform. The new Magento Commerce Cloud creates many transaction opportunities and is streamlined with business owners in mind. It is fast, flexible, optimized for mobile, and shielded against hacking.
SEO Analysis That You Should Keep in Mind Before M to M Migration
SEO Analysis: Magento 2 offers unparalleled SEO capability, so a business owner will want to understand how to do an SEO analysis to discover how much it can change site traffic.
Analyze Your Google Analytics: Visit your Google Analytics admin interface, and set up a search for your site’s landing page over several months.
Analyze Your Google Search Console: This will also show how keywords are performing to drive engagement when running a search in your GSC account.
Other Considerations
Performing analysis will also show any site dead ends or 404 errors that you will need to resolve in your platform’s settings before starting the migration. Keep in mind future expansion plans, and add themes and extensions to your migration to profit from Magento B2B capabilities.
- No More Security Patches and/or Updates
Adobe isn’t creating any more security updates. Security is absolutely essential because over 60% of businesses that experience a hack say they could not recover from the loss. Magento 2 comes fully integrated with security features and fraud protection to guard against unwanted intrusions.
- Missed Innovation Opportunities
The out-of-date service means that Magento is not flexible anymore, so it cannot keep up with business trends the way that Magento 2 does.
- Mobile Unfriendliness
The first version was built before Internet 2.0, so it is not optimized for mobile options, which is a problem as customers are expecting full integration with their mobile devices for a smooth shopping experience.
- Poor Support Obsolete Functionality
With Adobe moving to Magento 2, it means that third-party developers are focusing all their efforts on that. That means there is obsolete functionality and little support for the old themes and plugins. The newer platform, on the other hand, offers a vast choice of third-party integrations, due to the API-driven approach of the platform for quick support.
Want to Migrate Your Magento 2 Store to a Better Host?
You may want to switch to a new cloud host for your platform. Generally, the major ones like AWS, Digital Ocean, or JetRail have similar performances. Experts say that some customers opt for a multi-cloud HA strategy. Consult an eCommerce architecture expert to verify which host offers the most robust response to your business needs.
9 Steps to Migration
With this guide, a business owner can launch right into the migration process with this short list of migration steps. It is based on a site that already has Magento Commerce and is changing to the second version.
1. Create a Migration Plan
- The first and most important step for migrating is to have a plan. Double-check that you have all the features you want carried over on a list, and review the actions to be taken. Generally, the more specific the plan and number of items are, the more time and budget can be accounted for and reduce back-end errors.
- If you are working with an admin team, share the project plan so everyone is on the same page and has access to the list of extensions and themes. This is crucial to streamline the process and prevent duplicate communications.
2. Prepare Testing Environment
- Preparing a test environment involves setting up a separate test development environment, installing your chosen Magento 2 platform (Open Source or Commerce), and configuring the version control system (Git/SVN) to make sure everything is ready to run the project. This minimizes downtime for your online store by giving you the chance for a dry run.
3. Review Extensions on Your Current Site
- You will also need to review all your extensions, themes, and plugins to see if Magento 2 versions of your extensions exist. Or if not, they can be replaced by visiting the Commerce Marketplace to find the latest versions or by contacting your third-party extension providers. Consider also eCommerce Tech Stack experts to choose.
4. Build and Prepare Magento Store for Migration
- This is one of the most important steps to prepare for migration. Build the Magento 2 system using a topology and design layout that is similar to or better than your existing setup.
- Then, install Magento 2.x (with all modules of this release) and the Data Migration Tool on a system that meets the Magento system requirements.
5. Dry Run
- This step, a dry run for setting up Magento 2, will be done in your testing eCommerce environment. Once the test migration is done, take the time to do a thorough investigation of all the features.
6. Start Your Migration
- Ensure the Magento Data Migration Tool is open to connect the old and new target databases and manage the configuration of settings.
- Theme Migration
- Take note that the themes are not compatible across platforms. Although storefront designs can be copied with their HTML features, you may want to just start fresh with new themes.
- Extension Migration
- As part of Step 1, you made a list of extensions. Install the ones that you need, and find ones in the Commerce Store that match any that are no longer compatible. Or find new ones, such as payment integration.
- Customization
- Custom capabilities can be moved with the Data Migration Tool. Note that some transferred and mapping files need to be manually handled from the relevant directory after the migration, as they may not be integrated properly.
- Data Migration
- You can install the Data Migration tool into the Magento 2 store using Composer. It is a shell application that requires the Magento 2 store to become operational.
- Step Test and Synchronize Database
- One of the final steps is to verify that everything runs smoothly. Do as much troubleshooting as possible to find and synchronize the database so that no orders or customers get left behind in migration.
7. Make Changes to the Migrated Data if Needed
- Any custom coding and extensions can be activated here. Or you can set up a different catalogue structure, sales rules, or CMS pages. Double-check any manual data changes, as errors could possibly compound. In the case of a deleted theme, an error could occur when running the Data Migration Tool in Delta mode.
8. Update Incremental Data
- After migrating data, you must incrementally capture data updates that have been added in the Magento 1 store (such as new orders, reviews, and changes in customer profiles) and transfer these updates to the Magento 2 store using the Delta mode.
9. Launch a Magento Store on a Live Server
- Once all the data is verified on your live server, just about everything is ready to go. You have transferred everything to the new platform and can start selling and shipping products immediately.
Going Live After Migration
Now that your platform is up-to-date with Magento 1 and is functioning normally, do the following steps to finish activating:
- Put your Magento 1 system in maintenance mode (DOWNTIME STARTS).
- Press Control+C in the migration tool command window to stop incremental updates.
- Start your Magento 2 cron jobs.
- Reindex the site’s stock indexer. For more information, see the Configuration guide.
- Hit the pages in your Magento 2 system to cache pages before transactions start.
- Change the DNS, load balancers, and the like to the new production hardware. The downtime can then end.
What Can Go Wrong During Migration? Come Prepared
There is always a slight risk with any complex system that there could be a deviation or error in the plan. During the migration, unexpected delays could happen, especially when there are a lot of extensions or themes to migrate. In that case, they may not be compatible with the new framework.
Data migration is not just a copy-paste
It involves verifying compatibility and feeding them into the Data Migration tool to transfer. A missing piece could break site functionality. This is an important point for both time and business considerations. You cannot clone the site and magically make it run on a newer version of the platform.
Having complex plugins or sloppy coding can delay it
These issues delay the migration process and slow down the data transfer. It can be mitigated by thoroughly verifying the custom code or custom themes. The only way to power through is experience and a proper audit before you start migrating.
Poor SEO performance after migration
After the process finishes, there may be a period where SEO performance drops. The newer platform has slightly different structures, so there may be an adjustment period where SEO falls or needs to be manually tagged.
How Much Does It Cost to Migrate to Magento 2?
It is never cheap to change a website’s operation features, but with Magento 2.0, it is more than worth the cost due to increased capabilities and ability to maintain new standards. Plan on spending several thousand dollars for a small-to-medium business with a few plugins and themes that need migrating.
Specifically, the Magento 2 migration price for a small business ranges from $3,000 to $7,000. The lower end applies to small projects with few requirements and customizations. Ecommerce website redesign cost varies depending on your site’s design and complexity.
The cost can be lowered by using a premade Magento 2 theme. This is the cheapest and simplest option to go with. There are many ready-to-use themes sold online. Additional costs can be generated by hiring a developer to install and configure the new theme. It can cost $100 to $300 for a session.
Theme customization is the most costly part of the process. It can range from $300–$1,000 depending on the merchant’s requirements.
Redesign
- A simple eCommerce website is generally anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000.
- A medium-sized eCommerce website will cost $40,000 to $80,000.
- And an enterprise eCommerce website with more custom design features is over $80,000.
Extensions & Modules
Having additional extensions and modules can add up to hundreds or thousands in transaction fees.
Custom Development Services
Having custom development for the site’s beneficial features and functionalities can add to the migration cost, with wildly varying costs and experiences. You can always negotiate with a provider, and long-term optimization is worth the expenditure.
Upgrade to Magento 2 with the Automated Tool
An all-manual upgrade process can be done via Composer. Another option is to use an automated tool such as LitExtension to switch from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
One of the most popular tools is LitExtension, the leading shopping cart migration expert that helps you automatically, accurately, and securely migrate your store’s features.
The price and estimated time of your migration will depend on the number of entities that have to be transferred and the complexity of your project.
Step 1: Provide Your Shopping Cart Information
Once logged in to LitExtension, select Magento as both your Source Store and Target Store, and provide your store URL. Then download the LitExtension connector, extract the zip file, and follow the instructions to upload it to your Source platform and Target Store’s root folder.
Step 2: Select Entities to Be Transferred and Additional Options
In the tool, select your entities such as themes, plugins, and product catalogues to prepare. There is also a Select All button. Additional options can be chosen as well.
Step 3: Run Full Migration
Then you can start running the Full Migration process. It is cloud-based, and as the data switching process is running, you can set it aside while it runs and LitExtension will notify you via email once complete.
A Seamless Magento 2 Migration: A One-Stop Solution
Magento migration from version 1.x to 2.x is a necessity for your eCommerce business. By finding a one-stop solution, expert help can create a seamless platform migration experience. A partner can provide end-to-end services for the process. A long-term business relationship with a Magento Agency can provide development and migration services along with all the much-required eCommerce services and solutions throughout the lifecycle of the platform.
Whether you run the platform changes yourself or partner with an expert to migrate your data, changing to Magento 2 creates a world-class online store. Once the migration is complete, the platform offers a cloud-based framework for successful and agile strategies alongside an attractive design.
Still need help migrating your site to Magento 2 after reading these steps or want a one-stop solution? Request a FREE Jamersan expert Consultation!
