With Magento 1 end of life just around the corner, it is time for Magento-powered merchants to take a step back and evaluate the impact that this change will have on their businesses. Specifically, those who are still using Magento 1 need to know what to do.
We understand that changes can often be traumatic, especially when your business and revenue are at stake, so it is vital to make sure you have a good understanding and solid grasp of what the Magento 1 end of life means for you.
Magento 1 End of Life Timeline
There comes a time in every platform’s lifecycle when it is no longer worthwhile to update certain features and roll out new ones. User satisfaction and growing and changing market demands call for more substantial improvements, and that’s why platforms roll out new, updated versions. Magento 1 was (and still is!) a terrific eCommerce platform, one that still powers a significant portion of 250,000 active websites that are using Magento. However, it was time for a change and in 2015, the platform released the new version, Magento 2.
Following the release, the company made sure everyone understood that Magento 1 would still remain active and supported so that the users could have plenty of time to adapt and, potentially, migrate to the new version.
Initially, the old version was supposed to be supported until November 2018. The company later announced that the end of life was to be postponed until June 2020. Exactly what influenced this decision is still unclear, but it’s safe to say that they wanted to be able to support the many merchants who have not made the transition yet.
Magento 2 is the latest version of an eCommerce platform that is utilized by 1 in 4 businesses. Contact 2buy1click and take your Store to the next level with Magento 2.
Versions Enjoying Extended Support
After some confusion regarding which exact versions will be supported, and to what extent, Magento explained that the extended support will include all Magento Commerce versions 1.9 to 1.14. However, only the last two, Magento 1.13 and Magento 1.14, will enjoy full support, with all security patches and quality fixes, until end of life, which is June 2020.
The older versions will only receive security patches but no quality fixes. This is to assure overall security, stability, and compliance of the entire Magento ecosystem.
As for Magento Open Source 1 (formerly known as the Community Edition), it will be receiving security patches until June 2020.
What This Means for Your Business
If you’re running an online store on Magento 1, you’re probably wondering what this end of life means and what your next steps should be.
Before drawing any conclusions, let’s see why Magento decided to roll out a brand new version and shut down the old one in the first place.
When it became clear that a whole new version would bring much more improvement than any of the quality fixes or features that could be added to the old version, the company decided to focus all their efforts and attention on Magento 2. It was clear that indefinite full support to both platforms would be impossible, which led to the decision of shutting Magento 1 support down.
Compared to the old version, Magento 2 offers retailers immediate access to a set of enhanced features and, of course, constant performance and security improvements. In addition to this, Magento 2 appears to be much more suitable for the modern-day multi-channel environment of online retail. It also provides better visibility and improved insights into how your business is doing.
Magento 1 was initially built as a flexible eCommerce platform, which was its key defining feature. During time as focus was on enhancing the flexibility, other items like user-interface became not-so-user-friendly. It also lacked some crucial features such as performance optimization and mobile responsiveness.
That is why new Magento 2 platform does have beneficial features which resolve all of the issues encountered in Magento 1 and some of these benefits are:
Improved performance
In comparison to Magento 1, Magento 2 runs, on average, 20% faster. Site speeds have proven to encourage more sales and help sites rank better on search engines.
Streamlined checkout process
Magento 1’s checkout process consisted of 6 stages, Magento 2 only has 2.
Better admin interface
Perhaps the most significant pain point of Magento 1 was their admin interface. Non-technical users experienced a great deal of difficulty in navigating through the platform. Magento 2 introduced a cleaner user-friendly interface where users can find tools and add new product listings much quicker.
Mobile friendly
A Magento 1 site could not deliver optimum performance on mobile devices. With 62 percent of customers making purchases via their smartphone, Magento 2 recognized this trend and made mobile responsiveness a priority on their platform.
An Opportunity
Merchants should note that the migration process should be handled with great care. Magento 2 is pretty much an entirely new platform, with a framework that is significantly different from the old one. Any extensions or custom code that your site might have (and most Magento websites have heaps of them) should be carefully examined and possibly rewritten in order to assure compatibility with Magento 2 and the latest versions of PHP.
This means that, before you initiate the migration process you should consider the help of an experienced Magento 2 Agency such as 2buy1click to help you transition through this process seamlessly and painlessly. Again, end of life is in June 2020, so that leaves just enough time for the whole process to be carried out seamlessly as well as an exciting opportunity for innovation and positive transformation within your business.
It is clear that the summer of 2020 will be an exciting time for all Magento-powered merchants, thanks to the new functionalities and possibilities for improvement that come with the Magento 2.
