#1. M1 Becomes Obsolete, Watch Out for Hackers!

One of the biggest problems is that M1 won’t be supported anymore for bug fixes. Like in every software, new bugs are detected in Magento from time to time. Go for migration to M2 if you aim for security and want to have peaceful dreams… Time is ticking: “Magento 1 support ends in June 2020”

#2. M2 Has Much More Features Compared to M1

I will not go into details here because it is just too much to write. But here a few that might convince you to migrate:

• Multi-source inventory (finally!)
• Seamless integrations with external systems if you want unconventional solutions (RabbitMQ, GraphQL)
• Elasticsearch support is now available in Open Source edition for free
• Better user experience out of the box, including cool admin panel features that speed up the work—a big one!
• Taxes or payment configuration gives you a lot more of flexibility
• Reporting feature is now advanced one, with plenty of information to use from statistics
• Magento Shipping new extension that provides complex shipping management including packaging creation and more

#3. M2 Aims for Big E-commerce

If you aim for growth and you have some unusual ideas like multi-shop integrations, selling your products in dozens of countries, or using some sophisticated integrations with external systems, migrate. Click To Tweet.

M1 is an oldie grandpa here. With M2 you can achieve more, with modern approaches: RabbitMQ or GraphQL are only two of those M2 technologies that can give your e-commerce business a new way to manage it.

Do you want a better POS (Point of Sale) integrations or maybe create a global system to manage the manufacturing of the products as well as selling them? With M2’s totally new code architecture it’s an easy task. The only limitation is your own imagination.

#4. New Technologies and Innovations Around M2

There’s one famous saying: “He who moves not forward, goes backward.”

M1 will obviously be obsolete soon. No new technology will have integrations with it. This is another important reason behind migration. E-commerce businesses are growing, new solutions are popping up all the time. Every year there are new ideas related closely to technology evolution.

We can expect more tools around artificial intelligence applied to the world of e-commerce. You would be amazed by some of the crazy ideas out there. There is a serious approach to predict user needs or reveal potential customers’ interests, all to accomplish the task of selling the right product or give more accurate product recommendations.

More to say: machine learning for better product search, searching by image, virtual reality readiness, voice assistant—are just a few technology innovations currently existing. Read more at Magento Innovation page.

If you are into new technologies, want to have top-notch business solutions that go with the spirit of modern times, go for migration as soon as possible. Don’t let your competitors be the first. Click To Tweet.

#5. Better Performance and Scalability

If your shop grew up with thousands of customers and you see performance problems with M1, you should consider migration.

Speaking generally, M2 is much faster, integrated with caching tools by default. It has concepts applied that in M1 require the installation of separate modules for features like code compression or different caching mechanisms.

Further, M2 scales a lot better. What does scaling mean? It means that you can deploy it on Cloud like Amazon AWS service, “cut database” into parts and increase server resources for every chunk to gain more performance in general. In M2 Commerce edition, a database can be split. This is a huge boost, especially when you have hundreds of thousands of products.

#6. Modern Look and Mobile Devices Readiness

Today, mobile support by any online software is a must-have standard. Even though the default M2 theme is mobile friendly with RWD (Responsive Web Design) support, Magento 2 is now pushing as well into PWA (Progressive Web Application) concept to apply it in great details.

M1 is totally out of the subject here. Mobile features like offline browsing or offline checkout will soon be supported fully in M2 with all the goodness that the PWA approach gives for better user experience.

In the next years we will see a great change in Magento 2. Don’t wait with the migration. User experience in e-commerce is one of the biggest keys to success. More about PWA on the official website.

#7. If Your Shop Became “Spaghetti Code,” Try Better Development Approaches

If you deal with development problems (simple changes consume lots of time), probably your code was badly developed over the years, and now there is the so-called “spaghetti code,” a monster hard to maintain. If so, it’s a good option to migrate and leave all the demons behind.

In M2 it’s much better to apply changes keeping good coding practices. M2’s architecture is prepared for any kind of change you can imagine. The whole development process is much more stable and predictable—developers definitely like M2 more. If you aim for big e-commerce, migration could be the key to your successfully developed project. Of course remember to not try your luck with the rookie guys, hire specialists.

#8. Fewer Clicks Means More User-Friendly Admin Interface

Which means faster work with your products data. You can now swap between different views to immediately add missing elements like Attributes, Product Options, new Categories—all from the Product edit page view. There is also a very handy way to fast edit items on lists without a need to open that element in a separate page.

In M1 the admin interface is much more time consuming to handle. So if your concern is a working speed, you should definitely migrate. Moreover, the admin panel is ready for mobile so you can now easily manage stuff from your smartphone or tablet.

What If I Have a Small Business?

Then probably you don’t need all those new approaches and features from M2, and you can stay with M1, sacrificing security over your wallet.

But migration costs depend strongly on how many modules you have installed and how many changes over time appeared in your shop code—it is always a matter of pros and cons. Just don’t think only about your wallet. Think about your shop, clients, and what you can give them by doing the migration. Sometimes if a shop is not overbuilt, the migration costs are low and perhaps you could even afford it.

M1 is not compatible at all with M2, so developed features or layout changes will have to be left behind. Sometimes it’s hard to make such a decision, but it will pay off in the long run. My advice is to look at it in a positive way: you paid not only for the features but also for gaining your own e-commerce knowledge and experience over the years with M1.

Think twice, see where the world is going, and evolve. If you’re not sure about migration now, start saving the money for later. Try to see a bigger context.

Give your business a boost that comes with migration: new modules installation, better shop performance, new integrations, etc. I’ve seen many M1 shops with modules not being used at all by our clients: they installed and forgot them, or the modules just became useless over time.

Migrating to M2 is a great way to have a fresh look at your business and clean it up. You are definitely smarter than before getting all this insight. Think about what you could have done differently when you were starting with M1. Perhaps now it is the time for a big step forward?

Polcode is an international full-cycle software house with over 1,300 completed projects. Propelled by passion and ambition, we’ve coded for over 800 businesses across the globe. If you want to set up an online store or migrate your existing shop to a newer technology, contact us. We’ll help you decide on the most business-effective e-commerce solution and configure it specifically to your needs.