10 things you should know before migrating to Magento 2

Magento 2 migration is a big step, and while there are plenty of good things to say about the Magento platform, there are some things you should know about the migration process before you begin.

1. You need stakeholder buy-in

Make no mistake; Adobe Magento 2 migration won’t be quick, easy or cheap. To develop any project, you need to obtain a buy-in from all key stakeholders. This includes senior management who will sign off on costs right through to operational staff who need to be trained in using the new admin interface.

A dedicated project team will also need to be created to oversee the migration and to deliver correspondences to senior management and staff.

But perhaps the most crucial buy-in that you need to acquire are the developers, especially those who have worked with Magento in the past.

Developers who have previously migrated to Magento 2 using the Magento Data Migration Tool have commented on how the migration process was time-consuming. Some developers had even treated the migration process as “a complete rebuild from scratch”.

2. You can’t migrate your Adobe Magento 1 theme

Themes provide the structural layout and design of your eCommerce site. When you migrate to Magento 2, your old Magento 1 theme will not work. The frontend templates and coding are different, and the migration tool is not able to convert the coding embedded in your Magento 1 theme.

Developers will have to create a new theme for Magento 2. And depending on how much customization your previous theme had, it could potentially create unwarranted hassle for developers.

Alternatively, you can avoid this hassle and buy and install a Magento 2 theme from their marketplace. But in doing so, developers will still need to make adjustments to ensure the new theme performs to your requirements.

3. Magento 1 extensions don’t work with Magento 2

Extensions make up the essential components which provide new features and functionalities to your eCommerce site. And just like themes, Magento 1 extensions will not work on Magento 2. Developers will have no choice but to create a new extension from scratch or resort to purchasing an extension that performs a similar function.

If your Magento 1 site has many extensions, you will need to undertake the painstaking process of going through each one and decide which ones are going to be relevant to your new Magento 2 site. This is the only way to minimize the amount of time and resources your developers will need to create new extensions for Magento 2.

And with the marketplace for Magento 2 extensions still growing, developers are increasingly likely to create their own extension since a suitable replacement extension is not yet available.

4. You’ll need to test everything

The work won’t stop once you migrate, because you’ll need to test everything from payment processes to any custom code you’ve previously implemented. How long the testing phase will take is entirely dependent on the size of your eCommerce site.

You also need to consider who is going to be assigned to run the test. It is often difficult to get operational staff to conduct formal testing of an eCommerce platform — since they are busy with their day-to-day duties and they are also not professionally trained testers. No doubt, you will need to assign a significant amount of time and resources to undertake the testing phase.

5. You’ll need to migrate again. And again. And again

The fact of the matter is, Magento users will come to face this migration migraine every few years. Magento will soon release Magento 3, and in time, there will be no support available for Magento 2. And this leaves users with no choice but to leave Magento 2 and start all over again on a different platform.

And this will be a common occurrence for Magento Open Source users. It will be less hassle for Enterprise Cloud users since server maintenance and updates are taken out of your hands, but are you willing to pay for something more than a native SaaS solution?

And would an affordable SaaS solution be a better choice right now so you can focus your time and money on innovating and creating great content across various channels?

6. You’ll have SEO issues

Another aspect of the migration to Magento 2 occurs when re-indexing the site to the new database structure. This restructuring can lead to lost pages and SEO problems due to changes in URL structure, or due to certain pages and content being left out of the migration process.

Marketers, brand managers, and SEO experts may see much of their effort under Magento 1 go up in smoke when the site data migrates to the Magento 2 database structure. This loss of search engine traffic can have serious adverse effects on the site’s visibility, and could cost the site owner thousands, even millions, of dollars.

7. Skyrocketing costs

While Adobe Magneto Community Edition (CE) will still be free to use, the starting annual licensing fee for the Enterprise Edition (EE), upon which many businesses depend, has risen from $18,000 to $22,000, and can be as high as $125,000. According to at least one report, hosted versions of Magento Commerce can range from $40,000 to $190,000 per year.

The licensing fee also does not include the cost of migrating systems. Expenses such as creating new extensions, designing new templates, and reformatting the database tables can turn an upgrade into a boondoggle, drawing away resources from essential projects, just to get the site ready for deployment in the new environment.

8. Integration nightmares

Most eCommerce systems rely on connecting with other systems to deliver their optimal results. These systems must communicate with product databases, payment processors, content management systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) software, as well as numerous other platforms. While your in-house developers may have created extensions to allow Magento 1.x systems to connect with systems such as CRM, marketing, and accounting platforms, your developers will have to rebuild those extensions from scratch to get those same platforms to work with Magento 2.x systems.

9. The learning curve

As with any new system, one of the many hurdles that firms encounter when migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is the learning curve. Since Magento 2 uses some relatively new technologies, most users may not be familiar with how it works from the start. This issue can lead to steep learning curves, both for developers who need to create new extensions to integrate the system, and for marketers who need to create content for it.

10. Time, and the opportunity cost

The single most important resource anyone has, let alone any business, is time. It is the one resource that is non-renewable and irreplaceable. Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 can be a time-consuming affair. Here’s how the time can stack up:

• Time spent by developers creating new extensions.
• Time spent by marketers crafting new templates and themes.
• Time spent by database administrators moving the data from the old format to the new one.
• Time spent by project managers overseeing the migration process and trying to control “scope creep”.
• Time spent by other departments testing, debugging, deploying, launching, and propagating the new system.

And here’s the kicker; if you do finally complete your migration process, will you ever truly work out the opportunity cost? If the process takes three months and a team of developers, it’s difficult to fathom what else those resources could have been put towards.