Magento 1 vs. Magento 2: What are the benefits of Magento 2?
Magento 1 was initially built as a flexible eCommerce platform. The flexibility was a key defining feature and one reason why Magento 1 became so popular in the first place. But with time, as Magento developers continued to focus on enhancing the flexibility of their eCommerce platform, the user-interface became not-so-user-friendly.
Magento 1 also lacked some crucial features that are found on many rival eCommerce platforms. Features such as performance optimization and mobile responsiveness were missing. And many users were complaining at how their eCommerce site was running slow — leading to loss of business and visitors.
Admittedly, the new Magento 2 platform does have some beneficial features which resolve all of the issues encountered in Magento 1 mentioned above. Some of these benefits are:
1. 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.
2. Streamlined checkout process
Magento 1’s checkout process consisted of 6 stages, Magento 2 only has 2.
3. 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.
4. 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.
Even though we can see the superior benefits of the latest incarnation of Magento, the harsh reality is that migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is a time-consuming and challenging task. So this begs the question: