Magento 2 Migration Service - Checklist, Plan & Benefits

If you haven’t migrated to Magento 2, you’ve clearly missed the countdown and your business is currently running on unsupported software. Magento 1 rounded off its support on 30th June 2020 after powering businesses for over a decade. If your e-commerce store is still running on Magento 1, which means your business is prone to security vulnerabilities. In a world where online security and customer database protection is a top priority, still functioning on an unsupported platform is both risking your business and customers' privacy. A data hack on your business and customer database could cause some serious impact to your business reputation and customer loyalty.

Why Magento 2 is better and more advanced?

Still, if all is not lost, you need to connect with a Magento 2 migration service provider and have your business migrate to the updated technology. The migration service might look like a daunting task but several benefits await you including an improvised interface, strong security, enhanced performance, and fresh design. The open-source e-commerce engine platform combines powerful marketing, search engine optimization, advanced reporting, improved checkout processes, and other noteworthy tools which will empower your businesses and make them completely scalable. The interface has been improvised not only for the backend operations but gives the customers a mobile-friendly user interface. Magento 2 improves SEO, eases the checkouts while ensuring an increased user experience. Upgrading to Magento 2 with the help of a Magento 2 migration service provider gives you a niche over your competition with your customers enjoying the refreshing change and user experience. With the latest version, its easy to upgrade and customize offers instant purchase, assists in email marketing automation, boosts conversion rates and sales, and improves efficiency and agility for business users.

For quite a few years, Magento 1 has been powering numerous eCommerce websites however change is the new name of the game. Migrating to the latest version of Magento is no easy task. The dynamic platform requires the right expertise or else one wrong move could end up spending more time and money rectifying the error. To ensure your business has a smooth transition to Magento 2, opt for a certified Magento developer who has the right knowledge about the platform the expertise to upgrade and scale your existing website. The Magento 2 migration service provider needs to include both pre and post-migration support. Once the migration process is complete, every component of the website needs to be tested to ensure there are no technical glitches and the online story runs perfectly as before only now with a renewed set of benefits. The duration for the migration depends on how complex the online store is. Migration to Magento 2 should take two to three months or maybe more depending on the customizations, coding, and third-party integrations.

What’s your Migration Plan?

To migrate to the advanced version of Magento without facing any issues, you need to prepare a migration plan.

1. Analyze the migration scope: It’s best to be on the same page with a clear picture of the work lying ahead, responsibilities, and timelines. Evaluate what is the technical functionality of the website in terms of third party extensions, customized themes, integration with various CRMs and ERPs, core customizations, etc. The complete size of the store including the number of domains needs to be assessed. All these factors will help in putting an estimate to the overall time spent to migrate to the latest software.

2. Get rid of data you don’t need: Simply the process and get rid of any outdated data from the previous version. Because of the new interface, the extensions used in Magento 1 may not be compatible with the latest version. Find out which are the new extensions that will be needed for Magento 2. All unique customizations that were developed for Magento 1 will be recreated for Magento 2.  

3. Conduct thorough testing: Once the existing functionality has been replaced, it’s best to verify that the performance is glitch-free. Magento 2 module testing is a complex process therefore the Magento 2 migration service provider needs to conduct thorough testing. Before initializing a dry run, it’s best to seize all administrative activity on both the versions.

4. Initiate your migration with the Data Migration Tool: The tool s equipped to migrate all your data however there might be some customized data that will be overridden. Admin rights, media files, and some other technical aspects will not be included in the tool.

5. Update incremental data: Once the data has been migrated, collect the data updates that were added in Magento 1 store such as new order, reviews, etc, and transfer these updates to the Magento 2 store by going into Delta mode.

6. Final Check: Have the various functionalities reviewed by various stakeholders to ensure all points have been covered. Check if the files for Magento 2 are updated and functioning normally without any glitches.

Run through a proper checklist 

Before rolling out the new layout and improvised design, run through the checklist with your Magento 2 migration service provider to ensure no function has been missed out.

1. During the migration process, ensure that no themes, extensions, plugins have been overlooked. Review the final list once again to be certain.

2. All stakeholders need to be one the same page with roles and functionalities clearly defined.

3. Once the migration process is over, various tweaks will have to be incorporated, bug fixes will have to be addressed. Magento 2 should be linked with different CRMs and ERPs before the software is considered for launch.  

4. Ensure all software and hardware requirements are met and they meet the compatibility criteria.

Read also about PSD to Drupal and Magento Conversion

The checklist and the migration plan are to give an overview of the entire process. The most suitable way to go through the migration process is to get the best Magento 2 migration service provider to help you with the entire process and assist you with the technical guidance. Migrating to Magento 2 is a significant move for your business, it’s as big as creating a new website, so the migration must be done correctly with the help of experts.