Does your eCommerce platform run on Magento 1? Think about an alternative, because the official end-of-life date of Magento 1 is June 1st, 2020. This has major consequences for the safety of your webshop, because from that date there will no longer be any security updates. This blog is the first of a series of 4 blogs and addresses the question of what you can do best: switch to Magento 2 or choose a different platform (replatforming).
Magento has been around since 2008 and according to the maker there are now 250,000 users worldwide. Magento 2 came on the market in 2015. It works faster, looks nicer and is easier to expand. Since then there have been no more updates to Magento 1. Security updates were still being implemented, but that will end as of 1 June 2020.
It is to be expected that the support of Magento 1 is slowly but surely declining. If only because the attention of Magento developers will increasingly go to the new version.
Switching to Magento 2 then? If you are a satisfied user so far, that seems like a logical step. You have to bear in mind that, although Magento is an open source system, its free nature gives some challenges. Do you want a distinctive webshop with more than the standard options? You then pay for licenses. Depending on your turnover, these costs are between 19,500 and 110,000 euros per year.
Another factor is that Magento was acquired by Adobe in June 2018. The purchase involved an amount of $ 1.6 billion. It is not clear what the consequences are for users, but Adobe will want to earn back this investment (read: pass on).
The End-of-Life of Magento 1 offers you the opportunity to investigate alternatives to Magento 2, or to think about replatforming. In addition, it is good to pay attention to international ambitions, possibilities to manage multiple web shops from one platform for both B2B and B2C and out-of-the box integrations with existing systems. In addition, it is important to consider issues such as scalability, performance and whether the platform responds to a customer experience that is mobile-friendly.
To get a clear overview of what functionalities your platform needs, you must know your client well. We recommend conducting thorough customer research. Collect as much data as possible via Google Analytics, surveys and interview your employees who have customer contact. This way you get a good insight into your client's personality, wishes, preferences and behavior. With that knowledge you can set up your platform for the changing needs of the market. You thereby attract new customers and hold on to existing ones.
Every switch is radical and never goes without challenges. Your client and employees need time to get used to change.
Outsourcing takes away many concerns. The supplier often makes a step-by-step plan and thoroughly test the new platform. You can also ask all your questions to an experienced specialist in this way. You make a one-off investment, but in the long term this might be the cheaper option.
You can read why replatforming can give your webshop a huge boost in the second blog of this series.
Do you want to know more about replatforming? Meet CloudSuite; the e-commerce platform for complex B2B and B2C environments with solutions for all conceivable e-commerce strategies.
EN
Nederlands 