Magento 1 End of Life: What Retailers Need to Know

As the end-of-life date approaches for Magento 1, merchants still operating on the system should begin to think about what steps they need to take now to ensure a smooth transition. With the right steps in place and a well-thought-out plan, transitioning to Magento 2 can be a time for innovation and positive digital transformation within your organization.

Magento 1 will cease to be supported at the end of June 2020, extending the original end-of-life date by 18 months. If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of retailers worldwide operating on Magento, you may be wondering how this will impact you and how you should proceed.

Magento 2 eCommerce Website Developers – Fusionsoft UK

With only a little over a year to go, you should begin producing a business plan and put a schedule in place to replatform and transition your Magento 1-enabled eCommerce website to a new platform, either the Magento framework or another, with an aim to beat the summer 2020 support deadline.

Send a message via our Contact Form and tell us your website address to begin the Magento migration today. Alternatively do you fancy a chat? Call our experienced team and talk to one of our Magento experts today on 01895 255 633.

If you plan correctly and put in enough advance time, this can be an exciting opportunity for innovation and positive digital transformation within your organization as you explore a comprehensive set of new features, performance improvements, and security enhancements enabled by the Magento 2 platform.

Magento 1 Sunset Coming Soon

Since mid-2014, Magento 1 hasn’t had any new major releases. Magento and Adobe’s priority has been on creating the newer Magento 2 framework, so it’s understandable that Magento wouldn’t be able to support two platforms indefinitely.

When comparing Magento 1 vs Magento 2, retailers will immediately get access to an enhanced feature set and the peace of mind of continued performance and security improvements, though Magento 2 enables additional benefits as well. Magento 2 is better suited to today’s modern omnichannel selling environment. The platform also provides merchants with more effective visibility into their online business.

Many Magento 1 merchants may require additional time to ensure that their transition to Magento 2 is successful. Recognizing this, Magento has extended their software support policies from the original end date of November 2018 to June 2020 to enable merchants to have the time and confidence they need to upgrade when it is best appropriate for their business.

When support ends, Magento 1 sites will become increasingly vulnerable to security threats and no further features or innovations will be added. This means the continued security of your customers and your business would be at risk.

For Magento Commerce 1 (formerly “Enterprise Edition”):

Software support will now be provided through June 2020. Please review the chart below to verify which versions will support quality fixes and/or security patches.

*Security patches will continue to be made available by Magento through June 2020.

For Magento Open Source 1 (formerly “Community Edition”):

Software security patches will be provided through June 2020. Please review the chart below to verify which versions will continue to receive software security maintenance.

Read more on the original article here.

Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration

For those considering transitioning to Magento 2, retailers should view this as more than just a simple “version upgrade” or “migration.” Effectively, it’s an entirely new platform with substantial framework differences from Magento 1. In order to ensure success, you should treat the transition effort as a new build or rebuild effort.

All extensions and custom code will need to be reviewed, rewritten, and made compatible with Magento 2 and more recent versions of PHP. These types of efforts are often large and involved, so begin the process and start upgrading now to make sure you have optimal time.

An Opportunity for Reflection

Many merchants who are currently on Magento 1 will look to replatform to Magento 2, and with Adobe releasing Commerce Cloud, it’s a great choice. However, this is also a great time to talk more generally about choosing the right eCommerce platform for your organisation. Retailers currently on Magento 1 are in a perfect position to reevaluate their eCommerce platform decision, considering multiple facets of the customer experience like on-site personalization and targeted marketing options.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to start these conversations now. Make sure you have dedicated internal resources or a trusted partner like Fusionsoft to help guide you in these conversations, uncover challenges, and weigh the various eCommerce platform options. Being prepared ahead of time and having your business needs and goals identified will help you set a clear path forward for success and expedite the process.