Everything you Need to Know About Magento 1 End of Life

After over a decade on the throne, Magento 1 comes to a close. As time has gone by, Magento 1 has won the hearts of e-store owners and web developers and has left a mark on the whole ecommerce industry.   

Even though there are 138,372 websites that still run on Magento 1, the platform is not supported anymore (discontinued from June 2020).

The consequences you will face if you don’t migrate

Magento 1 end of life isn’t knocking at your door anymore, it is here. And if you don’t make a switch, you’ll face grim fallout. Running an ecommerce store on an insecure platform, there’s a big risk that your business will be affected to some extent. 

This is a high-stakes situation, where you should take action quickly enough, otherwise you’ll be dealing with its aftermath, including the following:

Malware attacks. Your online store will give under the weight of malicious attacks. It’ll either run slow or crash down. This is what you’ll be dealing with if you don’t migrate: 

• Malware;
• Trojans and worms;
• Password hacks;
• Financial frauds;
• DDoS attacks;
• Spam and phishing;
• Malvertising.

Credit card data breaches. Sensitive payment data might become a sore place in your business. Insecure mobile payments might result in heavy financial losses and a handful of claims. What is worse, it may cause a decline in customer trust and make a detrimental impact on your market reputation.

Payment gateway integration issues. Payment integrations will no longer be supported. Fixing it on your own is a tough task. Hiring a developer to keep them afloat will cost you a pretty penny.

Total tech obsolesce. With no fancy extensions and themes in place, you won’t bring your A-game to the consumers. In the worst-case scenario, your consumers will simply leave your store for competitors who were wise enough to upgrade to Magento 2.

Pricey tech support. With Magento 1 end of life there comes the wealth of tech issues. The need to run plenty of security checks and fix dreadful bugs will slowly but surely drag you in debt. Does that sound like something you want?

Reasons to Migrate to Magento 2 

The Magento 1 era has come to an end. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Plot out your migration steps before the reality will come rushing down on you. The clock is ticking. Take action now. 

An era of new beginnings

Migrating to Magento 2 is a perfect opportunity for you to start off with a clean slate. Want to add some new functionality? Not a big deal. Want to enforce better security? Go do that. Need bespoke extensions and themes? It’s all yours. Opting for Magento 2, you can take your store to a whole brand new level. 

Here’s the list of things you can do after the transition:

• Getting rid of futile extensions and themes
• Streamlining the existing code
• Creating your own extensions powered by Magento 2 guidelines
• Creating customized themes to attract new clients and retain old ones
• Downloading extensions that make your store stand out from the crowd

Better security to shield your ecommerce store 

There is no point to mourn over Magento 1 end of life, when you can move on to bigger, better things. Magento 2 can boast robust architecture and a handful of efficient built-in security tools. All these rolled into one bid fair to guard your store from fraudsters and cheaters. Having these security measures in place, you will no longer need to worry about scanning your website for malware and viruses. 

PCI compliance 

All merchants have to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. According to these standards, it is obligatory to enforce security in systems and apps by utilizing security patches provided by a vendor. And running a store on Magento 1 means no proper security measures. With Magento 1 days gone, merchants no longer stand a chance to meet Requirement 6 from the Self-Assessment Questionnaire that states:

Making a changeover, you’ll kill two birds with one stone — enable your store protection and comply with the security standards. 

The wealth of extensions and themes just a click away

Extensions and themes are one of the basal factors of a great eсommerce store. First off, they define the customer experience. The extensions you choose, can either make or break your online store. The better and more diverse extensions you have, the more likely your client is glued to your store. From GDPR, SEO, and promotions to a banner slider, layered navigation, and cache — Magento 2 has covered it all.

Themes are important, too. They shape the essence of your brand. With no custom themes at your hand, your eсommerce store won’t catch the eye of the customer, let alone influence them to make a purchase. In simple words, themes have the last say. 

With no access to extensions and themes, there’s a pretty good chance that your store will immediately go out of fashion. And it’s not only about vivid designs and valuable features at hand, it’s about making your store operate at maximum efficiency and adding to it a pinch of uniqueness. 

Improved SEO for better rankings

Equipping your online store with Magento 2 SEO extensions is the stairway to higher conversions and bigger sales. In simple words, SEO for e-stores is not some honey-field trap but low-hanging ripe fruit. If you want to drive organic traffic to your website and improve your Google visibility, SEO is the right inventory to achieve this. But keep in mind that with Magento 1 end of life at the back of the pack, it is high time you started planning a switch. Otherwise, there’s no chance you’ll get access to SEO tools.

How to migrate to Magento 2

Magento 2 has been evolving at breakneck speed. Just for the record, it has won the hearts of thousands of store owners in absolutely no time. And now it is about to lay its hands on the rest of the market. You’ll either have to stay with Magento 1 (for what you’ll obviously be paying a high price) or take the leap to Magento 2. The choice is yours. 

The takeaway is running your eсommerce store after Magento 1 end of life is a slippery road. For now, Magento 1 is absolutely dead and gone, and soon you may find yourself in a scary situation. Not to face these consequences, you’ll have to make a transition. And here’s how you can do that:

Do some prepping:

• Find out what the Magento version your store is run on.
• Back up all your existing files.
• Make a clone of your store.
• Indulge yourself into the analysis of your store: what’s great, and what’s not (has to be removed).
• Make sure that your code, extensions, and themes are compatible with Magento 2.
• Start transitioning the date from the store clone.
• Clean up the data from the logs, views, and so on. 
• Download Magento 2.
• Install Magento 2 on the server your store has been located in.

Make the transition

• Theme migration. The saddest consequence you’ll have to face is that you can’t directly transit your themes to Magento 2. The only option is to create bespoke themes or download some from the Magento marketplace. 
• Extension migration. Same story here. There is no trustful software to migrate Magento 1 extensions to Magento 2. Our advice here is: get some extensions from the store. 
• Code transition. If your store is run on bespoke code, carry on Magento migration with the help of Code Migration Toolkit.
• Data transition. Since this step includes working with data on current customers, orders, products, there should be no mistakes made. If you’re unsure whether you can do it on your own and need a helping hand, get professional assistance from a Magento development company.
  

Final Thoughts

Magento 1 end of life has been a hot topic for discussion for almost half a year. And now it is almost ready to bid its farewell. What happens next? The Magento 2 era is about to come. To be ahead of the game, there’s only one rule — make a transition to Magento 2.