If your brand’s eCommerce experience is built on Magento 1, you have little more than a month to make the switch to a new platform.
On June 30th, Magento will sunset its Magento 1 offering. Businesses using it will have to choose a new eCommerce platform, whether that’s moving on to Magento 2 – the provider’s more current offering – or choosing from a range of eCommerce platforms available today, some of which include Shopify, 3dCart, and our eCommerce partner, BigCommerce.
Your eCommerce platform is at the core of your online marketplace. Choosing a new one is not a decision you should make lightly. For brands forced to re-platform from Magento 1, there’s no better time than now to reevaluate your priorities and select a platform that fits your business needs.
Why You Need to Switch
Magento 1 – sometimes known as Magento Enterprise – hasn’t received a significant update since 2014, with most of the developer’s focus going to the newer Magento 2. That said, Magento 1 has still continued to receive security, stability, and QoL patches, and the Magento team still provides platform support. This will all stop on June 30th.
What this will mean for your business:
You’ll fall behind on security updates. Businesses today have an obligation to their customers to keep sensitive data secure. Without routine security updates, you’ll be more vulnerable to online threats and at risk of damaging consumer trust in your brand.
Payment providers may stop support. If your eCommerce platform can’t keep up with the changing world of data compliance, payment providers may stop support to avoid liability – potentially eliminating whole groups of paying customers.
You’ll miss out on new extensions and tools. As your competitors get the latest eCommerce innovations, you’ll be stuck working with an out-of-date suite of features.
You’ll be dead last to receive updates. If any updates do get pushed out across the Magento ecosystem, Magento 1 will be the last to receive them – if at all.
Choosing a Your Next Platform
Re-platforming is a daunting task, and data migration can be seriously time-consuming. You wouldn’t be crazy to think that moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is an immediate process – after all, they’re family. But the reality is the two platforms, internally, are very different, and many of the hurdles of a normal re-platforming still exist. So, if you planned on staying in the Magento ecosystem purely for an immediate migration, that incentive may no longer be there.
Nowadays, you have your pick of great eCommerce platforms. At a crossroads like this, we encourage brands to know their options. Let’s run through four of the preeminent players on the market today – including our eCommerce partner, BigCommerce.
Our Partnership with BigCommerce
Blue Fountain Media is a proud BigCommerce agency partner, leveraging the platform’s state-of-the-art suite of tools to help clients go to market quickly and with confidence. A headless SaaS solution, we recommend BigCommerce to businesses of all sizes that want a fully brandable, growth-ready eCommerce platform equipped with the latest features and ready to scale at a moment’s notice.
We’ve made it easy to migrate from Magento 1 to BigCommerce with minimal disruptions to business, thanks to our proprietary Magento-to-BigCommerce connector. Developed in-house to streamline the re-platforming process, our connector:
- Lets you migrate all of your user and product data with minimal effort and zero data loss, helping you jump into a new, BigCommerce-powered website faster than ever.
- Allows for intuitive bulk migration by letting you curate the information you’d like to carry over from your old website. What’s more, our connector makes it possible for data to be migrated as single elements or as bundles.
- Is smart enough to ensure all information propagates appropriately on BigCommerce. For example, if you are migrating a subcategory, the appropriate parent category will be automatically migrated as well, so you maintain data integrity.
With these advantages, clients can get up-and-running on a new platform quickly, without sacrificing data retention and integrity. That’s less downtime, and more time doing business.
Other Class-Leading Options
As a full-service digital agency, our team is ready to help you migrate to the eCommerce platform that works for you. In addition to BigCommerce, we have extensive experience with today’s leading eCommerce platforms.
Magento 2 The latest offering from Magento, Magento 2 offers improved mobile functionality and powerful extensions, plus seamless third-party integrations to cover all your eCommerce needs.
Shopify A common choice for small-to-medium size brands, Shopify can be set up quickly and is quite user-friendly. Some argue it’s not as scalable as other platforms in its class, but it remains a common choice for brands that want a suite of modern features that’s easy to use.
3dCart Known for being a bit less accessible than its peers, 3dCart still offers a powerful inventory system at a great value.
Keep Up with the Curve
In the evolving world of digital commerce, changes are constant, and platforms will inevitably come and go. Providing the best experience for your consumers means staying current and keeping on the cutting-edge. We encourage all businesses working on Magento 1 to approach this change as an opportunity to choose the tools that work best for their success – and that evolve the buyer’s experience for the better.
