How to Migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2

With the upcoming deadline for Magento 1, website owners are starting to migrate their pages to the undoubtedly superior Magento 2. During its kick-off last 2015, Magento 2 was primarily disregarded by many website developers due to its usability and accessibility issues. Fortunately, updates and improvements made it more usable for both the fresh and the experienced. Which begs the question: what are the steps that you should take before you start migrating your Magento 1 website to Magento 2?

Steps you need to take to Migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2

Your website’s one of your business’ biggest platforms to get heard. As such, it’s entirely reasonable to have second thoughts on how you should go about moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2. We wouldn’t want to risk your website being corrupted or losing the loyal customers, right? So here are the things that you should do before migrating to Magento 2.

Upgrade extensions and reimplement customisations

Website extensions offer new features to your users, but the downside is that all your Magento 1 extensions won’t be compatible with Magento 2. Be sure to upgrade your extensions for them to be more suited to Magento 2. Always check if your existing extensions have better versions on the marketplace.

It will also be helpful to determine whether or not your existing extensions will need upgrading for your new site. If there are any old ones you can remove without damaging your website’s functionality, then do so.

You should also review your existing theme and functions to your current Magento 1 store. Such customisation needs to be planned out and reimplemented into your new Magento 2 store to retain similar results.

Overhaul your web design

Magento 1 now runs on outdated designs and concepts. To get the best out of your migration, you may need to give your web store a facelift optimised for Magento 2. Keep your layout, interface, navigation and SEO up-to-date to ensure that your users have the best experience when browsing through your web pages.

Crawl through your website manually and take note of all the pages that would need a redesign or overhaul. In addition to design, any successful migration might result in a small yet noticeable loss of traffic and ranking. Careless changes to your site protocols will most likely affect your search rankings. But if you maintain proper SEO practices to your new website, you’ll immediately see a steady increase once you’ve finished.

Review content

Content is the lifeblood of your website. Articles, videos, images, and many more show your users what you have to offer. As such, migrating contents that you’ve always wanted to remove will be counterproductive to your upgrade.

Analyse the contents on your web pages. There might be some that are already outdated or unnecessary. If there are massive changes that you wish to make on your website’s contents, then now is the perfect opportunity to do it.

Related: How to Write Web Content that Sells

Database backup and migration

Database migration would be one of the last steps that you need to plan out carefully. The database migration includes customer information, order and invoice, products & inventory, among others. Backing up your store’s entire database ensures and that your data is safe and secured during the migration.

Start migration with your web developer

Migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 undoubtedly contains plenty of technicalities. That said, be sure to update your web developer on additional changes you want to that you won’t be able to do yourself.

An experienced web development agency will be a massive help to your migration process. Why? Because an agency worth its salt will most likely have personnel under its wing with the knowledge on how to move your website correctly.

User Acceptance Test

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is often the final phase of the web development process. More commonly known as beta testing, it precedes the final release of a website for a client or the distribution for its intended users. UATs, when implemented correctly, will reduce your expenses and increase customer satisfaction.

When performing a UAT for your website, see your site as a user and know if it provides a good experience. UATs ensure that the end experience is trouble-free, thus reducing potential issues and the amount of effort required for maintenance.

Verz Design: Your experts in Magento 2

We get it, the amount of technical work for migrating your site can be daunting. That’s where we come in. With over 600 websites launched, we have enough experience under our belt to handle your big move to Magento 2. Our trained team of experts can guarantee that all your website needs are taken flawlessly and with no drawbacks!

Verz Design is the preferred pre-approved solutions vendor under IMDA’s SMEs GO DIGITAL initiative. If you are a Singapore-registered company, then you’re eligible for up to 80% funding support with Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG). You also get additional coverage of 18% with SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC). So, you potentially pay just 2% of the cost when you migrate to Magento 2 with us!

Still unsure of your move to Magento 2? Want to discuss your eligibility for the Productivity Solutions Grant? Give us a ring at 6841 1680 or send an email to [email protected] for a free, no-obligation consultation!