Migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2: How to successfully migrate from Magento classic to Adobe Commerce (Magento 2)
You are probably a fan of the old Magento 1 store system. If the system didn’t work for you, you wouldn’t have remained loyal especially after Magento support ended. However, you’ve most likely reached the point where running Magento 1 is too much of a hassle, or it simply can’t meet your online store requirements anymore. For whatever reason you want to switch to Magento 2, that is, to Adobe Commerce: If you are planning a migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2, want to get an overview of the necessary steps and related tasks, then you are in the right place. In this article, we will give you tips for the migration strategy and provide you with an overview of the specific implementation.
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Table of Contents
Why the migration from Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) can be important for your business
General migration strategy tips
How the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce works
Conclusion
Why the migration from Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) can be important for your business
First of all, we would like to discuss some reasons that may prevent Magento users from performing the migration. Most of the motives are comprehensible, because the migration is not an update that can be done within a few hours. It is more comparable to a change of the store system provider, and could be referred to as a “re-platforming” process. Maybe you too had such or similar reasons to stick to Magento 1.
Some entrepreneurs and merchants stick to Magento 1 because…
- …they don’t see enough reasons FOR a migration
- …of the feared costs that arise from the migration
- …they want everything to just keep working the way it is and shy away from change
And of course there are still online stores that were configured with Magento 1 and still work thanks to professional, internal or external IT services. After all, most business owners are attached to what they have built especially if it required a lot of effort. Furthermore the migration is not done in a few hours. It is more likely to take several months. Of course, there are ways to keep downtime (the time during which the store is not online) very short. More about that later.
But besides the reasons to stay with Magento 1, there are also arguments that support a migration. We would like to discuss them in more detail below.
1. Security aspects and the effort that goes into Magento 1 maintenance
As you know, since the support for Magento ended, there are no more updates. An important part of the updates are security patches. This means that in terms of security requirements, all information regarding possible vulnerabilities among users is evaluated and patched. The advantage of companies like Magento and now Adobe is that large amounts of information flow together. The data feedback from all users of the system combined enables optimal security updates. As an individual Magento 1 user, it is very difficult to achieve and maintain a similar level of security. If an agency takes this task seriously, the cost is high. Also, if you want to improve functionality, you are dependent on developer input, as no new extensions are released for Magento 1.
2. Growth and overload of the Magento store during extreme traffic
If your Magento 1 store counts more visitors, this is first and foremost good news and we would like to congratulate you. It becomes difficult when your websites run slow or are even inaccessible during load peaks. Your efforts are no longer fully rewarded at this point, because customers who have been acquired with a lot of effort leave the website or even give a negative rating.
3. Expand your B2B business
Just like B2B, in recent years B2B business has been shifting more and more to the online sphere. Therefore, the Internet is increasingly about optimally addressing B2B customers as well and offering suitable functionalities for companies. Magento 1 is not designed for this. Of course, there are possibilities to upgrade accordingly with good developers. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with Adobe Commerce (Magento 2). This is because the platform is focusing its efforts on B2B business more and more. Accordingly, many functionalities that can make life easier for business customers are already integrated into the Adobe Commerce backend. This is one more reason to migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2 (Adobe Commerce).
4. Increase user pool (UI/UX, Page Builder)
If your business has grown, you may face the problem that product and content management with Magento 1 still requires more advanced IT skills or is cumbersome in many places. So if you want to increase the user pool, this also speaks for the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 (Adobe Commerce). In recent years a lot has been invested in making the user interface of the backend more intuitive. A page builder is also integrated into the system, so that your employees can optimize your store frontend, i.e. the customer view of the store, even without programming knowledge.
5. Optimizations and advanced marketing features
Another benefit of the migration is the many other optimizations that have been implemented in the Adobe Commerce Cloud system in recent years. The buying process (checkout) has been optimized more and more based on millions of data evaluations. So it’s almost certain that with Adobe Commerce, you’ll lose fewer customers in the checkout process. In addition, search engine requirements are constantly changing. The new system is on the cutting edge of search engine optimization (SEO). A lot is also being done to optimize the customer experience on mobile. This includes the possibility of implementing Progressive Web Apps, which can be used to design store pages in the style of apps.
6. Adapted from Magento 1
As mentioned earlier, there is no direct upgrade from Magento 1 to Magento 2 (Adobe Commerce). It is a new, standalone platform. And yet, the platform is “Powered by Magento.” So you will recognize some proven features. You could compare it to switching to a new model of a car brand: the car looks very different overall, drives faster and is more comfortable. But when you sit in it, if you take a closer look, you will recognize some things and feel at home in it.
7. Multichannel sales: Take the magnalister plugin with you
Here is the good news: We at magnalister can now also contribute to continuity despite migration. This is because our plugin for comfortable product listing and management on various online marketplaces is also available for Adobe Commerce and can therefore help you with your Magento 2 migration. If you do not know us yet: Our plugin allows you to upload products from your store system to marketplaces, such as Amazon, eBay, OTTO Market, Kaufland, METRO and many more. In addition, magnalister allows you to centrally manage everything from order import to invoice upload.
General migration strategy tips
Now we assume that you have decided to start the migration of your Magento 1 store to Magento 2 (Adobe Commerce). This takes us to our strategies and best practices with which the migration can run as smoothly as possible. Our wish for you is that the process is not just a hassle, but that you can take advantage of the potential it offers. This is due to the fact that the migration can be combined with an analysis of your store system – here you can certainly sort out some existing issues.
1. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the old store
If your new store simply became a copy of your old store, you could probably avoid a migration. Instead, first evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the old store. Is there any feedback from customers? Which aspects or features do customers like, and which ones are not popular. You can also deduce this from analytics data from various tools (such as Google, Adobe and many more). Look at the flow of user behavior. Which pages have particularly high bounce or exit rates, and which have particularly low ones? Are the observations different for mobile devices? For which search terms are you found well? For which relevant search terms are you not (yet) found? Which content should therefore be supplemented? Define goals and tasks for the new store based on this evaluation of customer feedback and user data.
2. Plan the new store according to the evaluation
Now grade the different pages and features based on your analyses:
- Which ones play a crucial role?
- Which ones make your store unique?
- Which ones are helpful, but not quite as urgent to implement?
- Which ones are “nice-to-have”?
- Which ones are redundant?
You should immediately implement the successful and necessary pages and features of the old store. These are the center of your online business. Following these initial steps you should focus on the features and functionality that is perhaps a little less responsible for the success of your store, but still necessary.
Then it’s time for those features that are less necessary, but still contribute to success in other ways. All the functionality, features, extensions and content that according to your evaluations were not successful, you can phase out. Redundant and unused features belong in this category. If you do this before the migration, this content will not be migrated unnecessarily. This saves you work hours and costs.
A four-field scheme can help you in this process. Here, you assign your content to one of the four fields, starting with those that are both urgent and important, i.e., in the top-right field:
You may have noticed through customer feedback or store website evaluation that certain features are missing. Now is also a good time to determine these action items: What feature have you always wanted, but perhaps couldn’t implement due to Magento 1’s limitations?
3. Allow time, develop prototypes, test
Allow enough time for the entire Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration process, from the start of the evaluation to the live launch of your new Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce store. For a small project, you can achieve a full Magento migration in about a month. For more complex projects, it can take 2 or even up to 6 months.
Then, based on a copy of your store system data, use the migration tool to develop a prototype in Adobe Commerce with the most important interfaces (ERP, inventory management system, online marketplaces) and features. This way, you and the service providers involved get to the core of the matter and can better plan the actual data migration from Magento 1 to 2 in order to then carry it out flexibly and iteratively.
4. Get support from Adobe
Adobe advertises support around the clock. So if you have any questions about the Magento 2 migration, take advantage of this service. If necessary, the developers involved can also contact customer service with precise questions and save time and money in this way. In addition, there is extensive documentation on a wide variety of technical topics regarding installation, migration, usage and much more.
How the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce works
In this section, we take a closer look at what the individual steps of the Magento 2 migration entail and what tasks are associated with them. This description serves as a first overview. We do not claim for it to be complete.
1. Overview of the store system and migration preparation
The first step is to document exactly how the website is technically structured. This includes third-party extensions, interfaces to ERPs, inventory management systems, CRMs or other systems, individually created themes or changes to the Magento “core”.
This step is accompanied by the “spring cleaning” already mentioned:
- What do we want to keep?
- What do we not need anymore?
- What should we add?
In the process, we now determine which specific changes and innovations should find a place in the new Adobe Commerce / Magento 2 store. Another question is whether you want to transfer your old layout to the new store, use a theme template or create a completely new design. This of course has an impact on the overall effort.
Always take the perspective of your customers and use the insights from the user data you gathered.
2. Set up a basic version of Adobe Commerce
Before you can begin with the Magento 2 migration, you need to bring the Adobe Commerce / Magento 2 store online. If you have any problems or questions about this step, contact Adobe Commerce Support (for example, via live chat) or post your question on the Magento Forum. If you don’t have Magento experts in your team – it might be worth hiring them at least for the migration.
3. Install and configure the Adobe data migration tool
There are several migration tools, including the Adobe/Magento migration tool. This can be used to automate some of the work.
The following data can usually be migrated from Magento 1 to 2 automatically via the migration tool:
- Products
- Categories
- Customers/Users
- Orders
- Invoices
- Deliveries
- Credit notes
- Basic settings
- Wish lists
- Reviews
However, it is not always guaranteed that all fields are migrated. Therefore, you should take time to double check the results.
Not transferred are, for example, third-party or self-made extensions, media files, access data for the web interface, admin users and privileges, and XML layout updates that are stored for products or categories.
Regarding extensions, you should also check if they are present in the Magento 2 core. If so, they do not need to be migrated.
Now the tool can be configured. Don’t forget to ensure that the version of the tool and the current Adobe Commerce software match. If necessary, these need to be updated. In some cases, e.g. when using another migration tool called Map Step, the format and structure of the data and tables from the Magento 1 system has to be aligned with the structure of Adobe Commerce / Magento 2.
4. Migrate data
Now the actual migration process starts. During the migration, nothing else may be changed in the admin area, except for processes related to orders. Also, nothing more should be changed in the programming code. Furthermore, nothing should be changed in the Magento 2 admin area and frontend.
The migration tool now works in the so-called delta mode: Here you will migrate changes to customers, orders or products from the Magento 1 to the Magento 2 store at regular intervals. However, customers can continue to shop in the old Magento 1 store during this time.
5. Final tasks
Once the migration has been successfully completed, it’s time to manually populate the data that wasn’t migrated automatically. This includes media data, certain layouts in the frontend, non-transferable but required extensions and other content that could not be transferred. Access data, access and editing rights and the like, for example for admins, must also be recreated.
Conclusion
As we have seen, the migration from Magento 1 to Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) is not comparable to an upgrade to a new version of the platform. Therefore, the project should be well planned. In doing so, it is important to take another close look at the old store. If you do not have many IT specialists in your ranks, you should cooperate with Magento developers. Based on the evaluation and a precise prioritization of tasks, the new store can be better implemented. In this way, your new Adobe Commerce / Magento 2 store system will certainly be a big leap forward.
If you have been selling internationally or on multiple online channels, such as Amazon, eBay, OTTO Market, Kaufland or Etsy, you can continue to do so with Adobe Commerce. At least, if you (re)install our magnalister plugin. The tool makes it much more convenient to list and manage your products – all centrally via your store system backend. With the combination of magnalister and Adobe Commerce it is particularly easy to increase your reach. We wish you great success!
