Overview by Simon Hartley, Cloudfy Head of Product.

The flexibility of Magento 1 makes it a much-valued platform for the ecommerce community. Unfortunately, it's this flexibility has that resulted in it hasn't been the simplest platform for non-expert users or even the best for performance.

Rumors about the end of life for Magento 1 started back in 2022. It was originally suggested that it would happen 3 years following the launch of Magento 2 in November 2022.

So, informed observers were anticipating an end-of-life in late 2022. However, as that date approached, Magento acknowledged that users would need additional time emigrate their ecommerce platforms.

In September 2022 Magento announced that support for Magento 1 Enterprise and Community Editions would end in June 2022. That appeared to allow plenty of time for existing users to upgrade to a different platform.

In the meantime, continuing support would cover versions 1.9 to at least one.14, released between 2010 and 2022, along with security patches for some earlier editions.

For businesses with third-party extensions for Magento 1, it might be also possible to use an new version of Magento's scripting language (PHP) for that core platform to help with migration to a different solution until November 2022.

Knowing there was still time for you to make the change there hasn't been the level of transitional planning you might have expected. You may still find around 180,000 Magento 1 sites available and many business to business (B2B) companies have not yet planned their next steps.

Of course, Magento recommends a migration road to Magento 2, that was designed to address Magento 1 performance issues and also to improve seo.

It undoubtedly provides a comprehensive suite of functions. There are thousands of extensions available and updates are delivered each quarter. However, recognizing how much the marketplace and technology have changed in the last 5 to 10 years, the end of life for Magento 1 is an ideal opportunity for B2B companies to reconsider what they are looking for from their ecommerce platform.

We are seeing the advantages of integrating enterprise, stock control, production and distribution systems with B2B ecommerce portals to deliver a genuine end-to-end experience for purchasers. In a highly competitive global environment this will make the option of ecommerce platform business critical.

This article provides information that will help you plan the next ecommerce steps and get ready for the end of life for Magento.

1. Ecommerce Design

Moving to a new ecommerce platform is a perfect opportunity to take a look at design and compare it using the very best in your sector, or perhaps the world. To do this effectively, you will need to possess a clear idea of the things that work well for your business, so what can be improved, and what you want to achieve in the future.

A detailed audit from the performance of the current platform and just how it contributes to your business will become important.

At minimum you will need to maintain the functionality and consumer experience you currently offer, however, you might discover that your buyer's expectations and needs have moved on because you set your original objectives.

There are multiple audit checklists available. This is a summary of the key points we advise you should consider.

Magento commissioned Forrester to supply a study in the united states, the united kingdom, Germany, China, and Australia to explore precisely what it takes to become a leader in B2B ecommerce.

Self-service – an effective ecommerce experience is a key focus to enhance customer satisfaction. By enabling your buyers to analyze and make their purchases at any given time that meets them using their preferred device they'll become more active and loyal customers, enhancing your revenue growth and financial performance.

Performance – Magento 1 performance can often mean non-cached pages took five to Ten seconds to load, which isn't appropriate for the current generation of B2B buyers. Server or hosting resources and installation issues could all slow things down. There are a variety of ways to optimize performance, if you have the technical know-how to implement them.

Magento 2 is up to 20% faster and may handle a significantly larger product catalogue. However, rebuilding your ecommerce platform is really a significant undertaking there are many options you can consider. Going for a whole-business view will help you to make a good choice.

Reliability – Speed, efficiency and reliability throughout a buyer's journey will make the difference between improved conversion rates or abandoned purchases. B2B businesses can not afford to compromise around the reliability or quality of the experience with unsupported functionality, so those relying on Magento 1 will need to have important decisions soon.

Solution focus – Your ecommerce platform ought to be made to meet the requirements of the business. While re-purposing extensions to Magento's core functionality would once happen to be a cost-effective option nowadays there are powerful application programming interfaces (APIs) and out-of-the-box integration options for major business systems that bring tailored corporate-scale functionality to small enterprises.

Technology – B2B companies that curently have established leadership, resources, and a cross-functional strategy for ecommerce are poised to take advantage of the predicted growth in B2B ecommerce. Individuals with the most mature approach can take advantage of the latest technology to offer a streamlined buying experience, increasing customer satisfaction and improving their competitive advantage. For businesses that have not yet developed to this level a partnership with an experienced third party can help them to proceed.

Considerations: Moving forward from Magento 1

B2B user experience

Your conversions are affected if your web site is hard to use, so this is the perfect time to review the quality of experience you're delivering. Expectations within the B2B marketplace are being driven incidentally major retail brands deliver user experiences and also the fast and intuitive responses provided by Amazon.

If your buyers can't immediately see that your site offers what they are searching for they'll leave straightaway. Your page designs have to be clear and engaging and contain all the right information. To keep them current additionally they need to be easy to maintain.

Your new platform must have impeccable credentials for consumer experience from fast page load times to intuitive and relevant search functions and easy checkout processes.

Customer service

One from the major benefits of a contemporary B2B ecommerce website is the power it gives your buyers to manage their purchasing process. Increasingly more customers want to complete their research online before contacting a supplier directly. Many now prefer to complete the whole transaction online.

If customers need advice, they will expect options for example chat bots to deal with common queries. They'll wish to move easily using their online investigations to speak with someone in your sales or customer support team if needed.

For larger accounts, users may wish to see personalized squeeze pages and menus, access to their buying background and easy repeat ordering. Price breaks, special discounts and interfaces with their company's purchasing systems and workflows can be provided as standard functions, so don't accept anything less.

Product catalogues

Your product catalogues ought to be comprehensive and clear, supported by data sheets and multiple images. While Magento 1 was limited to a few thousand products, thousands is now able to included and managed easily.

To succeed in search engine results and attract the attention of the buyers, your product and category pages must feature lots of unique content. Your brand-new platform should be simple to edit and maintain, ideally helping you with simple and easy , intuitive functions to produce clear and well-branded content.

Ecommerce system security

At as soon as, Magento actively searches for vulnerabilities and offers protection against them. For Magento 1 this will ended after June 2022 and, importantly, online criminals will probably be searching for exposed ecommerce sites that are still using Magento 1. Some of the most common attacks could slow your site's performance or even take it down, seriously damaging your company.

Without security updates your checkout as well as your customer's data may be at risk, meaning you may be in breach of data protection laws.

One of the most great ways to maintain the security of the system is to move to a Cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) provider. Security updates is going to be deployed immediately in the Cloud, which means you won't have to wait for upgrade releases. Because this is their primary business you can also be confident that they are delivering the highest amounts of security.

Hosting your B2B ecommerce platform

Cloud-based B2B search engine optimization aren't new but they're playing an ever more important part in the development of successful modern solutions in contrast to on-premises options.

Traditionally, the program and hardware, on-premises hosting, and dedicated technical resources required significant capital investment. Ongoing funding for implementation and recurring support are significant overheads. Cloud-based SaaS solutions are available for monthly subscriptions, without initial capital investment, which makes them a financially efficient option.

If you're changing the ecommerce platform for your business, then a Cloud-based solution allows you easily implement and use the latest technology. They're also scalable, flexing when you're busy and capable of growing with your business, so you do not have to pay for capacity you do not need.

Delivery partners

Because Magento is open source there is a whole community of developers creating new and interesting inclusions in its core functionality. Additional features, optimized website design, and improved usability have all helped businesses to face in an aggressive marketplace.

However, extensions for Magento 1 won't be included in future fixes and patches. If you wish to continue using them, you will need to have the expertise yourself or work with a third party who is willing to maintain solutions for any platform which will soon become obsolete.

In fact, many B2B companies usually have found it difficult to develop and maintain these extensions and enhancements, a few of which were originally made for the consumer market. In some instances, the experience has not been to the standard they'd have hoped.

Now is the best time to take action to some platform that's been specifically designed for the modern B2B market.

Integration with business systems

Many businesses are faced with the challenges of managing legacy business systems alongside a contemporary ecommerce platform. It may be one of the biggest barriers to advance and may seriously limit competitiveness.

While you'll have analyzed profits and order processing whenever you implemented your Magento 1 platform, successful integration along with other business systems depends upon an entire end-to-end understanding of your business processes. Each clients are unique, and also the solution should be too.

Partial integration could involve sharing 'packets' of information involving the ecommerce and enterprise systems at times; overnight for example. This can improve processes to some degree but will involve delays and may lead to errors.

Increasingly, B2B ecommerce information mill realizing the advantages of full business systems integration. Included in this are:

• increased work at home opportunities for the same level of investment
• improved conversions and adaptability for sales teams to become trusted advisors who develop customer relationships
• reduced costs though process automation and less errors
• enhanced customer insights, based on accurate real-time information
• access to untouched markets identified through improved market intelligence
• improved efficiency based on a single source of information for the entire business.

Price and price of ownership

The relative advantages of maintaining and enhancing an existing on-premises platform or moving to some Cloud-based alternative can be difficult to evaluate.

The first obvious advantage of an on-premises solution is that you have complete control, but this could be a disadvantage too. You're responsible for purchasing and looking after the hardware, software, security, and handling the cost overheads that come with them.

When you need to introduce upgrades, you will need in-house expertise or a trusted business partner to build up, customize and extend them. This can be time-consuming and costly and may decelerate what you can do to respond to new market opportunities.

In contrast, Cloud-based ecommerce resides and managed by your supplier. The IT infrastructure, data security, upgrades and fixes are their responsibility. Because providers are immersed in the world of ecommerce, they have a level of expert knowledge that's difficult to maintain in-house. It's in their interests to stay and also the very leading edge of development.

Initial cost is typically much lower because the solution can be quickly carried out to meet your requirements and could be easily accessed through a web browser. You will be aware your subscription payments ahead of time and additional enhancements can be cost-effectively managed.

Maintenance and upgrades

One of the compelling arguments to have an on-premise product is reliability and risk management. As long as you have adequate resources you can minimize the outcome of external influences.

However, upgrades will have to be deployed and also the potential for disruption to your business is significant. Unforeseen effects on existing software and systems can result in time-consuming rollbacks and diagnostics.

This can lead to an atmosphere that is unwilling to change or only implements changes slowly. Businesses will find themselves relying out-of-date technology that cannot deliver the level of service customers expect.

Cloud-based ecommerce solutions are continually enhanced automatically. You can be sure you’re always while using latest, most advanced version.