Why Upgrade to Magento 2.3.4 Now?

There’s a lot of excitement around Magento this year and their aggressive growth plans have everyone in the Magento Community waiting for release dates for 2.4x. However, whether you are on a different platform, or still on a version of 1.x, or on an earlier version of 2.x there are still a number of great reasons to upgrade to the current version 2.3.4 right now. This is a summary and it includes the features / enhancements that our clients have realized the most value from. For more detailed benefits please consider contacting us to schedule an initial inquiry session.

Improved Performance – Site Speed / Indexing Speed

There’s no question, we are seeing performance improvements for almost all of our clients that have upgraded. There are a number of factors involved and impacting this but big enhancements to the way Magento is indexed have a lot to do with it. Remember those days of re-indexing and waiting? Those are assuming your server setup is sized properly. To quote Magento directly: “ In 2.3 the sharding and parallel processing of indexers reduces indexation times by over 60% to support larger sites and quicker product updates.”

Merchants that make a lot of changes and continuously update their site with catalog and product data are going to notice this difference the most – not including your customers!

Multiple Sources of Inventory (MSI)

While a number of extensions have historically helped merchants manage multiple sources of inventory, beginning with 2.3 merchants can manage them with out-of-the box Magento, right in admin.

Merchants use this functionality most often to manage inventory across multiple physical locations. This allows merchants to be more efficient with inventory management and allows them to save time and money by relying on the multiple shipping sources. Magento believes this new feature helps merchants that only deal with one warehouse or shipping locations: “ Even merchants with a single inventory source benefit from MSI with an inventory reservation system that tracks deductions from the saleable product stock when customers add products to carts. This results in accurate quantity counts and high performing checkouts that improve conversion rates.”

PWA Studio – Easy Configuration of Progressive Web Apps

Progressive Web Apps are faster, more efficient shopping experiences that depend less on the breakpoints and code nuances associated with responsive web design. B2B merchants are not hot on the development of PWAs because it allows buyers in “field” situations like construction sites, industrial sites, outdoor / environment-influences workplaces to place orders with much greater ease. It puts the purchasing power directly in the hands of B2B buyer team members that are going to be using the product. And what better way to order than a few taps on a web app.

Starting in Magento 2.3 the PWA Studio allows non-coders to be a part of the design and configuration process. We highly recommend your engineering and development teams perform the initial design, set up, and configuration but the PWA Studio is a great new resource that makes ongoing management of a PWA much easier.

Read more about the PWA studio here.

PAGE BUILDER – A MUCH NICER CMS INTERFACE FOR NON-CODERS

Content control is increasingly being distributed for many merchants and its importance can not be overstated. The new Page Builder interface in Magento makes content production much easier with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface; a powerful set of content types like images, videos, and banners; and instant preview capabilities that enable non-technical users to take control of their content.

Page Builder is fully integrated with existing Magento functionality such as media gallery and widgets so you can incorporate these assets into your pages. You can also use Page Builder to create dynamic content blocks used throughout your site, and you can schedule content to go live in the future with content staging and preview.

Our take on Page Builder is that it allows cross-functional content and product teams to have a more active role in managing the e-commerce experience and reduces the time to get merchant sites updated.

IMPORTANT SECURITY ENHANCEMENTS

Many developers and merchants are continuously fending off attacks across our industry – not just within the Magento ecosystem but across the entire e-commerce ecosystem. In 2.3.4 there are “Over 30 security enhancements that help close cross-site scripting (XSS) and remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities” so for this reason alone it’s worth an upgrade.
Merchants can enjoy significantly improved site security, without having to engage in the time-intensive functional fixes required with a full quarterly release.

The Bottom Line

It’s a great time to upgrade to 2.3.4 and we don’t know exactly when 2.4 is going to “ship”, so take advantage of these enhancements and a number of others to improve your e-commerce experience soon.

Contact us for information on the scope and timing required to upgrade your site today!