Our previous blog post – The Magento 1 End-of-Life Survival Guide – discusses a number of scenarios for a range of merchants that are still currently on M1 and will likely still be on it after M1 E-o-L at the end of June. The purpose of this blog post is to present the Accorin position on why a certain class of merchant should upgrade to M2 – what are the key features and benefits to be considered in order to press forward with the process. Realizing there is a cost to completing the upgrade, the investment is a consideration. But upgrading to M2 has a number of very attractive benefits to e-commerce merchants looking to steepen their growth curve.

Here are 5 key features and benefits that support the argument for merchants to make the effort and investment (if the benefit is limited to Enterprise / Cloud versions it is noted below):

1. Magento 2 is a completely different architecture than Magento 1

At this point, Magento 1 is over a decade old. When first launched, the platform architecture was cutting edge but technology has changed a great deal and the structure of Magento 2 is entirely different. Those accustomed to M1 may consider this a barrier in the form of a learning curve but the benefits of the new and improved architecture far outweighs this concern.

For example, the performance increases are profound. Page load times are significantly lower than Magento 1 – to the order of 50% – 75%, as long as content and code is optimized according to Magento standards. This is important for established e-commerce merchants that support significant throughput – think of it as the equivalent of a brick and mortar retail business adding square footage and additional cash registers. Many more customers can be supported without a degraded customer experience.

2. Out-of-the-Box Feature Expansion (Enterprise) – especially B2B

Magento 2 supports a significant number of B2B use cases out of the box. In August with the release of Magento 2.4 even more complex B2B uses cases will be supported including B2B Order Approval (purchase order) – completely integrated with company as customer hierarchies. If you run a complex B2B business with customers that have multiple tiers of buyers and approvals requirements, upgrading to M2 is a must.

Magento 2.4 is scheduled for release August 1.

3. Mobile and Desktop User Experience – Especially Checkout

The core LUMA theme, which is relatively easy to customize for any number of business types is fast and super intuitive on both desktop and mobile. In addition to an easy-to-customize responsive core theme there is also a new Progressive Web App (PWA) studio that makes crafting and deploying PWA’s easier and more productive than with any other e-commerce platform. The core / default checkout is simple, fast and easy to customize.

4. Personalization & Integration with Adobe Sensei AI

For merchants operating at scale this could be perhaps the biggest breakthrough reason to upgrade to M2. Adobe recently announced the expedited release of their AI Service, Sensei, which can be integrated with Magento 2.

As Jason Wollsley of Adobe puts it:

“Our customers can now deploy automated and intelligent product recommendations across their storefronts, helping their customers discover relevant products throughout the shopping journey – while creating engagement, increasing conversion, and driving revenue. In the past, effectively leveraging AI has been cost- and resource-prohibitive for many SMBs, requiring them to spend budget on data scientists or another cumbersome technology for their teams to manage. With this release, our fast-growing merchants can easily automate product recommendations to deliver a differentiated eCommerce experience. This also frees up valuable time, allowing brands to refocus resources on other ways to grow the business.”

5. Easier Path to Installing Extensions

If you’re a complex business with e-commerce requirements that require customization this one is really important. Thanks to more judicious usage of HTML5, LESS, and CSS3 installing, testing, and deploying extensions is much easier in Magento 2. In addition, resolving conflicts with Magento 1 extensions has to be done manually. In contrast, Magento 2 extensions can overlap the core code instead of overwriting it, allowing a less cumbersome and faster process for enhancing functionality.

The Bottom Line

There are a number of reasons to consider the upgrade path beyond those mentioned here. Sophisticated e-commerce merchants with complex requirements know that Magento 2 is a very smart choice. These are just a few of the most important reasons that the Accorin team feels like the effort is worth it – our merchant clients have succeeded because of these and many more.

Get in touch if you are interested in discussing an upgrade to Magento 2 for your business.

Top