From July 2020, Magento ceases providing services for Magento 1 and instead promotes Magento 2. As a result, merchants have been actively working to create plans to migrate their websites from Magento 1 to Magento 2 latest versions. Even so, not all merchants have discovered the fastest and most efficient way to implement the Magento migration process.
If you own an online store and are thinking about launching a new Magento 2 website, this article is for you. It will provide 7 essential steps to migrate Magento 1 to 2 as well as common mistakes in the Magento migration process, all of which will help you transform your site successfully.
Contents
What Is Magento 2 Migration?
Before you begin, take the time to understand what Magento 2 Migration entails. Simply put, Magento 2 Migration is the process of converting a website platform from Magento 1 to Magento 2 Open Source or Commerce edition.
In other words, you are creating a whole new website using the Magento 2 platform from the ground up. It means you won’t be able to transfer your Magento 1 design, functionality, or extensions to Magento 2.
Why Do Merchants Need To Migrate To Magento 2?
Whether to conduct the Magento migration process – migrate websites from Magento 1 to 2 used to be a hot controversy in many years before Magento 1 End Of Life. While some people doubt Magento 2 stability, others are wholeheartedly in favor of migration due to its impressive new features and storefront designs.
As a professional Magento agency that has more than 9-year experience on Magento, we are on the side of Magento 2 migration since it brings about better performance, more user-friendly checkout, enhanced security, a more convenient admin interface, and so on for your store. That’s why we have been providing Magento migration services for over 6 years (since 2015).
Design
The first thing is regarding the design of the Magento 2 website. The default frontend of Magento 2 is indisputably more sleek and stylish than Magento 1. In addition, the creation of Magento 2 is also optimized to be more mobile-friendly and better responsive.
Furthermore, the quantity of ready-made Magento 2 themes is broader, more elegant, and higher quality than Magento 1. Finally, the backend interface of Magento 2 is far more user-friendly and straightforward than Magento 1. Thus, you can learn the backend interface in a flash, even without technical knowledge.
Feature
Second, Magento 2 includes a plethora of exciting and innovative built-in features for your online store. These new features make user life easier and merchant workflow faster.
With Magento 2, you can create configurable products or add attributes directly from the new product page. So, it is a positive sign because the feature allows you to speed up your workflow drastically.
The checkout process has also been strengthened in Magento 2. The most noticeable difference on the front end is that the checkout page process is more intuitive to use. As a result, the checkout pathways are far less complicated and much quicker for users.
Furthermore, Magento 2 has a wide range of functionalities and is constantly being updated. Thus, it promises to bring along satisfaction to both merchants and users.
Performance
Finally, Magento 2 performs significantly better than Magento 1. First, it is your online store’s lightning-fast page load speed after migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
To be more specific, the Magento 2 website loads 2 to 3 seconds faster than the Magento 1 website. As a result, shoppers can load the homepage, category, and product pages in less than 1.5 seconds.
Additionally, Magento 2 Migration allows for a 60% faster add-to-cart server response time. Besides that, it also provides up to 50% faster checkout. The customer experience on the Magento 2 website becomes smoother and more enjoyable.
As you might know, Magento 2 has proved its stability over time through continuous updates and improvement, which might release the major fearfulness of many Magento store owners.
Apart from it, there are more urgent reasons for you to start your Magento migration process:
Magento stopped supporting Magento 1 from June 30, 2020
First, Magento has declared that it would no longer support Magento 1 after June 30, 2020. The reason is that Magento 1 experiences lots of unrepeatable errors. As a result, the company promotes Magento 2 and encourages merchants to upgrade to Magento 2.
Prone to security-related risks
First, Adobe will not respond to any further Magento 1 security complaints. In other words, software patches will no longer be available for Magento 1 e-commerce sites. As a result, your online store is vulnerable to many security threats:
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Violation is the first security risk you consider.
PCI DSS violations might result in a total fine for your company. Not only that, but it makes customers feel anxious when they use your website to transact.
Furthermore, when a website lacks security patches, it exposes itself to the risk of being hacked. It entails you will lose all your data, and the website will cease to function.
This issue has a detrimental effect on your company’s reputation. Worse, you may be held liable for the loss of consumer information.
No improvement
Next, Magento will no longer deliver the new Magento 1 due to the platform’s termination of support. Your website will quickly become obsolete and undeveloped as a result of this.
Not only that, but you’re having trouble integrating new technologies into Magento 2 sites as well. For example, Progressive Web App technology is only compatible with Magento 2 websites.
Almost ALL Magento service providers stop offering service for Magento 1
Last but not least, most Magento service providers have halted offering services for Magento 1. Realizing the growing craze for Magento 2, website developers are actively pursuing Magento migration services.
Thus, your online store will suffer a significant loss if you do not migrate from Magento 1 to 2. For example, if you want to use an extension to improve the features of your website, you will have rare options. Unfortunately, the Magento 1 extension is nearly obsolete and does not cater to the needs of today.
If you have extension issues on your Magento 1 website, you can no longer receive support from the extension provider. Not only that but getting help from outside developers is tricky. It hence will undoubtedly put your online store at risk.
7 Easy-to-go Steps To Migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2 Fast
Below is the step by step guide on how you can proceed with Magento migration from 1 to 2 as quickly as possible. If you want more information on how to do it safely, check out this article.
# Step 1 – Clearly define requirements & expectation
The first step in the Magento 2 Migration process is to identify your requirements and expectations vividly.
When the requirements are straightforward, it is also better to address them with developers and more effectively monitor the project. Correspondingly, there are a few points that you need to shed light on at this stage.
1/ Design requirements
Initially, you must determine whether you want to keep the original website design or take advantage of Magento 2 Migration to create a new one.
If you plan on keeping the old design, you should create a PSD version to send to the designer. Because the designers cannot reuse the M1 Theme, they need to create a similar theme for Magento 2.
On the other hand, if you want to invent a new design, you can adopt a pre-made theme for Magento 2 or customize a unique design. Accordingly, deciding on a custom design indicates starting from scratch rather than using an existing theme.
2/ Function requirements
Following selecting a design for your online store, the next step is to delineate Magento 1 functions to keep in your Magento 2 website.
Simply put, you must specify which Magento 1 custom functions you want to retain for your Magento 2 website.
Then it would be best if you detailed the criteria for each custom function that you wish the developer to redo for Magento 2. This action will save you time during the Magento 2 migration amazingly.
3/ Extension Requirements
After that, comparable to functions, take a gander at which extensions your company intends to maintain using with Magento 2.
It is a fact that there are some features in Magento 1 that are not available, so you need to purchase extensions to install them on your website. However, some of the add-on extensions of Magento 1 are built-in features of Magento 2 already.
So, kindly confirm the extensions you select are compatible with the built-in features of Magento 2. If this is the case, there is no need for you to buy new Magento 2 extensions.
Vice versa, if the Magento 1 extensions are not available on Magento 2, you will have to buy a brand new extension performing the same function.
4/ Other requirements
Finally, to achieve Step 1, you must mention any specific requirements for your online store. These requirements could include payment gateway, language, currency, store information.
Furthermore, determine whether your company desires to add anything to the M2 website. This demand depends on what you want to improve on your current e-commerce website.
For example, you are aiming to incorporate advanced features or the latest extensions into your online store.
Thereby, Magento 2 Migration is the golden time to take advantage of it to optimize your online store with more innovative features.
5/ Expectations
After spotlighting all the requirements, the final step is to record your expectations. In addition, you also need to seek clarification on the total cost and time required to complete the project.
To begin, creating an expected budget equips your company in determining the scope of your project. It also expedites and simplifies the price negotiation process. After that, you do not need to be concerned about going over budget.
Second, consider a target completion date for this project. It depends on the urgency of your company’s demand for the Magento 2 website. Is your company in need of a Magento 2 store as soon as possible, or are you not in a rush to build a Magento 2 website?
6/ Highlight
To recap the first step, you must draw a blueprint that covers all your requirements by thoroughly answering the following questions:
- Do you want to hire a developer to design your website from the ground up, or do you want to use a pre-built Magento 2 template?
- What Magento 1 features or extensions would you like to see on your Magento 2 website?
- Do you want to improve or roll out new to your online store?
- Will you require long-term support, or will you only need a developer for urgent, repeatable situations?
- How long will it take the developer to respond to your query?
- How many financial resources do you have set aside for this service?
# Step 2 – Prepare budget balance with the requirement
Preparing the budget balance is the second stage of the Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration process. On the basic, Magento 2 Migration costs differ tremendously, ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.
As a result, if you do not gear up a budget balance, you will arguably be overwhelmed when the developers quote the project price. Therefore, this article will review the expenses you must incur based on your company’s requirements.
Relying on that, you can thoroughly calculate the estimated expenditure that you will encounter. It hence allows you to organize a vivid budget balance.
1/ Design
To begin, using a ready-made theme will cost you up to $1500. You may be charged the following fees if you use the available template:
- Theme prices range from $50 to $150
- Install and configuration: $100 – $250
- On-demand customization: Between $300 and $1,000
Second, launching a brand theme with the same design as the M1 web design will cost you between $1,000 and $2,000.
Finally, the cost of setting up a spanking new Magento 2 design spans between $2,000 and $5,000.
2/ Function
An extension costs somewhere around $49 and $299 on average. The amount will be multiplied by the number of extensions purchased.
However, some premium extensions, such as Multi-vendor Marketplace (requiring to migrate vendor Magento data migration), can cost up to $1,000.
You will also have to pay an extra $75 – $150 for installation and configuration. The greater the number of extensions, the higher the total expenditure.
3/ Others
Other fees in your project include data migration and setup from Magento 1 to 2. Magento data migration often costs between $500 and $1,000, with an additional $500 for settings migration.
Finally, besides the above costs, you should budget $1,000 to $3,000 for management, consulting, quotation, and site operating expenses.
The above price range is only a guideline. The cost will vary depending on the Magento 2 Migration provider you hire and the complexity of your project.
In general, a low-cost Magento 2 Migration project with simple requirements will typically cost between $2,500 and $5,000.
4/ Tips and tricks
As a merchant, you indubitably want the Magento 2 Migration process to be as efficient and cost-effective as possible. However, many shopkeepers have wasted money because they are unaware of cost-cutting strategies.
As a result, the article will print out brilliant tips and tricks to empower you in optimizing your spending.
Pick a ready-made theme.
The best advice for this decision is to use a ready-made theme that does not require much customization.
It is pretty expensive and time-consuming to create an entirely new design for the M2 website without using a theme or relying on an old design.
Hence, using a ready-made theme is the most reasonable way to help you maximize your savings.
Select extensions/functions carefully before migrating
It is possible to say that the cost of extension and function migration accounts for 70% of the total budget for the project. Thus, if you do not choose wisely, you will generate unnecessary costs.
Remove M1 extensions that are useless or have no effect on the website to save time and money purchasing new extensions.
After filtering, look carefully to see if there are Magento 2 features that are similar to M1 functions. If it is, yes, you do not need to spend money developing anymore. This action will enable you to avoid unjust financial losses.
The following point to remember is to purchase new Magento 2 extensions from a specific provider. Buying all extensions from a single provider makes it easier to negotiate than buying multiple providers.
Filter necessary data/database assets before migrating
Because many agencies charge a fee based on the volume of data migrated, filtering out unnecessary data can save you a lot of money.
You should keep essential data such as products, customers, orders for the past few years.
It is possible to delete old data, such as old products that will not restock in the future or orders from many years ago.
# Step 3 – Find the exemplary service and company
After you’ve balanced your budget, it is time to look for the best service provider for your project.
Aside from understanding your requirements, the important thing is to find a suitable company to fulfill them. A good service provider is critical in lessening project lead time.
Following are a few criteria that can help you expedite seeking the company to put in place Magento 2 Migration.
1/ Experience
First and foremost, when it comes to hiring a Magento 2 migration company, experiences are the most pivotal aspects to consider. Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is a complex process that requires the assistance of an agency with extensive experience.
Moreover, a qualified agent can explain the project coherently and quickly provide you with the best solutions. So, there is no need for you to be worried even if you do not have any idea about Magento.
As a result, select service providers with at least three years of Magento 2 Migration experience. It ensures that the Magento migration process runs smoothly and efficiently in the shortest amount of time.
2/ Pricing
Each agency will offer different service packages at different prices. So, before you sign the contract, please send all your requirement and ask them to quote the plan.
Make sure you understand the expenses that will be charged for each of your inquiries. Not only that, but you should also request that the company detail all extra costs, such as consulting, tax, and management fees.
Trusted suppliers will always provide you with transparent invoices to help you prepare a complete budget.
3/ Support
A good company should give you a comprehensive Magento migration plan that includes resolving any unexpected issues.
It is unavoidable for your site to experience errors or stop working correctly after migrating from Magento 1 to 2. At this point, you must go to the agency to remedy the issues that have arisen.
Accordingly, you should select agencies that offer support before, during, and after the Magento 2 Migration. Thus, whenever something goes wrong, they can quickly adapt and fix it.
If you want to save time looking for a reliable service, Tigren is one of the first companies you should take into consideration. We have been delivering Magento 2 migration services since 2015.
Included on the migration services:
- Theme Migration
- Data Migration
- Extension Migration
- Custom Code Migration
- Setting Migration
- Payment and Shipping Integration
- Website Performance Optimization
Support:
- From 6 to 12 months of free support
- Weekly reports + Detailed documentation.
Apart from it, you can have a look at some of our outstanding migration to Magento 2 projects.
# Step 4 – Discuss project requirements
The next step is to discuss the plan objectives after you have decided on a service plan and a company you can confide in to migrate your website from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
This step will go very swiftly if you thoroughly prepare your prerequisites and find a suitable agency.
Thereby, the Magento migration service provider will review those criteria and send feedback to you. You guys will then come up together with appropriate solutions to ease the quality of the project.
Make sure the agency can accommodate all your requirements. In turn, you are aware of the project’s cost, timeline, and support from the agency.
# Step 5 – Start the Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration process
The migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 will officially begin when all relevant requirements are approved. The Magento 2 Migration Company developers will embrace the task and start implementing the plan during this phase.
The Magento migration process is divided into various stages based on the requirements you specify. In general, a Magento migration process will include all five phases:
- Theme Migration
- Extension Migration
- Custom function/code Migration
- Data Migration
- Settings Migration
During this whole procedure, you should closely monitor and support the developers to request modifications if appropriate. It will save you time when testing your Magento 2 site after migration and help to reduce unexpected errors.
# Step 6 – Test Magento 2 Website after migration
The sixth step is to recheck the site after being upgraded from Magento 1 to Magento 2. Once the agency has completed the M2 Migration work, you must guarantee site meets all your standards.
First and foremost, make sure that you are delighted with the new design of your Magento 2 website. Next, see if the Magento 1 functions and extensions are fully available in the new store. Furthermore, you must ensure that the new extensions function properly on Magento 2.
It would be best if you also inspected the SEO and speed of your online store to ensure that your new website has a higher SEO score and a faster web load speed.
# Step 7 – Launch a new website and notify the customers
Finally, if no errors are found after checking, you can unveil a new website and notify the customer right away.
Gently inform them about your online store’s new design, new features, and improvements. It will undoubtedly pique your customers’ interest and entice them to visit your website.
After migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2, indeed, your website will have better performance. It will make users’ shopping experiences more enjoyable, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.
The higher the customer satisfaction, the longer they remain on your website. Thereby, the order success rate goes through the roof.
As a result, notify users about the new website as soon as possible to fully embrace your company’s bright potential. You can email them about updates or post announcements on the company’s social media and the welcome pages of the website.
How Magento Migration Works
Automatic Migration
Both Magento 1 core tables and any custom tables that do not change between Magento 1 and Magento 2 are automatically migrated to Magento 2 with no action required.
Manually Migration
- Extensions and custom code
- Media (product images, WYSIWYG editor, etc.)
- Storefront design (CSS, Javascript, templates, XML layouts)
- Layouts (XML in CMS category pages & Layout updates)
- Web services credentials (SOAP, XML-RPC, REST)
Notes: Don’t migrate Indexed data, Google shopping, and Unsupported data in Magento 2 (poll, tag, staging module, etc.).
Summary Of The Magento Migration Process
As you might know, there are 4 major stages in the Magento 2 Migration process, namely Data migration, Extensions migration, Theme migration, and Code migration.
- Data Migration: This is the process of transferring all of your product data, customer list, order date, configurations,… to the new site, using the Magento data migration tool version matching with your Magento 2 version.
- Extensions Migration: Because of code conflicts, you cannot transfer extensions of Magento 1 to 2 but can find the extensions that have similar functions and for Magento 2 versions to install in the new store.
- Theme Migration: It’s rather complicated to migrate the theme from Magento 1 to Magento 2, what you need to do is to create a Magento 2 design that has the same look as your Magento 1 design based on your PSD file.
- Code Migration: It’s fortunate that most of Magento 1 custom code is compatible with Magento 2 so you can either rewrite or migrate the code by using several Magento code migration tools.
- System Configuration: After migrating all the needed stuff to the new site, you will need to configure the site’s languages, currencies, addresses, payment, shipping, email templates, etc.
Common Issues In The Magento Migration Process
1. Source documents/ fields are not mapped
Source documents are not mapped:
<EXTENSION_TABLE>
Source fields are not mapped. Document:
<EXTENSION_TABLE>
Fields:
<EXTENSION_FIELD>
In rare cases, the message might mention Destination documents or Destination fields instead of source ones.
Explanation
Some Magento 1 entities (in most cases, coming from extensions) do not exist in the Magento 2 database.
This message appears because the Data Migration Tool runs internal tests to verify that tables and fields are consistent between the source (Magento 1) and destination (Magento 2) databases.
Possible solutions
- Install the corresponding Magento 2 extensions from Magento Marketplace.
- If the conflicting data originates from an extension that adds its own database structure elements, then the Magento 2 version of the same extension may add such elements to the destination (Magento 2) database, thus fixing the issue.
- Configure the Tool to ignore the problematic data.
To ignore database entities, add the <ignore> tag to an entity in the map.xml file, like this:
<ignore> <field>sales_order_address_id</field> </ignore>
Before ignoring entities, make sure you do not need the affected data in your Magento 2 store.
2. Class does not exist but mentioned
Class
<extension/class_name>
does not exist but mentioned in:
<eav_attribute.frontend_model>
; for
<attribute_id=196>
Explanation
A class from Magento 1 codebase could not be found in Magento 2 codebase during the EAV migration step. In most cases, the missing class belongs to an extension.
Possible solutions
- Install the corresponding Magento 2 extension.
- Ignore the attribute that causes the issue.
- For this, add the attribute to the ignored group in the eav-attribute-groups.xml.dist
- Add class mapping using the class-map.xml.dist
3. Foreign key constraint fails
Error message text
Foreign key
<KEY_NAME>
; constraint fails.Orphan records id: <id_1>, <id_2> from <child_table>.<field_id> has no referenced records in <parent_table>
Explanation
There are missing database records in the parent_table to which the field_id of the child_table is pointing.
Possible solution
Delete the records from the child_table, if you do not need them.
To keep the records, disable the Data Integrity Step by modifying the Data Migration Tool’s config.xml.
4. Duplicates in URL rewrites
There are duplicates in URL rewrites:
Request path: towel.html Store ID: 2 Target paths: catalog/product/view/id/10
Request path: towel.html Store ID: 2 Target paths: catalog/product/view/id/12
Explanation
The Target path in a URL rewrite must be specified by a unique pair of Request path + Store ID. This error reports two entries that use the same Request path + Store ID pair with two different Target path values.
Possible solution
Enable the auto_resolve_urlrewrite_duplicates option in your config.xml file.
This configuration adds a hash-string to the conflicting records of URL rewrites and shows the resolution result in your command-line interface.
5. Mismatch of entities
Mismatch of entities in the document:
<DOCUMENT>
Explanation
The error occurs during the Volume Check step. It means the Magento 2 database record count of the document is not the same as in Magento 1.
Missing records happen when a customer places an order during migration.
Solution
Run the Data Migration Tool in Delta mode to transfer incremental changes.
More Things You Might Need To Know
- Data migration is the most crucial stage in the Magento migration process. Even if you made even just a small mistake, you might have to pay a huge price such as losing a store or customer data.
- It takes from 2-5 working days to install the data migration tool and transfer data, depending on the number of your products, orders, and customers.
Final Words
Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is paramount for your online store to embrace new features and thrive.
However, the Magento migration process actually is building a new Magento 2 store based on the previous website, which is strenuous work that requires significant time and effort.
Therefore, you should strictly follow our suggested steps to hasten the Magento migration process.
The two most important stages are plainly stating your requirements and finding a reputable company. When you have realistic expectations, the discussions are faster and more effective. A good company will also know how to reduce project implementation time by providing appropriate solutions.
With more than 9-year experience on Magento and a dedicated team of Magento developers, Tigren is confident to bring you the best Magento 2 migration service with competitive pricing, minimum downtime, and free data loss. To contact us, please send your request to our email [email protected].
