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5 Considerations for a Magento 2 Upgrade

Gian Genovesi
11/2018

magento 2 considerationsFor all of the Magento 2 success stories out there, we know that some of you are hesitant to make the jump from Magento 1 to the newest platform. And, truth be told, your site might be running fine on Magento 1. But, “fine” isn’t going to cut it anymore. In a market where everyone is trying to stand out from the competition, you need the latest software to help enhance your customer experience. Here are a few considerations to help you evaluate an upgrade to Magento 2. 

Native Platform Enhancements

In many cases, what was only available through extensions on Magento 1 is now out-of-the-box functionality in Magento 2. These improvements give merchants the business flexibility required to deliver a high-growth store and a great customer experience.

In fact, the increased performance and scalability of Magento 2 keeps that experience steady as your traffic grows. Magento 2 can handle more volume, meaning fewer headaches for your customers and your team.

Improved Extensions

Let’s say that despite all the great options available natively on Magento 2, you still have a situation that requires some customization or additional functionality. In that case, the extensions available for Magento 2 are better than ever. Here are a few of our favorites:

Authorize.net CIM

Authorize.net CIM is a product of Paradox Lab that allows your company to accept customer payments in the form of credit card or check straight from your website. This extension also securely stores your customers' payment information, so it is easily accessible next time they are buying from your site. This removes some of the hassle from the checkout process, making it more enjoyable and easier to use for you and your customer. 

Other notable features of Authorize.net CIM:

  • You can easily edit orders and reorder, without having to ask the customer for CC info again
  • Protect against fraud with Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) and hold-for-review
  • Add, edit, and delete saved payment data
  • Use a different Authorize.net account for each website (multi-store support)

Magento’s out-of-the-box Authorize.net module uses deprecated technology and as a result, does not function correctly. As a result, our team uses Authorize.net with Paradox Labs. We have implemented this module many times to ensure our clients have a secure and reliable credit card capturing tool.  

URapid Flow

uRapidFlow, created by Unirgy, is able to create both simple and configurable products in one load, no matter how many data entries are in the CSV file. It can create attributes and categories on the fly, and it has an effective header mapping system to define columns and their corresponding Magento attributes.

Other notable features of uRapidFlow include:

  • The module ignores empty or commented out rows in the CSV file
  • It can recognize and skip records that do not require updates
  • If a row in the CSV file contains multiple errors and warnings, it will log them all
  • Images can be downloaded off of the servers

For our team, one of the best examples of uRapidFlow’s power came when we had a tricky load process with a client. The way that the attributes in this project needed to be loaded was very selective and required a different format than is usually used in uRapidFlow. After discussing the issue with the uRapidFlow team, they were able to customize a load process just for our unique case, providing a smooth load and avoiding a delay in the project. 

Wyomind

Wyomind is a data feed manager extension that exports your products from your Magento website into CSV, TXT, and XML data feeds that are compatible with any shopping engine. Wyomind allows companies to operate on any shopping channel. This results in a real-time accurate display of products on your eCommerce website as well as streamlines your Magento processes, fully optimizing your website.   

Other notable feature of Wyomind include:

  • Automatically and regularly send your updated data feed to the shopping engines
  • Efficiently export your products catalog to shopping entries
  • Create data feeds compliant with any shopping engine's requirements
  • Completely customize your data feed accordingly to your product catalogs

Enhanced Speed and Security

Magento Commerce 2 has a global content delivery network (CDN) that provides users with high-speed content delivery that will exceed their expectations. Additionally, its 99.99% Service Level Agreement (SLA) provides services for almost 100% of each month. This SLA will provide your business with peace of mind when it comes to your site security. Magento Commerce 2 will also provide your business with continuous evaluations of your software/hardware, including any extensions you may have.   

Expand Your Market Presence

Even if your eCommerce site is effective in generating sales, if you are not increasing your brand’s presence on social channels, your customer base will not grow as rapidly as possible. Magento Commerce 2 magnifies your commerce presence socially and allows your brand to have an expanded geographic reach. With their included dotmailer, you can create and deliver email marketing campaigns faster. With their global cloud service and Integrated Magento Shipping, you will be able to reach new customers and access global shippers to easily expand your customer base globally. 

Increase Sales, Conversions, and Repeat Purchasing

Customers want easily accessible eCommerce checkout processes. With Magento Commerce 2, the checkout process has been redesigned and an “Instant Purchase” feature has been added in order to expedite the traditionally long checkout process. Through an upgrade, your site will allow customers the option of saving their payment and shipping information as well as using an enhanced PayPal buying extension all without leaving your site. The easier it is to make a purchase on your site, the more likely it is that your customers will continue their relationship with your business. Magento Commerce 2 has a variety of new extensions that can be added in order to create more efficient site capabilities and workflows. 

These are just a few of the reasons why you should be making the move to Magento 2. For more information or to talk about getting started, contact our experienced Magento team.

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