Necessary things to know about the most recent Magento 2.0.
Whenever a platform like Magento launches a new central platform, the immediate questions merchants ask about the platform (both early and late adopters) ask is if the new version means they need to upgrade. At some point, you will need to migrate to Magento 2.0. However, the time that decision is made will determine the cost implications and its benefits.
Note: If you are presently using a Magento platform and you are thinking if you should still be using it, go and read our blog post: Magento is the right e-commerce solution for you.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM MAGENTO 2.0
Majority of the same e-commerce platforms have the same common features across the board, there has been no significant change in the basics of e-commerce systems. In our experience with Magento 2.0, there have been no changes in the features from a merchant’s point of view, Magento may not agree to this though. Customers would still prefer to make use of third-party services to enhance analytics, fulfillment management, CRM, reporting, customer service, email campaigns and other Martech, still, there has been no new tools developed for these extensions. We hope this will change in 2016.
You cannot move your database along with your Magento 2.0. To move data, you will need fresh installation and then migrate data (Magento provides a data migration tool here). Although, you will have to move Access control Lists, media, and storefront design manually. It is not an automatic upgrade- there is no reverse compatibility (which is common with many open source projects)
For now, there is no set time or end date for migration, but we’ll advise that you wait for a year so that Magento can perfect work on the new system. One thing that will determine the extension time of your site would be maybe 1.0 will be released for 2.0. Presently, we have about one hundred extensions available for Magento 2.0- this is way lesser than the thousands we have for 1.0 and stopping the 1.0 extensions would be very limiting for many merchants.
After we have reviewed the benefits of Magento 2.0 and with the assumption that Magento 1.0 bits will be continually released, we will advise our current merchants to wait till 2016 and consider moving in 2017.
This does not apply to people who are migrating to Magento e-commerce for the first time or those who intend to do a major site redesign. If you fall into any of these categories, or you are thinking of switching just because you want and updated Magento, this is what you should expect from the new Magento 2.0
THE BENEFITS OF 2.0
In our many years of Magento use, we have discovered that even though the feature may remain the same, the core system benefits is from the advanced system design and the user experience also. The administrative and development parts of Magento 2.0 are more organized and cleaner, though some merchants are still not happy that features have not changed.
THE TOP SIX BENEFITS FOR MERCHANTS.
1) The decision made to leave it’s 2.0 version with a transaction engine focus has made user experience very simple for administrators. Users find it easy to navigate the interface and all the advanced features are carefully hidden.
2) The user experience is now different as it now includes business to business (B2B) tools by adding quick order pages to allow for wholesale features, price negotiation per user, different shipping locations and an Enterprise resource planning (ERP).
3) It has one of the best, most recent conversion tools, this is the tested and trusted two-step checkout pipeline, removing the need for managing web extensions in order to organize conversion. The customer enters their email at the first stage and they register their account after they have ordered.
4) Another change is the static CMS homepage which you can use for non-product content and style easily. Also, the category page can be viewed from any of the primary navigation pages and display list of products, filters e.t.c (the category pages are almost the same with that of system design in Magento 1.9). Now, product pages have three separate categories which are simple products, bundled products, and group products, you will also be able to see reviews at the product level. The cart now has a drop-down cart, which is an additional advantage for buyers.
5) Many Companies would find it very easy to use Magento 2.0 very lightly and have a quick usable store. The cart system, check out and site responsiveness are now well situated outside the box, this has helped to reduce the amount of development time spent previously on theming Magento before it could be released.
6) Magento 2.0 is much faster than 1.0 and a full page cache has been developed so that publishing processes can be faster.
THE TOP SIX BENEFITS FOR DEVELOPERS
1) For web developers, the cleaner build of Magento 2.0 is beneficial to them. Theming still uses CSS, templates, and layout the same type of override themers have been using from way back that makes use of XML files. Also, Magento 2.0 supports Twig rendering engine (Twig strips out PHP) and also supports phtml files.
2) They have included support for inbuilt LESS for easier and faster CSS development and it now makes use of HTML 5 and CSS 3.
3) Magento now makes use of JQuery library so as to meet up with the industry standard instead of prototype and JS library.
4) There is additional support for PHP 7 and MySQL persona.
5) There are recent, well responsive default reference themes known as “blank” and ” Luma” (Luma originated from Blank) that can serve as a starting point. Luma is designed on LESS and it is very responsive and clean. Magento advises its users to use “Blank” and “Luma” as a starting point and extend it later.
6) Extensions need a complete rewrite. It is not easy to copy the code into a new structure yet we are getting successful in writing extensions all over. We expect extension providers to give support and maintenance for the 1.0 platform, though there are just about 100 extensions for 2.0 at the moment. Also, Magento 2 has made provision for a front-end guides for 2.0 which can be seen here.
Magento 2.0 Pros vs Cons: If you are still in doubt.
Obviously, there is a lot in Magento works and the general ecosystem and we are on the verge front as we unveil 2.0. If you are still in doubt as to whether to upgrade or not to Magento 2.0 or if you have questions on how to explore the new system or switch your database safely, do not hesitate to get in touch with us directly or hit us up on social media.
