How to perform Magento® 1.9 to Magento 2 migration is the hottest topic in countless discussions. We’ve already worked with different stores and helped to move to Magento 2 lots of our clients. Now we want to tell you about our latest case study.
Meet Juvenile Planet: The Client’s Background
Brand’s Philosophy and Values
Juvenile Planet knows everything about how to share the most special times of your life. They have all the products and clothing needed for your baby and child at each stage of his life. As it is a family-owned business, Juvenile Planet values the importance of relationships — and they show how they treat customers. They consider each client as a part of their extended family. That’s why J. Planet created a warm, inviting, and hassle-free online store for parents and families.
While other websites just sell products, Juvenile Planet stands behind every sale, guaranteeing client’s absolute satisfaction. Not only this: the convenience of the online shopping experience along with personalized assistance they have after three decades in the industry. As a huge plus they have all their saleswomen understanding customers not only as specialists but mothers, so they know their clients’ needs and challenges as parents.
Interview With a Client
As we had excellent cooperation with a Juvenile Planet Team, we’ve asked a few questions, so you can see why it was essential to migrating the store and the whole process around it.
— Why did you decide to move to Magento 2?
We were using an older version of Magento. Investing in upgrades and patches seemed like a waste of money. We waited until Magento 2 was stable enough with all the extensions needed for our site and started our Magento 2 project.
— What were the main goals you wanted to reach as a result?
We wanted to have an updated current website that we could customize for our needs without any worries of investing in an outdated platform.
— Did you face any difficulties in the process?
Our website has a large number of different types of products with different needs requiring a lot of extensions. There were extension conflicts that had to be dealt with. Magento 2 also still has its fair share of bugs. Thankfully WEB4PRO was able to handle all the development issues that arose. We also had trouble getting used to our new websites product import process. We had been using Magmi to import new product information, create configurable products and to add new attributes on the fly. Magmi is not available for Magento 2, and we used Firebear Improved Import Export Extension. It took us some time to learn how to troubleshoot the import errors we were receiving.
Magento 2 vs Magento 1.9: Our Point of View
You might think about moving to Magento 2 version. But you could have some questions regarding its excellence comparing to the previous 1.x releases. Overall, Magento 2 is functional and offers a variety of new features, opportunities, and innovations to grow your business and move further. So let’s compare Magento 1.9 vs. Magento 2 and see why is it better to move to the latest Magento version.
Difference Between Magento 1.9 and Magento 2
Scalability
It’s true that Magento 2 became more scalable and could contain more useful functions, extensions and customizable features than Magento 1.9. It means that the flexibility of Magento 2 is endless.
Support Issue
We recommend migration to Magento 2 version of each Magento online store. Why? Magento will stop supporting the oldest 1x releases in June 2020.
Additional Functionality
Nothing stands in one place and technology always gain traction in development. Magento 2 implements the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality to make a seamless user experience.
Fewer Module Conflicts
A lot of module conflicts issues were solved in the new Magento 2 version, and you won’t worry about how to substitute your extensions or how to resolve the conflicts between them. In Magento 1.9 it could appear more often.
Swatches Included
It became easier to present your product in different colors as it is an out-of-the-box solution in Magento 2. In previous Magento 1.9 version, you should perform additional steps to do so.
Easier Checkout Process
Previously Magento 1.9 had five steps checkout. Magento has improved the steps, and now Magento 2 has secure two-steps checkout.
Third-Party Integrations
In Magento 1.9 it was quite tricky to integrate with third-parties. But Magento 2 has REST API that simplified the integration process.
Security Payment Modules
Magento 2 has its payments secure with modules by default while in Magento 1.9 you should implement it by yourself.
As you can see from the comparison, Magento 2 is scalable and will meet all your requirements and wishes for your online store. Also as Magento moves on, it continues to upgrade its newer releases and fix all the issues that were in previous versions. Also to back an argument with proof, we will go on with our case and show you the full process of Magento store migration.
How We Upgrade Magento 1.9 to 2: Research and Development
For sure, there is not a one-click process to migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2. You probably think that it should be a significant expense to do so. Not always you need full migration; it could be either a redesign so that you can buy a perfect theme and a set of individual extensions required. Another approach is to deal with a service provider to do this work for you. Whether you work with someone or evaluate the project by yourself, it is essential to make sure that the technology works correctly for your needs before you’ll dig into the process of implementation.
Client’s Goals
Let’s see how we did it with Juvenile Planet. Our client came up with a confident idea to move the store from Magento 1.9x current version to Magento 2.2. He wanted to move it in a certain amount of time and at minimal cost. He was aware of how Magento worked as a platform and did proper research on which extensions he needed.
Migration Process
For the store, we used a ready responsive fashion theme where we implemented brand’s colors, changed header and customized some parts of the interface. For the migration, we didn’t use data migration tool – an out-of-the-box solution. We implemented a particular extension that was perfectly fit to the type of the project. To move it, we chose the improved import/export Magento 2 extension by Firebear that allowed us to move not only standard information, such as customers base, orders, and products but also unique group gifts from the store that customers ordered previously.
We added additional functionality with modules, such as custom stock status, auto-related products, and other useful add-ons. A brand’s section was added as a custom part to simplify search through the store. Along with extensions, we added necessary SEO plugins and customized some of the features that were requested by the company.
Time and Resources
With a short period, we finished the project in 1,5 months with two backend developers, QA and with a project manager’s guidance. For store migration, it was a fast but quite accessible solution regarding the timeline and money sources.
Summary: Project Results and Our Client’s Feedback
As a result, we helped migrate Magento 1.9 to Magento 2 for our client and performed the following works:
- migrated customers base, orders, and products but also special group gifts – a special offer from the store;
- customized “shop by brands” section;
- installed some useful SEO plugins;
- added necessary extensions.
The list of extensions used:
- Call For Price
- Custom Stock Status
- Layered Navigation
- Auto Related Products
- Product Attachments
- Extended Product Grid
- Extended Order Grids
- Advanced Reports
- Help Desk
and another useful functionality that was chosen by our client.
We used the improved import/export Magento 2 extension by Firebear to perform the migration process.
Now we are glad to know our client’s feedback – the most valuable thing for us.
— Are you satisfied with the project result? What can you say about our cooperation?-
We were very happy with the result. WEB4PRO was able to finish the project on time even after the scope of the project changed as more issues were discovered. We were also very pleased with Sergey our project manager and his communication skills. Sergey always responded quickly and was able to understand and communicate well in English.
— Thank you for choosing our team and a strong belief in our partnership!
We wish Juvenile Planet a lot of success, and we are happy to be a part of their story. We are sure they will continue to provide a perfect personalized shopping experience along with selling their beautiful and qualitative products. It was a valuable time and a great pleasure for us to work with this client.