Many Magento users have derived great benefits from using the platform over the years. However, global support for Magento 1 ended in June 2020. So, if you operate a Magento website, migrating to Magento 2 is essential if you’ve not already done this.

But, what can the new platform do for you? How will it benefit your business? What is the process for migration?

Benefits of Magento 2 for your business

1. Database exclusivity

The earlier version used a single database for all the data related to e-commerce activity. These included product details, order specifications, confirmations and checkout information. The system worked well for smaller setups. However, in the last few years e-commerce has grown in leaps and bounds. The COVID 19 crisis has also transformed the marketplace for e-commerce.

Organisations now need to focus on providing customers with information in greater detail. These would include product information and images, videos and a lot more.

Using a single database can lead to database overload and ultimately, system failure for your online portal. The Magento 2 platform uses exclusive databases to process all the information. This has resulted in a rugged framework that can support the increasing demands of your business.

2. Better SEO and digital marketing

The global online marketplace has grown exponentially in the last five years.

Today, the survival of your e-commerce business depends on the ability to be easily found by customers online. Search engines need to be able to pick up product details from your pages and present them to customers, based on a keyword search.

Of course, SEO rules the roost and the good news is that with Magento 2 support as standard, there are a huge range of SEO extensions available on the Magento Marketplace. Meta tag generators are available that can curate metadata for your products, categories and pages. The platform also comes with default functionality for manually assigning meta data and automatically creating XML sitemaps.

Making the full use of in-built Magento 2 capabilities and available extensions will almost certainly help improve the Google ranking for your e-commerce website.

3. Better shopping cart experience

Magento 2 offers a much better experience for your customers who want to browse and shop through your e-commerce platform.

The shopping cart is enabled with an innovative technology called Ajax, which loads items into the cart without reloading the entire page. This makes the whole user experience faster and more effective, helping to reduce your bounce rate and keep customers engaged. This functionality also supports coupon codes, which can greatly boost your conversion rates.

4. Faster product search

To remain competitive, your e-commerce platform needs to be able to allow customers to search for products faster.

Magento 2 comes with a default search engine called Elasticsearch when you buy the enterprise edition. For Magento Open Source, solutions are available to enhance search. This in turn helps to improve user experience, ensuring that your customers remain loyal.

It’s also important to remember that many customers have a short time window in which to complete all their shopping. So, enhanced search functionality is an important step towards revenue generation.

5. Better product promotion

The new era e-commerce platforms need to behave intelligently. This means automatic profiling of customers based on their shopping habits.

Customer segmentation is undoubtedly one of the most powerful features on Magento. This functionality allows your platform to display curated content based on the customer’s order history and registered profile information. Magento 2 then creates automatic customer segments based on the buying habits of visitors to your website.

This feature highlights relevant products to your customers and enhances revenue and retention. Most importantly, it enables you to study what your customers want and plan your inventory accordingly.

6. Enhanced customer communication

Magento 2 also comes with another unique feature.

Automated email reminders can be sent out to specific customers, or even customer segments, based on their purchase history, their list of desirables and shopping cart information.

Unfulfilled shopping carts are a cause of revenue loss to e-commerce businesses. Sometimes a customer may have loaded an item into their shopping cart but did not complete the purchase. In this scenario, the customer needs to be incentivised to buy. You can find some great abandoned cart extensions available on the Magneto Marketplace. Offering a coupon code with a price discount can be a step in the right direction.

Magento 2 can easily communicate this information to the customer, encouraging them to revisit the shopping cart and finish the transaction.

7. Greater control over your product data

The earlier version of Magento had certain limitations in allowing administrators to revise the product data.

However, with the unparalleled growth of e-commerce businesses, more administrators are now required to monitor the products and edit the product catalogue. Magento 2 allows a greater number of users from your business to act as administrators and continuously ensure that the product pages are up-to-date.

How much time does the migration to Magento 2 take?

E-commerce organisations have varying levels of complexity.

The migration to Magento 2 is a critical process for your organisation and needs to be executed with great accuracy. The migration also needs to ensure that no data is lost during this process. Therefore, this is a process that takes time. Depending on the complexity of your e-commerce website, the complete migration can take anywhere between a few days to several months.

However, if you’re wondering how your online store will continue to operate during this period, have no fear. Your online store will continue to function as usual and customers will still be able to access your site, make purchases and pay for them. The migration happens behind the scenes, with no disruption to your business.

Once the complete migration has taken place, your store will benefit greatly and stay well ahead of the competition.

Our e-commerce experts can advise you on everything you need to know about Magento 2

We are a specialist Birmingham based e-commerce agency who exclusively work with Magento and WooCommerce.

Our digital marketing experts have helped several businesses by assisting them in maximising their revenues and acquiring more customers. You can visit our website and contact us by email. Alternatively, give us a call today on 0121 371 0435 and a member of our team will be happy to discuss your requirements.

 

Image credits: PxHere, Mohamed Hassan, PxHere