Migrating to Magento 2: The Numbers Prove the Value

Often in business, we find ourselves sticking with what works instead of adopting new technologies to drive our strategic goals. This approach has a long history in the ecommerce world, with the mantra being “don’t rock the boat too much.” IT departments have wrestled with this in regards to installing Windows on workstations for years. This has evolved to the point that Microsoft now supports older environments because their customers don’t want to deal with retaining user issues and application upgrade challenges.

While it’s important to consider the risks of adopting new technology, it’s also worth acknowledging the benefits. When it comes to Magento 2, the benefits are many. The team at Magento has completely reworked the platform with the lessons learned from Magento 1.x, and the result is a list of benefits that should allay any fears one might have about the migration.

The Numbers Prove the Value

Whenever I encounter an option to upgrade a working, functional system, particularly one that is as entrenched in my business as an ecommerce platform, I have immediate skepticism. I realize that new features are great, but as anyone who has bought the newest car or phone design can attest, it seldom is as shiny and awesome as one might assume. This is where I often want to see a strong endpoint measure of success. Show me the results, show me who did it and how it turned out.

Fortunately for us, a large number of sites have moved to the Magento 2 platform already, and Corra has worked with many of them. Any early pain points that new technologies often experience have been dealt with, giving us a clear picture of the benefits.

To share some general results, our clients have been seeing:

These are some great numbers, and ones that any good optimization program would be envious of. While these results also reflect the design work that Corra did to support the projects, we believe that the improvements to site speed, checkout and page load capabilities are a big part of the success.

It’s All in the Features

One of the striking numbers above is server performance. Magento 2 has shown marked increases in load times compared to Magento 1 and other platforms. According to Magento, 50% faster load times are typical. Indeed, our benchmarking has validated that this number is generally the floor of the results, with some clients seeing well over 100% improvements after launch. This kind of speed is great for engagement, since the user is able to move through the site quickly without pausing.

A second area where Magento 2 has done well is in customization. With an entirely reworked codebase, supported by more extensive APIs, retailers are able to customize without thought to the platform forcing any barriers. This has been a sticking point since the dawn of the ecommerce platform, and happily it’s one that Magento has worked hard to address. This feature, combined with the new extension ecosystem, has positioned Magento as a flexible, extensible and affordable platform solution for a range of businesses.

The way Magento handles extensions has been reworked as well. The library is no longer an open marketplace, but instead a curated garden of tools proven to work on the platform. The goal was to improve the quality of extensions, and ensure that each one is useful, easy to use and install, as well as relevant to the right business. While the marketplace started out slow when M2 first hit the ground, it has since grown exponentially and its breadth is as wide as the M1 marketplace.

Another oft-cited example of improvements in Magento 2 is the one-page checkout capability.  With a reworked code in checkout, Magento has not only improved checkout speeds incredibly, but also done so in a way that makes it easy for the user to make that buy. One-page checkout systems are proven to work for the impulse buyer (hello Amazon, we are looking at you), and designing this kind of checkout is much more freeing, as consideration doesn’t have to be given to multiple pages, buttons and headers. Moreover, a single page allows for much greater personalization, as CTAs and other upsell options can be positioned more readily without consideration to the step on which it might appear.

What Does it Mean for You?

If we add all this up, we start to see a picture of what Magento 2 brings to the table, namely a solid platform upon which a dynamic, responsive and scalable website can be built. But that is only the beginning of the story. A great design is required to really get some of those great results. More specifically, a design that takes these advantages into account, to create a unified experience that will be effortless for the shopper to travel through.

Ready to begin your Magento 2 project? Contact our team today.