Guest writer, Paul Rogers, provides some useful tips for retailers looking to move from M1 to M2

When should a retailer be looking to migrate to Magento 2?

In the context of an M1 to M2 migration, retailers should really be in the planning stages now, with a view to launching next year. Although the official end-of-life isn’t until June 2020, the average Magento project - in my experience - takes 6-9 months especially when you factor in discovery, partner selection, commercials, the impact of peaks (on resources), UAT, any unknowns in the project etc. Projects also need to allow for contingency.

This all being said, with the right partner and project team, a M2 project can be delivered faster, however, generally (in my experience), a ~three month build project will take a bigger strain on internal teams, they’re harder to manage, you’ll compromise on UAT and scope etc. 

In short, I’d say now is probably the right time to be looking at starting the project! 

What do you think qualifies a retailer as being a good fit for Magento?

So this is always a big topic and something I get asked on a daily basis in terms of whether Magento is the right fit for a retailer or whether they should move to another platform. 

This will always come down to a variety of considerations, such as business and functional requirements, budgets, the internal team etc. Personally, I would say that Magento is an excellent option for retailers with complexity around product, a heavy international focus, some form of B2B or wholesale focus, or a need to scale up functionally as the business grows. 

Magento has definitely moved up the food chain over the last 12-24 months, but it remains an excellent, scalable platform for the right small retailers and large retailers. I wrote this guide which goes into quite a bit of detail on Magento vs Shopify Plus, which is a comparison I see a lot.

Examples of an ideal use case for Magento, in my opinion, include:

• A B2B or wholesale business looking to scale and remain agile in their operations.

• A multi-channel retailer looking to innovate and streamline operations.

• A more complex international retailer with some level of centralised management.

• A pure play B2C retailer with complexity around the product catalog, complex merchandising requirements etc.

The SaaS platforms, in particular, can be a better fit for retailers who want to simplify a B2C eCommerce channel or reduce overheads in certain areas. Magento is great for larger retailers looking to grow into new channels, markets or introduce new complex features etc. This article I wrote about Magento also goes into more detail on this.

What should a retailer be looking for in a Magento partner?

We do a lot of work around partner selection in the Magento space, mainly for mid-market brands and the requirements are usually pretty similar. The most common ones, in our experience, are:

• Access to a Solutions Specialist who is able to support feature definition, recommend good long-term solutions and input into discussions around ideas and concepts. This person would also have one eye on security, scalability etc. 

• A knowledgeable AM or PM helping to reduce unnecessary delays around comms etc.

• A scalable development team who can support larger project requirements or deliver more from a growing backlog etc.

• An experienced and certified development team.

• Proactive around maintenance - in terms of version upgrades, applying patches, fixing bugs etc.

• Proactive around new features - making suggestions around store improvements, possibly new functionality etc.

These are generally the areas people seem to value the most and often the areas that result in a client being happy or leaving. 

I would always recommend retailers do their due diligence around an agency’s level of experience and competency with Magento - looking at things like number of certified developers, background of key technical personnel, complexity delivered via projects, level of partnership etc. 

Working with a partner, like Redbox, who have delivered successful, large-scale Magento projects and have a demonstrable understanding of Magento is really important.

What are some of the incremental benefits a retailer can gain from migrating to M2?

There are a lot of benefits of moving to M2, which I don’t actually feel get promoted enough. Some of the new features include:

• B2B suite - this has to be the biggest selling point for relevant retailers. The new B2B suite is a really strong addition and adds a lot of native features around B2B including, advanced account management, ability to manage quotes, credit options, advanced buyer roles and responsibilities and lots more. 

• Page Builder - although very new, page builder allows for a modular approach to content management via a clean, drag and drop interface. I’m hopeful this will develop a lot over the next few years into a robust CMS offering.

• MSI - native handling of multiple inventory sources - this is a really valuable new feature for Magento and it’s very simple to use.

• Admin UI and performance improvements - the admin interface is light years ahead of M1 and is cited as a major improvement by merchants. 

• Various admin function improvements - such as column management, product setup etc.

• New native checkout flow - the new three-step checkout is a great base for merchants and it’s a huge improvement on the M1 native checkout.

What are the biggest improvements in existing M1 functionality in M2?

There have been lots of very subtle improvements to existing Magento features in M2, including gift registry (which is excellent), the native checkout flow (as above), visual merchandising (completely refactored and much more reliable), content scheduling and content staging and preview, reporting (via Magento BI) and lots of others. The strengthening of some of the existing features is not something that is widely communicated but significant none-the-less.

What are some of the risks going into an M2 project? How can a retailer mitigate these during the discovery and during the build?

Due to the complexity around M2, there are lots of risks around projects being delayed or additional costs being incurred, particularly when a project isn’t scoped out as well as it could be or if all stakeholders aren’t involved in the discovery.

The other main risks for me come from unknowns or unexpected things coming from Magento or third parties - e.g. upgrades causing delays or an integration proving more complex than expected. This just comes from the nature of working with a complex platform. 

Overall, in terms of mitigating the risks, making sure the discovery goes as well as possible, be it getting system information and exports sent to the SI early, ensuring the right people are prepared and in the room when needed, allowing for contingency time where needed and generally just being as applied as possible. 

The same principle applies during the build in terms of having as many people ready to help and take ownership of the project. I’m also a big advocate of prioritising SEO as well and ensuring that is considered in all key decisions.

What are your thoughts on Magento and PWA?

For me, PWA represents a really big opportunity for merchants and it adds a lot of value to the end user, in terms of performance improvements particularly. I would say that it’s early days and there are a lot of things that need to be considered before choosing to build an eCommerce site as a PWA, particularly for bigger sites. 

That said, there are some good options with frameworks such as PWAstudio, Deity and VueStorefront, which already have a good level of integration with Magento. If PWA is scoped out properly and there’s an understanding around the level of development required for building additional API endpoints and a potential loss of some features, I’d say it’s a great thing to be investing in early.

I like the fact that Magento is investing in PWAstudio and I think it’s something that will help them attract merchants as the offering grows.

What tips do you have for retailers to help them better prepare and get more from an M2 project?

Make sure you get the right people involved as early as possible, as this can result in a lot of delays. I’ve worked on a number of projects where delays and changes in scope have come from senior stakeholders not being able to be fully involved from the start and this is avoidable through planning. The same applies with stakeholders from other areas of the business such as  IT, marketing and finance, who will need to be involved from the onset.

Budget planning is also key - ensuring that all line items are covered, for example, provisioning for upgrades, support retainers, third party module costs, professional services support from third parties, SEO support etc. I’d always allow for a contingency especially for any major replatforming projects.