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[Note: we recently published a case study that shows how migrating a client's site from Magento 1 to Magento 2 helped boost their revenue by almost 62%; check out this Magento 2 Update Case Study to see what else we did]
With the rapid advancements and competition in the commerce environment, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for businesses to reach their full potential. Upgrading your Magento store is a vital part in making sure your site has access to all the technological improvements being regularly released.
As Magento merchants ourselves, we know how much time, energy, and resources you’ve put into your M1 site to make sure it’s impeccable.
However, the time has come to pack up your bags and rebuild on the new and improved Magento platform, M2. We understand that this may seem like a costly and stressful endeavor, so we’ve compiled a list of why you need to start migrating to Magento 2 along with descriptions of enhancements it entails.
Why You Should Upgrade Implementing new changes on the older platform will be more time-consuming for developers, more expensive for you, or could simply be impossible to do. Upgrading is a bulletproof way to ensure better utilization of your time, resources, and your efforts to meet the needs of your customers. Magento 2 was built to grow with your business. This new structure gives merchants granular control to adapt to the constant competitive changes within the commerce environment. Many businesses have noted that they have a reduced need for extensions due to the native capabilities of Magento Commerce 2. Not only does this simplify development and maintenance, but it also enhances overall performance.
Performance Improvements Magento 2 has introduced multiple performance enhancing updates, including full-page caching (FPC) which improves page-loading speeds.When a page is fetched from the cache instead of being generated from a php server, it noticeably speeds up the site. This results in improved scalability and reduced latency.
Magento 2 with FPC produces significantly faster page loads compared to previous versions of Magento 1.  Faster load times means lower bounce rate, which means more sales.
Investing in Outdated Technologies & Security M1 has already stopped releasing new features, and Magento will eventually stop supporting it altogether. Any investments made in this platform will eventually have to be replaced.  The longer you wait to upgrade the costlier the inevitable upgrade will become.There will also be greater security risks for Magento 1 as it is becoming less and less supported. M2 will continue to release security improvements to help merchants stay secure.
B2B Commerce Functionality (Commerce / Enterprise Only)
This upgrade includes multiple new features that improve B2B functionality, which is targeted towards merchants whose primary customers are businesses, rather than consumers.
Some of these features include:
Account Management Tools:  a new customer self-service tool allows B2B customers to manage their own company accounts. This also allows Magento merchants to better organize their customers’ information and records.
Quote Requests: Previously, quote requests couldn’t be made unless the customer installed a third-party Magento extension. With the latest release of Magento 2, quote management is available within the platform by default.Customers can now request quotes directly from their cart, and can also include comments and subsequently track the status of their request.
Power of Negotiation and Improved Relations: One huge advantage of quote requests is that merchants can now respond to these proposals with calculated discounts, shipping offers, and recommendations for different products that may better suit the customer.This also improves customer relations by encouraging dialogue and interaction prior to a purchase, and can potentially increase sales.
Does your store do B2B sales?  Checkout IWD's B2B eCommerce Suite for the most powerful Magento B2B solution on the market.
The modernized technology stack in Magento 2 was made to give your business reduced marketing time, easier customization and deployment flexibility. M2’s code base is more modular, which allows for much easier integrations. Your development team is given a more powerful toolset, faster dev cycles, and more options regarding processes for implementation.
This updated tech stack is equally exciting for developers and merchants. Simplified, modular coding gives M2 merchants the ability to customizeparticular parts of the application without jeopardizing others (i.e. improving your checkout will have no impact on a product catalog).
Enhanced Admin ExperienceThe improved administrative panel is more streamlined and modernized. It’s now separated into several major categories and subcategories so that you can easily organize and navigate the panel.
Enhanced Checkout Experience Magento 2 includes a 2-step checkout process that speeds up checkout time while minimizing the amount information customers have to provide.This results in increased conversions, optimal user experience, and less interruptions during checkout. Some specific improvements include:
Option for account setup is streamlined, requiring only one click
Order summary with thumbnails
Shipping rates automatically applied to carts
Automated shipping and city options are available, provided ZIP code
Looking to beef up your Magento 2 checkout even more?  Checkout IWD's M2 Checkout Suite
Simplified Upgrades and MaintenanceThe improved architecture of this platform makes the costs of upgrades less expensive and time-consuming. With reduced costs of upgrading, merchants can now focus on investing in improvements for things like a better customer experience.
New Relic Integration (Commerce / Enterprise Only) Magento 2 includes the pre-installed New Relic for application performance management (APM). This helps you analyze specific application interactions and improve upon them. Some key features include:
Monitor customer actions on your site
Locate database queries affecting performance
Identify issues and create alerts to notify you when they occur, such as site performance affected by a web event
Magento 2 provides advanced eCommerce experiences, smooth implementation, and ultimately the features and capabilities that will lead your company to excel in the eCommerce industry. If you’re interested in taking full advantage of everything Magento 2 has to offer,contact us and our trusted Magento developers will make sure to help you grow into your best business.