Now is the time to graduate from Magento 1 Open Source to Magento Commerce 2.3.3. “But why? Open Source is free”. Believe me, we hear this all the time. Our Crimson Agility clients are no different and usually ask why they should build their site using Magento Commerce when Magento Open Source is free? We agree that Open Source is a great option. However, in the long run it is not the most cost-effective. Magento Commerce has additional features, the cloud infrastructure, and performance enhancements that are invaluable. With the Magento 1 end of life right around the corner (June 2020), now is the time to turn that tassel and graduate to Magento Commerce 2.

Let’s take a moment and look at the smaller picture here: not migrating from Magento 1.X to the most recent version of Magento 2. If you postpone the decision to make the leap to Magento 2, you are risking your business, reputation, customers data, and privacy not to mention their payment details.  Once Magento 1 is retired, your site becomes a target for those with nefarious intent. According to Magento, 83% of hacked sites were un-patched sites. When Magento 1 is retired, there will be no more patches available. It is like comparing the migration to not taking an Uber and risking the fines and life destruction from driving home from graduation only after a couple drinks. Yes, it can be that destructive.

When Magento 2 was released in 2015, it was not just a simple version upgrade. The new Magento 2 platform is a new improved platform built on state-of-the-art architecture. An outstanding 240,000 sites still utilize Magento 1 today. Mostly because of either the cost of migrating or procrastination. These store owners have also chosen in the past to stay on the comfortable older release to avoid breakage or revenue impacting downtime. But today, more and more educated store owners are realizing the benefits of investing in Magento Commerce 2 and are seeing the results of their investments. Here at Crimson Agility our 21 USA based certified developers have helped nearly 20 sites migrate while limiting downtime and not impacting revenue. Our customers are bringing in the new year stress free and will continue to grow their business safely.

What is New in Magento Commerce 2.3.3?

The new features in Magento Commerce 2.3.3 are amazing. There is so much to list but we encourage you to view Adobe’s Magento Commerce 2.3.3 Release Notes and read through all of the greatness for yourself. Below we have outlined some key points of Magento Commerce 2.3.3 enhancements announced November 7, 2019:

• Over 100 security fixes reducing backend log significantly
  • Support for PSD2 compliance support
  • Supports PHP 7.3 (7.1 end of life is November 30, 2019)
• Google Shopping Ads Channel is now part of the core code – cut ad spend by 50%!
• Amazon Sales Channel in now part of core code
• Progressive Web Application (PWA) Studio – fast page performance and increase SEO and conversion rates
• Cloud enhancements
• Product recommendations powered by Adobe Sensei
• Superior Experiences – Deliver best-in-class B2B and B2C shopping experiences that accelerate sales
• Omnichannel innovations – sell everywhere, deliver anywhere managing products, inventory, orders and fulfillments
• Commerce Intelligence – enable intelligent experiences, uncover insights, and employ better measurement

How Can Crimson Agility Help you?

We have migration options! We offer three MAGENTO QUICK START PACKAGES that are fixed-cost implementation solutions. Our packages offer great price points whether you are a small business or large enterprise wanting to move to Magento Commerce. Making the move doesn’t have to be hard and will result in improved security & performance, seamless shopping everywhere with PWA, increased conversion rates, more streamlined operations, and a better overall end-user experience.

Contact us today and learn more, we are here to help and love what we do.

Update: Our own David Baier emphasized the importance of having trusted partners to ensure your site remains secure, reliable, and high performance in a Webscale article.

About Crimson Agility: We are a full service Magento services firm with an in-depth knowledge of the Magento platform and e-Commerce, a broad set of design, development, integration and marketing skills, as well as years of industry experience and successful implementations.