Magento1 To Magento2 Data Migration Guide

Wondering how to migrate Magento1 to Magento2? Since the release of Magento2 in 2015, there has been lots of ruckus concerning Magento migration from 1-to-2.

Whereas some Magento1 online merchants upgraded to Magento2 almost asap, many opted otherwise. 

Instead of switching voluntarily to Magento2, they’ve held on Magento1 online store for close to five years.

Why? You’d ask.

Here is the thing, there are several possible reasons a digital store owner would hesitate migrating Magento1 to Magento2. First, it’s a pretty tricky process. 

Already setting up and customizing a completely functional Magento1 online store is hard enough. So, why would a thriving store even contemplate subjecting itself yet through another a potentially cumbersome process?

Then there is the question on cost. Granted, both Magento1 and Magento2 are free online platforms. But the fact is-a typical swapping of Magento 1-to-2 would set back your business a couple of bucks.

Both directly and in the shape of incurred business losses that arise from service outage during upgrade-Magento1 to Magento2.

The real hurdle, however, has been that many entrepreneurs have argued that both Magento1 & 2 are substantially different versions of the same thing.

Henceforth, they’ve held that a swop of Magento 1-to-2 is akin to shifting an adjacent seat in a cinema theater-just a physical change lacking substantial difference in the whole experience.

Also read Shopify vs Square: Definitive Ecommerce Platform Comparison

Fair enough. Though the argument proved time and again as flawed, undoubtedly, for over half a decade now, it has worked in Magento1’s favor.

But not anymore, because Magento1 is finally biting the dust. Like it or not, your back is up against the wall; you must move your store from the store.

And that forms the hindsight of this ultimate Magento1 to Mgento2 migrating guide.

Herein, we’ll feature the three primary migration options, the essential benefits of you’d expect upgrading from Magento1 to Magento2. 

Above all, it elaborates on how to switch between Magento1 & Magento2 using Cart2Cart auto-migrating tool conveniently.

But before engaging you that, there is the issue of Magento1 biting dust (retiring), let’s look into it, what is it all about? 

June 2020 Spells Doom For Magento1  

It’s a fact Magento1 has had a good run for ten plus years. But as the saying goes-all that goes up must come down.

And Magento1’s end first reared its head in 2015 upon the release of the Magento2 online platform by the same company.

That move set the ball rolling. It soon became apparent it was no longer a question of if, but when is Magento1’s final-nail on the coffin?

And it didn’t last, towards the end of 2015, the company finally dropped the bombshell. The big reveal read: from 1st June 2020, Magento will officially cease supporting Magento1.

Yap, you read that right, Magento1 has a lifeline of a few weeks before the curtains finally come down for it. And it’s not like Magento1 gets wiped off the face of the earth, no don’t get twisted. Instead, Magento will put a stop to its maintenance.

Meaning, you’ll henceforth cease to get additional extensions, fixes, modules, or security patches from the company.

In other words, Magento1 will be as good as obsolete. With nil security updates, the digital platform is left vulnerable and exposed to the vagaries of a broad range of cyber-attacks. It compares to a mineral-endowed country with no defense army.

And since the D-day is fast approaching, holding onto Magento1 isn’t tenable anymore. Like it or not, you must migrate, there, that’s your option.

However, how and where you opt to migrate will be a spin-off of your preference alongside business needs. Speaking of which, you’ve got two possible routes currently to salvage your eCommerce store before the hammer falls.

The first option involves moving your online store entirely from the Magento ecosystem. Yes, meaning you avoid even Magento2 together with its original editions.

This route has led to quite some brands move their stores to third-party online platforms such as BigCommerce, Shopify, WooCommerce, Prestashop et cetera. Each of the platforms has a fair share of downsides and benefits over Magento.

Ok, if you’d want to try any of these platforms, I think you’d want to check Magento to WooCommerce Migration guide or the recent relevant insights with detailed tutorials contained in Magento to Shopify Migration article. Both posts elaborate on transferring automatically and without downtime all of your store data from Magento.

But this approach doesn’t suit everyone. There are businesses’ needs that can only be addressed by Magento. We’re talking here of digital sites prioritizing code-based capabilities, powerful store management tools, full platform control, SEO-friendly URL, and more.

And if you fall in this fold, you might want to look into the second alternative route. It involves moving all of your store data and elements from Magento1 to Magento2. In short, you can tag it as an upgrade from Magento1 to Magento2.

Besides Magento1’s June 2020 doomsday, what do you stand to gain switching Magento1 to Magento2? Are tangible reasons?

Why Upgrade Magento1 to Magento2?

We’ve said it enough times already, that Magento1 is tremendous. It shares lots of aspects with Magento2. 

But don’t convolute it, the two aren’t the same. Though built on the same basis, Magento1 & Magento2 differ distinctively, with latter in many ways proving vastly superior to the former.

More particularly, Magento2 offers:

A friendly Admin

Admittedly, even with a hang on the workings of Magento1’s tools, its interface gets confusing. A lot of technical skills go into configuring its devices and customizing your website.

Besides, its interface isn’t the most elegant or prettiest in the market.

Now, contrast that with the new admin panel on the latest edition of Magento2. Magento methinks fashioned out its 2nd generation interface giving the likes of Shopify (less technical) a run for their money.

Whereas it retains the original customization privileges, the panel lends even non-technical users a seamless and responsive experience.

It’s much nattier and comes with logical functions alongside a much more forthright navigation framework.

Flexibility & Performance

Magento 2 transcends appearance to offer better scalability and performance capacity.

All your digital store’s web pages are bound to load faster and perform better than on Magento1.

How! You wonder.

Well, to enhance web performance, Magento2 leverages a range of complementary tools and technologies. 

Your site’s caching process, for example, is boosted thanks to the Magento2 HTTP accelerator, plus the complementing Varnish Cache.

And then in the event, you experience a spike in traffic, Magento 2 is capable of managing its resource handling and scaling better than Magento 1.

Improved Security

Whereas the ultimate blow to Magento1’s security slates on June 2020, this isn’t the 1st time the platform will lose out to Magento 2’s superior security elements. 

Magento32 has invariably put data security at the forefront, and it continues to offer more tools and features to curb system infiltration, recovery from data loss as well as mitigating possible cyber-attacks. 

As regards curbing in securing the system’s passwords, Magento2 utilizes what’s known as SHA-255 hashing algorithms.

And should you need reinforcing that the complementing 2-factor authentication extension comes in handy?

Further, you’ll figure that Magento2 provides an exceptional Admin account URL, thus making it to a more significant extent harder for malicious bots and potential attackers to speculate your main login area’s address correctly.

Moreover, Magento 2 also mitigates all the weaknesses that arise from system development, owing to an optimal development ecosystem leveraging on tools like Magento DevBox Beta.

By making the development process fast and easy, combined, all these complementary resources work to minimize the weaknesses.

Smooth And Continuous Checkout System

Through a smooth and seamless checkout system, Magento 2 helps you sell faster. The platform, for instance, saves your shoppers the trouble of always filling the registration forms during the checkout. Instead, 

Mgaento2 reckons web visitors as guests hence, allowing them to sail through the checkout process with no interruptions.

Another bonus of using Magento 2’s checkout tools is the expanded flexibility. The platform offers a much broader range of integration for third-party apps enabling you to set in more payment options on the checkout page.

While at it, you’ll figure that it’s possible to develop your custom payment modules swiftly. You’ll just need to integrate Magento2 to any merchant checkout solution, and hey presto!

Now, all these benefits alongside Magento2’s superior customer experience traits such as increased performance, and now we’re looking at an online platform capable of boosting your overall conversion rates and corresponding cart abandonment rates as well.

Ways To Switch Magento1 to Magento2

As regards the migration process, you’d be forgiven for mistakenly thinking Magento provides a simple app that aides in migrating Magento1 and Magento2 in one click.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. With Magento, you don’t find any specialized tools and neither a one-click tool from third-party sources. 

After scouring far and wide, we’re yet to find a solution that can transfer all data between the two platforms in one click.

That ought not to dampen your spirit, as in existence are many alternative tools you’d ride on without technical know-how.

And to unravel this option, let’s consider the three primary routes you could take to upgrade Mangeto1 to Magento2.

Manual Upgrade: Magento1 to Magento2 

It’s the conventional method of importing data between the two website platforms. Mostly, it’s a technical process of carefully moving data from the source platform, and eventually pasting it to the target platform.

But don’t get it twisted, it’s easier said than done. To manually upgrade from Magento1 to Mageto2 entails lots of coding and sophisticated web development tweaks.

To proceed with this option, you’ve got possess technical programming skills, and that’s not all. You must have in-depth knowledge of each platform core’s structure alongside source code as well.

And this is the caveat: and because the manual upgrade is highly intricate, there is a high probability of committing catastrophic errors.

So, you’ve got to tread carefully, not compromise your digital store. 

Meaning importing store data could last days and possibly more if you factor in the extra hours you’d need counterchecking your stuff, and then rectify any error and omission. 

Assisted Upgrade: Magento1 to Magento2

Irrefutably, this is the most expensive of the three Magento1 to Magento2 upgrade options with a solid backing reason.

The thing with assisted online store migration is that it involves hiring professionals to carry out the work on your behalf.

And yes, in the majority of the time, professionals use the conventional manual method.

They usually spend lots of time importing data between source and target platform while coding and reprogramming accordingly.

You can look at it as the option for shop owners preferring manual upgrade but fall shortfall of the required skills.

The biggest hurdle, however, is hiring the services of experts, which get pretty expensive. Additionally, you run the risk of committing potentially detrimental errors during data transfer.

Automated Upgrade: Magento1 to Magento2 

This automated option makes for a personal favorite to some users owing to its many benefits.

As opposed to manually transferring data, you get to move Magento1 to Magento2 using specialized migration tools automatically.

It handles the majority of the work on your behalf, curtailing human input and enhancing accuracy.

In a way, automation is the closest you get to a one-click migration tool. An app such as Cart2Cart only needs a few simple non-technical tweaks, which ought to last a couple of minutes before the system proceeds with your Magento upgrade 1-to-2.

Speaking of which, if you leverage Cart2Cart extension in Magento1 to Magento2 data migration, the cost gets significantly lower than hiring a professional web development agency. Furthermore, it takes a shorter time migrating an entire digital store from Magento1 to Magento2/

Therefore, all things factored in; automated migration makes for the best method you can use to join Magento2 successful course before the slated June 2020. Having explored a broader range of tools, we’d recommend Cart2Cart ahead of the rest.

Why you’d wonder!

Why Use Cart2Cart Data Migration Extension?: Magento1 to Magento2

Cart2Cart is one tool not just limited to handling Magento migrations.

It’s solution renowned globally, and it still presses on with automation of movement across a wide range of shopping cart platforms.

More particularly, it looks to simplify the whole online migration process by curtailing manual configuration and letting shop owners with zero technical skills import all their store entities.

Cart2Cart offers an intuitive migration wizard that guides throughout the process.

With that out of the way, Cart2Cart primarily supports Magento upgrade via as specialized Magento1 to Magento2 migration extension, which you’ll find on the Magento Extension Marketplace.

And just so you know, acquisition and installing the tool on to your Magento online platform won’t cost you not dime. And that’s not all; additionally, you can create and proceed to customize your migration option free of charge.

It doesn’t stop there, Cart2Cart data migration extension for Magento1 to Magento2 executes a demo import your data between the two platforms.

It proceeds to move some of your store entities from the source platform to the subsequent target platform, as a means of demonstrating its data importing prowess before the actual complete migration.

Then upon payment for service, you begin full migration, Cart2Cart will swiftly wing to action. Then the subsequent data transfer process ought to only last a few hours, during which your digital store remains online with zero service interruptions.

Yes, that’s right. In short, Cart2Cart lets you Magento1 to Magento2 without downtime. And if you wish, you can continue processing transaction while your store data get copied and imported in the background.

The bottom line, it should be possible to import all the crucial digital site entities entailing all the complementary stores, CMS pages, coupons, reviews, orders, manufacturers, customers, products, categories, et cetera.

All the critical stuff gets mirrored from the source Magento1 store to target the Magento2 store.

Let’s now catch on how to upgrade from Magento1 to Magento2.

How To Conduct Magento Upgrade: Magento1 to Magento2

Step #1: Employ Default Magento2 Online Platform

First up, is rolling out the default Magento2 digital platform on a well-suited web host.

You want to have a look at Ultimate Magento hosting guide for tips to getting compatible with your Magento2 eCommerce store.

Now, once you’ve bought a suiting hosting perk, you can proceed and set up a basic Magento2 shop.

It ought to be straightforward given that most top Magento hosts offer a one-click installer for Mgento2.

In creating a site, you want to curtail your customizations as you possibly can. The Cart2Cart Magento1 to Magento2 data migration extension works perfectly with the Magento template without the extras.

Else, modifying your store yonder this point amount to futile since the target store will eventually reflect the source store’s attributes after an upgrade.

Besides, any extra customizations introduced could trigger errors, and perhaps modify the intended look of the target store.

Step #2: Installing Cart2Cart Data Migration Extension

There is one exception to the modification rule. Yes, you read that right. You can proceed to add Cart2Cart Magento1 to the Magento2 data migration extension to your site.

Now, the Cart2Cart data migration extension should be installed directly onto the Magento2 target platform. Again I can’t say that loud enough. Just head over to Magneto marketplace, then search Cart2Cart M2  .

Once you’ve installed it free of charge, whenever you’re ready, you can launch and go right ahead to migrate.

Step #3: Creating Cart2Cart Account

To start the upgrade process, first, you’ve got to register an account with Cart2Cart via Cart2Cart’s main site or an extension.

Whichever route you opt for, you’ll find a couple of registration alternatives. It’s either you sign up the conventional way of submitting your details, or you just log into the system with Google or Facebook credentials.

Step #4: Enter Magento1 Source Cart Details To Establish Its Connection Bridge

On accessing your account and then launch Cart2Cart’s Magento upgrade wizard, it shows source and target cart setup window, on which you’ll fill in each store’s details then configure their respective connection bridges.

The source cart section comes first. So, you can proceed and indicate your source details by selecting “Magento” as a source cart, and the key-in your source store’s URL in the next-field.

After that, you should establish a connection bridge on your source cart, which will eventually act as the primary link for importing data between the two platforms.

To set it up, scroll past the Source Store URL field and hit the “Download Bridge” button. It ought to directly send a bridge to your local storage as a .zip file.

Unzip it, and directly paste its content in your Magneto1 store’s root folder using an FTP client.

There you go. Now you’ve got yourself a connection bridge on your source cart and to test it, hit on the “Check Connection” button.

Step #5: Enter Magento2 Target Cart Details and Set Up Its Connection Bridge

After keying in your Magento1 source cart details and creating its connection bridge, Cart2Cart prompts you to set up the Magento2 target store. 

So, head over to Target Cart Setup area, select Magento from the list of Target Cart options, and then key your Magento2 site’s URL on the Target Store field. 

Upon completion, you can proceed to download the target cart’s connection bridge file, unzip its contents onto your local storage, then using the FTP panel, paste everything to the root folder of your Magento2 store.

At this juncture, you can confirm the cart’s connection validity by merely clicking on the Checking Connection button.

Step #6: Select The Store Entities You’d Like To Migrate

With the source and target carts’ connection set, the next step involves defining specific attributes you intend to import from Magento1 to Magento2. 

Thankfully, Cart2Cart makes everything by displaying a checkbox next to each entity. It should be possible to move stuff like:

• CMS Pages: Created dates, title, description, meta keyword, URLs, content headings, meta description, and status.
• Reviews: Created dates, summary, description, user name, rate, title, type, and status.
• Coupons: Coupon date, coupon code, description, name, customer groups, uses per coupon, discount amount, type discount, use per customer, and status.
• Shipping: Shipping address (company, address1, address2, country, fax, telephone, state, zip code, city, and transaction)
• Orders: Product price, quantity, subtotal price, and discount price, product orders (name, SKU, option), order date, order ID, order status, order comments, total price, tax price, shipment, credit memo, invoice, customer name, email, billing address (company, address1, address2, country, state, city, zip code, telephone, fax)
• Customers: Customer ID, first- last name, email, shipping address (company, address1, address2, country, state, city, zip code, telephone, fax), billing address (company, address1, address2, country, state, city, zip code, telephone, fax), created date, date of birth, customer group, newsletter, password, and gender.
• Taxes: Tax rules (tax class, tax rates), Tax class (name), tax rates (country, state, percent).
• Manufacturers: Name and image.
• Product categories: Meta title, meta keyword, meta description, name, thumbnail image, and image
• Products: Stock availability, quantity, manage stock, base image, additional image, thumbnail image, variants (SKU, weight, volume, images, attributes, price, price specials from date, group price, tier price, MSRP) downloadable products (price, files, max downloads), attributes (name, values), grouped products (associated products), bundle products, custom option (drop-down, multiple select, text area, text field, checkbox, radio button, file, date and time), related products, cross-sells, up-sells, product tags, weight, meta title, meta keyword, price, meta description, special price, special price from-to date, group price, tier price, MSRP, product name, SKU, full specification, short description, tax class, status, manufacturer, country of manufacturer, and sorted in categories.

Ok, you can opt to import all of them by checking on the Select All the checkbox. Else, you could select the specific entities you intend to move, and leave the rest of the checkboxes blank.

Step #7: Customize Your Data Migration

Cart2Cart is a flexible tool that lets you dynamically customize the data migration process to the last detail. You find these settings in the Additional Options section, which typically fellows the entity selection.

Now, to modify your Magento migration from 1 to 2, just pick your preferences from the list options.

You can, for example, opt to have the system move invoices, shipments and credit memo to your Magento2 store. Or maybe, you might transfer even your images from the product description, blog post description, and categories descriptions.

Moreover, Cart2Cart allows you to preserve your customer IDs on the Target store, importing product SEO URL and types, 

transferring customers’ passwords, setting up product variants based on the combination options, maintaining original order IDs on the target, creating 301 redirects on your target store after migration, skipping product thumbnail images migration, and clearing your current data on your target store before the data migration process.

Not bad at all!

But here is the kicker. Whereas some of the options come free of charge, the majority arrive at an extra cost. Retaining your original customer IDs on your new Magento2, for instance, will set you back an additional $49. 

Then transferring your categories and product SEO URLs will cost you an extra $59.

And so, if you’re on a budget, you sure want to prioritize the essential stuff.

Step #8: Perform a Free Demo Migration

Well, the demo might feel like an unnecessary step, more so when Cart2Cart already has proved itself from the positive reviews, it continues to draw from past users.

Understandably many folks share in the same pervasive sentiment, you don’t want to skip the free demo migration. It offers much-needed insights into the workings of your target store might ultimately turn out.

From the demo target store, you get the sense of how different entities have been-mapped, background functionalities, the fronted interface, including some of the stuff you might probably need to configure after migration.

All in all, the data import process here ought to last around 30 minutes. But ultimately, Cart3Cart will only transfer a few of your selected entities.

Step #9: Begin The Full Magento 1-to-2 Migration

If you simulated migration (demo) panned out fine, you can proceed and begin the full upgrade process.

It’s important to note that Cart2Cart bills you for everything before proceeding with full migration. You’ll need to pay for the data transfer alongside an additional migration option.

Ok, in case you’re wondering, Cart2Cart offers affordable migration pricing rates, whose calculation base on the number of entities you intend to move.

Meanwhile, run your numbers through the Cart2Cart estimator tool to assess what you’d wind up paying.

Back to the migration process, As soon as you settle the bill, you should be able to go ahead wit full migration.

Cart2Cart simultaneously conducts the whole process in the background while retaining your source Magento1 store intact. 

Therefore, you can rest assure you won’t experience downtime.

However, in the unanticipated scenario, a problem arises. Lucky for you, Cart2Cart tech support team works around the clock-24/7. Just get in touch.

If everything proceeds on just fine, Cart2Cart will need minimal if not zero input for the subsequent few hours. All data gets imported from Magento1 and successively mapped onto Magento2.

In the meantime, from your Cart2Cart account, you can monitor the progress. Alternatively, close the window, wait for the updates as you handle your business on the source store.

Whatever you opt for, ultimately, Cart2Cart will alert you via an email when through the Magento migration 1-to-2.

Magento1 to Magento2 : Over to You

Well, that should be it as regards switching Magento1 to Magento2.

You want to countercheck and review everything on your Magento2 target store, from layout, functionalities, and attributes to the absolute nitty-gritty. You can as well conduct a few shopping and transaction tests just as a final measure of confirmation.

Now, if everything clicks, treat yourself with a bottle of champagne, raise a toast to your new feat. You’ve just dodged Magento1’s doomsday challenges and lurched on Magento2’s trend, bravo!

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