Every store owner loves to see their business growing, traffic increasing and sales improving. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and growth in business calls for the need to make some tough decisions to keep pace with the different metrics. One of the most critical decisions, in such a scenario, is to upgrade your store to the latest version, to cope with the increasing traffic and meet the requirements of the clients.
The success of your online store largely depends upon how capable or strong the platform is, and Magento has proven its mettle over time in the eCommerce arena. Your online store, besides helping you to connect with your online audience, also plays an important role in driving the sales of your retail stores. That being said, upgrading your Magento store, will not only ensure you stay ahead of your online competitors but also ensure a proper flow of customers to your retail stores. However, when it comes to upgrading the stores, store owners tend to rush the process, which eventually, costs them dearly later. Be it choosing a company for Magento 2 upgrade services or simply chalking out a plan, a well-measured approach is critical for the success of the upgrade process. So to help you move in the right direction, here’s a quick guide to help prepare your Magento store for an upgrade.
Important Tips While Choosing Magento Upgrade Services
1. Choose A Reliable Upgrade Partner
Freelancers are a rage nowadays. But when it comes to complex procedures like upgrading your store, relying on a trusted partner, having years of experience is the right thing to do. Magento timely rolls out updates to ensure a perfectly secure eCommerce environment for the merchants. Doesn’t matter, if you are looking for Magento upgrade services, you must choose experts having deep knowledge on the shipping processes, modules, store customizations and the objective of the store. This will ensure, that the project completes successfully.
The upgrade will impact your complete business, so you cannot afford any mishaps. Anything goes wrong, and you may end up losing your data and building your store from scratch, which can really be a costly and time-consuming affair. So choosing a trusted upgrade partner will obviously save from any unnecessary hassles and also ensure that everything goes smoothly.
2. List Out All The Extensions
Extensions play an important part on your store, lending additional functionalities to it. Many Magento modules modify or connect with the core database table structure. Some of them do this minimally while some need to make considerable changes to deliver the required functions. As these extensions are generally developed by third-party companies, Magento isn’t liable to consider or inform how an upgrade can impact these extensions, and eventually your database structure. A professional upgrade service provider will make it a point to list out all the extensions being employed on your store. While this will help them to take care of the compatibility factors, you can also review and remove any unwanted extensions.
3. Look Where You’re Going
Carefully consider the reason why you are upgrading. Are you doing it for the security or because you can no longer find any extensions compatible with the version you’re running? Do you wish to install some new features on your store or you’re facing some performance issues? Whatever be the reason, be very clear about it for the upgrade. Magento upgrade is a complicated process and should be undertaken cautiously.
4. Safeguard The Database
A database is like the lifeline of your eCommerce business. It comprises all the crucial data such as customer lists, their purchasing behavior, attribute schema, products information and everything else that should be properly secured. You would be really lost without all these important information. It is, therefore, in the best interest, to take a proper back up of all your data before your developer go ahead with the process. Although, a professional will do this even if you don’t point it out but as a business owner it is important to be a little proactive and still confirm that all the backup is taken and safely stored.
5. Upgrade Process – Not so easy
Understand that there’s nothing as an easy Magento upgrade process. Every Magento store is unique, running numerous plugins, having different customizations that can complicate the upgrade process, especially if you have been running an older version for a long time. Magento has changed substantially after 2013. So, upgrading from version 1.3 to 1.7 isn’t as easy as it sounds. Technically, a developer has to gradually step up the database across each version (1.4, 1.5, 1.6 etc) to ensure everything works perfectly.
In such a case, developers often recommend going for a new store to ensure a solid foundation, especially for the Magento community edition based projects. This means, a fresh Magento will be installed with the latest version and all of your data and theme will be migrated to it. Such projects require some time, so account your time and money accordingly.
6. Plan The Upgrade From 30,000-foot View
Don’t consider the upgrade process as a part of development but consider as to how it will impact your overall business. Have a look at how your business has progressed over time. Should you choose Magento Commerce (earlier Enterprise edition) with all its features or Magento Open Source (formerly Community Edition)? When exactly are you planning to upgrade? Doing so around the holiday season won’t be a sensible choice, as any downtime can really impact your sales. Do you have a backup plan, in case things don’t work out as planned? Magento upgrade, as a matter of fact, doesn’t allow any option to “roll back” the changes. The upgrade process is permanent in nature that modifies your database and structure of your store. So, take some time and carefully plan out everything from a wider perspective.
7. Perform Upgrade In A Staging Environment
Developers performing upgrades on the live store is a practice, which should be avoided at all costs. It is always better to use a staging environment with a copy of all the database and file structure. This will allow you to perform thorough testing before you go on and migrate your store to the new version. Generally, front-end would work properly, but the back-end (order processing, product catalogs etc.) might not render as expected. To ensure everything works perfectly with 100% success rate, go ahead and simulate a complete order right from searching to processing payment and shipping.
Leave It To The Experts
Made up your mind to upgrade your Magento store? Need some advice or still have some queries? Talk to the the experts or hire magento developer for all your business needs.
