Magento’s market share is growing in many key markets. Magento is long sought after as a leading eCommerce platform across the world. Many large eCommerce players leveraged on it to take off their business. There are two reasons for this level of influence Magento enjoys, its community and technical expertise. While the community is a topic for another day, let us discuss technical expertise and why budding eCommerce players must choose to upgrade / migrate to Magento 2 today.

The technical aspects are important to discuss in the light of the recent development i.e. Adobe’s takeover. When Adobe paid $1.68 Billion for Magento, it paid for the community and code base. Hence, it is interesting to see how Adobe will steer the company in the upcoming months. However, let us look at the key technical reasons to choose Magento 2 or migrate to the latest Magento 2 version.

Key Technical Reasons to Choose Magento 2

Improved Caching

Magento 2 has built-in full caching enabled and the page load has substantially improved. All the key pages i.e. home page, product page and checkout page load in less than 1.5 sec. This can further reduce when caching is enabled. Varnish Cache and Redis Cache support is provided out of the box in Magento 2.

Improved Customization

The location of the code related to a module is located in a single directory now. This allows the developer to find module related code and customize it easily. Magento 2 also uses the PHP package manager and composer to manage installations of individual modules.

Support of Multiple Databases

Magento 2 today supports multiple databases for orders, products, checkout, etc. This paves the way for faster loading websites and allows concurrent admins to update the data without conflict. It further translates into added benefits in flexibility of customizations and productivity of the team who use them.

Improved Integration Capability

The new API method in Magento 2 is more efficient. The new API allows retrieving all the data in one call. This provides huge advantage to store owners, as it makes integration with ERPs less cumbersome.

Read our blog on the Top 5 features for B2B in Magento 2.

What Does Adobe Takeover Mean?

Adobe already has a strong set of marketing cloud tools. The company has been building and buying companies to strengthen this product portfolio. It is imperative that Adobe will integrate the Magento platform with the rest of its portfolio. However, below are some of the integrations that are likely to happen.

Integration with Adobe Experience Manager

Adobe Experience Manager or AEM is a popular CMS platform in marketing circles. Magento and AEM users might soon be able to integrate their platforms seamlessly. This will help customers manage content, design front-end experiences and extend shopping experiences across multiple marketing assets.

Adobe Analytics Cloud

Analytics is another area where Adobe took long strides. Given that Magento is a leading eCommerce platform with comparatively limited analytics capabilities, it is highly likely Adobe will create interoperability between Magento and its analytics cloud.

Third-Party Marketplaces and Ad Platforms

Magento has long been compatible with marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Earlier customers depended on third-party integrations. However, Adobe might leverage direct integrations to strengthen advertising and selling capabilities across platforms.

New Payment Methods

Magento already allows seamless integration with Amazon Pay. More payment methods are expected to become native options as Adobe expands Magento’s ecosystem.

Why Migrate to Magento Right Now?

Many industry stakeholders question the need to migrate to Magento 2 immediately and prefer to wait due to Adobe’s acquisition. However, this might actually be the perfect time to migrate.

Adobe historically integrates acquired products with its ecosystem. Magento will likely integrate with products like AEM, Analytics Cloud and other Adobe cloud solutions. Businesses migrating now can gain an early advantage.

Read our blog on how to migrate to Magento.

Below are some highlights from the latest Magento 2.2.6 update.

Improvement in Code and Performance

• Re-indexing time of products reduced by 98% due to indexing optimization
• Loading time for category and product pages significantly reduced

Improvement in Checkout Process

• Shopping cart content remains intact even after repeated reloads
• Refreshing checkout page does not delete form data

Payment Related Updates

• Support added for Amazon Pay, dotmailer and Klarna

Changes to Shipping and Batch Processing

• Improved shipping process handling
• Better batch goods handling

Other Improvements

• B2B improvements
• Improved product bundling
• Better catalog management
• Captcha updates
• Enhanced cart management and checkout
• Improved product configurations
• Customer account improvements

For the complete list of updates refer to the official documentation.

Conclusion

With the recent developments it is important to appreciate the timing. Moving to Magento 2 right away will give users the benefit of leveraging Adobe’s suite of products. However, make sure to identify the right partner to help migrate to Magento 2 and fully utilize its potential.

For more info contact us at info@i95dev.com.