The end of life for Magento 1 is approaching. Are you prepared?

In September of 2018, Magento announced June 2020 would mark the end of life for Magento 1, also known as the platform’s Enterprise Edition. What exactly does end of life mean and how does it impact you if your website currently employs Magento 1? We’ll cover what online retailers need to know here.

What does the end of life mean for Magento 1?

In the technology world, end of life (or EoL) means one or more of the following for a piece of software:

• The software will no longer be available for sale
• No new releases, bug fixes or security features will be issued
• The company will no longer offer technical support for the platform
• Support documentation, forums and articles referencing the platform may be archived
• Third-party plugins or extensions may no longer work

Magento 1 has been in decline for several years as the publisher rolled out Magento 2. There have been no new updates to the Enterprise Edition since June of 2016. The publisher has confirmed that as of June 2020 no new quality fixes will be offered and software support will end.

What does that mean for me if my site is on Magento 1?

You may be wondering: does the EoL for Magento 1 mean my website will just stop working on June 1? There are good and bad news and that front.

The good news is that no, your website won’t simply cease to exist once Magento 1 reaches its EoL. The bad news, though, is that because of this, many brands will be tempted to continue using it after the sunset date. Using Magento 1 after its EoL can spell disaster for online merchants.

Security

Security is far and away from the biggest concern with using Magento 1 after its sunset date. With no new security patches and no software support, your website will be left highly vulnerable to attack.

Running an outdated CMS, theme or plugin is a major cause of security breaches. In a 2018 report, security experts said 83% of the infected Magento websites they were hired to clean up were running an outdated version of the platform.

The global average cost of a data breach is nearly $4 million — let that sink in. That’s not accounting for the post-breach damage to your brand and reputation, which may be irreparable. Upgrading your online store ahead of the June 2020 EoL date is a small investment to maintain the integrity of your website, customer database, and brand.

Legal Issues

If you choose to continue operating with the security vulnerabilities mentioned above, you open yourself to a further threat: lawsuits. If a customer’s personal data is leaked as a result of their activities on your website, you could be held liable. This, of course, further exacerbates the monetary and reputational damages you might face.

Incompatibility

What happens when you let a car go too long without an oil change? It might run okay for a month or two, but then, inevitably, things start to break. The same will happen if you continue operating on Magento 1 after its EoL cutoff.

Extensions that you’re using may stop working, leaving parts of your site non-functional. Integrations with other applications, like your order fulfillment platform or your email marketing software, may become obsolete, hindering your operations. Reputable developers will stop servicing the platform, leaving you with a broken website and no one to fix it. It’s a worst case scenario.

Essentially, the EoL for Magento 1 boils down to this: the longer you wait to discontinue use of the platform, the greater the prospective problems grow.

What steps should I take if I currently use Magento 1?

If you’re a Magento 1 user, look at this not as a doomsday scenario but an exciting opportunity for innovation. Even in its heyday, Magento 1 left a lot to be desired for online merchants. View its EoL as the chance to harness superior features, add enhanced website functionality and improve your operations.

As soon as possible, begin taking steps to migrate your online store to a new CMS. Parkfield specializes in Magento to Shopify migrations, helping brands like yours take advantage of Shopify’s agility, speed, customization and scalability. We’ve migrated more than a million products to the platform and can eliminate the headache that’s probably brewing right now as you think about a migration.

For an in-depth look at the differences between Magento and Shopify, click here (link to Magento vs. Shopify post from a technical writer when available). To talk to one of our migration experts and schedule your migration, contact us now.