CedCommerce has always been aimed to make the selling simplified and efficient for online sellers. To contribute to their cause CedCommerce initiated the services of providing successful migration for clients by migrating their store from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
The popular Broadsport retailer ‘Wired Sport’ is among the ones who have availed the benefits of the Magento Migration services. They came to us (CedCommerce) in April 2018 as they were seeking for an efficient way to Migrate their website (which was based on Magento 1) to Magento 2 framework. The Magento Migration branch of CedCommerce provided them with an efficient and successful Magento Migration.
This case study will help Magento seller and developers understand the process, hardships and ideal practices for Magento Migration.
A Brief History of WiredSport:
WiredSport is a US-based premium online retailer for Skateboard, Wakeboard, and SnowBoards.
WiredSport has been ruling the BroadSport business since 1993 and over the years have successfully created an ecosystem with thousands of satisfied customers.
From the single shop in Gresham Oregon in the 1990s, WiredSport has risen their selling potentials to a global online website in 1998 which has now become the first choice for sports enthusiast seeking for gears.
WiredSport annually sells to thousands of core boarders. They provide their customers with an exceptional experience, by working closely with more than 36 brands that helps both experienced and first-time riders.
What Lead WiredSport to Migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2?
Since 1998 WiredSport has been selling online by keeping up with the latest technologies for two decades. In 2018, when Magento announced that they’ll be ending support for M1 it led them to seek for a better alternative.
When the migration scenario arose, WiredSport contacted us (CedCommerce) to get an opinion on how to move forward with this. Then, a meeting was scheduled with our executives where all the issues were discussed. We were aware of the basic requirements since WiredSport’s Magento 1 based website has been managed by CedCommerce. So, we analyzed the whole situation considering all the difficulties they were facing. And concluded what would be the best decision for their business.
Finally, we advised them to Migrate their online store to Magento 2 by explaining all the benefits they’ll receive on doing so:
What Are The Benefits Of Magento 2 over Magento 1?
Magento 2 is far better than Magento 1 in the following aspects:
- More Stable Architecture
- Increased Page loading speed
- Multiple 3rd party extension compatibility
- User Friendly Dashboard
- Effective SEO & SERP Presence
Lets see them in details:
More Stable Architecture:
Magento 2 supports the latest version of PHP. Using an improved version of PHP results to security improvements enhancing the store’s speed.
Bundled & minimized javascript eliminates the unnecessary browser’s operations on the client’s side which provides a better user experience.
The browser caching for static content in Magento 2 is far better than M1.
Increased Page Loading Speed:
Due to full page caching Magento 2 offers a better speed while loading page. This feature is offered in both community and enterprise edition as well.
Source: Dev.to
Multiple Third Party extensions compatibilty:
In Magento 2 the compatibilty of multiple 3rd party extensions is increased due to the code overriding. Magento introduced a new concept of DI(dependency injection) and Plugins that enables to use the same functions without overriding anything hence decreasing the chances of any conflicts. Magento 2 sellers can use any number of third-party extensions.
User-Friendly Dashboard:
Magento 2 provides users with a much efficient dashboard to manage all at one place. Easy navigation available with tools to monitor the whole business.
Effective SEO and SERP presence:
Sellers can easily mark their online presence on Search engines with advanced hashing algorithm on their product pages.
They reviewed all these points and got convinced and asked us to carry out this task. They needed a few modifications from their previous mode of selling are provided us with a list of Demands.
What were their Expectations?
First and Foremost, they wished to migrate their website which was based on M1 to M2 successfully.
Secondly, they were using multiple third-party extensions on Magento 1 and wished to continue using the same in Magento2.
Thirdly, they wished to have three payment gateways for their new website, Amazon pay, PayPal and the Authorize.net
Fourthly, they had maintained the whole data on their website and wished to use the product data, customer base data, sales data, configuration data, and cms data same as previous websites’
Fifthly, they were using the ‘Neighbourhood theme’ for M1 website and wished to install the same theme for their newly designed website.
Lastly and most importantly, they asked us to design a custom based package builder. They were specific about the details that the package builder must be mentioned on the homepage from which customers can choose a few bundled products via a drop-down menu. The images products that were selected were also displayed and on clicking it the image zooms to full size showing product description too.
The total price will be calculated in runtime and is mentioned on the homepage and customers can proceed to checkout.
Requirement Gathering:
As soon as we got the demands we began gathering all the resources that we would need on our way.
The Neighbourhood theme:
The first thing that we went seeking for was the neighborhood theme. Since WiredSport was very specific about the theme so we had to keep it that way. We were worried in case the theme is not available, then we had to build it from scratch that would cost us a lot. Our search results came out disappointing as Themeforest has discontinued the Neighbourhood theme for Magento 2. Luckily we found Porto theme whose working was similar and purchased it. Then we had to work on transforming it to a lookalike of Neighbourhood theme.
The 3rd Party Modules:
Wiredsport were using 10 different 3rd party modules in their M1 and most of those modules were not available for M2. The developers didn’t provide an upgrade for M2. We had to search up for similar modules that can perform the same function. We found a few of them and altered them according to the requirements to make these functional.
The Payment Gateways:
We decided to install the following payment gateways:
- Amazon Pay
- Paypal
- Authorize.net
The Package Builder:
This was something that we couldn’t find an application for, so we had to build it up from scratch. We used JS and JQuery to build the Package builder
Flowchart For Magento 2 Migration:
The Process of Migration From Magento 1 to Magento 2:
Since WiredSport Migration was a long-term project, comprehensive planning along with regular monitoring was required. So, we segregated the whole project into 7 phases.
Phase 1:
Requirement Analysis – Compiling all the resources needed to move along with the migration.
Phase 2:
Taking back up of the complete database
Phase 3:
Migrating the database of the website from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
Phase 4:
Migration of all the supported content which includes:
- Catalog
- Sales Order
- Customer
- CMS pages
- Catalog Rules
- Coupons
- Blocks
Phase 5:
Developing the package builders from scratch which was the main attraction of the WiredSport website.
Phase 6:
Configuring the payment and shipping method on the site which includes:
- Amazon pay
- Authorize.net
- Bright pearl integration
Phase 7:
Fixing the issues by profound testing of all the working of the website, hence completing the Website development and successful migration.
What were the Challenges in our way towards providing a successful migration?
The Bright Pearl Issue:
Since they were using Bright pearl integration so we had to use the same to integrate with the Magento 2 site. In our initial attempts, we couldn’t establish a perfect synchronization between the Magento 2 and Bright pearl as there were a lot of complexities. The support of Bright pearl was not coordinating with the issue so we had to fix these by ourselves only. It took us extra efforts to identify and resolve these errors but we succeeded in doing so.
Authorize.net Integration:
WiredSport was very specific to integrate Authorize.net as a payment platform in their new website. We easily integrated Amazon Pay and Pay Pal but the real challenge arrived while integrating Authorize.net. Since there were so many bugs in this payment method that we really had a hard time resolving these.
Mobile Compatibility:
Since we had to migrate the website to Magento 2 platform, responsiveness was one of our priorities. We had to keep up with it and making the package builder tool mobile compatible was a really big challenge for us.
Data Variations on Both Ends:
In the process of making the website live during the website migration, we noticed that there was a difference in data on both sides. There were issues in the proper fetching of the data. We had to fetch all the customer information, sales data, and product data from the previous website. We came up with a proper process to match up the data of both websites.
SEO and URL maintenance:
Since WiredSport has been using the Magento platform for products so they needed to retain all the old URLs as their previous websites. We had to create the exact product pages and URLs which was a hectic task. We also had to focus that the Google ranking on the SERP page won’t get affected so we worked accordingly and thus executed every step as planned.
Synchronize stock and Inventory:
Since Wiredsport was live during the time we were migrating, it became really complicated to keep the Stock and Inventory management up to date. We came up with a solution to establish a perfect synchronization between the two.
Successful Package Builder:
The biggest challenge we faced on our way is building a perfectly working package builder. As mentioned earlier, we had to build the package builder from scratch. There were a bit complications making it responsive on different mobile platforms like IOS and Android.
We had to make regular amendments according to the client’s demands. We had to design the package builder in a way that gives the admin complete control. Moreover, we had to divide the Frontend into three parts:
- Longboard
- Skateboard
- Wakeboard
Each board has 8 options to complete the package.
Well, it took us around a couple of months to fully complete this.
Words From The Migration Team:
The Migration team lead on the WiredSport Migration project Mr. Rajneesh Gupta stated that “It was really a challenging task to migrate a website that is having such a huge database. We had to pay attention to every minute detail and work with an organized plan. Although it took 6 months, but our team’s hard work paid off and the result is in front of you. We, at CedCommerce, are very much capable of handling such projects and we are aiming to reduce the timeframe in the future”
As Of Now:
We finally completed the migration and delivered a fully functional Magento 2 platform based website to WiredSport.
Since then it has been so much easier for WiredSport to manage their online business. Magento 2 is not only simplified their way of selling but also have improved their Search Engine performance hence bringing more visitors to their website.
Here’s a look at the newly migrated M2 website of WiredSport.
Moreover, we promised to provide extra support to WiredSport whenever they need us without any extra cost.
How To Migrate From Magento 1 To Magento 2?
If you are looking to migrate your store to Magento 2, Refer to this blog to get a complete insight on How and Why You Should Migrate From Magento 1 to Magento 2
We at Cedcommerce believe in heading shoulder to shoulder along with our customers by catering them with the latest innovations of the eCommerce.
With more than 9 years of experience in the field of Magento extension development and over 10,000 satisfied customers, we are more than capable to successfully migrate your website to Magento 2. Have a look at our Magento migration program.
Conclusion:
Fulfilling the expectations of WiredSport we worked along down the path removing every obstacle from their way and here they are, successfully taking their business to new heights.
The road to success might seem a little tough, but WiredSport had the courage to win over all the obstacle that came in his way as they had CedCommerce to guide them on the path to success.
We at cedcommerce believe in providing an end to end solution to the customers paving each brick of their success with dedicated and deliberate customer support. Walking shoulder to shoulder alongside Wiredsport, we also learned important lessons and learning that will help us in our purpose of making the internet a better place for the entrepreneurs and the other SMEs.
We hope this Magento migration case study would not only help you understand the betterment of Magento 2 over Magento 1 but also guide Magento developers to overcome every big or minute obstacle that arises while the complex process of Magento Migration.
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