We hate it when websites say “Want a price? OK – let’s set up a call to give you a quote!” Why can’t you at least ESTIMATE your services right now?  Well, we can.  Quick background on pricing:

Other companies base Magento conversion pricing on things that really don’t make things more complex.  Like the number of customers, products, or orders you have. In fact, the amount of data in your database doesn’t matter at all.  Converting your data is an automated process, and the conversion itself will take a little longer if you have more data.  But we’re talking hours.  Not days or weeks.

What makes a conversion more difficult is how much functionality OUTSIDE of the core Magento features you have or want to be implemented.  These fall into two categories:  custom code, and extensions.

Some developers go in and change the way Magento behaves to make it function the way you want.  We know from experience that that is the wrong way to make changes. If you change the Magento code, no matter how slightly, you could easily ERASE that code during the periodic upgrades to core files.  We do extensions to add functionality to your website.  Extensions STAY.  

An extension is a piece of code that is separate from core Magento.  You can do anything you want in an extension.  You can even buy inexpensive extensions from other vendors – we do it all the time.  Say you want people to be able to subscribe and have your products shipped to them every 30, 60, or 90 days.  There is an extension for that. 

If your current system has a lot of custom code or extensions that won’t work in Magento 2, we will need to fix them so they work properly.  No problem.

We’re also going to need to upgrade all of the themes and layouts on your site to work in Magento 2.  It’s not the number of pages you have.  It’s the number of different layouts and themes you have.  Homepage, category page, product page – that’s 3 total. If you have a specials page, a FAQ page, and a company history page, that’s three more.

Got it?  OK.  Head on over to our Pricing page now and get an estimate if you like.  Be sure and come back here though – we have other answers for you

It would hardly be fair for you to pay us to do all of this work, and in the end, have the same site you have now, right?  Right.  Turns out, there is a LOT you will get out of this conversion:

• More conversions and sales.  You read that right.  Converting to Magento 2 WILL net you more sales.
• A Streamlined Cart and Checkout Process assures less user frustration – for instance, did you know that when asked to register upfront in the checkout process, 30% of customers abandon their cart? We make sure your checkout process is as simple as possible. It is critical to increasing sales.
• Better Mobile Rendering – because the average retailer gets 34.5% of its sales from mobile traffic. By 2021 it is expected to make up 54% of e-commerce sales!
• Better Support of Payment Methods – like Apple Pay and Android Pay – means less friction.  And Instant Pay – meaning you pay right from a product page – means more sales. You want to make it as pain-free as possible for visitors to buy your product!
• Low-Hanging Fruit – We watch out for ideas that we think will get you more sales throughout the process.  While we are upgrading your system, from the analysis at the beginning and throughout the upgrade, we keep an eye out for improvements. It is the perfect time to make suggestions to you that, in our experience, will get you more sales. 

• Better Administration
• The Back End System is much easier to use in terms of adding and updating products, categories, and other content
• Bulk Updates Are Built In – Need to add 2% to the cost of a whole category of products?  It takes seconds.
• Marketing and SEO functionality is far more complete in Magento 2.
• Speed – virtually everything is faster, especially mobile performance.
• Security – not only is the base product much more secure, but security patches are released regularly and are easily installed.
• Updates – version updates are released quarterly, and typically

Well, technically you don’t have to do anything.  Would that be a good idea?  Nope, because no one knows yet exactly what will quit working and when.  You may go along and have no problems for several weeks, or even months.  But we want you to understand that when something does break, it could be minor and easily and cheaply fixed, or it could be catastrophic to your business. And just because your friend with a Magento 1 site has had no problems, that has nothing to do with what problems you may have on your website.   

Some problems could be with critical everyday functions like navigation around your site. Customers could have problems with your checkout process; maybe you have auto-shipping installed, and they can’t set up a new product they want to be delivered.  All fixable, but it could result in losing some customers. 

The worst thing that could happen is that you could have security breaches.  I think we all agree that having customer data compromised is just about the biggest nightmare any of us can fathom.  At some point security holes will start to appear, the question is when, and do you want to take that chance?  

We’ve known for a while that Magento 1 was going to stop getting support – since Magento 2 was released in 2015. The original plan was to have it reach end-of-life in November of 2018 – but was extended to June 30, 2020.  So we had time.  But now we’re past that date.

So the question you have to answer is really how much of a chance are you willing to take in this situation?  You could be lucky and have very few problems. But the bottom line is at SOME point, you are going to have to do it.  It will be quicker, easier, and therefore less costly to do it when everything is working correctly. But more importantly, getting your website upgraded is going to make your e-commerce store more profitable by improving the customer experience. To avoid possible problems, improve the performance of your website, grow your business — and look at this as an opportunity!

In general, here’s how it works:

1. We’ll send you a link to fill out some information on the engagement.  People involved, email addresses, who approves what, etc.  From that, we’ll set up internal systems for project management and bug reporting.
2. We’ll get access to the backend of Magento, as well as other related systems – your analytics, etc.  We need this to do our analysis on where we can make improvements while converting, as well as monitoring the existing system for issues and fixes – at no charge. 
3. We’ll get on a call with the key people from our team and yours, and ask you some questions, figure out what we need to prioritize.
4. We’ll create a complete set of tasks in our project management system, and your team will have complete access to see where we are at all times.
5. We’ll create a development environment for testing everything – and will end up as the live system on conversion day.
6. We will work through a meticulous list of every single page and process on your website, with a focused team and project manager.
7. Once we have everything converted (and our team has done quality assurance on it), we will turn it over for testing by your team, with details on new functionality, how to use the new admin, and how to create test orders with fake credit cards and other devices.  You’ll sign off on things piece by piece, right in the project management system – and log issues there as well.
8. Once testing is complete, we’ll run a full suite of automated tests.  Performance, security, SEO, and load testing.  We will of course share all of the results.
9. We will pick a go-live day – generally the day of the week and time of day when it impacts the least users.
10. We’ll execute the full conversion, point things to the new system, shut down the old system, and test again to make sure everything is working.
11. We will monitor the system extensively over the following 72 hours, to make sure that not only are there no user issues – but that the conversion rates are higher with the new system, as expected.
12. We will provide warranty coverage for the new system for 30 days after go-live – fixing anything not working properly at no charge.

Indeed we do.  Here are some links for you:

Website Support

Hosting

Marketing

Conversion Rate Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

We hate it when websites say “Want a price? OK – let’s set up a call to give you a quote!” Why can’t you at least ESTIMATE your services right now?  Well, we can.  Quick background on pricing:

Other companies base Magento conversion pricing on things that really don’t make things more complex.  Like the number of customers, products, or orders you have. In fact, the amount of data in your database doesn’t matter at all.  Converting your data is an automated process, and the conversion itself will take a little longer if you have more data.  But we’re talking hours.  Not days or weeks.

What makes a conversion more difficult is how much functionality OUTSIDE of the core Magento features you have or want to be implemented.  These fall into two categories:  custom code, and extensions.

Some developers go in and change the way Magento behaves to make it function the way you want.  We know from experience that that is the wrong way to make changes. If you change the Magento code, no matter how slightly, you could easily ERASE that code during the periodic upgrades to core files.  We do extensions to add functionality to your website.  Extensions STAY.  

An extension is a piece of code that is separate from core Magento.  You can do anything you want in an extension.  You can even buy inexpensive extensions from other vendors – we do it all the time.  Say you want people to be able to subscribe and have your products shipped to them every 30, 60, or 90 days.  There is an extension for that. 

If your current system has a lot of custom code or extensions that won’t work in Magento 2, we will need to fix them so they work properly.  No problem.

We’re also going to need to upgrade all of the themes and layouts on your site to work in Magento 2.  It’s not the number of pages you have.  It’s the number of different layouts and themes you have.  Homepage, category page, product page – that’s 3 total. If you have a specials page, a FAQ page, and a company history page, that’s three more.

Got it?  OK.  Head on over to our Pricing page now and get an estimate if you like.  Be sure and come back here though – we have other answers for you