For years Magento was seen as the ‘go to’ e-commerce platform. But, recent years have seen it lose this mantle to Shopify. More specifically, a growing number of brands are switching from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus. To find out why, keep reading…
Shopify: overtaking Magento
Magento’s history as an e-commerce platform stretches back to its initial release in 2008 - the very dawn of online shopping.
And, for a long time, Magento was the e-commerce platform of choice for myriad brands. Like any other platform, Magento has also evolved over the course of its history, with the most recent milestone being Magento 1 reaching end-of-life in 2020 (which prompted the uptake of Magento 2).
Whilst Shopify has been around for a similar length of time, it wasn’t until 2015 (and the company’s IPO) that the platform saw a rapid acceleration in development, features and overall adoption.
Since then, we’ve seen a growing number of brands opting to make the jump from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus.
Why should I move to Shopify Plus?
Here at Velstar, we’re one of a handful of Shopify Plus partner agencies in Europe and proud to recommend the platform as the best e-commerce solution on the market.
Across the globe, thousands of big brands rely on Shopify Plus to power their online stores including, Linda Farrow, Gymshark, Kylie Cosmetics, Polaroid and Femme Luxe.
Here are some of the reasons why…
Shopify Plus is quicker to launch!
On traditional platforms like Magento 2 or WooCommerce migration is exhausting and takes up to 6–12 months. In contrast, with Shopify Plus, your new online store can be up and running in less than 3 months!
It’s unquestionably secure
Shopify Plus is already PCI-compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and saves merchants thousands of pounds every year – keeping their customer and business data protected.
Scalability & speed
Brands on Shopify Plus are growing 126% YoY, and the reason for this success is that Shopify Plus has been built to handle and encourage high volumes of traffic. With 99.99% uptime and unlimited bandwidth, Shopify Plus’s support team work around the clock to ensure your site can deal with demand.
What’s more, Shopify Plus has a cloud-based infrastructure which means its shopfront loads 2.97 times faster than other e-commerce platforms, including Magento 2. And has an amazingly fast page response time of 80 milliseconds whilst handling 500,000 hits a minute.
Automation
Another enormous benefit of migrating to Shopify Plus is that you can automate many of your business functions and, therefore, significantly reduce the back-end management of your online store.
Also, the Shopify Plus dashboard is incredibly simple, and the platform comes with exclusive features, such as the Launchpad and Shopify Flow, which allow you to automate many of the routine business processes in just a few clicks.
Easy integrations
Last but certainly not least, Shopify Plus has a world-class app ecosystem with a broad range of technology partners, each with their own area of expertise, including email marketing, customer services, subscriptions and reviews.
Sounds good, right? We think so too, considering the above are only just a few of the fantastic benefits of migrating to Shopify Plus.
How do I migrate from Magento to Shopify Plus?
So you’re feeling confident that Shopify Plus is the platform for your business (we don’t blame you!), now you’re probably wondering what a re-platform looks like.
To help, we’ve put together a summary about the stages of migration from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus:
Step 1: data review and planning
At this initial stage, our team of e-commerce specialists learns more about your brand and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of your current site. For example, we use tools like Google Analytics and heat mapping to better understand how your customers interact with your site and how well your Magento platform performs.
We then review all of your data that you want to migrate such as customers, products, page content, orders and create a migration plan.
Step 2: consultation
Once we understand your business goals, we will have an open and honest discussion with you about the scope of your migration. We’ll run through what areas of your e-commerce store are working and what isn’t, as well as opportunities for new features and functionalities.
If you’re happy with what we’ve proposed, you’ll then be assigned a Project Manager who will work with you on roles, responsibilities, timelines and deliverables.
Step 3: design
Before the re-platforming process can begin, you’ll need to think about the design of your new site, particularly when migrating from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus.
Shopify Plus is highly customisable and offers an array of theme designs to choose from, whilst offering you the flexibility to create your own bespoke design.
Our team of designers will help you marry form with functionality, to create an exceptional customer experience that will guarantee results.
Step 4: development
We’ll then create a roadmap. We’ll use this site roadmap to create and code a brand new Shopify Plus website, where all of your business data from your original Magento 2 store will be safely and securely transferred.
Step 5: Migration
Data migration
With Shopify Plus, data migration is simple. Your Shopify Plus Project Manager will guide you through the best re-platforming tools for your store. We’ll then transfer your specified data onto your new site.
SEO migration
For many merchants, their biggest concern when considering a migration is the impact it will have on their SEO rankings. However, with Velstar managing your migration, you don’t need to worry! Our team of SEO experts will work with you to maintain your store’s search rankings.
From the outset, we’ll put together a checklist to follow, including monitoring duplicate content, tracking 404 errors, testing site speed, and installing page redirects to minimise the changes to your SEO performance.
Step 6: Test and launch
Both before and after your site launch, Velstar will review and test every part of your store’s performance in detail – with no stone left unturned.
This is because we pride ourselves on providing our clients with world-class websites and want to ensure that every e-commerce site we design and build is one that customers love using.
But that’s just the beginning of what we offer. Our team of Digital Marketing specialists can work with you on an ongoing basis to help you establish your presence online. From PPC and social media management to email and influencer marketing, we know how to drive engaged traffic to your site across all digital channels.
Contact our Shopify Plus experts today
If you’re an online business looking for help with your store migration from Magento 2 to Shopify Plus, we’d love to hear from you.
Our whole ethos is about partnering with online retailers to help them grow. We’ve moved some of the biggest brands in the world to Shopify Plus and generated some amazing results. Let’s start the discovery process today – get in touch.
Speak to Velstar about migrating from Magento to Shopify Plus today
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