Magento 1 ending it’s life. How you can extend it with Progressive Web Apps

Magento 1 is very close to its official end of life. Many merchants are figuring out what to do next? Many of them are a platform for another solution like Shopware6 or commerce tools. Some of them do Magento2. There is a third option: Stay with Magento 1, invest in PWA and change the platform later on. This is how one of our clients: Lampenwelt approached the challenge.

Progressive Apps seem like a new Mobile Standard. It comes across that it makes little or no sense to build, maintain and promote the installment base for separate dedicated apps. It’s a no-brainer to do it once, provide virtually the same experience as native apps and leverage the same marketing budgets you’ve already spent on promoting the core e-shop.

I believe that’s the reason our Vue Storefront (the first, open-source Progressive Web App for eCommerce) is doing so well. More than 120 live shops including JS Products, Lampenwelt, Zadig & Voltaire, Tally Weijl.

Many clients I’ve been speaking with are considering eCommerce re-platforming the next year. Switching from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is one of the scenarios. But not the most popular one.

Of course, each project is different, but usually, the re-platforming process takes a long time and quite a significant budget (50–100% of initial implementation is standard).

Therefore, it’s always good to do some necessary ROI calculation for the business value after spending this 50–150 grand for having pretty much the same features and layouts but on the newer version of the platform.

In my experience, most of the implementation budget is spent on the integration part of the project (ERP, CRM, WMS …) — and this is also the riskiest part. On the other hand, the most significant value (Conversion Rate optimization, time spent on site) can be achieved by investing in the frontend — the User Experience.

Some time ago I wrote about the business cases for PWA’s — Vue Storefront, especially for your business.

PWA before the Migration is another one. Vue Storefront can work with both Magento 1 and Magento 2. If you have Magento 1 up and running, integrated with all the backend systems, maybe it’s worth considering adding PWA features by just connecting Vue Storefront with your existing framework.

One of our clients - from the Home&decoration industry started with PWA for one of its EU markets. Keeping to the matured and stable Magento 1 Enterprise, while providing upgraded User Experience to its customers. Investing where most business value is.

By using Vue Storefront they created the whole new perspective on switching the backend platform in the long run. Vue Storefront already supports Shopware6, Spryker, About You Cloud, commerce tools, Magento 1, Magento2 and many other platforms.

Just by using Vue Storefront — the Magento integration part — you’ll be able to update the platform however you want in the future while keeping the modern, progressive frontend layer in place. It is the value of the Headless approach.

I don’t mean to convince you to NOT re-platform. It can be a significant and necessary change for many reasons: starting with new backend features and security.

What I would instead suggest is to consider phasing. First of all investing in frontend and business value, keeping the operations safe and sound.

After the first step, your efforts will probably be paid off with increased conversion rates. Then, of course, phase two is to move out of the legacy backend.

It can be the optimal way to re-platform from both the User AND Business perspectives!

Contact me directly for details on how to start!

Interested in re-platforming to another platform anyway? Check the shopware-pwa and commerce tools integrations.