Magento 1: 5 reasons we’ll miss you
So, here we are. 2020. The end of the road for Magento 1.
And what a road it has been. Some 230,000 retailers worldwide have benefitted from over 10 years of releases. Countless extensions have been created. Numerous third-party systems developed. Billions in revenue generated. Millions of happy customers served. It’s quite the CV.
So, in memoriam of the great Magento 1, here are 5 reasons it’s one of our favourite ecommerce platforms out there.
1) The golden oldie
“It was the start of a journey for many people! I highly doubt I would have ever got into ecommerce if it wasn’t for Magento.”
– Ben Crook, Front-end Developer at Space 48
The thing about Magento 1 is that it set the standard. It was bold. New. Exciting. There wasn’t really anything else like it at the time. It stuck with people.
Magento 1 had a big impact on the ecommerce community back in the day. It is undeniable. It’s worth remembering. And we do.
2) An ecommerce playground
Collaboration and creativity spring to mind when we think of Magento’s open-source architecture. While a double-edged sword, the flexible nature of Magento gave retailers complete creative freedom with their ecommerce websites. And Magento 1 was a playground when it came to customizability.
There was a range of high performing, interesting, innovative, exciting, experimental ecommerce sites hosted on Magento 1. And over the last 12-18 months, re-platforming from Magento 1 to Magento 2 has reintroduced us to a lot of these older websites; their complexities, their uniqueness, their charm.
In that time, ecommerce has clearly matured.
And it that time, it’s clear that the time to upgrade was yesterday.
3) Safe,secure and smart upgrades
Magento 1 had countless of updates made to its platform. And while the practice of maintaining software is ubiquitous across the digital space, it doesn’t mean we can’t show gratitude. This is a love letter to Magento 1, after all.
The great thing about Magento 1 was that the updates made were timely, effective, and relevant. They listened to their community. They didn’t just do what they thought was important. They did what was important to their customers, and their customer’s customers. They listened, they learnt, and we loved it.
This leads us to our next point. A customer focus.
4) Being cool to customers
Being good to your customers is smart business. We all know that. And Magento knows that too.
Magento 1 came with a full inventory of features that offered retailers advanced options to improve the experience of their customers. Retailers using Magento 1 also had access to the Magento Marketplace, supplying them with extensions and add-ons that turned the most dissatisfied customers into brand promoters.
This was game-changing. It was a brilliant display of what happens when the ecommerce eco-system works together to help the end-user. And that made Magento an extremely attractive solution.
5) The Magento Community
This isn’t a Magento-1-specific reason per se, but whether you’re an agency, a Magento Developer, a MageTitan, a retailer using Magento, or a humble marketer writing about Magento (that’s me), the passion and excitement for this platform is clear to see.
We think that you see this most strikingly at Magento-hosted events; whether that be Imagine Magento, or one of our various MageTitan events run throughout Europe and the USA.
There’s real care on behalf of the developers shown at these events. A genuine willingness to try new features, a desire to flex their developer-knuckles, and to share best practices among the community. It’s collaboration at its finest.
Everyone who has contributed to, or benefitted from Magento 1, we take our hats off to you.
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