Insights & Takeaways From Mimosas & Magento

Last week we hosted Mimosas & Magento and we have to admit, it was pretty awesome. Great food and even better company made up the cornerstones of this unique event. We congregated at Great Maple, a modern American eatery “specializing in elevated comfort food with a twist.” Interesting... that’s exactly how we’d describe Digital Operative - a modern American agency specializing in elevated, digital solutions with a twist…. Okay, okay, so we made that last bit up, but what a killer place to sit down and talk Magento Commerce 2 (M2)!

So what exactly went down?

Well, as many of you know, making the move to M2 is no small feat. It takes time and resources to complete a successful transition. However, for those of you who don’t know, we shared the most coveted information about what it takes to make the move, and also how M2 can facilitate growth and create scalability for your business. Our speakers walked us through a company’s biggest concerns, how to get prepared, and the secrets to making your replatform smooth and successful.

Our speaking line-up was made up of industry experts with years of experience in technical strategy, development, and ecommerce, including DJO Global, a mutual client of both Digital Operative and Magento who is currently moving multiple brands to a multisite M2 platform. Each brand has its own set of requirements, taking advantage of Magento's customization abilities which include B2C and B2B setup, ERP connectivity, custom pricing tiers, custom account permissions, and multiple design themes.

Below we’ll dive into the details of the presentations from our event. Continue reading to check out some of the ways you can benefit from replatforming to M2.

Why M2, Presented by David Uselton, Senior Solution Consultant at Magento

In short, the options! M2 is a completely customizable platform with the ability to tweak features, functionality, and have full control over what your website does and doesn’t do. With access to the source code, Magento can be configured to match your business goals exactly, and at the scale you need.

Multi-store functionality, or the ability to have one Magento installation with multiple stores, languages, and/or currencies is another huge draw. This gives your company the global edge it may have lacked before.

So, what are some of the key Magento differences, benefits and capabilities?

On the management side of things, M2 offers a new suite of tools in their platform ecosystem, including business-to-business (B2B) functionality, business intelligence, order management, and cloud deployment. The customer shopping experience has been completely streamlined and optimized for performance as well, and includes a newly upgraded and user-friendly admin to help merchants be efficient in their typical day-to-day.

In addition to the ecosystem updates, B2B features have gotten an upgrade and include tiered account management, quick reorder functionality, negotiated pricing terms, and customized product catalogs. M2 is capable of handling B2B, B2C, and B2X.

Building a Technical Roadmap, Presented by Adam Levenson, CTO and Co-Founder at Digital Operative

Once you begin prepping for the migration to Magento Commerce 2, there are several things you’ll want to determine:

• First, what are your business goals and requirements? Think about short-term and long-term goals so that you can help manage all expectations throughout the migration.
• Next, it’s time to define “success”. In other words, how will you know if the project was successful? What are you markers?
• Finally, project planning. Determine your timeline and finalize all budgets and resources.

Once your goals, definition of success, and timeline are established, it’s time to lay out your plan of action. Take a look at things like platform requirements and functional requirements; you’ll want to make sure you’ve got your bases covered when it comes to any custom functionality and 3rd party modules/integrations you currently use.

Ask yourself - what does your infrastructure currently look like and how will you prevent any redundancy and security breaches? Data migration is another huge facet of your plan, or at least it should be. Pre-planning how sensitive customer information will be transferred is imperative to your success, so make sure you have a secure plan for placing orders in order to alleviate any potential headaches and allow your business to keep moving along without skipping a beat.

Lastly, select your internal and external team. Loop your marketing and ecommerce people in, make sure accounting is onboard, and fulfillment and customer service are both aware of the upgrade. Looks like you’re just about ready to make the move!

The Merchant Perspective, Presented by Aleks Reljic, Vice President of Ecommerce and Interactive Marketing, Global at DJO Global

DJO has multiple brands on a single Magento Commerce 1 (M1) instance and is currently working with Digital Operative to migrate one brand at a time to a multisite M2 platform where each store will be hosted on the same instance. They also have other brands coming from other platforms that are all migrating into this one M2 site.

While being on one platform will help leverage functionality across the sites, each brand has its own set of requirements that will take advantage of Magento's ability to conform and be customizable as needed. Some examples are:

• B22B and B2C setup
• ERP & middleware connectivity
• Custom pricing tiers
• Custom account permissions
• Multiple design themes

DJO took a strategic approach to upgrading to the M2 platform. They started by upgrading Dr. Comfort, a B2B website, to M2 using a parent theme that would enable scalability and consistency across all of the DJO Global brand properties. This will allow them to leverage the theme and functionality for all of the other sites that they’ll migrate over, creating consistency with front-end design and admin management.

Aleks reiterated that time and resources is key in any migration project; this is a huge undertaking, and there will be a significant amount of work required to transition all of your content. Don’t be shy when it comes to leveraging M2’s marketplace extensions. Generally speaking the upgraded version feels a lot more enterprise when it comes to scalability and feature set, especially if you are focused on B2B.

Takeaways

The replatforming process can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. All Magento installations start “out of the box,” and then as you add customizations, it gets more complicated but also more advanced. The beauty of Magento is that it’s so versatile, you can code it to do virtually anything you want.

Want to see another real-life example of a brand that we migrated to M2? Check out our case study on Injinji, the performance toe sock brand, who partnered with Digital Operative to launch a new ecommerce experience for consumers that focuses on better product education, interactive merchandising, and social proof.

Interested in discussing your M2 project?

We are a Magento Professional Solutions Partner that has been helping merchants succeed with the Magento platform for nearly ten years. We offer a variety of technology services focused around the Magento platform, including Magento Commerce 2 Enterprise Development, Managed Support and Continuous Improvement, and Magento Commerce 1 to Magento Commerce 2 Migration. Contact us to learn more about our Magento Development services!