Redstage Launches 40-Day M2 Accelerator to Help B2B’s Get on Magento 2 Fast

Redstage Launches 40-Day M2 Accelerator to Help B2B’s Get on Magento 2 Fast

JERSEY CITY, NJ – Today Adobe’s Magento-Specialized eCommerce Partner Redstage announced the launch of our B2B Accelerator, B.A.S.E. The “B2B Accelerator Suite for eCommerce” helps B2B companies migrate to Magento 2 (Adobe Commerce Cloud) in 40 to 60 days.

Redstage’s Chief Revenue Officer Hasan Elkomey expressed his excitement for the launch. “We were one of the first agencies to publicly warn merchants about Magento 1 End of Life,” Elkomey said, “Now we have the fastest Magento migration solution on the market for B2B companies, who are historically underserved in the eCommerce arena.”

Redstage built the B2B Magento accelerator by combining a series of home-grown solutions developed over a decade of building and migrating Magento sites.

“Our culture of ‘Work smarter, not harder’ was the key that brought the M2 accelerator to life. We’re always compiling reusable components and DevOps tools we develop to better serve our clients.” Adam Morris, Redstage’s Founder and CEO added.

Redstage’s B.A.S.E. accelerator is the most recent in a continuous roll-out of solutions for Magento 1 merchants. Other solutions offered by the agency include a special “Magento Migration Loan” facilitated through Redstage’s partnership with PayPal/Braintree. Both solutions are intended to assist B2B and B2C merchants as Magento 1 End of Life approaches in June of 2020.

The announcement comes shortly after the firm completed replatforming four Magento 1 stores for Zwilling J.A. Henckels to Adobe Commerce Cloud, influencing a 50% increase in overall revenue.

 

About Redstage

Redstage Worldwide LLC is a web development agency specialized in building websites on leading eCommerce platforms. Redstage is an Adobe Commerce Cloud Partner and Magento Enterprise Partner known for B2B eCommerce transformation and their intimate understanding of B2B business operations.

 

 

5 Things You Need to Know About PayPal’s Magento Migration Loan

5 Things You Need to Know About PayPal’s Magento Migration Loan

The clock is ticking and Magento 1’s end of life (end of support) is right around the corner. For over a year, we’ve provided webinars, E-books, and security insights to help ease your migration worries. Now, Redstage teamed up with PayPal to provide access to Magento Migration loans for qualifying merchants.

With a “no merchant left behind” mentality, Redstage and PayPal are committed to making sure all business owners can scale further while fully experiencing the power of Magento 2.  Here are 5 ways to get the best out of your migration experience.

1. Why You Should Migrate

 

Hour glass in rocks for countdown to migrate

 

Magento 1 support ends on June 30, 2020. While it may be difficult for some merchants to say goodbye, more revenue is waiting to be unlocked with Magento 2. On average, a Magento 1 Migration takes 6-10 months to complete and with 7 months until the platform sunsets, merchants are running out of time. More importantly, you’re missing out on additional revenues. Migrating to Magento 2 gives merchants access to a newer and more advanced eCommerce platform that provides security, functionality, and flexibility. Grab our free Magento Migration eBook here, or read on for a quick breakdown:

Security

With good reason, we’ve shared many tips on how to help protect your online store from fraud. End of Life means the end of security, and once June rolls around there will be no more Magento 1 security patches to save you. Hackers have familiarized themselves with the platform and broken extensions make their job easier. In the past year, Magento has released over 10 security patches for M1 (that’s at least 1 a month), and developers have stopped upgrading M1 extensions to focus on M2. These constant breaches leave your store, customers, and your bottom line at risk.

A positive customer experience is measured by many things, most notably how safe your customers feel. 41 percent of consumers switch retailers due to poor personalization and lack of trust. Magento 2 shows merchants are taking security seriously as the platform provides security updates with bug fixes, back-end administration protection, and encryption for credit card information.

Functionality

60% of B2B buyers demand a seamless customer experience and 47% expect traditional retailers to be as agile as Amazon. Magento 2 is committed to delivering a better shopping experience that allows merchants to produce a fast, simple, and frictionless checkout experience across all devices. Page loading and checkout speed have increased by 50 percent and 38 percent respectively, compared to the Magento 1 platform. The Magento 2 migration is the perfect recipe for a successful customer experience.

In a world where responsive design is trying to give customers all the same functionality we have on desktop in mobile, there may be a divergence here where we have to start thinking about different mobile experiences. Customers need to be able to go through the entire journey, from the research perspective to pricing, negotiation, approval, and purchase, ALL through their smartphones. Millennials will switch to your competitor immediately if you can’t give them that entire experience.

Adam Morris, CEO, Redstage.

Flexibility

As our ongoing Mobile Optimization Initiative shows, Magento 2 gives merchants total control over creating a great user experience. The platform includes highly customizable themes and over 2,000 extensions. Your customers are more likely to come back for more if you continue to meet their expectations, so keep impressing them by upgrading your experience on different devices. Customize your theme in a way that highlights your brand and tells your brand’s story, or highlight products and provide a secure checkout all in one place.

38.8% of total Magento Merchants (Community or Enterprise) are still on various versions of M1. By not upgrading, merchants are putting themselves and their customers at risk. Magento 1 sites, among a dwindling community of users, will face a lifetime of declining usability, patchwork fixes, increased upkeep costs, and a higher level of maintenance than if they migrate to a new site or platform.

Aidan Mcknight, Solutions Engineer, Redstage

2. The Migration Loan Explained

 

Upclose shot on open book for loan explanation visual

 

Migrating your website, budgeting for next year, and making sure you meet your end of the year sales goals can be overwhelming. The Magento Migration Loan can ease your worries, especially if you haven’t budgeted for migration.

The loan can help your businesses experience the new and improved advancements of the Magento 2 platform and provide the means to help keep your customers safe. PayPal and Redstage understand that the future of retail is digitally optimized. Online retail sales are expected to reach $735 billion by 2023. However, more than half of today’s retailers do not have access to debt or equity financing to help scale their business.

This migration loan is a first step to bridging the gap in financing solutions for online businesses. To  accomplish your migration with a Magento Migration Loan, you must first apply for the Magento Migration loan here. Loans can range from $5,000-$500,000 with no hidden charges attached2. Upon approval, WebBank will transfer funds to your business’s bank account as fast as the next business day 3.

3. How to Apply and Receive the Credit

 

close up on man filling out application for loan

 

To secure a full credit on the cost of financing your migration, start by applying for the Magento Migration loan by visiting the LoanBuilder application page. If approved, you must follow these three steps to receive the credit4.

  1. Sign a Magento renewal license invoice that shows at least one payment.
  2. Open a PayPal Business Account.
  3. Sign a 3-year processing contract or renewal agreement with Braintree and process with Braintree on your new Magento 2 website for at least 3 months.

Benefits of Braintree

Driving revenue and maximizing business opportunities are crucial in scaling your business. To fully experience the power of Magento, should also be taking advantage of Braintree. The global payment partner is the missing piece you need to combine safe and frictionless customer experience like those seen in our recent tests. Braintree is a payment platform that delivers mobile and web payment systems in a single, seamless integration.

This year, there are approximately 1.92 billion digital buyers out there. That number is expected to almost double by 2021. The smart money is using this time to plan and test new ways to unlock more holiday revenue. The Magento migration loan is your first step to guaranteeing a prosperous future.

Moreover, Braintree offers other ways to drive revenue and maximize business growth overall. The single integration allows you to reach more buyers around the world, reduce checkout friction, increase efficiency, and migrate fraud risks. Remember, a fast, safe, and frictionless checkout experience increases conversion rates.

4. How to Become Eligible

 

Woman with green jacket throwing confetti celebrating becoming eligible for migration loan

 

If you’re operating on the Magento 1 platform and have been in business for at least 9 months, you’re halfway through the eligibility process. Your business must also be located and operated in any of the 50 United States or Washington, D.C. and earning at least, $42,000 in annual revenue. That’s it!

Unfortunately, the M1 end of life comes at a time outside of the normal re-platforming strategy for many clients. When we design and build on the latest technology, we want to amortize the costs for as long as possible and switch only when the pressure from competitors and customers increases. I love that PayPal is helping our clients solve this problem by helping them fund the migration process. This makes the process much easier to handle from a cash flow perspective and allows us to invest in a customer experience that’s outside of the normal cycle.

Adam Morris, CEO, Redstage

Final Thoughts

With roughly 200 days remaining on the Magento 1 End of Life countdown the time for procrastination is over. Each day merchants wait, their revenue, customers, and reputation are at risk. Redstage and PayPal are committed to helping businesses grow and thrive, showing merchants how to unlock the revenue they deserve and build positive customer experiences. In the name of a prosperous and profitable 2020, revitalize your brand, enhance your customer experience, check your eligibility, and apply now for a chance to enjoy a fully credited migration loan from PayPal.

If you work for in B2B, click here to learn how you can migrate to Magento 2 in just 40 days!

 

 

Disclosures
1 The lender for the LoanBuilder Loan is WebBank, Member FDIC. This is an invitation to apply and not an offer or commitment to provide capital. Applicants must satisfy certain requirements to be eligible. WebBank is not affiliated with the offer to receive a full credit on the cost of financing and the credit is not part of your credit agreement with WebBank.
2 In addition to the fixed fee (Total Interest Charge) for the loan, the only other cost is a $20 Returned Item Fee that is only assessed if a payment is returned.
3 The lender transfers funds to your business’s bank account as fast as the next business day if the lender has received the documents the lender asked for and approved the loan by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (excluding bank holidays).
4 Merchants will receive the full credit from PayPal within 6-8 weeks of having fulfilled all three migration requirements. Merchant may be contacted by a Braintree Enterprise Sales Representative to receive more information about creating a merchant account with Braintree.
The Incredible Benefits of Magento 2

The Incredible Benefits of Magento 2

 

Magento just took everything to a whole new level with Magento 2.0. Magento 2 offers a superior feature set compared to nearly any other eCommerce platforms but you may ask yourself… What are the real benefits of Magento 2?

Originally, we thought that Magento 2 would simply be a major upgrade from Magento 1, but it’s actually much, much more than that. The file structure, admin panel organization and themeing system are all highly upgraded from the original Magento branch. What we would like to discuss are the major benefits of Magento 2.X and why you should embrace these changes and all of the opportunities for improvement that an upgrade will bring your business. As long time members of the Magento Community, we compiled a list of all the features and changes we love in an attempt to familiarize you with the improvements.

Let’s get started with the basics.

Intuitive Dashboard for User Admin:

The new Magento Admin is intuitive, easy to use, fully mobile responsive and accessible on any device. This update allows you to effortlessly configure your administrative workspace to manage products, process orders, and analyze customer data. You now have the ability to turn on or off any column in your view and drag it into the position of your choosing which allows you to quickly access the information you need when you need it. You can save the specific view and return to it in the future. Multiple admin users can create and edit products without fear of data conflicts. Menu grouping by function- system or eCommerce all modules are more logically organized and user friendly.

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Real Time notifications of Updates

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Data Grid & Keyword Search:

Combine your use of full text searches with keyword searches and SEO for greater customer satisfaction and greater exposure of your products. Omnichannel capabilities allow you to connect your site to other sites such as Ebay in order to increase the exposure of your products and their sales.

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Visual Merchandiser:

You can reduce optimization time with the drag and drop tool and the new automated sorting tool.

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Reporting & Analytics

Built in reporting and support for google analytics and google tag manager.

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More Opportunities for Magento Customization & New Speeds

Magento 2 provides more opportunities for customization without changing core site functionality. It organizes everything under the app structure and allows every module to have its very own directory where you can access all Magento templates, layouts, etc. Setting up new products is a breeze with a guided process that allows you to easily configure your product values such as size, color, and price. The new Magento Attributes give you an opportunity to recreate and better your site and gives you the motivation you need to reevaluate your Magento Performance to make it a better experience for your customers.
Other Magento eCommerce features include its partnership with Varnish Cache, a leading http accelerator technology for fast page loads and server loads which are making Magento sites work much faster than in previous versions. The efficient updates have improved query performance and speed dramatically.

Guided Migration

Magento 2 has a robust a migration tool to help with the data migration between platforms. This assists with store setup, products, customers, orders, and promo rules, but theme and code customizations which includes 3rd party extensions will not be transferable. This is a very interesting tool that we’re excited to see grow into an even more powerful system.

 


At Redstage, we always treat new Magento versions with caution and wait patiently while the new version is tested by the real world and the outstanding Magento community of partners and merchants. Magento 2.0 was released in November of 2015 and it’s truly ready to be your eCommerce platform!