Now Available: Our Official DataFeedWatch Extension for Magento 2

We are happy to announce that our DataFeedWatch extension for Magento 2 has been approved and is now available on the Magento Marketplace.

With the release of Magento 2, which is undoubtedly the future of the platform, a new era of eCommerce Innovation has opened up to online retailers. While not all merchants have taken the plunge and migrated to Magento 2 yet, it's just a matter of time before they do it.

Merchants are yet reluctant to the migration and are taking a ''wait and see'' approach before switching to Magento 2. The main reasons are the costs involved in this migration and the fact that the marketplace is lacking many of the third-party integrations needed.

Let's see how merchants can manage their feeds in Magento 2 with DataFeedWatch.

DataFeedWatch Extension Installation

New Customers on Magento 2

The steps that the store owners will have to take in order to complete the installation of the new extension key and the Magento 2 plugin are:

1. Click the “Install” button next to the shop:

2.Log into Magento Connect, click install and copy the Extension Key:

3. Log into the Magento admin panel and go to Find Partners and Extensions -> Visit Magento Marketplaces:

4. Paste the extension key and click install button:

5. Go back to the admin panel, go to Stores> DataFeedWatch and click "Go to my DataFeedWatch" button:

6. If not logged in to DataFeedWatch, merchants need to sign in to proceed:

7. Set up the Magento plugin.

If you are not the shop owner the process go to Connect your Magento 2.0 Feed File to DataFeedWatch for a step to step installation guide. Also the merchants with Magento Multiple stores will have to follow this guide: Connect your Magento Multiple Store Views to DataFeedWatch.

DataFeedWatch Customers on Magento 1

For existing DataFeedWatch customers that are switching from Magento 1 to Magento 2 we recommend the following procedure:

1. Add a new shop to your DataFeedWatch account. If you are a customer on a Shop Pricing Plan you can have one shop only, so you will have to write us to allow you adding a new shop temporarily free of charge. 

2. Follow step by step the installation procedure explained above. 

3. Recreate the rules and optimizations you had in your previous Magento 1 store.

4. Update the new output feed on all the shopping channels.

The Benefits of Using the DataFeedWatch Extension

• Enrich the product catalogue with unlimited fields
• Tap into an international market by sending your data feed on more than 1000 channels

All Categories for each channel are pre-loased and it is very easy to assign them to your product(type)s.

Currently there are still lots of Merchants contemplating if migrating or not yet and  we want to shed light on the benefits and drawbacks of upgrading to Magento 2.

The Benefits of Upgrading to Magento 2

There are a number of new features that make it worthwhile taking the plunge and upgrading to Magento 2, which we have to say comes with improvements on all fronts:

• Performance improvements wich leads to a better optimization and faster loading speed of the store. The improved file structure allows developers more solutions for customization without impacting the store functionality.
• A modern and intuitive admin panel that facilitates the management of the store.
• User-friendly backend interface for store-owners and managers. If previously it was required more technical knowledge for layout modifications, with the drag and drop interface the customization has been made easy for tech newbies.
• A better front-end which improves and delivers a better experience for the shoppers through better ways of showcasing the products on the product page.
• Guest checkout and one-click account creation will improve the conversion rates.
• More payment options for the customers that will improve their shopping experience: PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net, WorldPay (Enterprise Edition), CyberSource (Enterprise Edition).
• Improved SEO through functionalities like Fields Auto-Generation which saves time by automatically creating templates for products meta data.
• Mobile Friendly through new responsive themes which is ''crucial'' given the rise of mobile shoppers.
• Better security with the Magento Security Best Practices. 

The Drawbacks of Upgrading to Magento 2

There are, to be said, some drawbacks that come with the migration to Magento 2 inherent to any technical migration:

• Themes and code customizations will have to be built from scratch since they're not transferable.
• Money and time resources, as it requires a professional admin to set up and operate it.
• The new revenue-based pricing will increase the fee for a lot of merchants.
• The marketplace for third-party integrations with ERPs and CRMs marketplace is still lacking some of the extensions in Magento 1.
• Even if these drawbacks might discourage some merchants in taking the plunge migrating is just a matter of time.

At the time of the release in December 2015 Magento announced that they will support Magento 1 for only 3 more years until November 2018. Magento made clear that Magento 2 is going to be the future of the platform and sooner or later the migration will happen for all merchants.