Shopify store launch checklist: 15 things to get right before you go live

Launching a Shopify store is exciting right up until the first customer can't check out. Most launch problems aren't technical disasters; they are small things nobody checked. This checklist is the one we work through before every store goes live, grouped so you can split it across your team.

Payments and checkout

• 1. Run real test orders with every payment method you offer, including a refund. Test mode alone won't catch currency or bank settings.
• 2. Check shipping zones and rates for every region you sell to, including free-shipping thresholds and what happens to an address outside your zones.
• 3. Review taxes for each market, and whether prices are shown with or without tax.
• 4. Customise order emails so confirmations, shipping updates and refunds sound like your brand.

Products and catalogue

• 5. Complete every product page: clear titles, honest descriptions, every variant priced and in stock, and high-quality images at consistent proportions.
• 6. Use metafields for structured details such as ingredients, materials, size guides or care instructions, so they appear consistently on every product and are easy to update.
• 7. Organise collections the way customers shop, not the way your warehouse is arranged, and check filters work on each one.

Speed and mobile

• 8. Test on a mid-range phone over mobile data, not just on a fast laptop. Most Shopify traffic is mobile.
• 9. Audit your apps. Every app can add scripts to every page. Remove anything you don't need, and check the theme still works without it.
• 10. Compress images and let Shopify serve modern formats. Hero images are usually the biggest problem.

SEO and migration

• 11. Write unique titles and meta descriptions for the homepage, collections and best-selling products.
• 12. Set up redirects if you are moving from another platform, mapping every old product and category URL to its new home. Skipping this can undo years of search rankings.

Trust and legal

• 13. Publish the essential policies: shipping, returns, privacy and terms, linked from the footer and checkout.
• 14. Make contact easy: a real email address, response times and, if you can, a phone number or chat.

Tracking

• 15. Install analytics and confirm purchase events fire, in Google Analytics and any ad platforms you use. Place one real order and watch it arrive in each tool.

After launch: the first two weeks

Watch the checkout funnel daily. A sudden drop between cart and checkout usually means a shipping or payment setting, not a design problem. Ask your first customers how the experience felt, and fix the small things quickly; early buyers are often your most forgiving and most useful testers.

How we launch Shopify stores

For Organic Mandya, a food brand launching in the USA, we built a custom theme, set up payments and loaded the catalogue with metafields for nutrition, usage and sourcing, so every product page answered the questions food buyers ask. Thinking about the theme itself? Our guide to custom versus premium Shopify themes helps you decide.

Need a hand with your launch? See our Shopify development service or tell us about your store.