The 36 Shopify Store Launch Checklist You Must Check

Have you ever wondered about what a good Shopify Store launch checklist entails?

When you are building your eCommerce site, there are various things you need to ensure run smoothly once your store begins operating and serving customers.

But before we dig deep, you can also read How To Launch A Shopify Store Like Effortlessly Prororo.

Here is a Shopify store launch checklist we believe everyone should know to help them start and grow their business.

Although not every business is guaranteed to succeed, we believe that when you implement the things included in this checklist, you are bound to see some good results.

However, you also have to put in more effort and develop effective strategies to keep scaling your business.

Shopify Store Launch Checklist: General Stuff

Here are some general items on the Shopify store launch checklist that you need to ensure are well-sorted.

1. Check on Spelling and Grammar

When building your Shopify store, you’re sure to avoid any errors or grammatical issues. Remember, customers are very sensitive and therefore need to find a store that uses proper grammar for items or details included.

So, you have to ensure you go through every piece of information to confirm there are no spelling or grammatical mistakes. To help you with this, you can use software like Grammarly, which is quite useful.

2. Include a Custom Domain

The next general essential thing in your Shopify store launch checklist is to add a custom domain.

Make sure to change the domain name of your store from something like “www.john-store.myshopify.com” to “www.john-store.com.”

 There are plenty of places where you can buy a domain, such as Namecheap, Bluehost, GoDaddy, and Hover, among others.

You usually pay meagerly for the domain, and you can use it to give your store a professional look that is easy to brand.

3. Have Email Forwarding

The good thing is that having a custom domain through Shopify allows you to create an email with your domain as the handle. A good example is info@sam-store.com.

Therefore, when a customer sends an email to your store, the email will be forwarded to your address.

However, you should note that email hosting is separate from your eCommerce platform, so you need to use services like Google Apps for Business or other software to respond from the domain-specific email address.

4. Set Up Email Support

In your email setup, consider also adding a helpdesk to manage and organize support emails effectively. You can set up a public email aaaddainfo@yourdomain.com and nmilan email rewardhelpdesk.

5. Activate Sales Channels that Are Relevant

This is also a very crucial thing to consider in your Shopify store launch checklist. If you plan to sell your products on social media or your blog, you need to make sure you implement and activate the buttons on your desired channels.

Whatever channel you choose, you need to make sure it works and be ready before launching your store.

6. Install Essential Apps

When starting your Shopify store, also make sure you install any essential apps you need to run everything as smoothly as possible.

The apps can be for any fulfillment service you are working with, social sharing, and inventory management.

However, you need to ensure you stick to the essentials, since having too many apps may slow down your store.

7. Have a Pre-Launch Marketing Plan

Before you even launch your store, start marketing it to have ready customers to sell to once the launch commences.

You can try creating a little buzz or building an email list, Instagram followers, Facebook followers, YouTube channel viewers, and blog readers.

HomePage Shopify Store Launch Checklist

There is also a checklist for your store’s homepage that you need to consider, and we will outline every detail.

1. Edit the Homepage Meta Title/Description

You need to ensure that your homepage Meta title and description are up to date for SEO.

It needs the right information that you want potential customers to see when they come across your site in Google search results.

Ensure that everything is neat, and also allow your 160-character descriptive sentence to trail off with ellipses.

Another thing you need to ensure is that your name can be identified

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2. Strive to Optimize the Images

Optimizing images is another crucial item on the Shopify store launch checklist you need to consider.

People don’t like slow-loading sites, and one of the main reasons a website may load slowly is poorly optimized images.

Therefore, you need to ensure your images are well optimized so your store loads quickly.

3. Deactivate the Shopify Password

You need to deactivate the Shopify password for customers to access your website.

You are required to remove the password protection on your site before it goes live to the public.

But you have to do this only after you have fully completed everything and are ready for customers to see what your store is selling. Therefore, this is usually the last thing you are required to do.

Work On the Store Pages

You also need to consider how you work on your store pages. Here are some things you need to do for your store pages.

1. About Us Page

Having an “About Us” page on your store is very important. One of the main reasons this page is significant is that it is where customers can learn more about the people who created the store and why it was created.

Research also shows that this is one of the most visited pages on websites worldwide.

It is an excellent page for engaging with customers and relaying your brand’s story.

2. Contact Us Page

Providing customers with ways to contact us for any questions or issues is very important.

Therefore, you need a Contact Us page on your store that includes a contact form, a support email address, or a phone number so customers can reach you.

3. FAQ Page

An FAQ section is also ideal to include on your web store. Although opening a new store can bombard you with plenty of Frequently Asked Questions that customers may want to know about you, it is essential to anticipate some of these questions and list them with their answers on the FAQ page.

The advantage of having an FAQ page is that it can save a lot of time you would have spent responding to customer questions via calls or emails.

4. Shipping, Returns, and Refund Policy Page

Customers usually want to know whether your store handles shipping. They want to know how it is done and, within what time frame, they can return any of the products they ordered, along with your refund policy.

Therefore, you need to ensure you provide all this information on your site, as you might drive customers away if it is not precise.

5. Terms and Conditions Page

The terms and conditions page is also a crucial part of the Shopify store launch checklist you shouldn’t forget to include.

The reason is that it is part of the requirements.

Some online legal resources include:

• Lawscout (Canada)
• Lawtrades (USA)
• Rocket Lawyer (UK)

6. Privacy Policy Page

Many countries also require a privacy policy as part of their legal requirements. Also, many advertising services require you to have a privacy policy, and Facebook Ads is a good example.

7. Get Rid of Sample Pages

During the process of creating your site, you may have had the chance to create a sample page or forgot to use the default pages that were already created.

Therefore, before launching your site, remove any sample pages to avoid customers landing on them once the site goes live to the public.

Theme – Shopify Store Launch Checklist

Here are some essentials you need to do for your website theme before you launch.

1. Backup Your Website Data

Even if your data is in the Shopify cloud, it doesn’t mean that everything is fully protected. Especially if you are installing apps and providing them with write permission.

You need to follow the instructions Shopify provides for backing up your data.

You can also consider using the Rewind app to help you with automating the process.

Before you even launch your store, we highly recommend that you have a backup just in case anything goes wrong.

2. Have the Theme Presets Saved

Although it depends on the theme you are using, most themes allow you to save a set of options as your store’s preset. This lets you easily and quickly switch between the predefined options.

You can then revert whenever you want to alter your theme’s appearance. Therefore, to do this without any issues, make sure you have your theme presets saved before launching, so you can switch them in and out later.

3. Set up and Test Any Primary, Secondary, and Drop-Down Menus

To help potential customers find the products you sell in your store, you’ll need to provide them with information on where to look.

Therefore, you should create menus that are clear and easy to navigate so customers can find what they need without much hassle.

First, set these menus before launching the store. You easily do that by asking friends or family to look for products in your store.

If they report back to you that they are finding it challenging to locate specific products in your store, you need to consider making changes.

The reason is that it shows that your customers will also encounter problems finding the products.

The Products – Shopify Store Launch Checklist

Before you launch your eCommerce business, you need to check on the products and evaluate a few things.

1. Track Inventory Numbers Correctly

One huge mistake most people make before launching their store is not having accurate inventory for their products.

If you believe you will have a busy launch, strive to avoid a product that is still selling even when it’s sold out.

The reason is that you would have to contact customers and refund their money.

Therefore, on your Shopify store, make sure the integers are entered correctly to avoid this problem, and double-check.

2. Have the Correct Tax Rates

Once you create your Shopify store, default tax rates are set based on where you are selling from.

Therefore, you have to ensure everything is correct and that your customers are being charged appropriately.

There is also a useful section on Shopify designed to help you make sense of taxes.

However, we would also recommend doing your research so you can apply it before launching the tool to avoid errors.

3. Use the Right Currency

The good thing about Shopify is that it allows you to customize your currency, display multiple currencies, and ensure you are using the correct one.

Here is the section for the Shopify currency queries. Many themes support currency customization, so you need to ensure your theme is fully compatible if you want customers to view your site in their own currency.

The advantage of enabling currency customizations on your store before launch is that it prevents customers from not purchasing or abandoning their carts due to misunderstandings about pricing.

Another good thing about it is that it prevents customer frustration of having to buy products at a particular price, only to be charged more when they realize the currency they were viewing.

4. Use the Right Product Weights

If you plan to use real-time carrier-calculated shipping, you need to double-check that your product weights are set accurately to avoid mistakes during shipping and the amount your customers are supposed to pay.

This is one of the most crucial items on your Shopify store launch checklist because it can lead to significant losses if not done correctly, especially if you realize it halfway through your site launch.

It often causes significant cart abandonment due to inaccurate shipping fees resulting from improperly weighed products.

5. Make Sure Image Alt Tags Are Optimized Properly

Alt tags are also relevant because they play a role in SEO, and when you optimize them properly with keywords, they can help boost your site’s ranking.

Alt tags are great to optimize as keywords because they are not readily visible to customers and only need to be displayed when the image fails to appear.

Therefore, we highly recommend having them in place before launching the site to leverage their capabilities to build on your site’s SEO.

6. Ensure the Metadata of Your Products

Similar to alt tags, Meta info also plays an essential role in SEO. Just say you’re supposed to edit the homepage Meta info; you need to keep it clear and very clean for your potential customers.

Ensure you optimize for keywords so your products show up in search results when potential customers search.

Also, ensure your product pages are well optimized to create a well-rounded, cohesive site image that shows every detail before launching the website.

Checkout and Payments – Shopify Store Launch Checklist

When it comes to payments and checkout, you need to implement a few things before launching your Shopify store. Here are some of the things to consider.

1. Integrate Payment Gateways

One thing you have to make sure of is that your customers can purchase from your store using the payment methods they prefer. This may include payment gateways such as Shopify Payments, Stripe, and PayPal, among others.

You can check out this list of payment gateways offered by Shopify worldwide, along with all the instructions to help you integrate them into your store.

2. Payment Authorization and Capture Setup

Shopify offers two options for capturing customer payments: manual or automatic.

Capturing payments automatically means the credit card of your customer will be charged and authorized.

If you prefer payments to be captured manually, the customer’s credit card will be immediately authorized, but not charged until you accept the payment.

However, all of this depends heavily on how you operate your business, so make sure you set up a section with an option that works best for your Shopify store.

Although the preferred option is automatic payment capture, manual capture often expires, leaving you without access to the funds.

3. Ensure Your Cart Page Is Well Optimized

Another crucial factor to consider in your Shopify store launch checklist is optimizing the cart page.

There are plenty of options to consider, including the cart page of your store,, o imimprove your store experienceTherefore, ensure these options are in place before launching your eCommerce store.

4. Customize and Also Enable the Abandoned Cart Email

There is no avoiding the fact that abandoned carts will happen, whether you like it or not.

Therefore, we highly recommend that you customize and enable the abandoned cart email to encourage customers who have left their carts halfway through to complete their purchases.

In Shopify, you can automatically send abandoned cart emails to customers who have abandoned their carts.

5. Collect Customer Emails at Checkout

The eCommerce world refers to emails as the “king” because they are among the most personalized ways to reach and engage your customers.

A good idea we also recommend is providing customers with the option to enter their email at checkout to add them to your newsletter. This can be an effective way to remarket products to the collected email addresses and drive more sales.

Shipping – Shopify Store Launch Checklist

When it comes to shipping, there are various things you need to ensure are well in place for things to work smoothly. Check out these things below.

1. Add the Shipping Origin Address of Your Store

Adding the shipping origin address for your store will help calculate shipping costs for your customers. Therefore, ensure that you enter the correct address.

2. Customize the Settings for Order Fulfillment

Order fulfillment can vary depending on whether you manufacture, wholesale, or dropship the products you sell in your store. There are two options for order fulfillment: manual and automatic.

Here are the ways to set this up.

3. Third-Party Fulfillment Services Activation

You also need to ensure you activate any third-party fulfillment service on your Shopify store before launching.

This includes a service that helps you pack your items for customers.

4. Shipping Labels and Packaging

f If you’re packaging and shipping thproducthe productseryou’repshipping.

Then you need to make sure you label and package the products correctly. That means you’ll require all the materials and information to package and ship the products.

5. Decide the Person Receiving Order Notifications

If you have a team, develop a system and assign a person to receive notifications for every customer order.

You also need to have the person in charge of order fulfillment management.

Analytics and Tracking – Shopify Launch Checklist

Here is essential information for analytics and tracking.

Add Tracking and Analytics Tools

There are several ways to track your customers, including Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, and Shopify Reports.

These tracking and analytics provide you with all the insights into your customers that really come in handy when you are planning a future campaign.

Conclusion

When we talk about the Shopify store launch checklist, we mean a lot of things you need to ensure are well implemented to make things run smoothly and enable you to scale your eCommerce store in the future.

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