The Shopify launch checklist
47 checks across 8 areas, ordered so nothing depends on something you haven't done yet. Work top to bottom; the last section is the test pass that proves the rest.
Store settings and domain
Foundation first. Half of these can't be safely changed after launch without breaking something.
- 1.Connect the custom domain and set it as primary
Settings → Domains. The myshopify.com address should redirect to it, one canonical host only.
- 2.Force a single host (www or apex, not both)
Pick one, redirect the other. Split hosts split your SEO signals and can break cookies.
- 3.Confirm SSL is issued on the custom domain
Shopify handles the certificate automatically; verify the padlock on the real domain, not the preview.
- 4.Remove the storefront password
Online Store → Preferences. Forgotten password pages are the classic launch-day facepalm.
- 5.Set correct store address, currency, and timezone
Settings → General. Timezone drives discount start/end times and analytics day boundaries.
- 6.Set the sender email and verify it
Order emails from an unverified address land in spam. Settings → Notifications → sender email.
Products and collections
Every broken product page is paid traffic wasted from day one.
- 7.Publish every product to the Online Store channel
Products can be Active yet unpublished to the storefront, the add-to-cart button then fails silently.
- 8.Verify variants, prices, and compare-at prices
A $19.99 product with a $1,999 variant typo is a real launch story. Spot-check each template.
- 9.Set inventory tracking and out-of-stock behavior
Decide explicitly: stop selling at zero, or continue selling (backorder). Don't leave it accidental.
- 10.Write unique titles + descriptions for top products
Manufacturer boilerplate can't rank and doesn't convert. Prioritize your 20 best sellers.
- 11.Add alt text to product images
Accessibility + image SEO in one pass. Your future image-search traffic starts here.
- 12.Create collections and wire the navigation
Every product reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage. Orphan products don't sell and don't rank.
Payments
The section where mistakes cost money directly.
- 13.Activate your real payment provider
Shopify Payments or your gateway, with the business details verified so payouts aren't held.
- 14.Turn OFF test mode
Settings → Payments. Test mode left on = real customers can't pay. It happens every launch season.
- 15.Enable express wallets (Apple Pay, Shop Pay, Google Pay)
Wallets convert mobile buyers who won't type a card number. If a button doesn't appear, see Apple Pay not showing.
- 16.Place a real test order end to end
Bogus Gateway first, then one real-card order you refund. Exact steps: how to place a test order.
- 17.Verify the order confirmation email looks right
Send yourself the notification. Logo, sender name, and links all correct?
- 18.Set your payout bank account and schedule
Settings → Payments → payout details. Verify the account before revenue exists, not after.
Shipping and taxes
The number-two cause of abandoned checkouts after price: surprises here.
- 19.Create shipping zones for every country you sell to
No matching zone = 'no shipping options available' = blocked checkout for that customer.
- 20.Add rates to every zone (and test each one)
One address per zone through checkout. Free-shipping thresholds included.
- 21.Set package weights and dimensions on products
Carrier-calculated rates without real weights quote nonsense and kill conversion.
- 22.Configure tax collection where you have nexus
Settings → Taxes and duties. Confirm tax shows correctly in a test checkout for each region.
- 23.State delivery expectations on the product page
'Ships in 1-2 days, arrives in 3-5' beats silence. Uncertainty abandons carts.
Legal and trust pages
Buyers check these before entering a card number, and so does our free store audit.
- 24.Refund/return policy page
Settings → Policies generates a starter; edit it to match what you'll actually honor.
- 25.Privacy policy page
Required by card networks and privacy laws, and linked from checkout automatically.
- 26.Terms of service page
Generate, review, publish. Checkout links to it.
- 27.Shipping policy page
Processing time, carriers, international specifics, who pays return shipping.
- 28.Contact page with a real email (and address if you have one)
A reachable human is the cheapest trust signal that exists.
- 29.Link all of the above in the footer
Present but unlinked policies help nobody, footer links are where buyers look.
Checkout and customer experience
The five minutes of clicking that save you the angriest support tickets.
- 30.Choose customer account mode deliberately
Guest checkout on or off is a conversion decision, not a default to inherit.
- 31.Test your discount code end to end
Apply it with the exact campaign cart. Conditions and combination rules bite silently, see discount code not working.
- 32.Customize the order status page and emails
Post-purchase is your cheapest branding surface; the defaults scream template.
- 33.Set up abandoned checkout recovery
Enable the email (or your flow tool), it recovers real revenue from day one. Context: cart abandonment statistics.
- 34.Verify the 404 page and search work
Both get traffic immediately. Make the 404 link back to collections.
- 35.Click every nav and footer link once
Draft pages, placeholder URLs, and dead anchors all ship to production constantly.
Analytics and marketing
If tracking is broken on day one, your first ad dollars buy nothing but confusion.
- 36.Install GA4 and confirm the purchase event fires
Place a test order and watch DebugView. A pixel that half-fires is worse than none.
- 37.Install Meta/TikTok pixels via their official channels
Then verify events with the platform's own tester, not by trusting the app's green checkmark.
- 38.Set up a consent banner if you sell to the EU/UK
Wire it to actually gate the pixels, a banner that blocks nothing is a liability, not compliance.
- 39.Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Verification + submission takes ten minutes and starts indexing.
- 40.Set up 301 redirects from your old store's URLs
Migrating platforms without redirects torches existing rankings overnight.
- 41.Prepare launch emails and socials with tested links
Test every link in the announcement on mobile. Broken launch links are unrecoverable.
The final test pass
Run this the day before launch, and understand that it goes stale immediately after.
- 42.Full checkout on desktop: product → cart → payment
Real theme, real product, real shipping address, watch every step render.
- 43.Full checkout on a real iPhone in Safari
Most of your traffic, most of the bugs. Simulators don't count.
- 44.Apply your launch discount code in that mobile run
Code + mobile + real cart is the exact combination your campaign traffic hits.
- 45.Test one address per shipping zone
Rates load, taxes correct, totals sane, for every region you ship to.
- 46.Check page speed on your top templates
Homepage, product, collection. Run the free website grader for a quick score.
- 47.Schedule the same checkout test to run automatically
Everything above proves today works. Themes and apps update on their own schedule after launch, automated checkout testing is how day 30 stays as tested as day 1.
The free 60-second store audit scores your trust pages, conversion basics, and SEO automatically, run it before AND after launch day.
The checklist expires the day you finish it
Everything above proves your store works today. Then your theme updates, an app ships a new version, Shopify changes checkout, and the pass you did before launch says nothing about next Tuesday.
That's why check #47 is the one that lasts: the same checkout run, scheduled, desktop, mobile, and tablet, with screenshots and an alert the moment a step fails.
FAQ
What should I check before launching a Shopify store?
Eight areas: store settings and domain, products and collections, payments (with a real test order), shipping zones and taxes, legal pages, checkout experience, analytics and pixels, and a final end-to-end test pass on desktop plus a real iPhone. The checklist on this page covers all 47 checks in order.
How do I test my Shopify checkout before going live?
Use the Bogus Gateway or Shopify Payments test mode for free simulated orders, then one real-card order you refund to prove the live configuration. Test on desktop and a real iPhone in Safari, and apply your launch discount code during the mobile run.
How long does it take to launch a Shopify store properly?
The checklist itself is a focused day or two if products and content are ready. The common mistake is spending weeks on the theme and skipping the payments, shipping, and testing sections, which is where launch-day failures actually come from.
What breaks most often after a Shopify store launches?
Checkout, quietly. A theme or app update changes something, the payment form stops rendering on mobile, or a discount stops applying, and analytics won't flag it. That's why the last checklist item is scheduling an automated checkout test rather than relying on the pre-launch pass forever.
Make check #47 permanent
Record your checkout once; Tracefox replays it on a schedule across every viewport and alerts you with a screenshot the moment launch-day quality slips.
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