Strategy

Shopify Store Launch Checklist: What to Check Before You Go Live

Launching a store is not the finish line, but mistakes made on launch day are expensive. This checklist covers the things that go wrong most often, in the order to check them. Work through it on the store with password protection still on.

By FlowCart Agency · · 8 min read

1. Products and content

  • Every product has accurate titles, descriptions, prices, SKUs, images and variants.
  • Images are sized, compressed and have alt text.
  • Collections contain the right products and are sorted sensibly.
  • Essential pages are written: About, Contact, FAQ, shipping, returns and policies.
  • Navigation is clear and every link works.

2. Payments and checkout

  • Payment providers are set up and verified, and you have tested each method with a real order.
  • Checkout branding, fields and order confirmation emails are correct.
  • Discount codes, gift cards and any automatic discounts behave as intended.
  • Abandoned checkout emails are configured.

3. Shipping, tax and legal

  • Shipping zones, rates and delivery times are correct for every region you sell to.
  • Taxes are set up correctly for where you sell, ideally checked with an accountant.
  • Privacy, terms and refund policies are published, and consent banners meet the rules in your markets.
  • Business details and contact information are accurate.

4. SEO

  • Titles and meta descriptions are unique for key pages.
  • The store is open to search engines at launch: remove password protection and check no stray noindex tags remain.
  • Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are verified and the sitemap is submitted.
  • Redirects are in place if you are replacing an existing site.
  • Structured data is present and valid on key templates.

Our Shopify SEO checklist goes through each of these in more depth.

5. Analytics and tracking

  • Analytics, ad pixels and conversion events fire once, with correct values.
  • Consent handling is set up where you need it.
  • Email and marketing platforms are connected, and welcome and cart flows are ready. See our Klaviyo guides.
  • Test purchases appear in analytics and are excluded afterwards.

6. Speed, mobile and accessibility

  • Key templates pass your speed targets on mobile. See our page speed checklist.
  • The store works well on real phones and in at least two browsers.
  • Basic accessibility checks pass: contrast, keyboard use and labels.

7. Go-live and after

  1. Connect the domain, set the primary domain and confirm SSL is active.
  2. Remove password protection.
  3. Place a live order and refund it, to confirm the full flow works.
  4. Check redirects, the sitemap and robots.txt on the live domain.
  5. Watch orders, errors, Search Console and analytics daily for the first weeks.
  6. Keep a list of fixes and review it weekly.

If you want a second pair of eyes, our migration and store development teams run a launch QA on every project. See also our migration QA checklist.

Frequently asked questions

What should I check before launching a Shopify store?
Products and content, payments and checkout, shipping and tax, legal pages, SEO basics, analytics, speed and mobile behaviour. Then test a real order after going live.
How do I remove password protection on Shopify?
In the Shopify admin, open Online Store, then Preferences, and turn off the password under Restrict access to your store.
How long does it take to launch a Shopify store?
It depends on the size of the catalogue and how much design and customisation is involved. Content and approvals usually take longer than the build.

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