Shopify store launch checklist
A Shopify store can look finished for weeks while still being closed to the public. This Shopify launch checklist goes through the steps between looking finished and being ready to take an order from a stranger.
Is the store actually open?
While a store is being built it usually sits behind a password page, so visitors see a holding screen. Launch means removing that, and it is easy to forget when you are always logged in yourself. Open the store in a private browser window, on a phone, and see what a stranger sees. Then check the domain: your own address should open the store, and it should be the one address the store uses everywhere.
Can someone in each country you serve finish an order?
Shipping and payment are set per region, so a store can work at home and fail abroad. For every country you intend to sell to, confirm there is a delivery option with a cost, and that payment goes through. Place a full test order as a buyer would, then find it in the admin, fulfil it and refund it. Have tax settings confirmed by your accountant; that is not something a designer should decide.
What do the emails look like?
After ordering, a buyer hears from the store by email: the confirmation, the shipping notice, the refund. These messages are part of the store, and they are often left exactly as they came. Send yourself each one. Check the logo, the language, the sender name and the reply address. An order confirmation in a different language from the store, or from an address nobody reads, undoes much of the trust the design built.
Which apps are still installed?
During a build, apps get installed to be tried, and some stay after they are no longer used. Open the list and go through it. For each app, ask what it does today and who would notice if it went. Remove the ones with no answer, then reload the storefront and confirm nothing is missing. Fewer apps means fewer lines on your bill, fewer scripts on the page and fewer surprises later.
Are you replacing an older site?
If the store replaces a site that already had visitors, its old page addresses are saved in search results, in bookmarks and in links others have shared. After the switch, those addresses must lead to the matching new pages and not to an error. List the old pages that mattered, set a redirect for each, and test them. Skipping this does not break the store, but it quietly discards the visitors you already had.
How I handle it
Every store I build is designed in Figma and approved by you before the build, and it is handed over with the admin so you run products, prices, text and images yourself. Support starts on the day the store goes live and lasts 180 days, covering anything that breaks, anything that differs from what was agreed, and your questions about editing. Tell me about your store by email or WhatsApp.
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