What should I check before launching a Shopify store?

Before launching a Shopify store you should complete 8 key areas: store setup (domain, plan, contact info), products (descriptions, images, pricing, inventory), design and branding (logo, favicon, navigation), payment and checkout (payment gateway, test order), shipping (zones, rates, packaging), legal pages (privacy policy, terms, refund policy), SEO and marketing (meta descriptions, Google Analytics, email flows), and pre-launch testing (mobile check, broken links, speed test). Our free interactive checklist covers all 70 steps.

What legal pages does a Shopify store need before launch?

Every Shopify store needs four essential legal pages before launch: a Privacy Policy (required by GDPR and most jurisdictions), Terms of Service, Refund and Return Policy, and Shipping Policy. Shopify provides auto-generated templates for all four under Settings > Policies. You should review and customise each one for your specific business before going live.

What payment methods should a Shopify store accept at launch?

At minimum, set up Shopify Payments (if available in your country) plus PayPal as a secondary option — PayPal alone can increase checkout conversion by 5 to 10% since many customers prefer it. In India, set up Razorpay or PayU as your primary gateway. Also consider enabling Shop Pay and Apple Pay for faster mobile checkout.

Free Shopify Launch Checklist — 70 Steps

The Complete Shopify Pre-Launch Checklist

Launching a Shopify store without a checklist is one of the most common — and costly — mistakes new ecommerce merchants make. Missing a payment gateway configuration means customers can't buy. Missing a privacy policy can get your store reported. Missing a robots.txt means Google can't index you.

This interactive Shopify launch checklist covers all 70 essential steps across every aspect of your store: setup, products, design, payments, shipping, legal pages, SEO, and final testing. Check items off as you go — your progress saves automatically.

Why Use a Shopify Launch Checklist?

Most failed or underperforming store launches share the same root cause: the owner launched before they were truly ready. Common launch mistakes include:

Storefront password still on — search engines and customers can't access the store
No privacy policy — legally required in most jurisdictions, including GDPR regions
Shipping rates not configured — customers reach checkout and see no shipping options
Test order never placed — checkout has bugs nobody discovered until a real customer hit them
No abandoned cart recovery — leaving 70%+ of cart abandonments completely unaddressed
Product images not optimised — slow load times killing mobile conversion immediately

Tip: Complete the checklist in order — each category builds on the previous one. Store setup before products, products before design, design before payments.

Category 1 — Store Setup

The foundation. Before anything else, your domain needs to be connected, your store name and contact details configured, and your Shopify plan selected. Many merchants forget to remove the storefront password — leaving their store invisible to customers and search engines even after "launching".

Category 2 — Products

Products are the core of your store. Every product needs a complete title, description, at least 3 images, correct pricing, inventory tracking, and an SEO meta description. Incomplete product pages are the single biggest conversion killer on new Shopify stores.

Category 3 — Design & Branding

Your theme, logo, favicon, and navigation menus need to be finalized before launch. Customers form a first impression within 50 milliseconds — a poorly designed or unbranded store signals low trust and drives bounce rates up significantly.

Category 4 — Payment & Checkout

This is the most critical category. A misconfigured payment gateway means zero revenue. Enable Shopify Payments (available in US, UK, AU, CA) or configure a third-party gateway. Always place a test order using Shopify's Bogus Gateway before going live.

Category 5 — Shipping

Shipping rates must be configured for every region you plan to sell to. Unconfigured shipping is one of the most common reasons customers abandon checkout — they reach the shipping step and see no available options.

Category 6 — Legal Pages

Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Refund Policy, and Shipping Policy are all legally required or strongly recommended. Shopify generates templates under Settings → Policies — customise them for your business before launch.

Category 7 — SEO & Marketing

Set up Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console before you launch — you'll lose historical data if you add them later. Submit your sitemap, write homepage meta description, and set up at least a welcome email and abandoned cart flow.

Category 8 — Pre-Launch Testing

The final gate. Test your store on real mobile devices (not just browser DevTools). Place a test order end-to-end. Check all links. Run a Google PageSpeed test. Then — and only then — remove the storefront password and go live.

How Long Does It Take to Launch a Shopify Store?

A focused merchant with products ready can complete all 70 checklist items in 3 to 5 days. First-time store owners typically take 1 to 2 weeks. The most time-consuming tasks are writing product descriptions, sourcing product photography, and configuring shipping rates accurately.

The interactive checklist above saves your progress automatically, so you can work through it across multiple sessions without losing your place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Before launching you need to complete 8 areas: store setup (domain, plan, contact info), products (descriptions, images, pricing), design (logo, favicon, navigation), payment and checkout (gateway, test order), shipping (zones and rates), legal pages (privacy policy, terms, refund policy), SEO and marketing (Google Analytics, meta descriptions, email flows), and pre-launch testing (mobile, links, speed). Our free interactive checklist covers all 70 steps.

A focused merchant with products ready can launch in 3 to 5 days. First-time store owners typically take 1 to 2 weeks to complete all setup, product uploads, policy pages, and testing. Using a structured checklist significantly reduces the time by preventing you from having to revisit missed steps.

Every Shopify store needs four legal pages before launch: Privacy Policy (required by GDPR), Terms of Service, Refund and Return Policy, and Shipping Policy. Shopify generates templates for all four under Settings → Policies — customise each one for your business before going live.

Yes — placing a test order is one of the most critical steps. Use Shopify's Bogus Gateway in test mode to simulate a complete purchase, then verify order confirmation emails send correctly, inventory updates, the checkout flow works on mobile, and all fulfilment notifications trigger. This catches checkout bugs before real customers encounter them.

Before launching: set the homepage title and meta description, add SEO titles and descriptions to all product pages, submit your sitemap (yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) to Google Search Console, connect Google Analytics 4, add alt text to all product images, and remove the storefront password so search engines can crawl your site.

Yes. Set up at least two automated email flows before launch: a welcome email series for new subscribers and an abandoned cart recovery email. These two flows alone typically recover 5 to 15% of abandoned carts and generate revenue from day one without additional ad spend.

At minimum: Shopify Payments (if available in your country) plus PayPal as a secondary option — PayPal alone can increase checkout conversion by 5 to 10%. In India, set up Razorpay or PayU as your primary gateway. Also enable Shop Pay and Apple Pay for faster mobile checkout.