Shopify Store Launch Checklist: What to Check Before Going Live

Most Shopify stores go live with at least one silent problem. It is rarely the theme or the products. It is usually a tax zone that was never configured, an order confirmation email pointing to the wrong address, or a checkout that breaks on mobile because of one conflicting app.

This checklist is for the hour before you remove password protection. Not setup. Not design. The final verification pass before your first real customer arrives.

Work through all 12 sections while the store is still password-protected. If something is not done, do it before you go live.

Who this is for: Anyone launching a new Shopify store, or rebuilding an existing one after a major theme or platform change.

Quick Answer

These are the 12 areas to verify before going live. Each is covered in detail below.

Area	What you are checking
1. Checkout and payments	Test order completed with no errors
2. Shipping rates	Correct rates appear at checkout for your zones
3. Taxes	Correct tax amounts calculated at checkout
4. Email notifications	Order confirmation reaches the right inbox
5. Product pages and images	Images, prices, and variants all working
6. Legal pages and policies	Refund Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service live
7. Mobile experience	Every key page usable on a real phone
8. Page speed	Core pages perform acceptably on PageSpeed Insights
9. SEO basics	Page titles, meta descriptions, sitemap submitted
10. Analytics	GA4 receiving data, Search Console verified
11. Tracking pixels	Meta Pixel or other conversion tags firing correctly
12. Trust signals	Reviews, About page, contact details visible

Do not remove password protection until all 12 areas pass.

1. Checkout and Payments

Why it matters: A broken checkout is invisible until a real customer hits it. Problems here stop sales immediately. Testing takes five minutes. Not testing costs you sales on launch day.

What to check:

• Go to Settings → Payments → Manage → Enable test mode
• Place a test order using test card number 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry date, any three-digit CVV
• Complete checkout all the way through to the order confirmation page
• Confirm the order appears in your Orders list
• Open the order confirmation page and confirm it shows the correct product, price, and delivery details
• Disable test mode after the test is complete
• Confirm at least one real payment method is active: Shopify Payments, PayPal, or both
• Confirm Apple Pay and Google Pay display if your theme supports express checkout buttons

Red flag: If the test order does not complete, confirm test mode is actually enabled (the toggle in Settings → Payments → Manage must be ON) and you are using the exact test card number above. Do not enter a real card number while in test mode.

2. Shipping Rates

Why it matters: If a customer's country or region is not inside one of your active shipping zones, no shipping rates appear at checkout. The customer cannot complete the order. This is one of the most common invisible launch problems.

What to check:

• Go to Settings → Shipping and delivery
• Confirm you have at least one shipping zone that covers your primary market
• Run a test checkout using a domestic address and confirm rates appear correctly
• If you ship internationally, run a second test with a relevant foreign address
• Confirm free shipping thresholds are set correctly if you offer them
• On every digital or service product, confirm "This is a physical product" is unchecked on the product page, so no shipping prompt appears

Red flag: If no shipping rate shows at checkout, the customer's address falls outside all active zones. Open Settings → Shipping and delivery and add the missing country or region to the correct zone.

3. Taxes

Why it matters: Undercharging tax creates compliance risk. Overcharging drives customers away. Shopify's automatic tax calculation works well for common scenarios, but only if it is correctly configured before launch.

What to check:

• Go to Settings → Taxes and duties
• Confirm automatic tax calculation is enabled for your primary market
• For US sellers: confirm you have added at least one state under Tax registrations
• Run a test checkout to a domestic address and confirm tax appears at the correct rate
• For EU sellers: confirm VAT collection settings are configured for each relevant country
• Confirm your Refund Policy addresses how taxes are handled on returns

Red flag: If tax does not appear at checkout for a region where you expect it, return to Settings → Taxes and duties and confirm the relevant country or region is configured. For cross-border selling with multi-country VAT or GST obligations, consult a tax professional rather than relying on auto-calculate alone.

4. Email Notifications

Why it matters: Your order confirmation email is the first message a customer receives after buying. If it contains placeholder text, goes to the wrong address, or is not formatted for mobile, it undermines trust before the product even ships.

What to check:

• Go to Settings → Notifications
• Open the Order confirmation template and review it
• Confirm your store name, sender email, and return policy link are correct
• Click Send test (available for most notification templates) and confirm the email arrives in the right inbox
• Open the test email on a phone and confirm it renders correctly
• Check the Shipping confirmation template if you sell physical goods
• Confirm the sender email address is verified and one you actually control

Red flag: If the test email does not arrive, check your spam folder. Also confirm the sender address is set and verified in Settings → Notifications → Sender email. Some email providers block unverified sending addresses.

5. Product Pages and Images

Why it matters: Blurry images, wrong prices, or broken variant selectors are the fastest way to lose a buyer who just arrived. Product pages are where purchase decisions happen. They need to be complete and functional before launch.

What to check:

• Open every product page and confirm all images load at full quality
• Click each variant (size, color, material) and confirm the price and stock status update correctly
• Confirm all prices are correct, including sale prices if applicable
• Check that no description still contains placeholder or demo text from the theme or a product import
• Confirm every product is assigned to the correct collection
• Scroll to the bottom of each product page in the admin and check the SEO fields: page title and meta description should both be filled
• Confirm sold-out products either show as unavailable or continue selling as intended, depending on your settings

Red flag: If a product appears in a collection but returns a 404 at its direct URL, check that the product status is set to Active and the URL handle has not been changed accidentally after the collection was linked.

6. Legal Pages and Policies

Why it matters: Payment processors expect these pages. Customers use them to judge whether a store is legitimate. A missing Refund Policy can also cause Shopify Payments account issues during identity verification.

What to check:

• Go to Settings → Policies
• Confirm Refund Policy, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service all have content (use Shopify's starter templates as a base and edit them to match your actual policies)
• Open each policy page in your live store preview and confirm it loads without errors
• Confirm policy links appear in your store footer (Online Store → Navigation → Footer menu)
• Open your Contact page and submit a test message to confirm the form works

Red flag: If your footer does not include links to your Refund Policy and Privacy Policy, add them to the footer menu before launch. Customers expecting standard consumer protections will leave if these pages are absent or hard to find.

7. Mobile Experience

Why it matters: More than half of ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices. A store that looks clean on desktop can be broken on a phone, with overlapping buttons, cut-off images, or an unusable checkout flow.

What to check:

• Open your store on a real mobile device (not just the Theme Editor preview or browser DevTools simulation)
• Browse the homepage, a collection page, a product page, and the cart on the actual phone browser
• Tap the Add to Cart button and confirm the cart updates correctly
• Proceed through the checkout flow on mobile at least to the payment step
• Confirm all text is readable without needing to zoom
• Test on mobile data rather than Wi-Fi if possible, to simulate realistic load conditions

Red flag: If navigation items overlap or images overflow the screen on a real device, check your theme's mobile settings. Some themes have a separate mobile navigation menu configuration under Online Store → Navigation. The Theme Editor's mobile preview is not always accurate for real device rendering.

8. Page Speed

Why it matters: Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor. Slow pages also reduce conversion rates. A basic speed check before launch catches the most common issues: uncompressed images and script-heavy apps.

What to check:

• Go to pagespeed.web.dev and test your homepage URL
• Also test your primary product page URL
• Read the PageSpeed report and note any items flagged under "Opportunities" and "Diagnostics"
• Focus on the top three issues listed; these typically account for most of the performance gap
• Common causes of a poor score: images uploaded at full resolution without compression, too many apps running third-party scripts, or unused JavaScript from the theme
• Compress large images before uploading, or use Shopify's built-in image optimization

Red flag: If the PageSpeed report shows your store in the red (Poor) category on mobile, work through the top Opportunities listed in the report. Uncompressed images are almost always fixable in under an hour. App script bloat may require removing apps you installed but do not actively use.

9. SEO Basics

Why it matters: Getting the basics right before launch means Google indexes your store correctly from day one. Fixing indexing problems after launch is slower and can delay organic traffic by weeks.

What to check:

• Go to Online Store → Preferences and set your store homepage title and meta description
• Confirm the homepage title includes your store name and primary product type
• Confirm your custom domain is the primary domain (not the .myshopify.com address)
• Confirm HTTPS is active: the padlock icon should appear in your browser address bar
• Confirm password protection will be removed before you go live: Online Store → Preferences → Password protection → uncheck "Restrict access to visitors with the password"
• Set up Google Search Console (covered in Section 10)

Red flag: If password protection is still active when you announce your launch, the store is not publicly accessible and search engines cannot crawl it. Remove it under Online Store → Preferences → Password protection before going live.

10. Analytics

Why it matters: Without analytics connected before your first traffic campaign, you have no baseline. You will not be able to see what is working, where visitors drop off, or which products are attracting attention.

What to check:

• Create a Google Analytics 4 property at analytics.google.com
• In your Shopify admin: Online Store → Preferences → Google Analytics, paste your Measurement ID (format: G-XXXXXXXXXX)
• Open the GA4 Realtime report and browse your own store in a separate browser tab to confirm events are arriving
• Create a Google Search Console property at search.google.com/search-console
• Verify domain ownership using the HTML meta tag method: Online Store → Preferences → Google Search Console field
• Submit your sitemap: in Search Console → Sitemaps, enter sitemap.xml and click Submit
• Check that Shopify Analytics (admin → Analytics → Overview) is recording sessions after your test visits

Red flag: If GA4 is not receiving events after you paste the Measurement ID, confirm there are no extra spaces in the ID and that the correct ID is used (it must start with G-, not UA-). Use incognito mode for your test to avoid being blocked by browser extensions.

11. Tracking Pixels

Why it matters: If you plan to run paid ads, your pixel must be installed and verified before the first campaign. An unverified pixel means your ad spend generates traffic with no attribution. You cannot optimize, retarget, or measure ROAS without it.

What to check:

• For Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads: install the Facebook and Instagram channel from the Shopify App Store. It connects your Meta Pixel and passes standard events automatically.
• After installing, open Meta Business Manager → Events Manager and confirm your pixel is receiving PageView events
• Use the Test Events tool in Events Manager to fire a purchase event through your store and confirm it appears
• For Google Ads: connect your account via the Google and YouTube channel in the Shopify App Store and enable conversion tracking
• For TikTok Ads: use the TikTok channel app from the Shopify App Store
• For any pixel, manually test events on: homepage (PageView), product page (ViewContent), add to cart (AddToCart), and order confirmation (Purchase)

Red flag: If Events Manager shows zero events after you browse your store, the pixel is not connected correctly. Check the app status in your Shopify admin and confirm the connection to your ad account is active. Also confirm the pixel ID matches between the app and your ad account.

12. Trust Signals

Why it matters: A new store has no purchase history. Customers cannot verify you are legitimate from prior experience. Trust signals replace that track record. Missing them increases bounce rate on product pages and checkout abandonment.

What to check:

• Install a product review app and set it up before launch (Judge.me has a free plan). Import honest starter reviews if you have any, or plan to collect them from early buyers.
• Add an About page: a brief, direct explanation of who you are and what you sell. A real photo helps.
• Add a Contact page with at least one direct way to reach you (email address or working contact form)
• Add social media profile links to your store footer
• Display your return policy near the Add to Cart button using theme settings or a trust badge element
• Use real product photos where possible. Manufacturer renders or stock images reduce trust compared to original photography.
• Confirm your store name, favicon, and logo look consistent and professional across all pages

Red flag: If your store has no About page, no reviews, no social links, and no visible return policy near the checkout, first-time buyers have nothing to anchor trust on. Even a simple, honest About page with a real photo tends to help first-time visitors feel more confident before buying.

Practical Scenarios

Launching a one-product store

Focus your pre-launch time on the product page itself. A one-product store depends entirely on that single page. Images, description, variants, trust signals, and the checkout test all need to be thorough. Run the checkout test three times: once on desktop, once on mobile, and once from a different browser.

Launching a dropshipping store

Pay extra attention to shipping zones and stated delivery times. Your suppliers control fulfillment timelines, not you. Add realistic delivery estimates to your product descriptions or a dedicated Shipping Policy page. Customers who receive a later-than-expected delivery and find no disclosure tend to leave negative reviews. Accurate expectations prevent that.

Rebuilding an existing store on a new theme

Check every product page after the theme change. Image dimensions that worked in the old theme may appear wrong in the new one. Re-test the checkout, because some apps behave differently after a theme switch. Also re-test email notifications, which can break if the new theme changes the email template settings.

Launching with a paid ad campaign from day one

Section 11 (Tracking Pixels) becomes the highest priority. Without a verified pixel, your first ad spend generates traffic you cannot measure or retarget. Verify conversion events are firing on all key pages before the campaign goes live. Do not run ads to a store with an unverified pixel.

Mistakes to Avoid

Going live without completing a test order. This is the most common pre-launch mistake. A broken checkout is invisible from the admin side. Run the full test order before you remove password protection.

Keeping the .myshopify.com address as the permanent URL. Customers notice. It signals an incomplete store. Connect and set a custom domain as primary before launch.

Skipping the legal pages. A missing Refund Policy is not a minor gap. Payment processors expect it to exist. Customers use it to judge risk before buying.

Testing only on the Theme Editor mobile preview. The preview is not reliable. Chrome DevTools mobile simulation is also not fully accurate. Use a physical device.

Installing too many apps before the first sale. Every app adds page load time and monthly cost. Launch with only what you need: a review app, an email capture form, and your analytics or pixel setup. Add more apps when you encounter a specific problem they solve.

Launching with no product reviews. If your review widget is empty, it creates doubt rather than trust. Either import a few honest reviews before launch or hide the reviews widget until you have real ones from buyers.

Forgetting to submit the sitemap to Google Search Console. Shopify generates the sitemap automatically, but you have to tell Google where it is. Go to Search Console → Sitemaps and submit sitemap.xml before your first traffic campaign.

Recommended Next Step

Run this checklist from the top while your store is still in password-protected mode. Each section should take five to fifteen minutes. The full pass takes about two hours.

If your store setup is not yet complete and you need a full walkthrough from account creation to products and apps, see the FS Code guide on how to start a Shopify store before running this checklist.

If you want to understand what you will pay each month once you are live, see the FS Code guide on Shopify store costs for a breakdown of plan, apps, payment fees, and other ongoing expenses.

Once all 12 sections in this checklist are complete, go to Online Store → Preferences → Password protection, uncheck "Restrict access to visitors with the password," and save. Your store is live.