The Complete Shopify Store Launch Checklist for 2024

Last Updated on January 6, 2024 by Dan S
Originally Published January 11, 2021.

Using our helpful Shopify Store Launch Checklist, setting up your store is easy and stress-free. With this checklist, getting your first customers should be a breeze.

We have created an actual checklist at the top of this post but we first suggest you head further down to read the sections and what it entails.

The Complete Shopify Store Launch Checklist for before, during and after opening your store [Updated for 2024]

Research Checklist

Identify Potential Customers - Where are your customers and who are they?

Product Research - What exactly will you sell?

Supplier Research - Reliability? Backup?

Logistics - Will you stock or drop ship?

Brand - Settle on a name and a potential domain name

Tax - Check with local advisors & experts

Pre Launch Checklist

Create a Shopify Account

Password Protect - Great for initial setup

Add Billing Information

Add Your Payment Providers

Select Correct Currency

Create Shipping Methods & Tax Rules

Select a Theme

Extend with Apps

Connect Domain

Add Legal Pages

Add Products

Create Collections

Setup Navigation Menu

Check Email Templates

Add a Blog

Add Additional Sales Channels

Test Your Store

Launch it!

Post Launch Checklist

Test & Check - Make sure there are no gremlins!

Market - Get it out there

Monitor - Check analytics, traffic and referrers

Promote - Think about promotions, competitions and giveaways

Partnerships - Seek collaborative partnerships

Expand - Look for future ranges

Section 1: Do the Homework

You’ll have to do your homework before opening your Shopify store, including writing a marketing strategy, product collection, and photography.

• Understand the potential clients and have a marketing strategy

If your store is too generic or has too many competitors, it may be impossible for you to generate sales. One of the single most significant moves you should take is to make sure you have a target customer and a strategy to achieve them.

• Hunt your product or products carefully

Although there’s no limitation on how many items you may add to Shopify, and the optimal number can vary among each store, beginning with a narrower line up is wise (particularly for new store owners).

In the start, keeping it easier means that you will do some promotional campaigns, see what applies to your clients, and if you control stock, it can bring the launching expenses lower.

• Get great photos of your product line

First impressions are everything, particularly as it relates to online purchases where you can’t touch the products in real life.

High-quality photos are a must and the money invested is totally worthwhile. If your field of expertise doesn’t have photography, find a suitable freelancer who would style and shoot your photographs.

You would also want to ensure that your photos are optimized. Alternatively, your supplier may have high quality photos to begin with but its always wise to have your own.

• Your Brand

If you are starting from scratch, you’ll need to come up with a brand. This will include your Business name, logos, colours and ultimately an available Domain name.

Section 2: Setting up your store

Among the most critical steps in opening your Shopify Store is choosing a theme that should highlight your products and items best as well as general store setup.

• Pick a Shopify theme

The best thing about Shopify is there are several themes to choose from including free ones. The most challenging task is considering which one is best for your product line.

Its super easy to add multiple themes, test and pick the one you want. You can demo Premium themes from Shopify without having to buy them upfront also.

• Create your products

To make it easy for customers to find them, use rich descriptive details and correct titles with keywords. Some eps-popping imagery and video will really give you an edge.

• Setting up your custom domain

The default URL when you build your online retailer is “your-store-name.myshopify.com.” You’ll need to use a custom domain to boost your brand, customize for SEO, email and look professional.

You can buy your own direct through Shopify or connect one you own from a domain provider.

• Optimize your website with Collections, sections and searches

Make it simple for your potential customers to find the items you sell, get complete descriptions of specific products, and easily navigate your store.

• Shipping and financial settings

Make sure to include your shipping settings, payment methods, currencies and tax information. Have these setup and clearly defined will help you to minimize abandoned carts.

• Store policies

What’s your return policy? What are the reasons and time frame? Do you offer store credits or full refunds for that? What would you do if the product is affected during shipping?

Write everything out before launching the store. Shopify has a handy policy to get you started but you will want to customize it.

• Review your store in every aspect before launching

Go through your store to review the spellings of your brand names and item descriptions once you’ve had time to review, press all your links, and double-check your configurations once more.

• Make your store live

Make your store live and be your own very 1^stcustomer. For all your thoughtful preparation, you must be willing to commit and focus on promoting your shop.

Make a small order with an email address separate from the one you are using for your shop. This will let you see how it all works, not only as of the vendor on your side but also as the buyer so that you can guarantee that the first true buyers have a fantastic experience.

• Setup store’s e-mail template

Shopify helps your brand and configure many email alerts, like e-receipts, delivery status, and delivery notifications, that would go to your buyers.

You must consider a “welcome” series for new customers like coupons or other discounts that they may like.

Section 3: Optimizing and scaling Your Store

The Shopify store launch checklist can be measured by personalizing your email templates and establishing reviews that can help you improve the sales method.

• Setting up deeper store analytics

Once more, as traffic is driven to your Shopify store, you will need to see the analytics regularly to understand what is working and what isn’t:

• Where traffic is coming from so you may customize your marketing plan
• Returning buyers vs new buyers to help you determine if your current marketing strategy is working
• The conversion rate for the products, which items are selling, which need more promotion, and which must be dropped
• Keywords and content. What they are searching for.

Shopify’s app store does have a number of apps that help you understand your store analytics easily. There is also Google Analytics which is considerably deep and vast but very powerful.

• Don’t miss sales because of lower inventory

Inventory can be a major challenge for the Shopify store owners in the beginning. If you are managing your stock, there is quite possible that you would end up with too few things and too many of other.

A simple way to handle stock shortages without wasting money is to spend some moments setting up BackInStock and notifying consumers when there is an item they want.

• Make goals and keep investing your time in achieving them

It takes to experiment, focus and time to scale a Shopify store. You can start looking at things with the best Shopify tools once you’ve reached the basics on this list, go deeper into the SEO of your store, or create seasonal or holiday-specific business strategies.

Getting overwhelmed and building an unrealistic to-do list for yourself is convenient. Keep your eye on analytics, choose a few priority products to focus on, implement your marketing strategy, and see how they impact your business.

• Market and Promote

Sales won’t just arrive. You need to promote your store, serve ads, run giveaways, engage in channels where your customers are and many other marketing efforts to get sales and traction.

A more detailed walkthrough

If you need something a little deeper, we have a great guide about creating a store from scratch right through to launch and beyond.