Shopify Store Launch Checklist: 11 Things to Review Before You Go Live

Shopify is now one of the excellent e-commerce website builders for small businesses. Although it’s very effortless to use, it’s also very easy to stray into the matrix of ideas if you don’t know it well. 

It is because of what makes Shopify so simple exactly makes it tricky:  We cannot expect much from the basic features of them. But in return, Shopify is also a fully flexible solution. So how do you know which of these are the best, and how can you make sure you don’t overlook an essential component?

The answer is: Let’s make a Shopify store launch checklist and ensure everything is ready before starting your Shopify store creation.

We will create a very simple Shopify store launch checklist that covers all the basics, helping growing retailers receive the most value from their investments and eCommerce efforts, and each business will hold their own unique needs based on what they want to achieve by launching an online store.

Before you start – Preparations

Before you start setting up your Shopify store, it’s important to understand your goals. Ask yourself some simple questions about your store.

For example, what are you going to sell? Do you want to sell your products through social media channels like Facebook and Instagram? This can help you to focus your attention and speed up your setup process. 

You might also want to think about which Shopify pricing plan meets your needs. However, you don’t need to choose a plan until the end of your 14-day free trial.

As a side note, if you’re interested in learning more about the pros and cons of Shopify, check out some of the articles below where we dig into that in-depth:

• What is Shopify?
• Shopify vs Magento: Which one is better to skyrocket your sales?

Now let’s complete the checklist above with us!

#1 Add your chosen sales channels

Having more sales channels means more opportunities for you to get orders. Sales channels will help increase the number of orders sold, and furthermore help you increase the awareness of your brand.

Here are some examples of online gross sales channels you possibly can add to complete your Shopify store launch:

• eBay
• Amazon
• Instagram
• Facebook Shop
• Google Shopping

All gross sales channels join with the core of your Shopify enterprise, so you possibly can simply preserve order, merchandise, and clients throughout all platforms.

Charlies & Keith, which generates greater than $400 million in annual income, attributes 35% of its gross sales straight or not directly to social promoting.

For example, using the Facebook Shopping channel has led C&K to greatly increase its annual sales.

When ORO LOS ANGELES launched Shopping on Instagram, it lifted month-over-month income by 29.3%—a rise straight attributable to the platform.

And when Sarah’s Treats & Treasures opened a gross sales channel on Amazon, it shortly gained traction on the platform. Now, Amazon is accountable for 76.8% of the corporate’s orders.

#2 Add a customized domain

Adding a custom domain to your web site to increase your brand’s recognition and makes it easier for people to recollect your URL.

You’ll need to conduct a site identification search first to see if your corporation identity is obtainable. If yes, and the identity isn’t already a trademark in use by any other enterprise in your business, you possibly can purchase your custom domain name straight by Shopify.

If your customized area identity isn’t available, that doesn’t essentially imply you must return to the drafting board. You can choose another top-level domain (TLD).  You’ll discover that many websites use different variations, similar to .net and .org. Today, there are tons of TLDs to pick from.

#3 Thoroughly review your checkout experience and payment gateway settings

Before you drive any visitors to your store, you will need to guarantee folks can truly fill a purchase order.

The fact is, the order abandonment rate placed in the cart is sort of 70%. It’s reasonable to repair any errors and take away interference at checkout, in any other case you danger dropping extra gross sales.

When testing your checkout, you will need to:

• Surface shipping charges throughout checkout
• Allow customers to use discount codes within the cart
• Make consumer edit their cart’s information
• Add familiar payment methods, such as PayPal and credit cards
• Enable orders tracking function
• Distribute an email notification to verify a purchase order
• Add a language and forex switcher and a delivery coverage clearly stating who pays duties and taxes are each accessible if providing worldwide gross sales and delivery 

With Shopify Payments, you possibly can place a test order on your site with a resident fee gateway to ensure all the things work.

#4 Prepare your fundamental pages

Based on our analysis, these are the pages we most advocate online shops embody of their sitemap:

Homepage. Your homepage is a very powerful web page. It’s typically the original place people land and, if not, the second place they go. The homepage is a place to determine the general feel and look of your website and guarantee you might have clear navigation to browse your store. 

Contact web page. A Contact page gives customers reassurance a retailer is trustworthy. If customers can’t contact you when they have questions, you may be lacking out on a lot of gross sales. So let’s have some kind of communication listing: email address, hotline, or anything that let customers contact you. Consider putting together with a contact type to allow them to send you a message without leaving your websites, such as live chat or any other online support system (Should be 24/7 available) 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). At launch, you may not have lots of info around which questions customers will ask typically the most. To create a FAQ page, you can predict inquiries and have a look at competitors to see what questions they display on their web sites. Clients typically have questions on delivery, return policy, and the way to get in contact. 

#5 Review your email notification settings

Email is a strong channel for communication. On the Shopify retailer, there are some automated emails you will have to customize earlier than launching. 

Edit your email templates and create sequences that nurture your record and finally drive gross sales.

Here are some email templates you have to keep in mind: 

• Welcoming collection (New collection introducing)
• E-receipts
• Abandoned cart notifications
• Order confirmation
• Shipping notifications

#6 Conduct a content material checking

Sometimes you will find out small errors like spelling, grammar, or damaged hyperlinks. Reviewing backward—beginning with the final paragraph and dealing your method to the highest—will assist you in errors you’ll have missed. 

On the technical side, you need to seek out damaged hyperlinks and 404s & any image-rendering. Check out your website on different browsers so you can observe if a bug is a common or specific system/browser.

#7 Optimize all images in your website

Slow-loading images can ruin your website’s customers’ personal experience, which has been proven to decrease conversion rates.

All of your images must be optimized for the web to ensure quick load instances. Shopify handles the technical complexity of holding quickly, as a result of we all know speed matters for online stores. Here’s what you can do to improve load speed and optimize your images:

• Be descriptive when listing your images. This helps with the search engine optimization rating of your web site and product pages. 
• Use key phrases that you are trying to rank for.
• Optimize your alt attributes rigorously. Alt attributes are used for net accessibility and search engine optimization. 
• Optimize the scale of your images. For instance, a typical thumbnail picture is 50 x 50 pixels, so there’s no need to add a picture that’s 4000 x 4000 pixels. 
• Choose the image format. For most online, a great rule of thumb is to make use of JPEG for images and PNG for graphics and icons.
• Review your thumbnails. Your model emblem is extremely important. Thumbnails present up throughout eCommerce websites, so be sure that they’re clear throughout their many sizes in your online store.

#8 Install an analytics tool

Analytics are important to manage your data from day one. This tool provides you with a beneficial knowledge of your customers.

Your Shopify could have its own set of analytics reporting built-in, however, you might also need to set up a third-party. Google Analytics is, without a doubt, one of the most well-known and standard analytics tools, however, you can even have a look at SE Ranking, and Adobe Analytics.

#9 Have a pre-launch advertising plan

Once your Shopify store launch is available, you will need to be certain that people will find out about it. The greatest way to do this is by planning a marketing strategy.

Document your advertising project so when you go live, all you must do is comply with the steps you have already outlined.

#10 Adjust your tax and delivery settings

You’ll need to examine that your tax settings and delivery charges are applicable for the product(s) you’re promoting. Otherwise, you may unknowingly eat into your income by not charging sufficiently. Double examine your tax and shipping settings earlier than launching your store.

Depending on the place your business and clients are positioned, you would possibly add sales tax. Not positive which tax settings to make use of? Your greatest guess is to seek the advice of an accountant aware of taxes in your space.

#11 Install solely the important apps

Though there are so many apps in the Shopify App Store, not all of them are important for a new business/store. In reality, just some of them make sense of your brand-new online store.
Here are some suggestions for your newly opened store. Let’s check them out here. 

Now your Shopify store is totally getting ready to go live!

So that we have taken a look at the important Shopify store launch checklist on your Shopify store, and now it’s time to flip the change and begin promoting. 

Are there any other things you rather add to this retailer launch guidelines? Let us know within the comment beneath.