Most launch problems are not dramatic. They are small things nobody checked: a payment method still in test mode, a shipping rate that never appears at checkout, a product with no description. Each one quietly costs you orders.
Work through this list before you open the store. It takes an afternoon and saves the week you would otherwise spend firefighting.
1. Place a real order yourself
Not a test order — a real one, with a real card, start to finish. Then refund it. This single check catches more problems than any other, because it exercises payments, shipping, taxes, inventory and email all at once.
2. Take your payment gateway out of test mode
Shopify Payments and most gateways have a test mode that looks identical to the live one from the admin. Confirm it is off, and confirm every method you intend to offer actually appears at checkout.
3. Set shipping zones and rates for every country you sell to
If a customer’s country has no zone, checkout tells them shipping is unavailable and they leave. Check each market you have enabled, not just your own.
4. Configure taxes
Set tax regions correctly and decide whether prices include tax. Getting this wrong after launch means either absorbing the cost or changing prices customers have already seen.
5. Finish the product data
Every product needs a real description, correct price, images on all variants, and stock levels that reflect reality. A product page with a missing image or an empty description rarely sells.
6. Add alt text to your images
It is how search engines read your images and how customers on screen readers shop. It is also the step almost everyone skips, which makes it cheap ground to win.
7. Read the whole store on a phone
Not the desktop preview at a narrow width — an actual phone. Most of your traffic will be mobile. Check menus, product images, the add-to-cart button and the full checkout.
8. Write the policy pages
Refunds, shipping, privacy and terms. Shopify generates drafts you can edit. Buyers genuinely read the refund policy before a first order from a brand they do not know.
9. Make your contact details easy to find
A real email address, and a phone or chat if you offer one. A store with no visible way to reach a human looks risky, and that hesitation costs first orders.
10. Send yourself the notification emails
Order confirmation, shipping confirmation, abandoned checkout. Check they carry your branding, that the sender address is yours, and that the links work.
11. Clear the leftovers
Remove the theme’s demo products, sample collections and placeholder text. Turn off the password page. Delete unused apps — they slow the store and some inject code into your theme.
12. Install your analytics before launch, not after
Google Analytics and any ad pixels should be collecting from the first visitor. Data you did not capture on launch week cannot be recovered later.
One last pass
Click every link in your navigation and footer. Search for one of your own products. Check the favicon and the browser tab title. These take two minutes and are the first things a visitor notices.
A launch is not the finish line, but a store that handles its first order cleanly earns the benefit of the doubt on everything that follows.
