A Shopify pre-launch checklist for D2C brands

Most launch problems are not hard. They are small things nobody checked: a policy page that errors, a product with one photo, a checkout never tried on a phone. This checklist puts the jobs in order. Where a job needs more than a line, it links to a guide. Where something depends on your plan, country or apps, it says "check" so you can confirm it in your own admin.

1. Confirm the plan is finished

  • ☐ You have a store brief, a product sheet and a page list (planning guide).
  • ☐ Every page on your list exists, and no page is a placeholder.
  • ☐ The homepage's first screen says what you sell (homepage guide).

2. Products

  • ☐ Every product has a clear title, price, options and description (product page guide).
  • ☐ Every product has photos with alt text (photography checklist).
  • ☐ Variants are named so a customer can tell them apart (variants guide).
  • ☐ No dummy or test product is visible.

3. Collections and navigation

  • ☐ Every menu link goes somewhere real. Stray placeholder links are easy to leave behind.
  • ☐ Collections are not empty (collections guide).

4. Policies and trust

  • ☐ Refund, shipping, terms and contact information are published and linked from the footer (policy planning).
  • ☐ Someone qualified has reviewed the wording. Shopify's help says its templates are not legal advice.
  • ☐ You show only proof you actually have (trust guide).

5. Payments and the test order

Shopify describes three ways to test: its test payment gateway, a payment provider's test mode, or a real order that you cancel and refund straight away, in which case the processor may charge fees (test orders). Two details matter:

  • Shopify says customers cannot place live orders while your payment providers are in test mode. Switch test mode off and confirm the live provider works before you announce the store.
  • Testing a payment gateway needs a paid plan.

After a test order, check the confirmation email, the order in your admin, the totals and taxes, and, for a digital product, that the file arrives and opens. Then test a refund so you know the process.

6. Shipping

  • ☐ Shipping zones and rates cover every place you will deliver, and nowhere you will not.
  • ☐ You have weighed a packed product, because weight often drives rates.
  • ☐ Delivery times shown on the site are ones you can keep.

7. Mobile check

Open the store on a real phone, on mobile data as well as Wi-Fi. Add to cart, change quantity and reach payment. The mobile QA guide has a full script.

8. Search basics

  • ☐ Every key page has a unique title and a short description (SEO basics).
  • ☐ The storefront password is off. Shopify says Google cannot verify or crawl a password-protected store (sitemap help).
  • ☐ You have submitted sitemap.xml in Google Search Console. Shopify generates the sitemap automatically; its help page walks through verification and submission.

9. Links and redirects

  • ☐ Any URL that changed has a redirect, and you have tested the old address (redirects guide).
  • ☐ Footer, menu and button links all work.

10. Go live and the first week

  • ☐ Remove password protection only after steps 1 to 9 pass.
  • ☐ Place one more order after going live. Refund it if appropriate.
  • ☐ Check that analytics record a purchase, if you use analytics.
  • ☐ For the first week, look at orders, emails and contact messages daily and fix what breaks.
  • ☐ If you built the store for someone else, hand it over with a handoff checklist.

Related guides

Next step

The Shopify D2C Launch Kit turns steps like these into a 22-page PDF with a store launch QA checklist, a photography checklist, an SEO and AEO checklist and a client handoff checklist, plus a metafield planning CSV. It is a planning and QA resource: it does not build your store, give legal or tax advice, or promise sales.

Shopify's menus and rules change. These points were checked against Shopify's help pages on 25 October 2026; confirm them in your own admin.

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