Shop launch checklist — Walk Out With A Website

A shop launch fails quietly. The site looks fine, you announce it — and the first customer's payment fails, the shipping is wrong, or the order email lands in a spam folder you never check. Every item below exists because it has happened to a real shop.

Do the whole list before you tell anyone the shop exists. The test order in the money section is the single most valuable ten minutes of the entire launch.

Every step a first order passes through — test all five

Place one real order on your own phone and refund it. Ten minutes that tests the whole shop.

Products

A customer who can't tell what something costs, what it looks like or whether it's in stock simply leaves. Check every product, not a sample.

Every product has a price, a photo, a description and stock set. Check every single one, including the boring ones.
Variants (size, colour) are priced correctly and in stock where they should be. Test buying each variant of one product.
Shipping weights or rates are set for every item — a missing weight can quietly charge a customer £40 postage or nothing at all.
Product photos are consistent in style and compressed enough to load fast on a phone.

Money

This is the section people skip because it feels like tempting fate. It isn't — it's the only way to know the shop actually works before a stranger finds out for you.

Payments connected and switched out of test mode. Check this twice — it is the single most common launch-day failure.
Tax settings correct for everywhere you sell, including whether your prices include tax or add it.
Place one real low-value order end to end with your own card, then refund it. You just tested checkout, payment, emails, stock and refunds in one move.
Check the order and receipt emails look like they come from you — name, branding, reply address — and that they don't land in spam.
Know where the money lands: which bank account, and how long payouts take.

Delivery and policies

Policies feel like legal homework, but they answer the questions that stop people buying. Clear delivery information is a sales feature, not a footnote.

Shipping options, costs and realistic delivery times published before checkout — surprises at the payment step kill orders.
Returns and refunds policy written in plain language a customer can actually follow.
Terms and privacy pages linked in the footer, with your real business details on them.
Packaging and dispatch decided: who packs, with what, and how often orders go out.

Before you announce it

The launch announcement brings your best traffic — people who already know you. Make sure the shop deserves them.

Test the entire checkout on a phone, not just a laptop. Most of your first customers will be on one.
Check stock and order notifications reach an inbox you actually read.
Decide who answers customer emails and how fast — and write that expectation on the contact page.
Prepare the launch message itself: email, social posts, and a reason to order now rather than someday.

Worked example

The ten-minute test order

Add a £1 test product (hidden from the shop if your platform allows it).
Buy it on your phone, on mobile data, using your real card and your real address.
Watch what arrives: payment confirmation, order email, stock count dropping.
Refund it and check the refund email and the money returning.
Anything that surprised you in those ten minutes would have surprised your first customer instead.

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Have us build it

Carry on with

Website planning worksheet

About 30 minutes

Homepage master prompt

About 20 minutes

Local search checklist

About 45 minutes