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Shopify Launch Checklist: What to Check Before You Go Live

Updated , first published · 6 min read

A Shopify store launch checklist starts with the one thing Shopify enforces. You cannot launch during the free trial until you have picked a plan, entered a store address under Settings > General > Business details and set up a payment method with test mode switched off. The rest of the list is there so you find the other problems before your first customers do. The items follow Shopify’s new store checklist and its launch preparation page, both read on October 23, 2026, with the admin path next to each item.

Settings to get right first

  • Pick the myshopify.com name carefully. Shopify lets you change it only once.
  • Legal business name and address: Settings > General. The address in Business details is also a launch requirement.
  • Store currency and weight unit: set both before you add products. If you do not use Shopify Payments, changing the store currency affects all your markets.
  • Staff accounts: the number depends on the plan: none extra on Basic, 5 on Grow, 15 on Advanced, unlimited on Plus. Collaborator accounts and POS-only staff do not count.
  • Taxes: Shopify calculates tax but does not file or remit it for you unless you use Shopify Tax automated filing. Talk to a local accountant before launch.
  • Email sender authentication: set up SPF and DKIM for your sender address. Gmail and Yahoo require them, and without them your order emails can land in spam.
  • Age: the account owner must be 18 or older.
  • Private mode password and visitor message: set them while you build, so anyone who finds the store early sees a short note instead of a half-finished catalog.
  • Customer accounts and checkout: decide whether customers sign in, and customize the checkout before the first real order.

Products and collections

Each product needs at least a title and a price. Put the important keywords at the start of the title, because long titles get cut off in search results, and leave product URL handles alone once they are live, since changing them can cost rankings. Then work through this:

  1. Add every product with images, price, weight and, if you track stock, inventory per location. With more than 50 locations, save the product before you add quantities. Tags help you build collections and filters; each product takes up to 250 (unlimited on Plus).
  2. Group products into collections and build the menus around them.
  3. Preview two or three themes with your real products before you publish one. Free and paid themes differ in layout and features.
  4. Set up shipping rates and, if you sell locally, pickup and local delivery.
  5. Set up markets only if you sell outside your home country; the number you can create depends on your plan.

Pages and policies

Add your refund, privacy and terms of service policies under Settings > Policies. Shopify’s templates exist in English, and some also in French, Italian and Spanish; for any other language you write the policy yourself. Add a contact page and an About page, and put the contact details where visitors can see them. Several sales channels ask for them: Google & YouTube wants visible contact information plus refund and terms policies in the footer.

Checkout and payments

Spend the most time here, because it decides whether the first order goes through.

  1. Settings > Payments, click Edit in the Shopify Payments section, check Use test mode and save.
  2. Place a successful order and a failed one, then refund one, cancel one, and fulfill one fully and one partly. A test order shows whether checkout, order processing, inventory, shipping and taxes behave as you set them. No charges apply to test orders.
  3. If you use another provider, check whether it has its own test mode. If not, use Shopify’s Test payment gateway, or pay with a real card and cancel and refund the order straight away.
  4. Turn test mode off. The launch requires it, and a store left in test mode cannot take real payments.
  5. Read the fraud analysis settings. Recommendations are available on Grow and above, or on any plan with Shopify Payments; Basic without Shopify Payments only gets fraud indicators. Decide now who reviews orders flagged as high risk before they are fulfilled: a high chargeback rate can get Shopify Payments deactivated, and Shopify does not cover chargeback losses.

Two checkout details are worth knowing before the first week. Inventory is held only once a customer submits payment details, so two shoppers can have the last unit in their carts at the same time and only the first to submit payment details gets it; Shopify re-checks stock after each checkout step. And subscription products need Shopify Payments as the primary provider, so check that before you design a subscription offer.

Domain and email

Connect your own domain if you have one; the steps are in connecting a custom domain to Shopify. Set the sender email for order notifications, send yourself a test, and look at the headers or the spam folder. DNS changes can take up to two days, so start this a few days before the date you announced, not on launch morning.

Add a home page title and meta description, verify the site with Google and submit the sitemap. Shopify says indexing is not instant: allow 48 to 72 hours for new pages, and not every page is guaranteed to be indexed. Whatever analytics or ad pixels you add, describe them in the privacy policy you publish.

Launch and the first week

Open Online Store, click Preview store to see the storefront as a customer does, then use Launch store from the Home page launch card, the Online Store page, the theme editor, or Online Store > Preferences under Store access. If you want the store in the Shop app, launching is one of its requirements, and the eligibility status can take up to 48 hours to update.

After launch the store is public. Place one real, small order on your own card and refund it. Then uninstall every app you tried and dropped during the build. Shopify warns that if you pause or deactivate a store, app charges can continue until each app is uninstalled,. In week one, read each order notification, check the abandoned checkout email, and see which sales channel you actually want next. Google & YouTube needs a Merchant Center account and product identifiers such as GTIN, MPN or brand; Facebook & Instagram needs a Meta business portfolio. For a launch campaign around a new product, see the product launch guide. The wider setup topics sit in the running a store hub.

Frequently asked questions

How do I take my Shopify store live? Select a plan, add a store address and a payment method with test mode off, then click Launch store from the Home page, the Online Store page or the theme editor. During a free trial the store is in private mode, with a password page, until you do.

Can I change my myshopify.com domain? You can change it a single time, so Shopify’s checklist asks you to choose it carefully during the first setup.

Do I need a privacy policy before launch? You should have one: add a privacy policy along with refund and terms of service policies under Settings > Policies. Shopify offers templates, mainly in English, and you adapt them to how your store works.