Shopify Store Launch Checklist (2026):
What to Check Before You Go Live

Most post-launch problems are preventable. These are the technical, commerce, speed, and UX checks that surface the most common issues before customers find them.

Technical checks

• Custom domain connected and SSL certificate active (padlock showing in browser)
• All pages return 200 status — no broken internal links (Screaming Frog or Ahrefs crawl will catch these)
• 301 redirects in place for all old URLs if migrating from another platform (see Migration guide)
• Google Analytics 4 installed and verified — check real-time data is showing
• Meta Pixel or ad platform tracking verified via browser extension (Meta Pixel Helper, etc.)
• robots.txt allows search engine crawlers (confirm GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and Google-Extended are not blocked)
• XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console
• All product and collection pages have unique meta titles and descriptions
• Canonical tags correct — especially on collection pages with filters, which can generate duplicate URLs
• 404 page is branded — the Shopify default 404 is recognisably generic

Speed checks

Run these on both desktop and mobile, on your homepage and your busiest product page. Mobile is the number that matters most.

• Google PageSpeed Insights score above 70 on mobile
• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) under 2.5 seconds on mobile
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) under 0.1 — no visible layout jumping during load
• All product images compressed and served at appropriate dimensions (WebP format where possible)
• No render-blocking scripts in the document head — defer non-critical third-party scripts
• App count reviewed — remove any apps not actively in use
• Hero images and videos verified for file size (hero video should be under 5MB; images under 300KB)

For a full breakdown of speed issues and fixes, see Shopify Speed Optimisation: What Actually Works (2026).

Commerce checks

• Test purchase completed end-to-end — card payment, checkout confirmation, order confirmation email
• Test purchase refunded via Shopify admin — confirms refund flow works
• All payment methods verified: card, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Afterpay (where configured)
• Shipping rates correct for all zones — including Australian states and international where applicable
• GST applied correctly to all applicable products (standard Australian rate: 10%)
• All email notifications reviewed: order confirmation, shipping, abandoned checkout. Replace Shopify default placeholder branding with your own.
• Inventory levels accurate for all variants
• All product prices and compare-at prices correct
• Discount codes tested if in use at launch
• Gift cards tested if applicable

Design and UX checks

Review the full store on a real phone — not a browser's responsive preview mode. These issues are often only visible on actual hardware:

• All images loading correctly — no broken image references, no distorted aspect ratios on mobile
• Variant imagery switching correctly when a colour or style variant is selected
• Add to cart button accessible without scrolling on mobile product pages
• Size guides and returns policy accessible from product pages — not just from the footer
• Cart and checkout work correctly on mobile Safari and Chrome
• Sticky header not obscuring content on scroll on small screens
• Filter menus on collection pages open, close, and apply correctly on mobile
• All forms (contact, account creation) submit correctly and confirm submission
• Search returns relevant results and handles empty states gracefully

If migrating from another platform

• All URL redirects from old platform verified — check the most-trafficked 20 URLs from Google Search Console
• Product reviews migrated and displaying correctly on product pages
• Old domain DNS records updated — allow up to 48 hours for DNS propagation
• Google Search Console property set up for new domain, old property retained for monitoring
• Any external links (social profiles, email footers, printed materials) pointing to the old URL updated

Post-launch monitoring

First 48 hours: monitor Google Analytics 4 real-time for broken user flows, check the Shopify orders panel for any failed or unusual checkouts, test checkout again on multiple devices after launch.

First week: check Google Search Console for crawl errors and indexing issues. Monitor PageSpeed scores after full production traffic load — scores can differ from staging.

First month: review top exit pages in GA4. Pages with unusually high exit rates that should not have them (product pages, cart) indicate UX problems worth investigating.

For ongoing conversion issues after launch, see Why Is My Shopify Store Not Converting? (2026).