Shopify Launch Checklist for 2026: 45 Checks Before You Go Live

A store can look finished and still lose its first customers to a broken checkout, a missing tax rate or a store that Google cannot read yet. This checklist puts the checks in the order that works, in groups, and ties each group to a page from Shopify, Google or another official source. All sources were.

The short answer: finish payments, tax, shipping and policies first, place test orders with payments in test mode, switch test mode off, then switch private mode off, then tell Google. If you are still building the store, start with our guide to setting up a Shopify store and come back here when the store is built.

Shopify also publishes its own general checklist. It is a good list of tasks. What we add is the order of the launch switches, a detailed test order, and the traps that cost people sales.

The order matters: two switches

A new store sits in private mode. Shopify's help pages describe two switches that each block something, and mixing up their order causes most launch-day problems.

• Payments in test mode: Shopify says customers cannot place live card orders while your payment providers are in test mode. Turn it off as soon as testing ends (Shopify: payment gateway in test mode).
• Private mode: Shopify says Google cannot read your sitemap while the store is private, and you must deactivate private mode to verify the domain in Google Search Console (Shopify: finding and submitting your sitemap). Google Analytics also cannot track events until private mode is off (Shopify: setting up Google Analytics 4).

The printable table

Print this page or copy the table. The sections below explain the checks and give the source for each group. Rows marked "after launch" cannot be done earlier, for the reasons above.

1. Store basics

Shopify lists the business details to add before anything else: store name, legal business name and address, time zone, default currency and weight unit, and a password for the store (Shopify: business settings). Two traps are worth knowing.

• The myshopify.com name can be changed only once. Shopify says so on the same page. Decide before you tell anyone.
• Changing currency later can affect every market if you do not use Shopify Payments, according to Shopify's general checklist. Settle it now.

Domain. The myshopify.com address works, but Shopify's domain page explains that a custom domain changes the address customers see. You can buy, connect or transfer a domain, and Shopify creates a free TLS certificate when you add one (Shopify: adding a domain). If you own several domains and are not using them for international targeting, Shopify says to make sure they all redirect to the primary one.

Email. The store email is where Shopify contacts you. The sender email is the customer-facing address on order emails and contact form replies (Shopify: setting up your email). More on authentication in the email section.

Security. To use Shopify Payments you must secure your account with two-step authentication (Shopify: testing Shopify Payments). Turn it on for every staff login too. That last part is our advice, not a Shopify requirement.

2. Products and navigation

Shopify says a product needs at least a title and a price, and advises against changing product URL handles often because it can hurt search rankings. It also notes that long titles may be cut off in search results, so put the important words first (Shopify: general checklist).

• Collections and menus. Shopify's setup pages cover collections, About and Contact pages, and menus (Shopify: setting up your store). For SEO, Shopify recommends menu text that matches the page it links to, a link to every page, and no page more than three clicks from the home page (Shopify: site structure).
• Alt text. Describe what the image shows in plain words. Shopify says it helps search engines and people with visual impairments (Shopify: adding keywords for SEO).
• Stock. Check inventory counts and variants. A test order later proves they update.
• Hidden products. If you want a product reachable only by its link, Shopify's Unlisted status hides it from search engines, your sitemap, collections and search (Shopify: hiding a page from search engines). Make sure nothing you want sold is unlisted by accident.

3. Payments, tax and shipping

Payments. Set up your provider, then read the fraud pages. Shopify's checklist warns that high chargeback rates can lead to Shopify Payments being deactivated, that your bank makes the final call on reversals, and that Shopify does not cover chargeback losses. It also says fraud analysis recommendations depend on your plan and on whether you use Shopify Payments. If you are weighing fees between providers, our post on what Shopify takes from each sale covers that, so we leave the numbers out here.

Tax. Shopify is clear that tax is your responsibility. It calculates tax but does not file or remit it unless you use Shopify Tax with automated filing. The service you can use depends on your region: Shopify Tax for the US, EU, UK and Canada, Basic Tax for a short list of other countries, manual rates elsewhere, and third-party tax apps everywhere (Shopify: taxes). If you use default rates, Shopify says you must confirm they are current and correct for your case (Shopify: tax set-up). We are not accountants. Ask one before launch, not after the first order.

Shipping. Rates can be flat, free or carrier-calculated. To sell to a country it must be in an active market. Shopify also supports transit-time estimates and backup rates, which let customers finish checkout when carrier rates fail (Shopify: shipping rates). If you plan free shipping, see our free shipping on Shopify guide.

4. Legal pages

Shopify can generate return and refund, terms of service, shipping and contact information policies from your store settings, and keep them in sync (Shopify: adding store policies). Read what that page says about its limits:

• The templates are for information and are not legal advice. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you publish.
• You may need to add disclosures if you sell regulated products or items with market-specific rules, such as cosmetics, electronics, children's products or food-contact materials.
• Policies are public and often include an address, phone number and email. Shopify suggests a PO box or a forwarding number if you do not want to publish personal details. It also warns that some legal disclosures require a physical address and do not accept PO boxes.
• If you use an app to manage returns, check the policy matches the app's rules.
• Shopify's checkout lets customers review your store policies. Shopify's checklist also says the Google & YouTube channel needs refund and terms of service policies in your storefront footer, so link them there.
• Shopify's page lists the privacy policy among the policies you can export from Settings, Policies. We did not find on the page whether Shopify generates one for you, so check that setting and write or buy one if it is empty.

Privacy and consent. Shopify's developer docs for the Customer Privacy API say collecting data without consent might not comply with applicable laws, and recommend consulting legal counsel (shopify.dev: Customer Privacy API). If you sell into the UK or EU, put this on your list for a lawyer. We cannot give you a rule for your country.

5. Theme, mobile and speed

Preview on a phone. Shopify's launch page lets you preview the store before you remove the password (Shopify: preparing for launch). Do it on a real phone. Google says it uses the mobile version of your content for indexing and ranking, and recommends responsive design (Google: mobile-first indexing best practices).

Speed. Google's thresholds for a "good" Core Web Vitals score are Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of real page loads (web.dev: Web Vitals). Google says it highly recommends good scores and that they align with what its core ranking systems seek to reward (Google: Core Web Vitals).

Before launch you have no real visitors, so you can only run lab tests. Note that web.dev says tools like Lighthouse cannot measure INP because nobody interacts with the page, so expect to check it again with real traffic. Three fixes from Shopify's theme performance guide cost almost nothing (shopify.dev: performance best practices):

• Never lazy-load the main image at the top of the page, and give it high fetch priority.
• Give images width and height so the page does not jump. Shopify's image_tag filter adds them for you.
• Watch app-injected content. Shopify lists it as a common cause of layout shift.

For a deeper pass, see our theme performance guide.

Apps. Shopify's checklist warns that app charges can continue after pausing or deactivating a store until you uninstall the apps. Remove what you tested and did not keep.

Accessibility. Tab through the store with a keyboard and check colour contrast on buttons. Our accessibility guide for Shopify themes has the detail.

Customer accounts. Customers can sign in with a one-time six digit code, and options include Shop sign-in and Google or Facebook sign-in (Shopify: customer accounts). Test whichever you enable.

6. Tracking and analytics

• Google Analytics 4. Shopify's setup page walks through creating a GA4 property and a web data stream, then installing the tag through the Google & YouTube sales channel. Certain ecommerce events are tracked automatically afterwards (Shopify: setting up Google Analytics 4). It cannot track events until private mode is off.
• Pixels. Marketing pixels live under Customer events in the admin. Shopify advises choosing an app pixel from the third-party service when one exists, for better security and automatic updates, and a custom pixel only when there is none (Shopify: pixels and customer events). Shopify's developer docs say pixels built with the Web Pixels API are loaded in a strict sandbox (shopify.dev: Web Pixels API).
• Verify after launch. Place one live order or browse the store, and confirm it shows up in analytics. This step is our advice.

Tracking and consent go together. Revisit the legal section before you add a pixel.

7. SEO basics

You cannot rank a store that Google has not found, so keep this short and do it in this order.

1. Titles and descriptions. Shopify recommends titles of 60 characters or fewer with the main keyword early, and meta descriptions of about 160 characters, unique on each page (Shopify: adding keywords for SEO). Google's own guidance agrees on the principle: write distinct, descriptive titles for every page and avoid boilerplate (Google: title links). Set the homepage under Online Store, Preferences.
2. Sitemap. Shopify generates sitemap.xml for you with products, collections, pages and blog posts. After launch, verify the domain in Search Console and submit it (Shopify: sitemap). Google notes that submitting only tells it where the file is (Google: Sitemaps report).
3. Do not break the defaults. Shopify's robots.txt is optimised for SEO by default. Editing robots.txt.liquid is unsupported, and Shopify warns that misuse can cost all your traffic (Shopify: robots.txt.liquid). To hide a page, Shopify uses a noindex meta tag, and Google adds that the page must not be blocked by robots.txt or the tag is never seen (Google: noindex).
4. Redirects. If you moved from another platform, Shopify says you might need URL redirects to keep rankings. It also lists limits: you can only redirect URLs that are broken, some paths are reserved, market subfolders need their own redirects, and browsers cache 301s (Shopify: URL redirects).
5. Structured data. Shopify says supported themes include product microdata. Google explains what product structured data can show in results (Google: product structured data). Paste a live product URL into Google's Rich Results Test once you launch.
6. AI shopping. Shopify's page on optimizing for AI recommends comprehensive specs, materials, sizing and care information on product pages, and lists a free first-party Knowledge Base app for the FAQs AI agents use (Shopify: optimizing your store for AI).

If you want help choosing an SEO app, see our roundup of Shopify SEO apps.

8. Email

Order and shipping emails are the ones customers expect, so make sure they arrive.

• Authenticate your sender. Shopify says SPF and DKIM are required by major providers such as Gmail and Yahoo, and that without them your emails may go to spam. Shopify's CNAME records handle SPF for the sender address, and it also explains how to add a DMARC record (Shopify: setting up your email). Google's sender rules ask all senders for SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders (5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail) for SPF, DKIM and DMARC (Google: email sender guidelines).
• Review templates. You can add a logo and colours across all notification templates, and edit each one (Shopify: customizing notification templates). You can only edit body and subject after confirming the sender email.
• Abandoned checkout. Shopify describes automatic recovery emails and a manual option, and its page says it covers the legacy experience, with a newer one available, so the screens may differ (Shopify: abandoned checkouts).
• Marketing mail. Google says marketing and subscribed messages must support one-click unsubscribe and show a visible unsubscribe link (Google: email sender guidelines).

What to test in a real test order

Shopify says to place at least one test order during setup, and again whenever you change payment settings. A test order checks checkout, order processing, inventory, shipping and taxes (Shopify: preparing for launch). Test orders and simulated transactions do not show in your payouts or reports, and you can use the test gateways only after choosing a paid plan (Shopify: placing a test order).

Pick the test method

A few details from Shopify's pages (processing a test order, testing Shopify Payments):

• Use an email address ending in @example.com. Shopify says it is safe, will not trigger spam detection and keeps your inbox clear. If you use your own address, send fewer than 100 test orders at a time.
• The test amount must be above the equivalent of one US dollar.
• Express wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay may still complete in Shopify Payments test mode with a real card, but no real charge is taken. Check for the test mode banner on the order.
• Turn off any fulfilment service or app that fulfils automatically before you test.
• Do not buy shipping labels for test orders. Shopify says you are charged for them.
• If you pay with a real card and refund, some provider fees may not come back. Shopify suggests manual capture as a way to avoid some processing fees.

Scenarios to run

Shopify lists scenarios to cover while creating the order and after it is placed. We have turned them into a table you can follow.

Shopify's Shopify Payments test pages publish cards for these cases, for example a successful Visa and decline cards for generic decline and insufficient funds. Always copy numbers from the current page, since Shopify can change them. For the Test payment gateway, Shopify says to enter 1, 2 or 3 as the card number to simulate approved, declined or gateway failure. Shopify says the Test payment gateway is not compatible with Shopify POS or subscription products, so use Shopify Payments test mode for subscriptions.

Shopify also notes that not every test order can be deleted. Orders paid with the Test payment gateway or Shopify Payments in test mode can be. Orders placed through other gateways are not treated as test orders, even in test mode, and cannot be deleted. Archive them.

Go-live day

Shopify's checklist says policies, contact information and shipping rates should be final before launch, because the store is public from that moment. It lists three requirements before you can launch: select a subscription plan, add a store address under Settings, General, and set up a payment method with test mode deactivated (Shopify: launch your store). You can launch from the Online Store page, from Online Store, Preferences, from the launch banner in the theme preview, or from the Home page card.

1. Switch test mode off. Look at the payment settings, not at your memory.
2. Do a last preview on your phone.
3. Launch. Then open the store in a private browser window, on mobile data rather than your Wi-Fi, to see what a stranger sees.
4. Verify the domain in Search Console and submit the sitemap.
5. Optionally, place one small live order and then cancel and refund it. Shopify describes this as a valid test, with the caveat about fees above.

The first week

• Watch the first live orders end to end. Payment, confirmation email, fulfilment, shipping email, delivery. Real orders find problems that tests miss.
• Review high-risk orders before you fulfil them. Shopify's checklist says to do this.
• Read abandoned checkouts. Shopify says reviewing them can reveal patterns that suggest why customers are not finishing orders (Shopify: abandoned checkouts).
• Check Search Console. Shopify says Google can take 48 to 72 hours to index new pages and that not every page is guaranteed to be indexed. Google gives no guarantee on timing either. For a small store, Google's own advice is to check by searching for a page's exact URL, and to use the URL Inspection tool for important pages (Google: Page indexing report, URL Inspection).
• Re-run the speed test with real traffic. Field data will exist once real visitors arrive.
• Do not change product URL handles unless you set up redirects. Shopify warns against it.

If you want a second pair of eyes before you go live, talk to us. We can walk through a store with you against this list. For a wider ecommerce view that goes beyond Shopify, we cover that separately in our ecommerce website checklist.

Questions

Do I need a paid plan to place test orders?

Yes. Shopify says you can use the Test payment gateway or Shopify Payments test mode only after you choose a paid plan. A real-payment test, refunded straight away, is the other option.

Can I launch while on the free trial?

Shopify says you must choose a subscription plan to launch during a free trial. If you pick one during the trial, Shopify says you are not charged subscription fees until the trial ends.

Should I submit my sitemap before launch?

Do it after launch. Shopify says Google cannot access the sitemap while the store is in private mode. Shopify also explains you can turn private mode off briefly to verify the domain and turn it back on if you are not ready.

How long until Google shows my store?

Shopify says indexing can take 48 to 72 hours and is not guaranteed for every page. Google says it does not guarantee how long crawling takes. You cannot force it, though Search Console can prompt a recrawl.

Do I need a custom domain before launch?

Shopify does not list a custom domain as a launch requirement. Your store works on its myshopify.com address, but a custom domain changes the address customers see, and most stores want one before they promote anything.

What if my payment provider has no test mode?

Shopify says to use its Test payment gateway, or to use your real provider and immediately cancel and refund the order. Manual methods such as cash on delivery or bank transfer have no test mode, so a real order is the test.

Who is responsible for sales tax?

You are. Shopify says tax is your responsibility and that it files and remits only if you use Shopify Tax with automated filing. Ask a tax adviser in your country.

Are Shopify's policy templates enough?

They are a starting point. Shopify says they are not legal advice and do not guarantee compliance, and that you may need more if you sell regulated or market-specific products. Have a lawyer read your policies before you scale.