Complete Checklist to follow before launching your Shopify Website

In this blog post, we will cover:

As you are here, your Shopify store development is expected to be finally ready, and you are excited about its launch.

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You may be thinking about whether you have completed all the essential things for a smooth launch. So, it is pretty common to be nervous. If you are checking things pointlessly for your website development, then it is a complete waste of time.

Instead of that, you must focus on adopting a systematic approach to ensure the success of your launch. Before you hire Shopify developers, you should know what your requirements and business goals are. The best method is to create a checklist and after that, check all the things according to the list. In the following section, we will discuss the essential items of a Shopify store launch checklist.

Read this blog post to get a proper understanding of how to run a smooth and successful launch of your ecommerce store.

Shopify Store Launch Checklist To Follow

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• Add available sales channels
• Consider adding a custom domain
• Double-check your payment gateway settings
• Prepare standard pages
• Frequently asked questions
• Check the email notification settings
• Website content auditing
• Image optimization

1. Add Available Sales Channels

According to a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review in 2017, only 7% of the buyers go online to buy things. Again, the base of customers is growing multi-channel.

Among these, 73% of the buyers prefer to go to multi-channels specifically for a single purchase. It would help if you focused on finding out other sales channels your target audience prefers. It is mainly required to relish the utmost benefits of multi-channel retailing for your eCommerce store.

After that, you need to add those sales channels to your store. Some of the examples of well-known sales channels include:

• eBay
• Amazon
• Google Shopping
• Social media like Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Shopify comes with easy functionality to effectively integrate the sales channels. It is where you would keep track of customers, products, and orders across every platform.

2. Consider Adding A Custom Domain

In general cases, it is the thing which people consider even before they opt for Shopify ecommerce development services. But, sometimes, it could be the last thing coming to your mind.

Investing in a custom domain is considered very important as it provides a better recognition to your website. Also, the users can easily remember it.

In this regard, your main goal should be to search for a domain name that starts with your business name. But, in case it is already being used by any other business, you will have to go for some alternatives. Start searching for relevant domain names as your brand name.

3. Double Check Your Payment Gateway Settings

The payment mechanism is considered to be the fundamental aspect of your checkout procedure. So, you should ensure that everything is going on smoothly at the end of the buying journey.

Another important thing is to ensure that all the provided payment options operate smoothly with the best flow and user experience.

To ensure that everything is working correctly, you need to place a test order specifically with a live payment gateway.

4. Prepare Standard Pages

There must be static pages of your business and information by which the visitors can get to know about your business.

In this regard, it is recommended to include some crucial pages in your sitemap:

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There must be a homepage of your eCommerce store. It is where the journey of the customer should begin.

We mention this as we have come across certain eCommerce stores where the users directly land on the product listing page.

A homepage provides you insights into your catalog. Also, with the help of this, the users can easily navigate to your website and other critical static pages.

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The primary purpose behind the “about us” page is to let your users know about your company’s story, its vision, and many other things. The users should be well-aware of all this information about your business.

A vast majority of the eCommerce stores neglect this page. But, if approached with the strategy, it can prove to be a very effective sales tool.

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A contact page is also considered to be an integral part of your eCommerce store.

Through this page, the customers can reach out to you in case of any of their queries or ask you specific questions.

You must focus on providing every distinct way a customer can reach you, like chat, call, email, etc.

A contact form is an effective means for customers by which they can leave a message for you without even leaving your website.

5. Frequently Asked Questions

Adding a FAQs page always plays a vital role if you focus on interacting with your customers.

It is something that provides answers to the frequent queries that customers raise. In the beginning, it may not be easy to know which questions customers will ask the most.

For that, one of the best approaches to adopt is having a close look at your competitors’ queries. In general, customers ask about warranty, shipping charges, return policy, etc.

A FAQs page allows you to add required keywords specifically with the answers or questions, optimizing SEO.

6. Check The Email Notification Settings

Email marketing is regarded as one of the most robust tools for eCommerce business owners.

The Shopify store specifically provides you with various email templates which you can customize according to the theme of your website, industry, or business.

All that you need is to edit the templates of your email. Also, you can create sequences that can effectively nurture your list. Ultimately, you would be able to drive sales to your business.

You can make use of the following email in your Shopify store:

• Notification related to shipping
• Confirmation of order
• Notifications related to abandoned cart
• E-receipts
• Welcome series

7. Website Content Auditing

Generally, we do not check the content of the website before its launch. But, it is a great responsibility that should always be given to the content or marketing team.

However, a brief overview will help you effectively find mistakes such as grammar, spelling, or broken links. Again, you should ensure that your content is consistent.

It means that you must adopt a particular type of language or grammar. For instance, you should avoid using American English if you have followed British English or vice versa.

In the technical aspect, you should focus on checking out for broken links, mobile responsiveness, image-rendering problems, and 404s in particular.

8. Image Optimization

High-quality images add to the aesthetics of your website. But, if they are too heavy in size, it can significantly impact the user experience and performance. The website will load slow, which will significantly affect your website’s search engine rankings.

So, it would be best to optimize all the images on your website for fast loading times.

Best Approaches To Adopt For Optimization The Images On Your Shopify Store

• Provide a proper description of your image
• Reduce the size of images
• Alt attributes optimization
• Make use of an analytics tool
• Thumbnails optimization
• Select the correct file type

You Should Always Be Ready With A Pre-Launch Marketing Plan

Once you have launched your website, you need to spread the word about your website to the people. A solid marketing plan is considered to be the best way to achieve this thing. In this regard, you should focus on creating proper documentation of your marketing strategy.

So, as soon as you go live, it becomes essential for you to work on the following steps:

• Checking your tax and shipping rates
• Installing only those applications which are essential
• Setting up your billing information

End Thoughts

In the section mentioned above, we have discussed the comprehensive Shopify store launch checklist, which you must have an excellent idea about.

Before you start working on Shopify store development, you should have a look at the checklist and follow the step-by-step process to launch the site.

Being recognized as one of the best Shopify development companies, we at ZealousWeb Technologies go through every critical measure of the Shopify store. It helps us to deliver you a perfect eCommerce store according to your unique requirements. With years of experience in the industry, we have worked on several Shopify store development projects for our clients worldwide.

Our skilled developers have a lot of experience in developing Shopify ecommerce stores from scratch and can even revamp existing websites to match your exact business requirements. Contact us today to know more.

Originally published at https://www.zealousweb.com on October 20, 2021.