Ecommerce launch checklist

Before you take real orders, place a full test order and verify ten things: payment, tax, shipping, stock, policies, emails, analytics, speed, accessibility and your content. A store that looks finished in the editor has proved nothing until money, an email and a stock change have all moved correctly.

This applies whichever builder made the store, and matters more when AI generated the first version, because generated pages look complete long before they are correct.

The short version

• Run one order end to end in test mode, including the refund.
• Tax and shipping promises are legal commitments. Check them with real addresses.
• Read every generated sentence that makes a claim about a product or a policy.
• Test on a phone and with a keyboard, not only on your laptop with a mouse.

1. Place a test order

Use the test environment your platform or payment provider gives you.

• Shopify documents three ways to place a test order: its test payment gateway, the test mode in Shopify Payments, or a real transaction that you immediately cancel and refund. It notes that customers cannot place live orders while your provider is in test mode.
• Stripe provides sandboxes and test card numbers that simulate successful payments, declines and authentication challenges, and states that its services agreement prohibits testing in live mode with real payment method details.

Test more than the happy path: a successful payment, a declined card, a card that needs extra authentication, a discount code and a refund. Then confirm you are back in live mode.

2. Verify tax

Open the test order and check the tax line for an address in each region where you must collect. Confirm:

• You are registered where you need to be. Shopify’s tax documentation says you must register with your tax authority if you need to collect sales tax, and that tax is your responsibility.
• Prices display the way your market expects, with tax included or added at checkout.
• Tax-exempt or reduced-rate products are categorised correctly.

Have an accountant confirm the setup once. Fixing it later means correcting past orders.

3. Verify shipping rates and delivery promises

Enter a near address, a far one and an international one, and compare each quoted rate with what the carrier will charge you. Check weights and box sizes on your heaviest and lightest products.

Delivery times are a legal matter as well as a courtesy. In the United States, the FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires a reasonable basis for any shipping time you state. If you state none, you need a reasonable basis to believe you can ship within 30 days, and you must notify customers of delays and offer a refund. Do not publish a delivery estimate, generated or otherwise, that you cannot meet.

4. Check inventory

• Stock counts match what is on the shelf, for every variant.
• The test order reduced stock by the right amount, and the refund behaved as you expect.
• Selling out does what you intend: the product hides, shows as sold out or allows backorders.

5. Publish your policies

Link these from the footer and from checkout:

• Refund and returns policy, with time limits and who pays return postage.
• Shipping policy that matches the rates and times you just tested.
• Privacy policy describing the data you collect and the services you share it with.
• Terms of sale, and a working contact method.

Platform templates and AI drafts are a starting point only. Requirements differ by country and state, so have the final text reviewed for where you sell. This checklist is not legal advice.

6. Send yourself every email

Trigger and read each automatic message: order confirmation, shipping notification, refund, account creation, password reset and abandoned-cart reminder if you use one. Check the sender name, your logo, links and how they read on a phone.

Marketing email carries extra rules. In the United States, the FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide requires, among other things, accurate header and subject lines, a valid physical postal address and a working way to opt out, honoured within 10 business days. Other countries have their own consent rules.

7. Confirm analytics records the sale

Check that your test purchase appears in your analytics with the correct revenue, and that it is not counted twice. Verify the events you will rely on later: product view, add to cart, checkout started, purchase. If you serve visitors in regions that require consent for tracking, confirm the consent banner actually controls the tags.

8. Measure speed on a phone

Run your home page, a collection page and a product page through PageSpeed Insights. Google’s Core Web Vitals thresholds for a good experience are a Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, an Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads.

The usual causes on a new store are oversized product images and too many apps or tracking scripts. Compress the images and remove any app you are not using.

9. Check accessibility

Shoppers who cannot use your checkout cannot buy. The current standard is WCAG 2.2 from the W3C. A basic pass before launch:

• Complete a purchase using only the keyboard. Focus should always be visible.
• Every product image has alt text that describes the product. Review AI-suggested alt text for accuracy.
• Text has enough contrast against its background, including on buttons and sale badges.
• Form fields have labels, and errors say what is wrong in words, not only in colour.

10. Review generated content and take a backup

Read each AI-drafted description against the real product: materials, sizes, compatibility, what is in the box. Remove any claim you cannot support. What AI does in a store builder explains why this step cannot be skipped.

Finally, export your products and keep the file. It is your backup and a check on what you can take with you. How to choose an ecommerce AI builder covers what exports usually leave out.

After the first real order

Follow the first genuine order the same way you followed the test: payment received, stock reduced, emails sent, parcel shipped within the time you promised. Then repeat the test order whenever you change payment settings, which is also what Shopify recommends.

Frequently asked questions

What should I test before launching an online store?

Place at least one complete test order and follow it through. Check the payment, the tax and shipping amounts, the stock count, the confirmation email, the refund, and that the sale shows up in your analytics. Then check your policies, page speed on a phone and whether the checkout works with a keyboard.

How do I test payments without charging a real card?

Use your platform's or payment provider's test environment. Shopify documents a test payment gateway and a test mode for Shopify Payments. Stripe provides sandboxes with test card numbers and prohibits testing in live mode with real card details. Switch back to live mode afterwards, because test mode blocks real orders.

Does my store builder handle sales tax for me?

It calculates tax from the settings you give it. Registering with tax authorities, confirming the rates and filing returns generally remain your responsibility. Shopify's documentation says so directly. Confirm your obligations with a tax accountant before launch.

Which policies does an online store need?

At a minimum, publish a refund and returns policy, a shipping policy with realistic delivery times, a privacy policy and terms of sale, plus a way to contact you. The exact legal requirements depend on where you and your customers are, so have the text reviewed for your jurisdiction.

Do I need to check AI-generated content before launch?

Yes. Read every AI-drafted product description, alt text and policy against the facts. Vendors warn that their AI output can contain errors, and you are responsible for claims your store makes about materials, sizes, delivery and returns.