WooCommerce Launch Checklist: 12 Things to Check Before You Open Your Store

On projects like Relax Moment and BerryDent, the design is only half the job. The other half is making sure every step from “Add to cart” to “Thank you for your order” works perfectly. This is the checklist I go through before any WooCommerce store goes live.

Store settings

1. Store address, currency and selling locations. In WooCommerce → Settings → General, set your business address, currency, and the countries you sell and ship to. These affect taxes, shipping and how prices are displayed.

2. Tax settings. Decide whether prices are entered and displayed including or excluding tax, and set up the right rates for your country. Check with your accountant if you’re unsure.

3. Shipping zones and methods. Create a zone for each region you ship to, with clear rates — flat rate, free shipping above a certain order value, or local pickup. Test an address in each zone.

Payments

4. Payment gateways connected and in live mode. Use gateways that support how your customers prefer to pay. Make sure test mode is switched off before launch — this is one of the most common launch-day mistakes.

5. A real test order. Place at least one order with a real card or payment method, then refund it. Test-mode orders don’t always catch problems with live credentials.

Products

6. Complete product pages. Every product needs a clear title, price, good photos from several angles, a description focused on benefits, and stock status. Missing information is a top reason people abandon a purchase.

7. Variations work correctly. If a product comes in sizes or colors, check that each variation has its own price, stock and image, and that the right image appears when selected.

Customer experience

8. Emails look right and arrive. Order confirmation, processing and completed emails should carry your logo and colors. Send yourself a test of each — and check they don’t land in spam. A transactional email service (via an SMTP plugin) improves deliverability.

9. Mobile checkout. Complete a full purchase on your phone. Remove any checkout fields you don’t truly need; every extra field reduces conversions.

10. Legal pages. Publish and link a privacy policy, terms and conditions, and a returns and refunds policy. Link them from the footer and the checkout page.

Behind the scenes

11. Backups and security. Turn on daily automatic backups (including the database — that’s where your orders live), and make sure the whole site runs on HTTPS.

12. Analytics and tracking. Connect Google Analytics 4 with eCommerce tracking and, if you run ads, the Meta Pixel. Test that a purchase is recorded before you spend money on advertising.

After launch

Watch the first week of orders closely. Check that stock levels update, emails go out and payments land in your account. Small problems are easy to fix when you catch them early.

Planning an online store? Let’s talk — I’ll help you plan the product pages, payments and shipping before a single line of code is written.