Most "how to launch a Shopify store" guides cover the obvious stuff — choose a theme, add your products, set up Stripe. But there's a longer list of things that don't make the tutorials and end up being discovered the hard way, usually after you've started sending traffic.
This is the checklist we'd want if we were launching a new store today. Not the obvious stuff — the things that actually get missed.
Legal and compliance
1. Add all required legal pages
Shopify can generate basic versions of these from your admin: Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Refund Policy, and Shipping Policy. Go to Settings → Policies. The generated versions are starting points — review and customize them for your actual business before publishing.
2. Add cookie consent if you're selling to EU/UK customers
If you run any analytics or advertising pixels (Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, etc.), you need a cookie consent mechanism for EU and UK visitors. This isn't optional — GDPR enforcement is real and fines are significant. There are apps in the Shopify App Store that handle this, or Shopify Markets has some built-in support depending on your plan.
3. Add the EU withdrawal function if you sell to EU customers
EU Directive 2023/2673, which came into force on June 19, 2026, requires merchants selling online to EU consumers to provide a visible, accessible withdrawal button on their store. Customers must be able to cancel an order directly from the store, with automatic email confirmation. Non-compliance can result in fines of up to 4% of annual turnover. See our full guide on this for the details.
4. Make your refund policy easy to find
Not just in the footer — somewhere on the product page or near the checkout. A clearly visible refund policy reduces purchase anxiety and increases conversion, especially for first-time buyers.
Payments and checkout
5. Complete a test order end to end
Use Shopify's test payment gateway to place an order, go through the full checkout, and verify the order confirmation email. Then do it again with a real card for a $1 transaction if you have a product that allows it. You need to see what your customers see.
6. Enable accelerated checkout options
Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay all reduce checkout friction by skipping the payment form. Shopify reports that Shop Pay in particular has significantly higher conversion rates than standard checkout for returning customers. Enable all of them under Settings → Payments.
7. Set up your shipping rates correctly
Test what shipping costs show up at checkout for different zip codes and countries. If you're not charging the right rates, you're either overcharging customers (killing conversion) or undercharging and eating the difference. If you're offering free shipping over a threshold, make sure that threshold is clearly communicated on the product page and in the cart.
8. Test checkout on mobile
Open your store on a phone you don't normally use (or use a private/incognito window) and try to complete a purchase as if you'd never seen the store before. Note every point of confusion or friction. You will find things.
Product pages
9. Write real meta descriptions for your top products
Shopify auto-generates meta descriptions from your product description copy. These are usually bad. For your top 10 products, write custom meta descriptions — 150–160 characters, include the main keyword, and describe what makes the product worth clicking on. This directly affects your click-through rate in Google search results.
10. Check all images are high resolution
Shopify recommends 2000–3000px on the longest side for product images. Anything smaller will look pixelated when customers zoom in on mobile. Check your top sellers first.
11. Make sure variant images work correctly
If your products have color or style variants, each variant should show the correct images when selected. This is one of the most commonly broken things on Shopify stores. Go through each variant manually and verify.
Store settings and SEO
12. Set your store's title and meta description
This is the text that appears in Google search results for your homepage. Go to Online Store → Preferences. The default is usually your store name and nothing else. Add a clear, keyword-relevant description of what you sell.
13. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console
Your Shopify sitemap is automatically generated at yourstore.com/sitemap.xml. Submit it to Google Search Console to help Google discover and index your pages faster. Set up Search Console and submit the sitemap before you start driving traffic.
14. Set up a custom domain
If you're still on yourstore.myshopify.com, get a custom domain set up before launch. It looks more professional, and it matters for email deliverability if you're sending transactional emails from a branded domain.
15. Check your 404 page
If someone lands on a URL that doesn't exist on your store, what do they see? The default Shopify 404 page is functional but minimal. Consider customizing it to suggest popular products or link back to your homepage. Shopify allows custom 404 pages via theme editing.
Email and customer communication
16. Review your transactional emails
Shopify sends automatic emails for order confirmation, shipping confirmation, and more. These are often the first communications a new customer gets from your brand. Go to Settings → Notifications and review every one. Customize the wording to match your brand voice. Add your logo and brand colors.
17. Set up abandoned cart recovery
Shopify has built-in abandoned checkout emails. Make sure they're enabled and review the default copy. The default subject line is fine; the email body can often be improved with a more personal tone and a specific reason to come back.
Final checks
18. Test on multiple devices and browsers
Check your store on at least: iPhone Safari, Android Chrome, desktop Chrome, and desktop Firefox. Things that look fine in Chrome on Mac sometimes break on other browsers.
19. Remove all password protection
Shopify stores default to password-protected during setup. Before launch, go to Online Store → Preferences and disable the storefront password. Obvious, but this gets forgotten more than you'd think.
20. Set up Google Analytics or your analytics tool of choice
You need to know where your traffic is coming from and what it's doing once it arrives. Shopify has basic built-in analytics, but Google Analytics (via the Google & YouTube channel or GA4 direct integration) gives you significantly more data. Set this up before you launch — retroactive tracking is impossible.
This list isn't exhaustive, but it covers the things that either affect your legal compliance or have a direct impact on whether first-time visitors become customers. Most of them take less than 30 minutes to address. The ones that take longer — proper legal pages, full mobile checkout testing, email customization — are worth the time before you spend a single dollar on ads.
A store that converts 2% of visitors is worth twice as much advertising spend as a store that converts 1%. Get the foundation right first.
