Checking your store before you launch

Whatever shop you came from, launch day is the same list. Work it from the top. Every step here has cost someone a quiet first week. Leave pointing your domain at Orbit until the very end.

Considerations

• Do all of this before you point your domain. Once the domain moves, real customers see whatever state the store is in.
• If you switched on password protection while you were building, it is still on. Leave it on until the last step.
• Imported products go live as soon as they land, unless the row had no price or said draft. Check your product list before you open the doors.

1. Check your catalogue

1. All products imported. Compare the count with your old shop.
2. Images loaded. Spot-check a few products.
3. Prices and stock levels match the old shop.
4. Open a product with options. Check the price, SKU and stock of each variant.
5. Categories built, and products attached to them.
6. Navigation menus updated to match your new categories.

2. Check the money

1. Orbit Payments connected and verified, or your own provider set up. A verification still pending on launch day is the classic stall.
2. Shipping zones and rates set up.
3. Go to Settings, then Shipping, then Rate Tester. Try your three most common baskets and check the options a customer would be offered.
4. Tax settings rebuilt: rates, registrations and overrides.
5. Any discounts you still run recreated.
6. Gift card balances reissued.

3. Check your storefront

1. Theme chosen and customised. Homepage and key pages built.
2. Refund, privacy, terms and shipping pages created under Storefront, then Pages.
3. Those pages added to your footer menu under Storefront, then Navigation.
4. URL redirects added under Storefront, then URL Redirects, for every old address with traffic or search ranking.
5. Favicon and social sharing image set.
6. SEO titles and descriptions written for your homepage and key pages.

Warning: Text you save under Settings, then Store Policies, is not shown on your storefront. It has to be a page under Storefront, then Pages, linked from a menu. Skipping this leaves you with no visible refund policy.

Redirects are the most skipped step on this list, and the one people regret most. Without them, every link to your old shop lands on a 404 and the search ranking behind it goes with it.

4. Check your emails

1. Go to Settings, then Notifications. On the Email tab, open Customer Email Templates and read through your order and account emails.
2. Send a test email to yourself and check how it looks.
3. Turn on abandoned cart emails.
4. Set who on your team receives each store alert.
5. Email your customers about the move. Tell anyone who had an account that they need to set a new password.

5. Place a real test order

This is the step that proves the rest. Use your own card and buy something.

1. Browse your storefront as a customer would.
2. Add a product to the basket and apply a discount code.
3. Go through checkout and pay.
4. Check the confirmation email arrives.
5. Check the order shows up under Orders.
6. Check the stock level of what you bought has gone down.
7. Refund the order.

If any part of that surprises you, it would surprise a customer too. Fix it now.

6. Switch off password protection, then point the domain

1. Go to Storefront, then Preferences.
2. Under Password protection, switch off Enable password protection.
3. Click Save.
4. Open your storefront and check a page loads without asking for a password.
5. Now point your domain at Orbit.

Note: While password protection is on, every page of your store shows the password screen, including checkout. Search engines cannot get past it either. Nobody can buy anything until you turn it off.

Related guides

• Redirecting an old URL to a new one
• Setting your storefront preferences
• Fixing CSV import problems
• Finishing your store setup