Ecommerce launch checklist

Not in your developer's or agency's name. You should own and control the domain - if you ever change developers, you need to be able to move it. Register through Namecheap, 123-reg, or similar. Keep the login details somewhere safe.

If you're building with Futurestore, hosting is always included and managed for you - one less thing to think about. If you're using a different developer, confirm what's included: server location (UK-based is preferable), uptime guarantee, backup frequency, and the renewal cost after the first year.

PayPal is worth setting up first - most customers recognise and trust it, and it doubles as a way to pay without entering card details directly. Stripe is then a strong second option: no monthly fee, just transaction charges (1.5% + 20p for UK cards), and it handles standard card payments cleanly. Create both accounts early - identity verification can take a day or two and you don't want it holding up your go-live date. Futurestore integrates both as standard.

Every product you plan to sell at launch, with prices, variants (sizes, colours, options), and stock levels. Incomplete product information is the single most common cause of build delays.

Good product images are non-negotiable. Phone photography is fine for many products if the light is right and the background is clean. Professional photography pays for itself on higher-value items. Don't launch with placeholder images - they rarely get replaced.

Ideally an SVG (vector) file, or a PNG with a transparent background. JPG logos on coloured backgrounds cause problems. If you only have a low-resolution version, sort this before the build starts rather than after.

If you have existing brand guidelines, share them. If not, be prepared to make decisions early - colours, font style (modern/traditional/playful), and any sites you like the look of. Changing brand direction mid-build is expensive.

Which carrier(s) will you use? What are your rates? Do you offer free delivery over a certain order value? Do you ship internationally? These affect how the checkout is built - changing them later can require development work.

Stripe and PayPal pay out to a bank account. If you're using a personal account now but plan to open a business account later, it's cleaner to set up the business account first - changing payout bank details after launch requires identity re-verification.

Original descriptions - not copied from a supplier's website or another retailer. Duplicate content hurts SEO. Each description should answer what the product is, what it's made of, dimensions/sizing, and why someone would want it.

Who you are, what you sell, why someone should buy from you rather than a competitor. Keep it concise - homepage visitors scan rather than read. If you're struggling, answer three questions: what do you sell? who is it for? what makes you different?

The about page is often the second or third most visited page on a shop. People want to know who they're buying from. A genuine story - even a short one - builds more trust than a list of corporate-sounding values.

Address, phone number, and email address you're happy to publish. Consumer Rights regulations require UK online sellers to display a business address and contact email. A PO box is acceptable if you don't want to publish a home address.

A legal requirement under UK GDPR. Must explain what personal data you collect (names, addresses, email), why you collect it, how long you keep it, and who you share it with. Free online tools like Termly, GetTerms.io, and the ICO's own generator will write a solid first draft for you - answer a few questions and they produce a ready-to-publish policy. Read it through before you publish so you know what it says.

Covers how orders are placed, accepted, and fulfilled - what happens if something is out of stock, damaged in transit, or needs to be cancelled. Required by UK distance selling regulations. The same free tools that generate privacy policies (Termly, GetTerms.io) also produce T&Cs - use them as a starting point and customise for your specific business.

Delivery costs, estimated timescales, carriers used, whether you offer tracked shipping, and what happens if a parcel goes missing. Clear delivery information reduces pre-purchase questions and post-purchase complaints.

UK consumers have a 14-day right to return most goods bought online without giving a reason (Consumer Contracts Regulations). Your policy must reflect this minimum - you can offer more generous terms but not less. Clearly state who pays return postage.

Required if your site uses non-essential cookies - including Google Analytics. The notice must give visitors the option to accept or decline tracking cookies before they're set. Essential cookies (session, cart) don't require consent.

Add a product to cart, go through checkout, enter card details on the payment gateway's page, confirm the payment goes through, and check the order confirmation email arrives. Both Stripe and PayPal have test card numbers specifically for this. Do not skip this.

Browse on actual hardware, not just a browser's responsive preview mode. Click through several product pages, add to cart, and go to checkout. Most UK online shopping now happens on mobile - if the experience is poor, you will lose sales.

If you built or approved the site using Chrome, check it in Safari (especially on iPhone) and Edge. Layout differences between browsers are less common than they used to be, but still occur - better to find them now.

The padlock icon should be visible in the browser address bar. Your URL should start https:// - not http://. Without SSL, modern browsers display a security warning and Google ranks the site lower. Your hosting provider should include SSL - if they're charging extra for it, that's a red flag.

Click through every product page and confirm no broken images. Broken images on product pages - blank boxes where a photo should be - damage trust immediately and are easy to miss if you're testing quickly.

Check all navigation links, footer links, and any links within page content. Free tools like Screaming Frog (up to 500 URLs on the free tier) can crawl your site and flag broken links automatically - much faster than clicking through manually.

Type a non-existent URL on your site (e.g. yourdomain.co.uk/xyz) and check what appears. It should be a branded page that keeps the visitor on the site with navigation back to the homepage or product categories - not a generic server error screen.

The automatic email that goes to a customer after they order should contain: order number, items ordered, delivery address, and how to get in touch if something is wrong. Check it doesn't end up in spam, and that the sender address and reply-to are correct.

Privacy policy, terms and conditions, delivery information, and returns policy should all be accessible from the footer on every page. These are legal requirements for UK online sellers and also reduce pre-purchase anxiety.

Google Analytics 4 is free and standard. Verify it's actually recording by visiting your site and checking the real-time view in the Analytics dashboard. Without analytics, you have no data to improve from - you won't know which pages convert, where visitors drop off, or which traffic sources work.

Are you VAT registered? If so, prices should be shown inclusive of VAT for consumer shops (you can show ex-VAT for B2B). If you're not VAT registered, you don't need to show anything - but be aware of the registration threshold (currently £90,000 annual turnover).

Run your homepage through Google PageSpeed Insights (free). A mobile score above 70 is reasonable for a new shop. The most common culprits for slow scores are oversized images and too many third-party scripts. Address anything scoring below 50 before launch.

Search Console is free and shows you how Google sees your site - which pages are indexed, which searches you appear for, and any technical problems. Submit your sitemap.xml on launch day to tell Google which pages to crawl. It can take a few weeks for pages to appear in search results.

Instagram bio, Facebook page, any other platforms you use. If you have a Google Business Profile, update it there too - this affects how you appear in local search results and Google Maps.

Every email you send is a low-effort marketing opportunity. Update your signature with the new URL and any tagline. If you have a team, make sure everyone updates theirs.

If you have an existing customer base or email list, a launch announcement is your fastest route to first orders. Even a plain-text email with a direct link to the shop is better than nothing. Warm traffic converts far better than cold.

If your old site had Google rankings, those pages need 301 redirects to the nearest equivalent page on the new site - not just to the homepage. Without redirects, you lose the SEO value those pages had built up. This is worth doing properly even if the old site had low rankings.

Check from a device not connected to your usual network (mobile data, a different wifi) to confirm the live site is what the public sees - not a password-protected staging version or a "coming soon" placeholder.

When the first real order comes in, follow it all the way through - pick, pack, dispatch, and check the customer receives it in good condition. This is the moment you find out whether your packaging is adequate, your dispatch process is efficient, and your delivery expectations are realistic.

Check back in after 2-3 weeks. Look at the Coverage report for any pages Google couldn't crawl, the Page Experience report for mobile usability issues, and the Performance report to see which search queries are starting to send traffic.

If your shop tracks stock, make sure the numbers are accurate after any sales. Displaying a product as available when it isn't leads to cancelled orders and unhappy customers. Set up low-stock notifications if your platform supports them.

In the first weeks, pay close attention to any customer contact mentioning problems completing an order. Even a small number of complaints can indicate a wider issue - if one person emails, ten probably didn't bother and just left. Act on these quickly.

Pre-launch speed tests were done with placeholder content. Now that all product images and real content are in place, rerun PageSpeed Insights on your homepage and a busy category page. Real product images are often larger than placeholder images and can affect scores significantly.