Michael D. WandzilakShopify handles much of the store infrastructure. Before launch, work through products, payments, shipping, design and checkout testing.
1. Get the foundations right before you decorate
Before touching the theme, settle the unglamorous essentials: your store name and domain, your shipping zones and rates, your tax settings, and your payment setup. These quietly determine whether checkout works and whether you keep your margins. Speaking of which —
2. Use Shopify Payments (and understand the fees)
Shopify charges a transaction fee on top of your plan — 2.9% + 30¢ online on the Basic plan. Crucially, if you use an outside payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a further cut (2% on Basic). Using Shopify Payments avoids that extra fee entirely. For most merchants that’s the right default, and it’s a decision worth making consciously, not by accident.
3. Build useful product pages
Your product pages are where the sale happens. Each one needs:
- Sharp photography — multiple angles, consistent lighting, on a clean background.
- Useful descriptions. Lead with the benefit; the spec sheet can follow.
- Clean organization — sensible collections, variants and tags so people can actually find things.
- SEO basics — descriptive titles, alt text and URLs so Google can find them too.
4. Choose and customize a theme deliberately
Pick a theme that fits your catalog size and brand, then customize the layout — colors, type, homepage layout, navigation. A free theme may have the features you need; compare it with paid options using your actual products and layouts. Check the layout and checkout on phones as well as larger screens.
5. Make checkout frictionless
Review fields, fees and instructions that could make checkout harder. Offer guest checkout, show shipping costs early, support the payment methods your customers expect (cards, Apple Pay, Shop Pay), and test the entire flow on your own phone before launch.
6. Don’t launch blind
Before you flip the store public, set up analytics, connect your domain properly, add your core policy pages (shipping, returns, privacy), and place a test order end-to-end. Then launch — and watch what real visitors do, because the first weeks of real data will tell you more than any amount of pre-launch theorizing.
After launch, use orders, analytics and customer feedback to improve product pages and checkout.
Planning a Shopify launch? We can help with product setup, theme customization and checkout testing.