It is imperative to take all the necessary steps before the launch when you possess a brilliant idea for an e-commerce business, a meticulously planned business plan, and are currently working on developing your website.
It is important to ensure a successful e-commerce launch by thoroughly reviewing a checklist, even if your brand and website seem well-presented at first glance. Are your product pages optimized for search engines? Have you developed a marketing plan to enhance brand recognition? Have you incorporated necessary pages like FAQs and contact details on your website?
When launching your business, it’s crucial to remember the small tasks that can impact customer experience. This comprehensive e-commerce checklist includes everything you need to do before your online store is up and running.
E-commerce checklist for launching an online store
- Incorporate sales channels
- Establish a personalized domain for your online store
- Evaluate the efficiency of your checkout process
- Develop essential pages for your website
- Assess your automated email system
- Audit your content thoroughly
- Enhance SEO and ensure optimization
- Set up tracking and analytics
- Optimize all images and visual content
- Build a pre-launch marketing strategy
- Establish your tax and shipping rates and settings
- Optimize your customer contact options
- Install helpful apps and integrations
- Configure your billing details
- Organize your back office effectively
- Significance of an e-commerce website launch checklist
- Provide assurance for you and your team
- Ensure a smooth launch day
- Set the tone for a positive customer experience
- Conclusion
1. Incorporate sales channels
The first point on the e-commerce website checklist focuses on sales channels. In today’s market, consumers seek an omnichannel experience, using platforms like YouTube and TikTok to explore products. Interestingly, traditional retail is also seeing a resurgence, with half of Gen Z favoring shopping in brick-and-mortar stores.
Explore the social media and marketplace platforms that align with your brand and seamlessly integrate them into your e-commerce website. Conduct thorough market research to accurately determine customer preferences and shopping habits.
2. Establish a personalized domain for your online store
To enhance brand visibility and make it easier for customers to remember your website address, consider using a custom domain. Begin by conducting a comprehensive search to ensure that your business name is available. If the name is not already trademarked in your industry and is accessible, you can effortlessly obtain your custom domain through Shopify.
3. Evaluate the efficiency of your checkout process
The checkout process is a crucial element in the e-commerce website checklist. Prior to the launch, it is essential to guarantee a seamless purchasing journey for prospective customers. With e-commerce cart abandonment rates averaging at 70.19%, it underscores the significance of identifying errors and eliminating friction during checkout testing. Verify the following elements:
- Display shipping rates prominently, providing options for shipping times and service levels.
- Test and confirm the functionality of discount codes.
- Enable customers to edit cart content, including product deletion and quantity adjustments.
- Offer familiar payment methods, including credit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, and Shop Pay.
- Provide order status tracking options.
- Ensure easy access to the contact page for inquiries or order adjustments.
4. Develop essential pages for your website
Establishing trust in your e-commerce platform hinges on crucial webpages that showcase the authenticity of your enterprise. These highly anticipated pages provide essential information to help customers comprehend your business background, familiarize themselves with your terms and conditions, and facilitate seamless communication.
Drawing from thorough analysis, the following pages are strongly advised for incorporation into your online store’s site map.
Moreover, it is of utmost significance to assign equal significance to diverse pages such as collection and category pages, in addition to product pages. It is imperative to carry out a thorough assessment of promotional landing pages, the checkout page, and the shopping cart to guarantee a comprehensive analysis of each customer interaction point.
- The home page serves as the key point of contact for clients, often acting as their first point of entry or subsequent destination for navigation. View it as the initial interaction with your customer, an opportunity to create a positive first impression and set the tone for your brand as a whole.
- The contact page plays a crucial role in assuring customers about the authenticity of your store and providing them with easy access to assistance from the store owner. It emphasizes the presence of real individuals behind the brand. Ensure that you incorporate essential contact details such as a phone number, email address, and physical location. (if applicable).
- The About page provides an opportunity for prospective customers to gain a deeper understanding of your brand, mission, and the individuals behind your products. As a business owner, it is crucial to consider different approaches in order to address the main requirements of visitors to this page.
- Developing a compelling FAQ page can pose a challenge, as it involves predicting customer inquiries prior to your product launch. This page is a fluid element that adapts according to customer engagement. To maximize its impact, it is advisable to study rival websites and pinpoint frequently asked questions.
5. Assess your automated email system
When launching an online store, e-commerce entrepreneurs must integrate email marketing into their plans. Email serves as a valuable means of communicating crucial details with customers as they progress through the buying journey. Tailoring automated emails is a critical component of the e-commerce site preparation before going live, enabling you to actively connect with your email list and enhance sales.
6. Audit your content thoroughly
Carefully review all written material on your website to verify accuracy, spelling, and grammar. It may be beneficial to have another individual provide a fresh viewpoint by reviewing it as well.
Furthermore, meticulously check for technical issues like broken links, 404 errors, image display glitches, and mobile responsiveness. Ensure to test your website across various browsers and devices to identify and address any possible problems.
7. Enhance SEO and ensure optimization
When launching an online business, ensuring your website appears in search results is essential for customer visibility. Despite the increasing role of social networks in product discovery, Google still represents more than 90% of search queries worldwide.
Employing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics is key to generating consistent, high-quality, and free traffic. Start with thorough keyword research:
- Conduct Keyword Research: Identify popular and trending search terms related to your products.
- Implement Keyword Optimization: Integrate keywords and related terms into product and category descriptions, page headlines, copy, URLs, meta titles, alt text, and asset file names.
- Optimize Site Speed: Opt for a reliable hosting company, invest in a content delivery network (CDN), and compress images to enhance website loading speed, improving overall customer experience.
- Leverage Content Marketing: Develop blog articles targeting specific keywords to educate readers and garner high-value backlinks from other websites.
- Utilize Schema Markup: Incorporate specific code, like schema markup, to enhance search engine understanding and enable Google to display enriched results (e.g., rich snippets).
- Design a Sitemap: Create a comprehensive sitemap to provide Google with information about your website’s content, aiding in efficient crawling and categorization.
8. Set up tracking and analytics
It is crucial to set up analytics from the start. This data provides important insights into your audience and customers, allowing you to track website navigation, traffic sources, and areas of concern. Leveraging this information is vital for improving your business as it expands.
9. Optimize all images and visual content
To enhance the user experience, improve search engine performance, and increase conversion rates, it is crucial to optimize images for faster load times. Shopify prioritizes speed for online stores and effectively manages technical complexities. To further enhance load speed and optimize images for the web, please take into account the following suggestions:
- Descriptive File Names: Use keyword-rich file names for images to boost SEO rankings for your site and product pages.
- Optimized Alt Text: Craft descriptive alt text containing relevant keywords, serving both accessibility and SEO purposes.
- Image Size Reduction: While impactful, ensure that large images maintain reduced file sizes (in pixels) without compromising quality.
- File Format Selection: Save images as JPEG for photography and PNG for graphics and icons, aligning with best practices for online images.
- A/B Testing: Evaluate image performance through A/B tests to identify what works best in different scenarios.
10. Build a pre-launch marketing strategy
Introducing your website to silence can be prevented by implementing a carefully planned pre-launch marketing strategy. This important stage helps create excitement and engage with potential customers. Below are suggestions included in the e-commerce website checklist for your pre-launch preparations.
- Pre-launch Landing Page: Capture emails and generate interest.
- Social Media Content: Keep customers excited and informed.
- PR Opportunities: Seek coverage to build anticipation.
- Pre-launch Event: Host a virtual or in-person event for a memorable introduction.
- Pre-Orders: Allow customers to secure products ahead of the official launch.
- Early Access Promo: Offer exclusive access to early subscribers with a password-protected site entry.
11. Establish your tax and shipping rates and settings
Ensure that the shipping rates you set align with the products and locations you are selling to, to avoid financial losses from discrepancies between posted and actual shipping costs. It is also essential to review and adjust your tax settings as needed.
Depending on the nature of your business and the locations of your customers, you may need to collect and remit sales tax to the government during tax season. If your business operates in various regions, seeking advice from an accountant can assist in ensuring proper setup.
12. Optimize your customer contact options
It is beneficial to include a dedicated contact page on your e-commerce website, as well as prominently display essential contact information like your business address, phone number, email, and live chat option on various pages. A widely used method is to incorporate this information into a static footer that remains visible on all pages.
13. Install helpful apps and integrations
Begin by utilizing essential applications for efficient business operations, gradually integrating additional ones as your business expands. For newly established companies, prioritize applications that pertain to marketing, customer support, and conversions. Furthermore, explore tailored applications that cater specifically to your unique business category.
For example, apparel businesses can benefit from advanced size chart apps, while brands with complex products can enhance customer experience and reduce returns through quiz apps, aiding customers in making informed selections.
14. Configure your billing details
Before you launch, make sure that your e-commerce business is completely set up by adhering to the necessary procedures. After the trial period ends, select the appropriate subscription on your e-commerce platform and enter your store’s billing information. This will ensure timely payment of fees and avoid any complications when you launch.
15. Organize your back office effectively
Ready for the launch of your highly anticipated brand? Ensure smooth operations by organizing processes in advance. Utilize apps for automation, align systems with your business style guide, and provide training materials for consistency.
This proactive approach minimizes shipping delays, inventory issues, and customer service challenges, ensuring a successful and seamless launch.
Significance of an e-commerce website launch checklist
In the hectic months leading up to your e-commerce launch, a comprehensive checklist is invaluable for ensuring success. Here’s how it can make a difference:
Provide assurance for you and your team
An e-commerce website checklist is crucial to guarantee that no vital steps are neglected amidst the numerous tasks at hand. By methodically marking off items on the list, you can obtain confidence that every aspect of the customer experience has been comprehensively examined and rigorously tested.
Ensure a smooth launch day
A checklist reduces ambiguity and streamlines tasks, allowing you to focus on customer connections and order experiences rather than scrambling with housekeeping items on launch day.
Set the tone for a positive customer experience
The first impression a customer receives is crucial. By following a carefully planned checklist, the chances of disappointment are reduced, leading to a positive initial interaction. Even if unexpected problems occur, a comprehensive checklist allows you to deal with them promptly without distractions such as SEO or shipping costs.
Conclusion
After finishing your e-commerce website checklist, it is now the moment to present your site and brand to a wider audience. Implement your marketing strategy to kickstart brand awareness.
The key benefit is the flexibility. By collecting feedback and data, you have the freedom to make changes, whether in shipping configurations or website layout. Allocate resources wisely, prioritizing e-commerce SEO over ineffective marketing efforts. Improve the customer journey by incorporating essential apps, optimizing the checkout process, and enhancing customer service – all aimed at attracting more happy customers and boosting sales.