Opening an e-shop has something in common with opening a physical store: everyone looks at the window display, but the problems show up at the till. This is the list we run through on every project before the go-live button gets pressed. Keep it, even if someone else is building your shop.
1. A test order with a real card
Not just in the bank’s sandbox. A real one-euro order reveals problems that test environments hide: wrong shipping costs, emails that never send, 3D Secure failures.
2. The store’s emails
Order confirmation, shipping notification, password reset. Do they send? Do they land in the inbox or in spam? An e-shop whose emails go to spam loses customers you will never even know existed. Proper SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup is not a luxury.
3. Shipping rules and cash on delivery
Test orders to an island, to a remote area, with a bulky product. That is where pricing-rule mistakes hide. And settle the returns question up front: who pays return shipping and how is it declared?
4. Speed on mobile
More than half of your visitors will arrive on a phone. If the product page is slow, the cart empties before it fills. See our guide on speed and measure on a real device, not just with tools.
5. Legal: terms, privacy, cookies
Terms of use, returns policy, privacy policy and a proper cookie consent banner. Boring until they become urgent.
6. Google Shopping and the product feed
If you plan to advertise, the product feed must come out clean from day one: titles, prices, availability, photos. Google Ads for e-shops stand on top of it.
7. Analytics from day one
GA4 and conversion tracking set up before opening, not “later”. The first weeks produce the most valuable data about what works.
8. Backups and updates
Who keeps backups, how often, and where? If the answer is “the hosting keeps it somewhere, probably”, you do not have a backup. You have hope.
9. A phone that gets answered
A customer who cannot get a pre-sale question answered does not buy. Put a visible phone number or form on the site and decide who answers it.
Want a second pair of eyes before your own go-live? Talk to us, we do this often and we do it fast.
