WooCommerce Store Launch Checklist: 30 Things to Check Before Going Live
A complete WooCommerce launch checklist for Indian online stores: products, payments, shipping, taxes, policies, emails, speed, SEO and testing, so your first orders go smoothly.
On this page
- Check products, variations and stock before launch.
- Test live payments, failed payments, webhooks, shipping, taxes and order emails.
- Publish policy pages, test mobile checkout, set up SEO and take a full backup.
Launching an online store is exciting, and a broken checkout on day one is the fastest way to lose that momentum. Run through this checklist before you go live so your first customers have a smooth experience.
Still deciding on a platform? See WooCommerce vs Shopify in India.
Products
- Every product has a clear title, description, price and good photos
- Variations (size, colour, weight) set up and tested
- Stock levels entered, with low-stock notifications on
- Categories and tags organised the way customers browse
- Sale prices and scheduled offers checked
- Product images compressed so pages load quickly
Payments
- Payment gateway (for example Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree) switched from test mode to live mode
- Test payments completed with UPI, card and net banking
- Failed and cancelled payments tested: orders shouldn't get stuck as "pending"
- Gateway webhooks configured
- Cash on Delivery enabled or disabled deliberately, with any limits you need
More detail: accepting online payments on WordPress in India and WooCommerce shipping setup for India.
Shipping and taxes
- Shipping zones and rates set (local, state, national, international)
- Free-shipping thresholds working
- GST settings configured correctly for your products (confirm with your accountant)
- Invoices include the details your business needs
Policies and legal pages
- Terms and conditions
- Privacy policy
- Refund, return and cancellation policy
- Shipping policy
- Contact page with business details
Writing your returns policy? See returns and refunds for WooCommerce.
Emails and notifications
- Order confirmation, processing and completed emails branded and tested
- New order alerts reaching the right person (email and ideally WhatsApp)
- Emails landing in the inbox, not spam (use a proper sending setup)
For branding, content and inbox delivery in detail, see how to customise WooCommerce order emails.
Speed, mobile and SEO
- Checkout tested on real phones, start to finish
- Homepage, category and product pages tested on PageSpeed Insights
- Unique titles and descriptions for products and categories
- Product schema markup enabled (via your SEO plugin)
- Sitemap submitted in Google Search Console
Final checks
- Full backup taken, and automatic backups scheduled
- Analytics tracking purchases and key events
Once live, keep improving: see product page optimization and WooCommerce SEO.
After launch
Watch the first orders closely, reply quickly to customer questions, and check reports weekly. Keep plugins updated and the store backed up; see the maintenance checklist. Need help setting it all up? See WooCommerce store development.
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