Publishing your Shopify page allows you to make your online store live and available for customers to view and make purchases. There are a few steps involved in publishing your Shopify page that are important to follow to ensure your store is ready to go live.
Check Your Store Setup
Before publishing your Shopify store, you’ll want to double check that all the key components of your store are properly set up and ready to go. Here are some key things to check:
- Store theme – Make sure you have installed and customized a theme for your store. Themes control the look, layout, and design of your Shopify store.
- Products added – You’ll need to have products added to your store catalog before launching. Make sure you’ve added titles, descriptions, photos, pricing, etc.
- Payment settings – Set up your payment providers like credit cards, PayPal in the Payments section so customers can pay.
- Shipping settings – Configure your shipping rates and options in the Shipping section.
- Pages – Create any important pages like an About page so your store has more content.
- Navigation – Set up your menus and site navigation in the Navigation section.
- Settings – Double check things like your store name, address, currency, etc in Settings.
Doing a thorough review of these key store elements will help ensure your Shopify site is ready to launch successfully.
Optimize for Search Engines
It’s important to optimize your Shopify store for search engines like Google before launching so customers can easily find your products and site. Here are some tips:
- Add keywords – Include relevant keywords in your product titles, descriptions, alt text, content, etc.
- Write blog posts – Quality blog content improves SEO and gives customers info.
- Setup meta descriptions – Customize meta descriptions so they are optimized for each page.
- Improve site speed – Faster loading speeds improve your search rankings.
- Add XML sitemaps – XML sitemaps help search engines index your site pages.
- 301 redirects – Redirect any old URLs to your new store with 301 redirects.
Taking time to optimize will help boost your SEO and make sure customers can find your products more easily.
Test Your Store
Thoroughly testing your Shopify store is crucial before launch to identify and fix any issues. Here are some tips for testing your store:
- Check site pages – Browse through all your site pages to make sure content looks correct.
- Test checkout – Complete test purchases to ensure checkout is working properly.
- Review confirmation emails – Check confirmation emails have correct details.
- Test shipping calculators – Test shipping rates and rules are calculating correctly.
- Try different payments – Process test payments with different methods like cards, PayPal, etc.
- Use promo codes – Check any promo codes or discounts you plan to offer.
- Test forms – Fill out any contact forms, email signup forms, etc. to test them.
- Check mobile site – Preview how your store looks and works on mobile devices.
Running through comprehensive tests like these will help you identify and resolve any issues so your store is running smoothly at launch.
Choose a Domain
An important step is choosing the right domain name for your Shopify store. Here are some tips on choosing a domain:
- Short and memorable – Aim for a short, catchy domain that’s easy to remember.
- Keywords – Try to incorporate relevant keywords if possible.
- .com – .com is the most common and recognizable extension.
- Avoid hyphens – Domains with hyphens can be confusing.
- Check availability – Use a domain search tool to find availability.
- Brand name – Using your business or brand name can be a good option.
Once you’ve chosen a domain, you can purchase it through a registrar like GoDaddy. Make sure to connect your domain to your Shopify store in the Domains section.
Enable Shipping Services
Configuring your shipping services and rates is required for a live Shopify store. Here are some tips when setting up shipping:
- Carriers – Select the shipping carriers you plan to use like USPS, UPS, FedEx.
- Shipping rates – Configure your shipping rates and delivery timelines.
- Rate rules – Set up rules to apply rates based on order weight, location, etc.
- Show rates – Display expected shipping rates to customers early on.
- Shipping apps – Check out Shopify apps that optimize shipping like ShipStation.
- Tracking – Enable tracking and notifications to improve customer experience.
Having shipping properly set up is key to ensuring customers can receive orders and providing them visibility into deliveries.
Configure Taxes
You need to set up your taxes properly in Shopify before launching your online store live. Follow these tips for taxes:
- Tax provider – Connect a tax provider like TaxJar to calculate rates automatically.
- Tax rates – Enter your sales tax rates for regions you operate and sell in.
- Tax rules – Create rules to apply the appropriate tax rate based on factors like customer location.
- Tax exemptions – Set up tax exemption rules if applicable.
- Show estimates – Show customers estimated taxes early in checkout.
- Tax reports – Use Shopify reports to view tax collection and remittance.
- Nexus – Understand nexus laws if selling across multiple states and regions.
Properly configuring taxes ensures you collect and remit the right tax amounts and avoid issues or audits down the road.
Set Up Payment Providers
Enabling payment providers in Shopify is essential to accepting payments from customers in your live store. Follow these tips when setting up payments:
- Credit cards – Activate payments via Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover.
- Shopify Payments – Use Shopify Payments to accept credit cards directly.
- PayPal – Integrate PayPal Express or PayPal Standard.
- Other options – Accept other methods like Amazon Pay or Alipay.
- Multiple options – Offer customers multiple payment methods.
- Fraud analysis – Use Shopify’s Fraud Analysis to screen orders.
- Secure checkout – Use SSL to encrypt checkout for security.
Having multiple payment options makes it convenient for customers to checkout and pay for orders.
Import Products
Rather than adding products one by one, you can import your products into Shopify for faster setup:
- Product CSV – Export products into a CSV from your inventory or other system.
- Import app – Use a Shopify app like Oberlo to import products.
- Sync connectors – Install a connector app to sync your inventory.
- Add images – Upload product images along with import.
- Check details – Review products after import to check details.
- Fix errors – Use import logs to identify and fix any problem records.
Importing can help you quickly get hundreds or thousands of products loaded into your Shopify store.
Review Store Performance
It’s important to monitor and analyze the performance of your Shopify store once it’s live. Follow these tips:
- Google Analytics – Install Google Analytics to track traffic and visitor behavior.
- Shopify reports – Use reports in Shopify to track sales, traffic, conversions, etc.
- Server response – Monitor server response times and speed optimization.
- Checkout funnel – Identify checkout funnel drop off points.
- Mobile metrics – Track mobile conversion rates and optimizations.
- Page performance – See which store pages have the highest bounce rates.
- SEO metrics – Track relevant SEO metrics like rankings and traffic.
Ongoing performance monitoring and optimization is key to maximizing the success of your Shopify store after launch.
Promote Your Store
To attract customers and increase sales, you’ll need to promote your Shopify store. Some options include:
- Search ads – Run Google, Bing, Amazon ads to attract searches.
- Social media – Promote your store on platforms like Facebook, Instagram.
- Influencers – Connect with relevant influencers to promote products.
- Content marketing – Create and promote blogs, videos, tutorials.
- Email marketing – Send campaigns and offers to your email subscriber list.
- Sales channels – List your products on other sales channels.
- Partners – Pursue marketing partnerships and collaborations.
Implementing a marketing mix is important for generating ongoing awareness and sales for your Shopify store after launching.
Conclusion
Launching a Shopify ecommerce store involves important steps like configuring your theme, settings, products, payments, shipping, and taxes. Thoroughly testing your store and optimizing for search engines helps ensure a smooth launch. Ongoing promotion, performance monitoring, and marketing are key to driving growth after launch. Following these best practices will set your Shopify store up for success.