The Essential Shopify Store Launch Checklist

First thing’s first, set up the proper sales channels early on to expand your reach and boost sales. Just having a Shopify store isn’t enough. You need to use Google Shopping, Facebook Shops, and Instagram Shops, as well. 

Don’t recognize those last two? That’s because they’re brand new features from Facebook, Inc. aimed at helping people just like you to sell more online. 

Facebook Shops are a new mobile-first online storefront to connect with the platform’s 2.7 billion active users. Source: Facebook.

• Use Socialshop to set up Facebook Shops

Socialshop is an app that allows you to quickly and easily set up your Facebook Shop and sync your entire eCommerce store product catalogs to Facebook Shop and Google Shopping. You can determine the time and frequency of product synchronization as you want. The app also helps you to optimize your product listings for the Facebook algorithm, making them more discoverable to shoppers on the platform. 

• Set up a Google Merchant Center account 

Listing your products on Google Merchant Center is a simple and free way to reach more people and boost sales. There’s no reason not to do it. You can begin playing around with Google AdWords once your products are listed to reach people via paid listings. 

• Sell on Instagram 

Instagram Shops are linked to Facebook Shops, although not everyone can set one up yet. They’re a new feature that will be rolled out further in 2021. There’s no reason not to sell on this platform because it’s also free. 

• Sell through Messenger

Use the Socialreply app to connect with potential customers on Facebook Messenger and even sell to them through the platform. Messenger marketing is proven to be effective at driving up conversions. 

Cast a larger net and you’ll catch more fish. But it’s important to make sure you’re also fishing in the right spot. You’re not going to catch anything if there aren’t any fish, to begin with. 

Find where the fish are, then cast your net. You’ll need to use analytics platforms to figure out who your customers are, where they’re coming from, and how they behave on your eCommerce store. There are a lot of major analytics platforms out there, although the granddaddy of them all is Google Analytics. 

Google Analytics gives you invaluable insight into where your customers come to your website from, which country they’re in, what pages they bounce on, and much more. Source: Google Analytics.

Setting up Google Analytics 

This is an essential step for running an online business. It’s not difficult to set Google Analytics up and begin learning how to use it, but it is going to suck up some time. It’s worth gaining a fundamental understanding of how the platform works, trust us. 

• Set up an account on Google Analytics.
• Link your eCommerce store to it. 
• Copy a piece of code and paste it into your Shopify (or your other eCommerce platform) dashboard. 
• Enable ‘Enhanced eCommerce’ under where you pasted the code. 

All of this is laid out during the setup. It might sound like you’re working for the NSA, but it’s actually pretty simple. 

Set up a Facebook Pixel 

Another thing you should set up is a Facebook Pixel. This is a piece of code that you paste into your eCommerce platform dashboard to connect your store to Facebook so you can track who converts via your Facebook Ads.  

This is an essential step if you’re going to be using Facebook for marketing. It’s also a step that most small businesses are, unfortunately, unaware of when you’re doing Shopify store launch checklist.

Marketing is essential to expand your audience and make more sales. Content is the king of marketing, so you’ll need to make a content schedule that outlines what you’ll post, where you’ll post it, and when you’ll post it.

You also need a wider marketing plan to keep track of all forms of brand and product promotion together. 

Fiverr has thousands of content writers, photographers, designers, and more. Source: Fiverr.

• Plan content around holidays, seasons, product launches, competitor moves, and so on. 
• Make sure you’ve got content planned out in advance. 
• Outsource content creation to freelancers – Fiverr is a good platform for this. 
• Always track the performance of your content. How many impressions, clicks, and conversions? 
• Set goals for clicks and SERP rankings. 
• Use a marketing calendar template. 

You could use an excel spreadsheet to do this, although there are plenty of tools out there to help you along the way. Socialpublish is a free app that allows you to plan content months in advance, create posts for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and auto-schedule sharing. 

This saves you loads of time and basically removes the need to outsource your social media marketing. The best part is you don’t need to spend any money along the way. 

You wouldn’t want your store to look like someone threw a grenade in it. The same applies to your eCommerce website. Knowing how to set up an online business means having an eye for design. There are plenty of tricks to increase your conversion rate when creating your store. Here are some basic ones. 

The key rule of store design: Make it as easy as possible to get to the checkout. Remove all obstacles and clutter so users can find what they want. 

London-based luxury shoe company Russell & Bromley keep menu navigation simple. The company also uses product filtering in their collection pages to make it easier to find what you want. Source: Russell & Bromley.

Menu navigation 

It all starts here. Your menu should be easy to use, simple, and never contain more than seven options (anything more is overwhelming). Keep the most important options on the left, and the contact page on the end. 

Only use a mega menu if your store is selling hundreds of products across different categories that cannot be grouped together simply. Mega menus aren’t necessary for most small online businesses and they’re quite overwhelming. 

Search box

Never overlook this little guy – he’s the star of the show when it comes to product discoverability. The main rule here is to never leave your visitors with a ‘no results’ page. Instead, suggest popular or similar products.

You should also have typo-tolerance and a bank of synonyms for your search box. Finally, make sure it’s always clearly displayed. 

Socialwidget helps you to design a custom Instagram feed layout on your eCommerce store.

Social proof 

Most people trust recommendations from strangers online a lot more than brand marketing. Encourage customers to leave photo reviews, then share them on Instagram, and use the Socialwidget app to display your Instafeed on your site. 

You can also contact influencers in your niche on social media and send them products as a gift to (hopefully) get featured on their channels.