Post-Launch Checklist for a New Online Store

A store that has taken its first order is not finished. This is the list we would work through in the weeks after launch, in roughly the order trouble shows up. Skip what does not apply, and add what your product needs.

Payments

• Place a real order with your own card, then refund it. Note what the processor kept from the refunded order, since many processors do not return the fixed part of their fee.
• Find out when your first payout is due and why. New accounts are often paid more slowly, or have a reserve held back, while the processor learns your volume. Ask instead of guessing.
• When the first payout lands, match it to the orders behind it. A payout is sales minus refunds and fees, so it will not equal your sales total. Find the report that explains the gap. The payments section covers how to read one.
• Turn on fraud screening and address checks, and decide in advance what you do with an order that gets flagged.
• Find out where dispute notices arrive and how long you have to answer one.

Shipping

• Weigh and measure a handful of real packed orders and compare them with the weights and dimensions in your product listings. Wrong weights produce wrong rates.
• Buy a label for a sample order and compare its cost with what checkout charged. If they differ, you are either subsidizing the order or overcharging.
• Make the delivery times on the site match handling time plus real transit time.
• In the United States, the FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires a reasonable basis for the shipping time you advertise, and requires you to get the buyer’s consent to a delay or refund the order when you cannot ship on time.
• Decide what happens when a parcel arrives damaged: what photos you ask for, who files the claim and how long the carrier gives you to do it.

The service types are laid out in shipping options compared.

Returns

• Publish a returns policy and link it from the footer, the product pages and the order confirmation. The guide to writing a returns policy walks through the decisions.
• Pick a return address, a person who inspects what comes back and a rule for when the refund is issued.

Taxes and paperwork

• Check the tax settings on your platform. Whether you must collect sales tax, and where, depends on where you sell from and where your customers are, so confirm with an accountant or your state tax agency.
• Keep business money in a business account and keep receipts for stock, packaging and software.
• Make sure your store shows the legal pages your platform and your market expect, such as terms and a privacy policy.

Customer messages

• Read your order confirmation, shipping notice and refund email as a customer would. Look for broken links, wrong names and missing order numbers.
• Set up a support inbox with one named owner and a reply time you can keep.

Inventory

• Count what you have and compare it with what the store says.
• Set a reorder point for each product: daily sales multiplied by the supplier’s lead time, plus a cushion.
• Confirm that stock is deducted at checkout so you cannot sell the same last unit twice.

Backups and access

• Export your products, customers and orders on a schedule.
• Give at least two trusted people admin access to the platform, the email domain and the payment account.
• Turn on two-step sign-in everywhere and store the recovery codes somewhere safe.

Every month after that

• Reconcile each payout against its orders.
• Work out the margin on a typical order with the order margin calculator.
• Compare what you spend on shipping with what customers pay for it.
• Read the reasons customers gave for returns and fix what repeats.