Launching a new business is exciting, but it’s important to make sure everything is ready before opening. Brick-and-mortar stores usually need at least two to six months before the grand opening. E-commerce is faster, but it helps to follow a checklist. This guide shows you how to make a Shopify store live and visible online.
How Do You Know If Your Shopify Store Is Live?
If your new store isn’t getting any search traffic, it may be still set to the “Opening Soon” landing page. To check, visit your store from a non-admin device, like a mobile phone. If you see “Enter store using password,” your store isn’t showing as live. This means search engines can’t crawl it.
How Do You Make Your Shopify Store Live?
Shopify has a user-friendly store creation process and setup guide. Some owners use a template and others build from scratch. The basics involve adding products and descriptions, and setting up prices, payment options, and sales tax details. After that, you’re just a few steps away from going live.
1. Customize and Publish Your Theme
If you haven’t customized your theme yet, now is the time. Shopify’s theme editor lets you tweak content, sections, colors, images, fonts, and other settings.
Go to “Online Store”> “Themes.” Click on “Sections” and make any edits you want. When finished, click the “Publish” button.
2. Choose a Paid Shopify Plan
A free trial lets you create a Shopify store, but you can’t publish it. To make your Shopify store live, you have to choose a paid plan: Basic, Shopify, or Advanced.
3. Test the Checkout Process
Make sure the shopping, cart, checkout, and payment processes are working correctly. Shopify Payments has a test mode:
- Go to “Settings” > “Payments.”
- Click “Edit” under the “Shopify Payments” heading.
- Enable the box marked “Use test mode” and save changes.
- Run a test by adding a few products to your cart and checking out.
Once everything works properly, go back to your payment settings and turn off the “Use test mode” box.
4. Double-Check Your Store
Go to “Online store” in the “Sales channels” tab, and click on the preview icon. Preview mode shows you what your store looks like to a customer. Check every product page one last time. Make sure all prices are correct and that pages load quickly.
In your admin, review settings for payments, discounts, and taxes. If you use any app integrations for wholesale pricing, dropshipping, bundles, upsells, or size charts, make sure they’re configured correctly.
5. Add a Home Page Title
Go to “Online store” > “Preferences.” In the “Title and meta description” section, give your Shopify store a short title (e.g., Blue-Eyed Jean Company) and description. This is what visitors see when they search for your brand online.
6. Remove the Password Page
Now you’re ready for the final step. In the same “Preferences” section, scroll down to the “Password protection” heading. Uncheck the box marked “Restrict access to visitors with the password.” Save the changes. Your store is now live and ready to start making money.
How To Make Your Shopify Store Live Faster
Launching your Shopify store doesn’t have to be overwhelming. At StayTuned Digital, we’re experts in Shopify store customization. StayTuned Apps can help streamline your setup, automate configurations, and optimize store performance. Contact us today and take your Shopify store live with confidence.