Shopify Checklist - How to stay on top of your Shopify store creation.

Are you in the process of creating a Shopify store or would you like to start soon? Then our Shopify checklist is the right tool for you. We have listed all the important points so that you can see at a glance which aspects need to be considered.

What all do I need for my new Shopify store?

From experience we can say that it is easy to forget something and it often takes a long time to collect all the data you need.

For example, many future store owners do not think about the payment methods or the fact that they need to be applied for. This can sometimes take a lot of time. Sometimes people are also too focused and completely forget that product images must also have a good description.

Often, you're not that familiar with Shopify yet and don't know the many benefits and possibilities. For example, did you know that optional customer accounts are common, but you can also make them mandatory or not even have to offer them? Or did you know that Shopify gives you the option to hide or add different aspects in the checkout?

Shopify Checklist: These are the points you should remember

To be able to answer most of your questions from the beginning, we have created this checklist for you.

General data

First of all, let's start with the general information you need to think about:

• Find your store name.

• Have an email address ready for Shopify.

• Create an email address for customers.

• Provide the store address including phone number.

• Choose your time zone (if not Berlin).

• Choose your currency (if not Euro).

• Deposit your credit card details with Shopify.

• Which Shopify plan do you want?

• Which Shopify theme have you chosen? Are there any layout specifications?

Checkout / Cashier

There are also a few points to think about during checkout:

• In which language should your emails be sent?

• Can customers purchase by phone number or must the email address be provided?

• Can a customer have the shipping notification sent via SMS?

• Does the customer need to provide their first name at checkout?

• Should the company name be provided? (yes, no, optional)

• Should the address suffix be provided? (yes, no, optional)

• Should the telephone number be indicated? (yes, no, optional)

• Should the shipping address be used as the billing address unless the customer specifies otherwise?

• Can the customer agree to the newsletter / advertising here?

• Should payments be accepted automatically?

• Should orders be automatically archived when they are processed?

Settings

With the settings we now go a bit deeper into the creation of your Shopify store:

• Which payment methods / providers do you want to use?

• What are the tax rates per country for you?

• What are your shipping costs per country?

• Do you want to allow customer accounts?

• Do you want to make customer accounts mandatory?

• Do you want to prohibit customer accounts?

• Is there a domain that should be connected? Here you may need access data to the hoster to connect the domain.

• If so, do e-mails go through the domain?

• Which language should the store use (in the frontend)?

• Do you address your customers as Du or Sie?

Legal texts

Legal texts, such as privacy statements or revocation policy, are very important factors in store creation and should be complete and legally compliant under all circumstances:

• Text for T&C

• Text for privacy policy

• Text for imprint

• Text for cancellation policy

• Cancellation form (as text, optionally also as download)

• Text for Online Dispute Resolution

• Do you participate in the OS?

• Text for shipping page

Customer contact

Customer communication is an important aspect of customer satisfaction. Therefore, you should consider which contact options you would like to offer your customers:

• e-mail texts, if applicable

• e-mail layouts / templates, if applicable

• SMS texts, if applicable

• Who should receive the order receipt notification? (e-mail addresses)

Products

Now let's deal with the heart of every online store - the products:

• How many products or variants should be created? Each version of a product counts as a variant. E.g. 2 colors + 3 sizes = 6 variants

• Product data / Variant data:

• Title / Designation

• Description

• Have you thought about keywords and SEO?

• Pictures

• Price

• MSRP (optional)

• Is this product taxed?

• Item number (optional)

• Barcode / EAN / ISBN (optional)

• Should Shopify manage / count the inventory?

• If yes, is the item allowed to be purchased when the inventory is at 0?

• Does the item need to be shipped?

• Item weight (optional)

• HS tariff code (optional https://hts.usitc.gov/)

• Product type (optional)

• Manufacturer (optional)

• Category tags (optional)

Categories

You can create different categories in your store, you should consider the following points:

• How many categories should be created?

• Category data:

• Title / Designation

• Description and search engine optimization (keyword research in advance)

• Do you want to categorize products manually or based on characteristics (Smart-Collection)? (adjustable for each collection) Example characteristics: Always if the type = pants or always if the title contains the word apple, etc.

• In case of Smart-Collections (selectable per collection): Which conditions / characteristics should apply? (and: all or only one of the specified?)

• Display image optional

Blog

Shopify offers you the possibility to integrate a blog into your store. In doing so, you should consider:

• Do you want to use the blog?

• What do you want your blog to be called? (e.g. News)

• Would you like to connect external CMS tools, such as Storyblok, to get more functionalities?

Menus

When navigating your Shopify store, you should think about:

• The structure of your main menu

• The structure of your footer menu

Linking social media and Google

• Which social media channels should be connected?

• How would you like to link Google?

• Should product feeds be sent to social media and Google?

Customer support

• How can customers contact you if they have questions or problems?

• Would you like to set up live chat support?

• Can customers find FAQs so that frequently asked questions can be answered?

Apps and integration

• Are there features that are not covered by Shopify?

• Which apps could be useful for you?

• Which systems would you like to integrate into your shop?

Further points

Now let's move on to the last factors you should consider in connection with your store creation:

• Would you like to send a newsletter? Tools such as Klaviyo are suitable for this.

• If so, do you already use a system for sending newsletters?

• Would you like to offer gift cards? (available from medium Shopify plan)

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many factors that play a role in the store creation. Therefore, it is easy to lose the overview here and forget important points. With our checklist you are well prepared to start building your Shopify store.

You want to save or print the checklist? Then you can download the checklist here.