Online Shop Launch Checklist for the UK: 24 Things to Check Before You Go Live

A launch goes wrong in small ways. A postage rule that charges the wrong amount, a returns page nobody wrote, a checkout that works on a laptop and breaks on an older phone. None of these are hard to fix. They are just easy to miss when you are excited to open.

This is the list we work through before a UK store goes live. Read it as a set of questions rather than a set of tasks, because your answers depend on what you sell.

Money and payments

Test with real money, not test mode alone. Buy something from your own shop with a card, then refund it. You want to see the confirmation email, the refund timing and what your bank statement calls the payment before a customer does.

  • A card payment and a wallet payment such as Apple Pay both complete on a phone
  • Prices show clearly as including or excluding VAT, consistently across the site
  • A refund can be issued in under a minute without contacting support
  • Order confirmation emails arrive and do not land in spam
  • Your business name on a bank statement is recognisable to a customer

Delivery rules that match reality

Delivery is where new shops quietly lose margin. If a heavy item ships at a flat rate designed for a small parcel, every sale costs you. Price a few real orders through your courier's calculator before you set the rules.

Also write your dispatch times as you can actually keep them. Promising next day when you post twice a week creates refund requests, not repeat customers.

  • Postage priced against real courier rates for your heaviest item
  • Free delivery threshold, if you offer one, still leaves a profit
  • Dispatch and delivery times stated in plain days, not vague wording
  • Anywhere you do not ship to is listed before checkout, not after

The legal pages UK shoppers expect

Selling to UK consumers online means the buyer has a right to change their mind on most goods, and your site needs to say so. A missing or copied returns policy is one of the fastest ways to lose a first time buyer who is already unsure about you.

  • Returns and cancellation policy written for what you sell
  • Delivery information page separate from the returns page
  • Terms and privacy policy that name your actual business
  • A real contact route: email, phone or WhatsApp, answered by a person

Mobile first, then everything else

Most UK ecommerce traffic arrives on a phone, so test on a phone that is not the newest one you own. Tap every button with a thumb. Fill in the checkout while walking. If anything needs a pinch and zoom, fix that before launch day.

  • Product images load quickly on mobile data
  • Buttons are large enough to hit without zooming
  • Checkout can be completed in one hand without errors
  • Text is readable without zooming on a small screen

Findability and measurement

You do not need a full SEO campaign at launch. You need the basics in place so the work you do later actually counts: unique titles, real descriptions, a sitemap Google can read and analytics recording sales rather than only visits.

  • Every page has its own title and description, not a repeated template
  • A sitemap exists and is submitted in Google Search Console
  • Analytics records purchases, not just page views
  • Product pages describe the product in your own words

If you want a second pair of eyes on this list before you open, send us your store link and we will tell you honestly what we would fix first.