When we launched our first digital store, it took three weeks. Not because the tech was hard, but because we kept second-guessing ourselves. We’d install a plugin, read a forum post saying it was slow, uninstall it, try another. We’d fiddle with checkout fields for hours. We’d forget to set up taxes until a customer complained.
So we decided to build a checklist that would prevent all that. Not a generic ’10 steps to launch’ list, but a granular, do-this-then-that guide based on real launches. This post is the story of how we built it, the mistakes we made, and what we’d do differently.
We started by documenting every task we did in a fresh WordPress install. We used a screen recorder and a notebook. Every click, every setting, every ‘oh crap, I forgot that’ moment. After three stores, we had 47 pages of notes. We grouped them into phases: pre-flight (domain, hosting, SSL), core setup (WordPress, theme, plugins), store configuration (products, payments, taxes, emails), and launch prep (testing, backups, analytics).
The first thing we realized: most checklists are too vague. ‘Set up payments’ is not a step. ‘Install WooCommerce Stripe Gateway, connect your Stripe account, enable Apple Pay, and run a test transaction’ is a step. We rewrote everything to be that specific. If a step couldn’t be done in under 10 minutes, we broke it down further.
We also noticed we kept forgetting the same settings. The biggest one: permalinks. Out of the box, WordPress uses a URL structure with question marks. You need to change it to ‘Post name’ in Settings > Permalinks. Otherwise, your product URLs look like /?p=123. Not only is that ugly, but some payment gateways will reject it. We now make that step 3 in our checklist.
Another repeat offender: inventory settings. In WooCommerce, there’s a checkbox for ‘Enable stock management’ under Products > Inventory. If you don’t check it, you can’t set stock quantities. If you’re selling digital goods, you don’t need it. But if you’re selling physical, you do. We wasted an hour trying to figure out why our ‘in stock’ labels weren’t showing. Now it’s a highlighted step with a screenshot.
We also learned that the order of operations matters. For example, you should set up your SSL certificate before you configure your payment gateway, because some gateways require HTTPS. And you should install your caching plugin after you’ve finished configuring everything else, because caching can hide changes. Our checklist is now ordered to avoid those traps.
When we tested the checklist on beta users, we got great feedback. One user said, ‘I didn’t realize I had to set the base country for taxes. I would’ve missed that.’ Another said, ‘The screenshot of the Stripe settings page saved me 20 minutes.’ That’s when we knew we had something.
We also added a ‘copy-paste configs’ section. These are snippets of text you can paste into fields like tax rates, shipping zones, or email templates. For example, a plain-text email template for order confirmations that doesn’t sound robotic. Or a CSV of common tax rates for the US and EU. These small things add up.
The final checklist has 62 steps, but most take less than a minute. You can complete it in about two hours if you focus. We’ve used it to launch stores in a single evening. The key is to not skip steps, even the boring ones like setting your timezone.
If you’re building your own checklist, here’s our advice: start by recording your own launch. Then do it again and note what you forgot. Then write it down in imperative, specific language. Add screenshots for anything that’s not obvious. And test it on someone who’s never launched a store. You’ll be surprised what they miss.
We now update the checklist every quarter as WordPress and plugins change. That’s the nature of the beast. But the core process stays the same. And that’s the point: a repeatable, reliable path to launch.