An online store is more than a catalogue with a payment button. It connects product information, payment handling, stock decisions and the people fulfilling orders. A launch checklist should describe the full customer journey, including what happens when a payment fails or a product cannot be supplied. Start with operational decisions before choosing visual effects.
Make the catalogue reliable
Prepare product names, descriptions, images, prices and identifiers. Define variants such as size or colour without mixing them into ambiguous product names. Confirm which stock quantity belongs to each sellable variant. Ask the business to approve pricing and tax treatment rather than letting the development team infer them from incomplete spreadsheets.
Use images you are entitled to publish and descriptions that distinguish the products accurately. If you are moving an existing catalogue, plan data migration and validation so duplicates, missing images and incorrect mappings are detected before customers see them.
Agree stock and delivery behaviour
Decide whether unavailable products can be backordered, when stock is reserved and how cancelled orders release it. Document supported delivery areas and the method used to calculate charges. Serving customers nationally does not mean every item can be delivered to every address under identical terms. The checkout should communicate the business’s actual rules before a customer commits.
Confirm who handles exceptions such as an incorrect address, split fulfilment or an unavailable item. Do not publish a delivery-time promise until the business has approved it and the relevant carrier arrangements support it.
Choose payments with clear responsibilities
Compare the payment provider’s supported methods, merchant approval requirements, fees, settlement arrangements and integration approach. Those terms belong to the provider and the merchant agreement, not an assumption in a website quote. A hosted payment flow may reduce the data handled by the store, but it does not automatically remove all security obligations.
The PCI Security Standards Council states that merchants outsourcing payment processing still have responsibilities for their provider and shared controls. Confirm applicable compliance obligations with the organisation managing your compliance programme, such as your acquirer. This checklist is not a compliance certification or legal opinion.
Test beyond a successful payment
Use the provider’s authorised test environment to check successful, failed and cancelled payments. Verify that a repeated notification cannot create duplicate orders or fulfilment actions. Confirm that the amount and currency match the intended order and that customer-facing confirmation distinguishes a pending payment from an accepted one.
Walk through the operational workflow after checkout: who receives the order, who can update it and what evidence is used to release goods? Test permissions so ordinary users cannot access another customer’s records. A browser redirect alone should not be treated as proof that money was received.
Prepare changes, support and handover
Agree the business’s approved cancellation, returns and refund decisions before configuring workflows. Keep refunds behind an authorised process. Document who updates products, monitors failed orders and supports customers. A store launch does not automatically include ongoing catalogue management, payment-provider support or courier operations.
Request a comparable proposal
Send the product and variant count, intended payment provider, stock source, delivery rules and required integrations. Review MBICT’s e-commerce service and indicative store packages. Platform subscriptions, merchant fees, hosting and complex integrations must be distinguished from the build allowance. If a redesign is also involved, use the website redesign checklist to preserve useful content and navigation.