Work through this before you take the first real order. Every item is something we have seen go wrong on a live shop.
Payments
- Gateway switched from test mode to live
- A real order placed with a real card, then refunded
- Webhook and return addresses configured and pointing at the live domain
- Currency correct, and the account able to receive it
Emails
- Sending through SMTP from your own domain, not the PHP default
- Order confirmation received by both you and the customer
- The admin notification going to an address someone actually reads
- SPF and DKIM in place
Tax and delivery
- Tax rates set and showing correctly at checkout, including for overseas customers
- Shipping zones and rates tested for each destination you sell to
- Free shipping thresholds behaving as intended
Legal
- Terms, returns, privacy and delivery pages written and linked in the footer
- Company details and contact information published as required
- Cookie and privacy notices in place
Technical
- Certificate issued and the whole site on https
- Caching configured with cart, checkout and account excluded
- A backup taken and a restore tested
- Search engines no longer discouraged in the WordPress reading settings – an easy one to forget, and it keeps you out of Google entirely
- robots.txt correct, and not blocking images or scripts
Afterwards
Watch the first few real orders all the way through, from confirmation email to payment landing in your account.
