You’ve put in the long hours, stayed up until 3 am tweaking your website just so, and you think it’s finally time to take your Shopify store live. But before you do, there’s just one more thing you need to do: test your site! Testing is essential to ensure that your site is functioning properly and that your customers will have a positive experience when they visit.
Here’s a quick guide on how to test your Shopify store before making it live.
1. Test the Checkout Process on the Shopify store
The whole point of having an online store is to make sales. So it’s critical that you test the checkout process thoroughly before going live. Add a few items to your cart and go through the entire checkout process from start to finish. Pay close attention to any areas where customers might get tripped up or confused, such as complex shipping options or unclear return policies. If possible, have a friend or family member test the checkout process as well—they may catch something that you missed.
2. Test Your Shipping Options
Speaking of shipping now is also a good time to test out your shipping options and make sure they’re working correctly. Add a few items to your cart and try out each of the shipping options available on your site. If you’re using Shopify Shipping, be sure to print out some labels and confirm that the rates are accurate. Doing a quick test run now will save you a lot of headaches later on down the road.
3. Check Your Contact Forms
If you have any contact forms on your site (for example, if you offer customer support or have a “contact us” page), be sure to fill them out and submit them to see if they’re working properly. You should also check your email inboxes to make sure that you’re receiving messages from the forms—if not, there may be an issue with your email server settings. Taking just a few minutes to test your contact forms now can save you a lot of time and frustration later on.
4. Review Your Privacy Policy
This one is especially important if you plan on collecting any sensitive information from your customers (such as their credit card numbers). Take some time to review your privacy policy and make sure it’s written in clear, easy-to-understand language. If possible, have someone who isn’t familiar with your business take a look at it as well—if they can’t understand it, chances are good that your customers won’t be able to either. A well-written privacy policy will instill confidence in potential customers and help them feel comfortable doing business with you.
5. Check for Broken Links
Broken links are frustrating for customers and can damage your business’s credibility, so it’s important to check for them before going live. The easiest way to do this is by using a tool like Screaming Frog—it will scan your entire website for broken links and generate a report so you can fix them before launch day. Taking care of broken links now will save you a lot of time (and hassle) later on down the road.
Conclusion:
Testing is an essential part of launching any Shopify store. After all, there’s nothing worse than finding out too late that there was an issue with your checkout process or that your shipping rates were inaccurate. By taking some time to do a quick run-through of all the important areas of your site before going live, you can rest assured knowing that everything is in good working order—and that your customers will have a positive experience when they visit your store.