Opening Day Checklist: What To Do Before Launching Your Ecommerce Store

11 min read

There’s hardly a merchant who doesn’t remember their launch day. Unveiling your idea to the public is thrilling. But it’s also months of planning and preparation that make this day memorable.

The checklist below will help you to be ready for your moment of glory.

1. Make Sure You Have Enough Inventory in Stock

In preparing a business plan, you should have calculated the estimated turnover of products. In order not to face an e-commerce version of a line around the block and nothing to sell, make sure to keep the necessary quantity of goods on hand.

If you are making things to order, purchase materials and think about who you can ask for help if your own powers are not enough.

2. Establish Smooth Operation with Suppliers

By the time your store has opened, you should be developing warm relationships with suppliers. It will depend on them whether you will be able to meet customer expectations in time.

Even a small delay of one or two days can be enough for losing customers. Validate plans and get the necessary paperwork to make sure things continue smoothly. Doing so will save time, money, and nerves. (You’ll also want to read the article about how to find manufacturers for your product idea.)

Learn more: The Science of Contacting Suppliers When You’re Starting a Business

3. Deal With Social Media Presence

Create your store’s social media accounts before the opening, not after. Social media is a good source of traffic and a good means of gauging how consumers interact with your product. Community members who are already interested in the product can easily find your site.

Pick social networks that commonly host your target audience, then create groups or pages there and start to promote them. Use social media to regularly publish news related to your company and the product, place the product images and announcing the coming opening.

Throw a contest and give small prizes, enticing potential buyers to try out your products before your store’s opening.

Learn more: 25 Proven Contest Ideas to Promote Your Online Business

4. Prepare Newsletter

In addition to social network activity, it’s important to have a fleshed-out newsletter. There is no need to wince at the memory of the spam that you receive on a weekly basis. Newsletters can be useful and interesting (if you don’t believe it, subscribe to the Ecwid blog e-commerce newsletter 😊), but the burden is on you to make them so.

Choose an email tool

What to consider in your email list provider:

It must suit you in terms of price and tools.
You should be able to make your email look exactly the way you like.
It should have audience segmentation tools, you’ll need them in future.

Prepare email templates

Make a few templates ahead of time that are specifically devoted to telling people about the opening of your store and any notifications of discounts or promotions.

If you already have a database of customer e-mails, then use it to announce the opening of the store and offer your beloved database a special promotion for first-time buyers — offer a discount coupon, or perhaps a gift with purchase. You’ll also want to prepare a welcome email so that people who subscribe to your newsletter on your launch day could stay in touch.

5. Grow Your Subscriber List

Here are some methods for doing this:

Let people know that the first subscribers to your email list will get gifts or discounts from you. Ask for email addresses so that people can get in on the action.
If you have a blog, use it to broadcast an announcement about your store’s opening and add the subscription form to the post. Ask blogger friends to share your news, growing your subscriber base on your behalf.
Create a special plug on the store site. Read on below to find out how.

Learn more: 10 Smart Ways to Increase Email Signups on Your Store

6. Build an Online Store or Add One to Your Existing Site

This is what it’s all about. You can create a store from scratch, or add a store to an existing site, or turn your Facebook page into a store. Even if you don’t have experience with programming or design, this process will not take you very long at all.

7. Set Up the “Coming soon” Page

You’ll need a temporary “parked page” design as a placeholder until your store is up and running. This is simply a pretty page that informs visitors that a cool shop will soon open up here. It ensures that the address of your website gets indexed in search engines and that there’s content there for people to interact with until the main event.

But in getting to the page, a user should not see a 404 error — who wants to go back to a page that used to be a 404? Your parked page is like bait, enticing the viewer to return in the near future.

Screenshot of Fabeona.com

You might place a subscription form there with an attention-grabbing enticement for people to sign up. Your task is to convince people to sign up to find out about the opening of the first and receive a gift for doing so.

8. Take Product Pictures

Fill your store with inventory, or more precisely, with beautiful pictures of your inventory. Read our the article on how to take great pictures without hiring a professional photographer or renting pro gear. With a well-taken photo, you can use those tips to bring the image to life in post-production.

Learn more: 10 Easy-to-Reproduce Product Photography Ideas

9. Think About the Nuances of the Delivery

The first thing a potential customer will look after the goods is delivery terms. If they are cumbersome or undesirable, the story of the order becomes meaningless. Think for yourself and come up with some answers to the following questions, and make sure they are plainly visible on your site:

How are you going to wrap the products?
What will be the cost of delivery?
Would it be possible to return the goods, and on what terms?
How will you deliver the goods — by mail or with a courier?

Learn more: How to Set Up Shipping Rates in Your Store Using Ecwid

10. Set Up Analytics

To understand the direction you are going, you need to constantly analyze the results being achieved in the present: the ratio of the number of visitors to sales, the presence of permanent customers, customer interest in your items. Such metrics help you paint a picture of understanding about your business, filling in holes where needed and informing you on best ways to proceed in the future.

In Ecwid, analytic tools are gathered in Control Panel → Reports.

There’s no need to collect statistics on absolutely everything; it’s possible to drown in a sea of information. Choose the metrics that are most important to you. In our article you will find tips for setting up and using Google Analytics.

11. Prepare a Dazzling Store Opening

Do you remember how loud the opening of stores in the real world are? Multi-colored balls, bright displays, decorations, loud music, performances of stars of various sizes — a store’s first day in operation is nearly a holiday.

For an online store, there are also plenty of opportunities to lean on these tactics:

Broadcast the opening on the social networks and mailing lists.
Give gifts to your first customers.
Arrange a competition or a lottery of your own design, something to retain interest and attention.
Make a small offline presentation. Arrange an event somewhere in a city that your customers are likely to inhabit, or open a pop-up shop. Perhaps you’ll set things up so that your event coincides with the opening of a large conference or festival for the sake of courting people who otherwise might not have met you.

12. Do Not Stop

You’ll be tempted to relax after your grand opening, but it’s impossible to do so. Over the course of the first months of your store’s operation, your work pace will fluctuate for weeks before normalizing, allowing you to set the pace at which work.

But we are sure that you will not want to stop. Owning and operating a business is an exciting experience that can be educational, challenging, and profitable all at once!

We wish you a pleasant opening and many successful sales!