Shopify Store Launch Checklist for Philippine Businesses

Most Shopify stores don’t fail on launch day because of the design. They stumble on small things nobody tested: a payment method that doesn’t show up, a shipping rate that loses money in the provinces, a confirmation email that lands in spam, or a store that’s still locked behind its password page.

This is the checklist we’d run before opening a Shopify store to Filipino customers. Work through it in order, and place real test orders before you spend a peso on ads.

1. Store basics

• Currency set to Philippine pesos (PHP). Local payment gateways charge in pesos, and some require a PHP store.
• Your own domain connected and set as primary. Customers trust a store on your own domain more than a default Shopify address, and it’s the address your ads and search results will point to.
• A business email on that domain for the store’s sender address, so order emails don’t come from a free mailbox.
• Store name, address and contact details filled in under Settings, since they appear in emails and policies.
• Two-step sign-in on the owner account, and staff added with their own logins instead of a shared one.

2. Products

• Clear titles and descriptions. Say what the item is, what’s included, and the size or variant details customers ask about in Messenger.
• Good photos on a plain background, sized sensibly. Huge uncompressed images are the most common reason a store feels slow on mobile data.
• Variants, SKUs and stock counts entered for every product, so you never sell what you don’t have.
• Weights on every product. Weight-based shipping rates only work if the weights are there.
• Collections that match how people shop, so the menu makes sense without explanation.

If you already sell on marketplaces, decide now how stock will stay in step between them and your store. We cover the trade-offs in why you still need your own Shopify store alongside Shopee or Lazada.

3. Payments

Shopify Payments isn’t available to Philippine businesses at the time of writing, so you connect a local gateway to take GCash, Maya, QR Ph and cards. Start the provider’s business approval early, because it’s often the slowest step. Our guide to accepting GCash on Shopify walks through the options.

• Every method you advertise actually appears at checkout. A method only shows once it’s enabled with the provider, not just in Shopify.
• Cash on delivery added as a manual payment method, if you offer it, with a clear rule for who marks those orders paid.
• Test mode used first, then one small real order paid with a real account and refunded.
• Payout details confirmed, so you know when and where the money lands.

4. Shipping

Shipping is where Philippine stores most often lose money without noticing. Distances and rates vary a lot between Metro Manila, other cities and island provinces, and a single flat rate rarely fits all of them.

• Shipping zones and rates set for the regions you actually deliver to, with rates based on your courier’s real price for those areas.
• Free-shipping thresholds checked against your margin. Run the numbers on a typical order, not your best one.
• Packaging weight and cost included in what you charge or absorb.
• Honest delivery times on the product page and at checkout. Late is forgivable when you said so up front, and much less so when you didn’t.
• A plan for your courier. Decide who books pickups, who sends tracking numbers, and how customers are told. Some couriers have Shopify apps; many stores book manually at first.

5. Taxes and receipts

We’re not accountants, so treat this as a list of things to ask yours rather than advice. Settle them before launch, because they’re awkward to change once orders are coming in.

• Are your prices tax-inclusive or not? If you’re VAT-registered, this decides how Shopify’s tax settings should be set up.
• How will you issue the official receipt or invoice your registration requires? A Shopify order confirmation email usually isn’t a substitute, so agree a process with your accountant.
• How will you record gateway fees and COD remittances so your books match your payouts?

6. Policies and trust

• Refund and return policy. Say what’s returnable, within how many days, and who pays for shipping back.
• Shipping policy. Coverage, delivery times, and what happens when a parcel is delayed or lost.
• Privacy policy. You’ll collect names, addresses and phone numbers, and the Data Privacy Act expects you to handle that responsibly. Shopify can generate a starting template, but read it, edit it to match what you really do, and have it reviewed if you can.
• Terms of service, and an About and Contact page with a real way to reach you, such as email and Messenger.

Customers check these pages before paying a store they don’t know. A complete set helps trust as much as it helps compliance.

7. Test the journey on a phone

Many Filipino shoppers will visit your store on a phone, often on mobile data. Don’t test only on your laptop and office Wi-Fi.

• Open the store on a real phone, over mobile data, and browse like a customer who’s never seen it.
• Check that photos load quickly, text is readable without zooming, and buttons are easy to tap.
• Go through checkout to the payment step with each method, including the hand-off to GCash or Maya and back to your store.
• Make sure the cart, discount code box and address fields behave on a small screen.

8. Place test orders

This is the step people skip, and the one that catches the most problems.

Open the emails on a phone and check they arrive in the inbox, not spam. Gmail, Yahoo and your own domain’s mail can each treat them differently.

9. Tracking, before any ad spend

• Google Analytics connected, with a test purchase appearing in its reports.
• Ad pixels (Meta, Google) installed and shown as firing, if you’ll advertise. Tracking added after the first week of ads means you paid for traffic you can’t measure.
• Search Console set up for your domain, with your store’s sitemap submitted. Shopify generates the sitemap for you.
• Order notifications going to the right people, so a new order never sits unseen. If you automate beyond email, see webhooks explained for store owners for why missed messages matter.

10. Go live

• Remove the store password. A password-protected store hides everything, including from search engines and ad reviewers.
• Check the domain loads over HTTPS from the address you’ll advertise, with no certificate warning.
• Make sure the links you share work: your ad landing pages, Facebook and Instagram links, and any QR codes.
• Tell your first customers. Message past buyers and followers directly. A few real orders in the first days tell you more than any checklist.

The first week after launch

• Watch the first orders end to end, from payment to delivery, instead of assuming it works.
• Read every customer question. Repeated questions mean a missing line on a product or policy page.
• Check abandoned checkouts. A pattern, such as everyone dropping at shipping, points to the problem.
• Compare gateway payouts with your orders so mismatches surface early.
• Fix the small things now. They’re cheapest to fix before the store has history.

When it’s worth getting help

You can do all of this yourself, and plenty of owners do. It takes longest where the details are fiddly: gateway approval, shipping rules and tax settings. If you’d rather launch with those done and tested, see our Shopify store development service. You can also browse ready-made store designs to see what a finished store could look like.