10 Things To-Do Before Store Launch

After integrating Site Store Pro into your website and adding your products through the web-based admin system, you should verify the following items have been completed before launching your new online store to the public.

(Listed in Order Of Importance)

1. Verify the sample store default shopping cart images such as the ‘My Shopping Cart’ , 'Accepted Payments', ‘Continue Shopping’, ‘Clear Cart’, ‘Update Cart’, and ‘Checkout Now’ have been changed (if required) to reflect your website design scheme.
2. Verify that the default copyright in the sample store design footer has been changed to your company's copyright information.
3. Verify that the emails in the web-based admin system have been modified from their default configuration to reflect your online store’s content. Specific elements that should ALWAYS been edited in the default emails are:  THE FROM EMAIL ADDRESS, THE COPYRIGHT INFORMATION and the EMAIL SIGNATURE line(s).  You should also verify that the content in the email that describes the purpose, etc. of the message reflects your business processes.
4. Verify that your shipping rules have been setup in the admin and that ALL products that should be charged shipping have a product weight set and that “Charge Shipping For This Item” set to ‘Yes’ in the General Info tab of the item(s) in the admin product manager.
5. Verify that your checkout provider type is enabled in the ‘Store Setup>Checkout URL, SSL Settings & Payment Provider Selection’ section in the admin. (i.e. PayPal Checkout Authorize.net, etc.) View Tutorial
6. Verify that your account information with the selected checkout provider is set under the checkout provider’s configuration plugin settings screen in the admin.
7. If you have not already enabled SSL on your site, have your host or server administration install an SSL certificate for your domain and then go to your admin  area and to the STORE URL page and Checkout URL pages and change both values to https.
8. Place test (demo) orders in either the ‘test’ mode for your selected payment provider or the Site Store Pro checkout DEMO-MODE to verify that the store’s checkout process contains the correct information and that the registration and order confirmation emails are configured with the correct content.
9. Set your specific checkout provider to LIVE mode under the plugin configuration screen for the provider in the web-based admin and/or with your payment provider. (if applicable for the specific processor. Example: New Authorize.net accounts are always set in test-mode and need to be switched to live-mode inside the Authorize.net control panel and the payment plugin for Authorize.net must be set to "live" as well.)
10. We highly recommend completing test "live" purchase on your site before launching to the public.  You can either sell one of your items to a friend or client or simply set one of your items to $1.00 (one dollar) and then complete a LIVE transaction with your checkout provider before launching to the public.  Although your checkout system may operate correctly in the checkout provider’s test mode, it may not be activated correctly on their end in live mode. Placing a test order with a real-credit card and/or PayPal account will confirm that your account is ready to receive LIVE orders from customers. (After completing your test order, make sure that you reset the price to the correct rate before launching the store.) Note: You should have a friend or business associate do the test purchase and not use your own card or any card that is associated with the merchant account or payment processor that is active on the account. Some providers will deactivate your payment account if you use your own card ....even if it is just for a $1.00 test purchase.