So you have a WordPress site that’s running WooCommerce and you’re about to make it live on your domain name, but you are a little anxious to make sure that you took care of everything and that the launch will go smoothly. Here’s a handy guide to make sure everything that should be done IS done. Yes, you’ll need a couple hours to implement this list, but once you’re done you’ll have the confidence of knowing you’re WooCommerce site is in good shape and ready to take orders.
Here it is, the WooCommerce Live Checklist
- Tried ordering something for real – Confirmed that your cart, checkout and thank you page look correct throughout the process and modified any elements that didn’t look appropriate. Sub-items to this one:
- Cart – Cart design looks professional
- Cart – Any guarantees or trust factors (like the SSL-secured badge) are present and clearly visible.
- Cart – Link to terms and conditions page is present.
- Cart – Next step button is using website color scheme
- Cart – Next step button has a hover state color that matches the design.
- Checkout – Page looks professional
- Checkout – All options you need to process the order are presented, and no extra unneeded options are present.
- Checkout – Checkout button is relatively big, uses website color scheme.
- Checkout – Checkout button has a hover state that matches the design.
- Thank you Page – Page looks professional and explains next steps.
- Thank you Page – Next step Call-to-action after order completion has the right text, appearance, and link.
- Tried refunding that order, confirmed the order was refunded. Checked that refund e-mail has gone out and received by the e-mail account the order was made under.
- Confirmed that all of the WooCommerce system e-mails are going out correctly. If you’ve set up any custom e-mails, or just if you’re using the basic e-mails make sure that they are getting past spam filters by using other e-mails besides an e-mail that has the same address as the site in it.
- Confirmed that the appropriate person at the business is getting the ‘new order’ e-mail.
- Confirmed that the customer is getting the receipt for their order. (Learn how to customize the emails going out from WooCommerce here.)
- Removed any unwanted payment options like Cheques and BAC or added a description on how to pay via Cheque if you have this option enabled.
- If you aren’t only using PayPal and are using Authorize.net or another payment gateway on the site itself, confirm that you have HTTPS set up for the site so that payment information is secure.
- Created a Terms & Conditions page so that people are informed if they’d like to be about your policies.
- Looked at the Terms & Conditions page on the front-end and ensure that the design looks correct and clean, and is formatted correctly.
- Looked at any other generic WooCommerce pages – like Account – and made sure that they matched up with the rest of the design and don’t look disjointed. Occasionally theme designers or WordPress designers and developers neglect these small details or overlook them on accident. If WooCommerce is being added to a site that was never intended for WooCommerce, it may make sense that these pages were never styled. WooCommerce only provides a very base amount of styling so that it can be designed and branded for any site.
- Confirmed your plugins are up to date, and if you have modified the code in any of the WooCommerce files that you’ve duplicated those files and added them to the theme in a file entitled ‘woocommerce’ – only add the files you’ve modified. You can get more information about how to override your WooCommerce templates through your theme – the right way – here.
- Deleted/Removed any plugins that you are no longer using or tested during the development process.
- Made sure any code added to help debug the site has been removed.
Of course, every WooCommerce Checklist set-up will be different – if you have subscriptions or another add-on you might have to confirm that those settings are all correct as well, but the general principles above will help you be a bit more confident in your WooCommerce setup is on the right track.
The truth is, it’s not particularly complicated – but this handful of things is important not only for the core mechanics to be working correctly but also so that the site looks clean and professional and doesn’t scare your prospective customers away. So spend a little time on those details in the design that will create a positive brand impression and decrease the friction through the checkout process. Of course, certain premium WordPress themes will have that taken care of for you, which is a major advantage.
Tim Brown is a designer and marketer for Snap Agency – WordPress Minneapolis and creates websites that are built around business goals and that are built to attract traffic through Search Engine Optimization and increase conversions through Conversion Rate Optimization.