Answers · Tampa Bay

Ecommerce Site Launch Checklist

The 30-item ecommerce launch checklist we use on every Tampa WooCommerce build — payments, tax, shipping, SEO, legal, analytics. Skip nothing.

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Before launching a Tampa ecommerce site, work through 30 items across six categories: payments tested, tax configured, shipping logic verified, legal pages live, SEO baseline set, and analytics tracking. The most-missed items are sales tax registration, return policy, abandoned cart sequences, schema markup, and Google Search Console verification. We use this exact list on every WooCommerce build before flipping the site live.

Why launch checklists matter

The cost of relaunching after a botched launch is roughly 3x the cost of getting it right the first time. Worse: a broken checkout on day one costs you trust with the customers who showed up early. The 30 items below are the ones that, when missed, cause real revenue leaks in the first 90 days.

The 30-item checklist

Payments (6 items)

  1. Stripe live keys installed and tested with real card
  2. PayPal live credentials installed and tested with real account
  3. Apple Pay enabled and tested on iOS Safari
  4. Google Pay enabled and tested on Android Chrome
  5. Refund flow tested — process a real refund end-to-end
  6. Receipt emails verified (branded, from your domain, not spam folder)

Tax (3 items)

  1. Florida sales tax registered with FL Department of Revenue (DR-1 form filed)
  2. WooCommerce tax rates configured: 6% state + Hillsborough’s 1.5% discretionary surtax
  3. Tax-exempt customer logic set up for B2B wholesale buyers (if applicable)

See how to handle Florida sales tax.

Shipping (5 items)

  1. Real-time USPS, UPS, FedEx rates pulled at checkout
  2. Free shipping threshold set (we recommend $75-$150 depending on AOV)
  3. Local Tampa-area delivery zones configured (if applicable)
  4. Shipping cutoff times displayed on product pages
  5. Return label policy documented and linked from footer

See how to handle shipping and returns.

Legal (4 items)

  1. Privacy Policy live (GDPR + CCPA compliant — required even in Florida)
  2. Terms of Service live
  3. Return / Refund Policy live and linked from product pages
  4. Cookie consent banner active (if you serve EU traffic)

See legal requirements for Tampa ecommerce.

SEO (8 items)

  1. XML sitemap generated and submitted to Google Search Console
  2. Google Search Console property verified for all variants (www, non-www, http, https)
  3. Robots.txt published, no Disallow: / accidents
  4. Product schema markup verified via [search.google.com/test/rich-results]
  5. Category pages have unique 200-400 word copy
  6. All product images compressed (WebP) and alt-tagged
  7. Page speed: top 3 product pages score 70+ on mobile PageSpeed Insights
  8. 301 redirects mapped from old URLs (if migrating)

See how to optimize ecommerce for SEO.

Analytics (4 items)

  1. Google Analytics 4 installed with enhanced ecommerce events
  2. Conversion tracking verified — purchase event firing correctly
  3. Facebook Pixel + Conversions API installed (if running Meta ads)
  4. Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity installed for session recordings

Pre-launch dress rehearsal

48 hours before going live, run the dress rehearsal:

  • Buy a real product from your phone, on cellular, as a guest. Time it. Note friction.
  • Trigger an abandoned cart — add to cart, close tab, wait. Verify the email sequence fires.
  • Test a refund — process a $1 refund through Stripe, verify it returns to the buyer.
  • Test out-of-stock behavior — set a product to 0 inventory, verify it shows “out of stock,” not a 500 error.
  • Test on three devices — iPhone, Android phone, desktop. Each should feel native.

If anything breaks in the dress rehearsal, do not launch. Push the date a day. Live launches with known issues are how stores lose their first 50 customers.

What this means for your Tampa store

Most Tampa stores we audit skipped 6-10 items off this list at launch. The most common misses:

  1. No tax registration with FL DOR. Florida requires a sales tax permit before you collect tax. Penalties accrue from day one of sales.
  2. No abandoned cart sequence. Stores lose 10-15% of recoverable revenue by skipping this.
  3. No product schema. Costs you 20-30% in organic CTR forever.
  4. Slow product pages. Anything over 3 seconds bleeds conversions.
  5. No return policy. Buyers won’t complete checkout without seeing one.

Use the list above on your own launch — or, if you’re starting from scratch, our WooCommerce builds include all 30 items configured before we flip the site live.

Related answers

Don’t launch missing items 1-30

Send us your launch date and we’ll run the 30-item audit at $500 (refundable against any build). We’ll tell you exactly which items are missing and what the fix order is. If you’d rather have us build it right from the start, our $3K-$8K WooCommerce builds include the full checklist.

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