Legal entity, GSTIN, and invoice fields before the theme
Shopify will sell without a GSTIN. Your CA will not. Put legal name, GSTIN, HSN/SAC where needed, and a PDF/invoice template that matches what you already file. Dummy invoices on launch week are how festive refunds become a compliance mess.
If you are not GST-registered yet, do not fake a number. Pause paid traffic or sell as unregistered within the rules your CA states — we do not invent tax advice. Trust copy still belongs on the site: GST-ready websites.
Who owns the invoice template
Founder, CA, and developer must see one sample PDF from a live test order. “We will fix invoices after Diwali” is how you reprint December.
INR, taxes, and Indian payment rails
Store currency INR. Tax settings that match your GST treatment. Razorpay (or a documented equivalent) with UPI as a first-class method, not a footer badge. Failed payments must not duplicate orders.
EMI and cards are optional on day one. UPI is not. Netbanking still matters for a slice of B2B-ish D2C. Ask any vendor for a screen recording of checkout on Jio 4G, not a US demo store.
- UPI success and failure paths
- Refund to the original rail
- No USD leftover from a theme preset
- GST shown the way your invoice shows it
Why Shopify Payments is not the Indian checkbox
Indian SMEs typically assemble Razorpay + Shopify. Do not wait for a North America feature matrix to “arrive.” Wire what your buyers already use.
Catalogue, variants, and the spreadsheet you actually use
SKU, title, options (size/colour), price, compare-at, inventory, GST rate, and at least two images per hero SKU. Collections should match how you advertise — not your warehouse aisle names.
If the catalogue lives in Google Sheets, import discipline beats a handmade product-by-product weekend. Festival restocks fail when variants were created as separate products.
Twenty SKUs versus two hundred
Under ~20 simple SKUs you might still be a brochure with a cart. At 200, IA is the project. That fork is WooCommerce vs Shopify vs custom.
Shipping zones, rates, and COD as an ops setting
Pin-code reality is not “India — flat ₹50.” Split metros, rest of India, and Northeast/remote if your courier does. Hidden shipping at checkout is a conversion tax you pay in support WhatsApps.
COD is a payment method plus a fulfilment hold. Enable it only with a confirm-before-pack step. Shopify tags and flows help; they do not replace a human or a bot that texts the buyer.
Free shipping thresholds that lie
A ₹499 threshold with a ₹3,000 average order is theatre. A ₹999 threshold on a ₹800 AOV is a discount in disguise. Model courier cost, not a competitor’s badge.
Policies, trust, and the pages Indian buyers actually open
Refund, return, shipping, privacy, terms, and contact with a real Indian address and phone. Instagram-only brands dump carts when the footer is empty. Put GSTIN in the footer if you display it on invoices.
These pages are not “legal later.” Payment partners and Google both look. Keep language your customer can read — English plus Hindi or Tamil if that is how you sell, not a machine-translated wall.
Contact is a conversion asset
WhatsApp click-to-chat plus a Contact-grade form or email. A contact page that is only a Shopify inbox nobody checks is worse than none.
Pixels, consent, and the ad account you will blame later
Meta and Google tags on the live domain, purchase events tested, and a cookie/consent story that matches how you actually run ads. Installing a pixel on the theme customizer and never firing Purchase is how agencies “optimise” ghosts.
UTM hygiene belongs in the same week. If ads will hit a bundle, build a dedicated landing page rather than the homepage carousel.
Test the thank-you page, not only the homepage
Complete a ₹1 or internal test order. Confirm the event, the order email, and the invoice. Lighthouse on the homepage is not a purchase audit.
WhatsApp, notifications, and the human who packs boxes
Order confirmation SMS/email, and a WhatsApp path for “did you mean this address?” Indian D2C still runs on chat. Shopify owns the order; chat owns the exception.
Do not give packing staff a theme editor login. Give them orders, tags, and a pick list. Staff permissions are part of setup, not an afterthought when an intern deletes a collection.
Abandoned checkout is not a personality
Enable Shopify’s recovery emails if you will actually honour the discount. Spamming “complete your order” with a broken UPI method trains buyers to ignore you.
Speed, theme apps, and Core Web Vitals on Indian mobile
Every review-slider app you add is weight on Jio. Pick one theme, cap apps, compress images, and measure field data — not only office Wi-Fi Lighthouse. Overlap with Core Web Vitals in India and speed, hosting, and CWV for SMEs.
Shopify can be fast. A 12-app fashion theme will not be. Performance is a launch gate if you spend on ads.
App diet before launch
List must-have apps (payments, shipping, reviews). Everything else waits 30 days. You can add; you cannot easily subtract buyer-facing clutter.
SEO basics that are not “Shopify SEO packages”
Unique titles and descriptions for collections you will actually rank for, indexable product pages, a sensible URL structure, and a sitemap you submit once the domain is canonical. Do not buy 50 blog posts the week of launch.
Ongoing compounding is monthly SEO from ₹15,000/mo in our floors when content is real. Setup is titles, IA, and speed — not a plugin called Rank.
Collection pages are landing pages
“Shop” as a dump is not SEO. Named collections that match search and ads (“Kanjeevaram silk sarees”, “office shirts under 1999”) earn their keep.
Go-live freeze, test orders, and who holds the keys
A freeze date before the campaign. Owner accounts, 2FA, domain at the registrar you control, and a handover doc. If the freelancer keeps the Shopify owner email, you do not own the store.
Brevia go-live includes a UPI order, a COD (if enabled) dummy, refund path, and pixel check. Package: Shopify Development from ₹38,000. Stack choice still sits in how to choose a platform.
What we refuse to call “done”
Theme only, USD leftover, no policy pages, no test purchase, pixel “installed” but Purchase untested. That is a demo. Consult if a previous vendor left you there.
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