# Headless Commerce Launch Checklist

A practical pre-launch checklist for headless storefronts built on Next.js with
Shopify, WooCommerce, or a custom commerce API. Work top to bottom; do not skip
the rollback section.

## 1. Catalogue and pricing

- [ ] Product, variant, and option models match the merchandising plan.
- [ ] Prices, currencies, and tax rules are verified in every market.
- [ ] Sale prices have start and end behaviour.
- [ ] Inventory is reserved correctly at checkout, not just displayed.
- [ ] Out-of-stock and backorder states are designed.
- [ ] Product media has alt text and responsive sizes.

## 2. Cart and checkout

- [ ] Cart survives refresh, tab close, and login.
- [ ] Discount codes, stacking rules, and expiry work.
- [ ] Shipping rates and delivery estimates match the carrier contract.
- [ ] Payment failures return the customer to a recoverable state.
- [ ] Guest and account checkout paths are both tested.
- [ ] Order confirmation email includes the correct line items and totals.

## 3. Performance

- [ ] LCP under 2.5s on a mid-tier mobile device over 4G.
- [ ] CLS under 0.1 on product, collection, and cart pages.
- [ ] Images use modern formats and explicit dimensions.
- [ ] Fonts are subset and preloaded; no layout shift on swap.
- [ ] Third-party scripts are deferred or removed.
- [ ] Server and edge caching is configured for catalogue reads.

## 4. SEO and sharing

- [ ] Every indexable page has a unique title and description.
- [ ] Canonicals are correct across filters and pagination.
- [ ] Product structured data validates.
- [ ] Sitemap includes products, collections, and content.
- [ ] Open Graph and Twitter images render for key pages.
- [ ] Redirect map is loaded for every legacy URL.

## 5. Analytics and consent

- [ ] Purchase, add-to-cart, and view-item events fire once.
- [ ] Revenue values exclude tax and shipping consistently.
- [ ] Consent mode gates marketing tags correctly.
- [ ] Server-side events reconcile with the browser within 5%.
- [ ] UTM handling survives redirects and checkout.

## 6. Reliability and security

- [ ] Checkout is rate-limited and protected against card testing.
- [ ] Webhooks are verified and idempotent.
- [ ] Failed webhooks retry with backoff and alert a human.
- [ ] Content security policy is set and tested.
- [ ] Secrets are stored in the platform secret manager.
- [ ] Load test covers a realistic launch-day spike.

## 7. Operations

- [ ] Order export reaches fulfilment and accounting.
- [ ] Refund and cancellation flows are tested end to end.
- [ ] Support macros reference the new fulfilment timelines.
- [ ] A named on-call owner exists for launch week.
- [ ] Status page and incident comms are ready.

## 8. Rollback

- [ ] The previous storefront can be restored in under 15 minutes.
- [ ] DNS TTL is lowered before launch.
- [ ] Database or CMS changes have a reversible migration.
- [ ] The rollback owner and decision threshold are written down.

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