Going live with a custom-built ecommerce store is a six-step check, not a switch: test payments in the checkout, prove that orders pass into your shipping system, scan every internal link for 401 and 404 errors, link Google Search Console, generate and submit the sitemap, and connect Google Analytics. Then the automation that grows the store begins.
This guide picks up where setting up your Claude ecommerce website leaves off: the catalogue is loaded, Stripe or PayPal is connected and the shipping rates are set. If any of that is still to do, finish it first; nothing below is worth testing against a half-built store.
It also assumes the store is custom-built on Claude CMS — your own pages on your own hosting, with the headless commerce layer holding the catalogue, checkout and orders — rather than a themed store on a platform. If you sell on Shopify, editing your Shopify store with Claude is the guide you want; Shopify does most of this list for you.
The six checks take about an hour and run in order, because each one depends on the last. Claude can do most of the work from your account; the two Google steps need you signed in to your own Google account, because Claude never handles your passwords.
Six checks, in this order. The first three prove the store works; the last three make sure the launch is measured from day one.
A test-mode order, a real order, and a refund of each. The whole chain from basket to bank, seen once.
The test order appears where labels are made, with the right weight, address and service, and the tracking number comes back.
Every link on every page answers 200. No 404s from renamed products, no 401s from a staging password left on.
Verify the domain so Google can tell you what it sees, before the first customer arrives.
One address per product and per category, read back before it is submitted.
Visits and purchases counted from the first day, with a purchase event on the thank-you page.
A test payment proves the whole chain at once: basket, address form, delivery rate, card, confirmation email, order in your admin, stock. Do it in Stripe’s test mode first, then once with real money.
Pay with Stripe’s test card, 4242 4242 4242 4242, with any future expiry and any three-digit code. Then check five things:
If you take PayPal alongside cards, place a second order that way. Then leave test mode, buy the cheapest item with a real card, refund it, and you are done. Stripe settles to your own account with no platform fee, so the real order costs you the card fee and nothing else. If test mode is not available on your connection, the real order and its refund are the test. No store opens here without that run passing once.
An order that sits in the admin but never reaches the place where labels are printed is the commonest launch failure, because nothing looks wrong until a customer asks where their parcel is. So follow the test order all the way through.
Open whichever shipping system you use — USPS, EasyPost, Veeqo, Royal Mail Click & Drop, or the spreadsheet your packer works from — and find the order there. Check the four fields carriers reject:
That last step closes the loop. The tracking number written back onto the order is what lets a customer search for it, and what your follow-up emails will quote later.
A link scan visits every page of the store, follows every internal link and records the response code. Anything that is not 200 is a job. Two codes matter most:
Fix the 404s with the right link or a permanent redirect, switch the staging password off, and run the scan again until the list is empty. The storefront already redirects its old .php addresses permanently, so a scan after launch should stay clean as you rename things. If you have just moved the store onto its final domain, run the scan on that domain, not the temporary one.
Search Console is where Google tells you what it can and cannot see: which pages are indexed, which queries bring clicks, and which product pages have errors. Link it before launch, so the first weeks are measured rather than guessed.
In Search Console add a property for your domain and pick the HTML-tag method. Copy the tag, give it to Claude, then click Verify.
Claude puts it in the site’s shared head, so it survives every later edit. If you manage your own DNS, the domain-level method with a TXT record works just as well and covers every subdomain at once. Keep the property: you will claim the same domain in Merchant Centre later, and the verification carries over.
A sitemap is the list of addresses you want indexed. The store publishes its own automatically: one address per product and per category, product pages carrying price and availability in their structured data, and the filtered category views left out unless you opt one in. Read it back before you submit it.
Then in Search Console open Sitemaps, paste the sitemap address and submit. Google re-reads it on its own from then on; you never resubmit for a new product. If the site has pages outside the store, an about page or a blog, check they are listed too. The store builder updates page lists what the storefront does for SEO out of the box, so you can see what you do not need to build.
Create a GA4 property, copy the Measurement ID (it starts G-) and give it to Claude. Every page carries the tag from then on, including the storefront and the thank-you page.
The second half of that sentence is the part most stores skip. A custom-built store can report the sale itself, so revenue appears in Analytics next to the visit that produced it, and a campaign page can be judged on what it sold rather than what it attracted. Open the Realtime report, place one more test order, and watch it arrive. Finally, link the Analytics property and the Search Console property to each other in their Admin screens, so search queries show up beside conversions.
Launch day is the start of the store, not the end of the build. Each item below is a task Claude can run on a schedule, using data the store already holds.
Start with the two that run on data you already have, the sales report and the follow-up email, because they pay from the first week. Add the blog in month two, once Search Console has enough queries to audit.
Do I have to spend real money to test the checkout?
One order, refunded. Test mode proves the mechanics; a real card proves the account behind them is live and settling to you. The cost is the card fee on the cheapest thing you sell.
Why would a link on my own store return a 401?
Because it points at something that asks for a sign-in: a staging password left on the storefront, or an admin page linked from a customer-facing one. Customers see a login box where they expected a product.
Do I resubmit the sitemap when I add products?
No. The store rewrites its sitemap as the catalogue changes and Google re-reads it on its own schedule. Resubmitting is only useful after a large change, such as a new category tree.
Can Claude do the Google steps for me?
The tags, the settings and the purchase event, yes. Creating the properties and clicking Verify happens in your Google account, signed in as you; Claude never handles a password.
Which of the after-launch items should I do first?
The sales report and the follow-up email. Both run on orders you already have and neither needs any new content. The blog and the SEO audit come next, once there is search data to read.
Prebuilt functionality for when you need it.
A branded, category-filtered blog — listing page, article template and pagination, wired to your colours and navigation.
Content Explore blockRole-based sign-in with Google Authenticator two-factor, session handling and rate-limited attempts — ready to drop in.
Security Explore blockHeadless store deployment — product catalogue, stock, hosted checkout and an order admin, with payments landing in your own account.
Commerce Explore blockScroll-driven reveals, hero particle fields and UI motion — tested components that stay smooth and honour reduced-motion.
Motion