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Run the pre-launch check two weeks before your date, not the day before. A no-go two weeks out is cheap. A no-go on the morning is not.

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Run the pre-launch check

Answer each line. Fix anything that is not a yes, or move the date. Run the pre-launch check takes each line above and says what evidence settles it: how to reconcile imported data by value, what the live payment leaves behind, and how to write a rollback condition someone can act on.

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Switch over

Do these four things on the day:
  1. Make your domain primary under Settings → Domains.
  2. Open your storefront as a customer and confirm the payment methods shown are the live ones.
  3. Confirm everything meant to be on sale is visible.
  4. Place a real order yourself, or watch the first customer order all the way through.
Check that first order end to end: it appears in the admin, stock is reserved against it, the confirmation email arrives, and the payment settles. Do not wait for a customer to find the problem. Follow Verify your first real order for each of those four checks, and what to do when one of them is wrong.

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Close the old system to new bookings

Stop the old system taking bookings on the day you switch. Keep it readable until the last rental and deposit it holds has cleared, which for long hires runs to months. Never leave both systems taking new orders. The same stock item gets sold twice. See Archive stock items and archiving and deletion.

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Done when

  • Every line of the pre-launch check is a yes.
  • Your domain resolves to TWICE, and a customer sees live payment methods.
  • One real order has gone through and you checked the admin record, the stock hold, the confirmation email and the payment.
  • New bookings can only be made in TWICE.
  • The old system is closed to new orders and still readable for what it holds.

Run the pre-launch check

Each line of the check above, and the evidence that settles it.

Verify your first real order

The admin record, stock reservation, confirmation email and settled payment, checked in full.

Launch path

The whole path, in order.

Train your team

The previous step.

Your first weeks

The next step: what to watch once you are running.

Domains

Every domain status, action and DNS record in full.