Ecommerce Operations Checklist
Who this is for
Operations directors, ecommerce managers, COOs, and founders who want a top-level diagnostic of their store's operational health.
Most ecommerce operations problems are predictable. They don't appear because they're complex — they appear because no one ever checked that the underlying controls were in place. This checklist covers the critical operational domains that determine whether a Shopify store runs smoothly or generates an unsustainable volume of post-purchase incidents, refunds, chargebacks, and support escalations.
When to use this
- You're launching a new store or migrating from another ecommerce platform.
- You're preparing for a high-stakes period such as BFCM, a product launch, or a large marketing campaign.
- You've experienced a wave of post-purchase incidents and want to identify systemic control gaps.
- You're doing an operational audit for a store acquisition or investment.
- You're building your first operations function and need a starting framework.
Step-by-step workflow
Progress: 0/7 complete (0%)
Frequently asked questions
How often should I run a full ecommerce operations audit?
At minimum: quarterly for regular health checks, and immediately before any high-stakes event (major campaign, peak season, platform migration). Spot audits of single domains (e.g., just refunds or just checkout) should happen monthly or whenever a spike in a relevant metric occurs.
What's the difference between this checklist and an operational readiness assessment?
This checklist is a top-level domain coverage review — it checks whether you have operating controls in each key area. An operational readiness assessment goes deeper into each control's design and effectiveness. Use this checklist first to identify which domains have gaps, then use the readiness assessment tools to evaluate those domains in detail.
What are the highest-impact operations improvements for early-stage Shopify stores?
For early-stage stores: written refund policy, basic refund reason code tracking, checkout testing after every change, and a simple inventory alert system. These four controls prevent the majority of costly post-order problems. Scale complexity only after the basics are consistently in place.
How do I prioritize which operations failures to fix first?
Prioritize by: customer impact (what causes the most escalations or complaints), margin impact (what costs the most money), and prevention cost (what's cheapest to fix). Fulfillment errors and refund inconsistency are usually the highest-impact/lowest-cost improvements for most Shopify stores.
Where can I find templates for the processes mentioned in this checklist?
The StoreOps Directory templates library includes operator-grade templates for refund policies, SOPs, checklists, and incident runbooks. The playbooks section includes detailed step-by-step execution guides for most of the domains covered in this checklist.
Related resources and tools
- Ecommerce Operations Playbook — KPI scorecard and 5-day sprint plan
- Operational Readiness Assessment — systemic risk diagnostic
- Ops Health Check Tool — browser-based scorecard across seven risk areas
- Post-Order Failures Library — reference library of what goes wrong
- Peak Season Readiness Checklist — high-volume event preparation
- Templates Library — operator-grade implementation templates