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eCommerce App MVP Checklist: Payments, Products, Shipping & More
MT
MVPHub Team
•
6 min read
eCommerce App MVP Checklist: Payments, Products, Shipping & More
Building an eCommerce app? This checklist covers every feature you need — organized by phase — to go from zero to a live, revenue-generating online store.
Check items off as you go. Skip nothing in Phase 1. Be selective in Phase 2. Ignore Phase 3 until after launch.
Phase 1: Core Store (Must-Have for First Sale)
Product Catalog
- Product data model (title, description, price, images, category, SKU)
- Product listing page with grid or list view
- Product detail page with image gallery, description, and price
- Category or collection pages
- At least 5-10 products loaded with real images and descriptions
- Responsive product cards on mobile
Shopping Cart
- Add to cart from product page
- Cart page showing all items with quantities
- Update quantity in cart
- Remove items from cart
- Cart persists across page navigations (localStorage or session)
- Cart total with subtotal display
- "Continue Shopping" and "Proceed to Checkout" buttons
Checkout
- Shipping address form (name, address, city, state, zip, country)
- Email address collection
- Order summary review before payment
- Stripe Checkout or Stripe Elements integration
- Shipping cost display (flat-rate is fine for MVP)
- Tax calculation (Stripe Tax or manual)
- Order total (subtotal + shipping + tax)
- Successful payment creates an order record in your database
- Order confirmation page with order number
Payments
- Stripe account created and configured
- Test mode working with test card numbers
- Checkout session creation (backend)
- Webhook endpoint for
checkout.session.completed - Payment failure handling (show error, allow retry)
- Live mode tested with real card (charge yourself, then refund)
Order Management (Admin)
- View all orders list (date, customer, total, status)
- Order detail view (items, amounts, shipping address, payment status)
- Update order status (processing → shipped → delivered)
- Search/filter orders by status or date
- Order confirmation email to customer (order details, shipping info)
- Order notification email to you (new order alert)
- Shipping confirmation email with tracking number (manual send is fine)
Essential Pages
- Homepage with featured products and CTA
- About page (your brand story)
- Contact page or form
- Shipping policy page
- Returns/refund policy page
- Privacy policy
- Terms of service
SEO Basics
- Unique title and meta description for each product
- Open Graph images for social sharing
- Sitemap.xml generated
- Clean URL structure (
/products/product-name)
Phase 2: Growth Features (Add in First Month)
Customer Experience
- User accounts (optional sign up for order history)
- Order history page (for logged-in users)
- Search bar with product search
- Product filtering by price, category, or attributes
- Product sorting (price low-high, newest, popularity)
- Recently viewed products
- Breadcrumb navigation
Marketing
- Discount/coupon code system
- Featured products or "Staff Picks" section
- Newsletter signup (email collection)
- Social media links and share buttons
- Google Analytics or PostHog tracking
- Abandoned cart email (for logged-in users)
Operations
- Basic inventory tracking (stock count per product)
- Low stock alerts
- Multiple product images (gallery)
- Product variants (size, color) with SKU per variant
- Shipping label generation or carrier integration
- CSV export of orders
Phase 3: Scale Features (Add Based on Demand)
- Product reviews and ratings
- Wishlist / save for later
- Product recommendations ("Customers also bought")
- Advanced search with autocomplete
- Multi-currency support
- International shipping with real-time rates
- Subscription products (recurring orders)
- Gift cards
- Loyalty/rewards program
- Multi-vendor marketplace
- Mobile app
- A/B testing on product pages
Payment Checklist (Stripe-Specific)
- Stripe account verified and activated
- Products and Prices created in Stripe Dashboard
- Checkout Session API implemented
- Webhook endpoint deployed and verified
- Webhook secret stored as environment variable
- Handle
checkout.session.completedevent - Handle
charge.refundedevent (optional for MVP) - Stripe Customer Portal enabled (for subscription products)
- Test all payment scenarios:
- Successful payment (4242 4242 4242 4242)
- Declined card (4000 0000 0000 0002)
- Insufficient funds (4000 0000 0000 9995)
- 3D Secure required (4000 0027 6000 3184)
- Switch to live mode for production
- Verify live webhook endpoints
- Make a real test purchase and refund it
Shipping Checklist
- Decide on shipping strategy (flat-rate, free, weight-based)
- Configure shipping rates in your app
- Shipping address validation (basic format checking)
- Shipping cost calculated and displayed at checkout
- Shipping policy page published
- Order fulfillment workflow defined (who packs, who ships)
- Shipping confirmation email with tracking number
- Returns process documented
Pre-Launch Checklist
- All products have real images (not placeholders)
- All product descriptions are complete and accurate
- Pricing is correct including tax and shipping
- Complete purchase flow tested end-to-end
- Emails sending correctly (order confirmation, shipping)
- Mobile experience tested on real device
- Page load speed under 3 seconds
- SSL certificate active (HTTPS)
- Favicon and branding finalized
- Social sharing meta tags working
- Error tracking (Sentry) configured
- Analytics installed and tracking
- Legal pages published
- Domain connected and DNS propagated
Final Thoughts
This checklist is designed so you can launch by completing only Phase 1. Everything in Phase 2 and 3 improves the store but isn't required for your first sale.
Focus on getting a product in front of a customer, collecting payment, and fulfilling the order. That's an eCommerce business. Everything else is optimization.
Building your eCommerce MVP? Read How to Build an eCommerce MVP.
Need a template? Browse eCommerce templates on MVPHub.
Considering Shopify instead? See Shopify vs Custom eCommerce MVP.
