Types of rollouts

There are six main approaches to launching a new store:

1. New Business Launch

2. MVP Launch

3. Soft Launch

4. Multi-store Rollout

5. Multi-system Rollout

6. Full Migration 

In this guide, we will explain each of the approaches, to help you decide what launch type is most suitable to your business. 

New business

Launch New business launches refer to stores that are brand new, generally because the business behind them is also new, or because it’s an established business selling online for the first time.

New business launches tend to require fewer steps than other types of launch, as there are less data migration requirements. Also, new business launches don’t have deadlines dictated by pre-existing systems or contracts.

While data migration is typically not a concern for new business launches, store design and integrations with existing business systems will likely require most of your resources during launch. It will also be important to clearly define what your requirements are for shipping, taxes, order and customer management, and any other internal processes that will be impacted by the introduction of your new store.

Minimum viable product launch

A minimum viable product launch is when essential design, data migration, and integration work has been completed with plans for multiple iterations after launch. For example, you may go live with a lightly-customized theme from the Shopify Theme Store, while you work on a completely custom theme, or may choose to import historical orders and customers only after launch. This approach is generally chosen when there are short deadlines for the launch, and out-of-the box solutions are preferred.

Soft launch

A soft launch happens when a specific set of customers are introduced to the new store before it’s open to the general public. This could mean opening the new store to employees, friends and family, or VIP customers. A soft launch could also be considered for a specific product or set of products that can be launched on Shopify before the full catalog or for a side business or sub-brand.

With this approach, data migration is often not a requirement, or only a small amount of data needs to be imported to Shopify. However, other aspects like store design, apps and integrations, and implementation of your tax, shipping, order management, and other processes will likely require the same effort as a full launch.

Multi-store rollout

Multi-store rollouts typically benefit global business with several region or market-specific instances of the store. The multiple instances can be, for example, stores in different languages, different currencies, or selling different products—depending on the market 

Multi-store rollouts often begin with secondary markets and move on to larger, more established markets over time. This approach often simplifies your data migration, store design, integration, shipping, and tax requirements, as you only need to focus on a single market’s characteristics.

Multi-system rollout

Multi-system rollouts generally apply to larger-scale businesses, where Shopify is a component of a complex technology stack. Multi-system rollouts often require the collaboration of several project teams to plan and execute complex integrations, as well as cutover and post go-live failure mitigation procedures. As a result, some merchants opt for launching a new store on Shopify with active integrations with only some of the many systems, in order of priority. For example, you may choose to go live with an integration to your warehouse management system and only integrate your product information management system at a later stage.

This approach will reduce the amount of resources you need to invest in apps and integrations, but will likely not impact any other components of your launch.

Full migration

A full migration refers to the launch of one or more stores, complete with the final storefront design, all historical data, and all required integrations from the beginning. While this is one of the most common approaches, depending on how complex the project is, a full migration can take longer than other approaches.