--- name: playbook-store-launch type: playbook description: >- The prescribed sequence for taking a retail venture from brand definition to a live Shopify store — strategy, brand, range and product data, storefront, packaging, flows and newsletter, channels and SEO, launch, first-thirty-days review — each step naming the skill it pulls and the artefact it leaves, with the human-action gates from convention-shopify (pricing, going live, paid promotion, full-list sends) in the right places, a fast-path variant for a print-on-demand apparel launch that defers what a same-day launch can and lists what returns in week two, and the Linear scaffold (project, phases as milestones, decision log). Read and follow whenever a store launches or relaunches (Keroma first, the BARA relaunch second), so the next launch is run rather than re-derived. Owned by the vertical's operator and composed by its operating loop; composes the retail skills and restates none. Surfaced by APP-1080 / APP-1091; first draft 2026-09-04. license: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 --- # Store launch The repeatable path from brand definition to a live store, in the shape of `playbook-client-onboard`: read and followed, not run. Keroma and the BARA relaunch were being sequenced by hand; this playbook fixes the order, names the skill each step pulls and the artefact it leaves, and puts the human-action gates where `convention-shopify` requires them. It composes `convention-retail` (the touchpoint chain is its checklist spine), `standard-storefront`, `convention-brand`, `convention-shopify`, `convention-linear`, `convention-decision-log` and `convention-ticket`, and the retail skills below; it restates none of them. Owned by the vertical's operator (`operator-bara`; Keroma's when it gains one) and composed by that operator's `skill-operating-loop`. First run: Keroma. Second: the BARA relaunch. Surfaced by APP-1091; first draft 2026-09-04. ## When to use A retail venture is going live or relaunching on Shopify — a new store, a rebrand that changes what the store is, or a return to trading after a pause. Not for a seasonal refresh or a single drop; those are `skill-storefront-merchandising`'s refresh checklist and `skill-launch-campaign`. ## The sequence Nine steps in order. Each names the skill it pulls, the artefact it leaves, and any gate. A step's artefact is the next step's input; a step skipped is recorded as deferred in the decision log with the date it returns, never silently. ### 1. Strategy `skill-retail-strategy` (Atlas, for the operator) sets positioning, range tiers, price architecture, channel sequence and the retail calendar; `skill-unit-economics` (the operator) tests the price architecture on the margin ladder and produces the costed budget proposal where the mandate has no envelope. Leaves: the strategy document on the venture's project; the proposal for the Owner. **Gate: the Owner rules on the envelope** before any step below spends. ### 2. Brand `skill-brand-system` (Pixel) fills or confirms the venture's `convention-brand` instance — positioning, voice, palette, type, logo, imagery, design-system pointer — and Reach supplies the voice reference where none exists. Leaves: the brand instance with its gaps marked and pointed at the work that fills them. A launch may proceed with gaps; it may not proceed with an invented voice. ### 3. Range and product data The operator, with the maker or provider: the line list from the range tiers, named per `convention-shopify` (`Product name | Variant descriptor`; collections as plain nouns), with per-product fulfilment model, lead time and returns terms, cost of goods for the ladder, and the imagery set flagged where missing. Printify: the provider chosen, products and variants mapped, production lead time captured for the product page. Own stock: inventory at the location level, the buy sized from `skill-unit-economics` Pass 3. Leaves: products staged in the store as drafts. **Gate: prices are the operator's hand to set.** ### 4. Storefront `skill-storefront-merchandising` (Pixel) scores the store or the design against `standard-storefront`, merchandises and designs each surface, directs the imagery, and specifies the theme for Forge; Forge builds in the theme repo, Prism reviews, Relay merges (`workflow-delivery-loop`). Product and key-page copy is Reach's via `skill-content-studio`. Leaves: the theme built behind password, the scored inventory, the photography brief where the imagery set is short. ### 5. Packaging `skill-packaging-unboxing` (Pixel) fixes the constraint mode, specifies the system and the unboxing sequence, and stages print specs. Leaves: the packaging spec and the arrival narrative for step 6. **Gate: print spend and supplier orders are the operator's.** ### 6. Flows and newsletter `skill-lifecycle` (Reach) builds the standard flow set and segments, staged paused; `skill-newsletter` (Reach) sets the editorial cadence and the first issue. Leaves: flows staged, the newsletter plan, copy drafted on-voice. **Gate: flow activation and any full-list send are the operator's.** ### 7. Channels and SEO `skill-channel-ops` (Reach) opens the channels the strategy sequenced for this stage — the DTC store and one or two owned channels, nothing more at 0→1 — and `skill-seo-discovery` (Reach) sets titles, metadata, product copy structure and alt text per the shared-asset rule in `convention-shopify`. Leaves: channels configured, the discovery baseline captured. ### 8. Launch `skill-launch-campaign` (Reach) plans and stages the launch as a dated drop where the discount posture allows real scarcity, against the calendar from step 1. The pre-live check: every `standard-storefront` trust check run and recorded, policies attached to checkout, the six `convention-shopify` KPI queries run once for the baseline. **Gate: going live — publishing the theme and removing password protection — and any paid promotion are the operator's, and only after the pre-live check passes.** ### 9. First-thirty-days review `skill-campaign-report` (Reach) reads the KPI set against the launch baseline at day 7 and day 30; `skill-unit-economics` re-runs the ladder on live figures; the operator's `skill-operating-loop` takes the read into its weekly cadence. Leaves: the day-30 read on the project, the deferred list from the fast path closed or rescheduled, and a `FRICTION:` note per step to the Pulse queue via `skill-ops-retro`. ## The fast path — print-on-demand apparel For a launch that must be live in days on Printify (Keroma). Steps 1 to 3 run in one pass with almost everything marked assumed; the operator names the peer set, the price band and the discount posture as working assumptions. Same-day essentials: a brand instance with at least positioning and voice; products mapped from the provider with lead time and the returns posture on the product page; a theme from a Shopify base with the homepage, collection and product page cleared to the `standard-storefront` anatomy; the native abandoned-checkout flow and voice-edited order notifications; one owned channel; the pre-live check. Deferred to week two, listed in the decision log with dates: the full imagery set beyond provider mockups, the scored inventory, the packaging insert the provider allows, the remaining flow set and the newsletter, SEO beyond titles and alt text, a second channel. Deferred does not mean dropped; step 9 closes the list. ## Linear scaffold Per `convention-linear`: one project per launch under the venture's team, linked to the venture's initiative, lead the operator. Per `convention-ticket`: the nine steps as **milestones with target dates**, leaves beneath each in the standard ticket shape, filed captured for the operator to promote. Per `convention-decision-log`: the venture's log (`mbn.log-decisions` for BARA; one stood up for Keroma at step 1 and listed in that convention), with the strategy assumptions, the fast-path deferrals and every gate decision logged as entries. The vertical's mandate document holds the envelope; the playbook never states figures. ## Human-action gates Named where `convention-shopify` requires them, and only there: the envelope (step 1), prices (step 3), print spend (step 5), flow activation and full-list sends (step 6), going live and paid promotion (step 8). Agents prepare and stage; the operator releases. A gate is a decision item in `convention-comms-owner` format, never an implied wait. ## Guardrails - Compose, do not duplicate. Every mechanic lives in the convention or skill named; if one changes, this still holds. - Order holds. Strategy before brand before storefront; the fast path compresses steps, it does not reorder them. - A skipped or deferred step is logged with its return date; the launch is not done until the deferred list is. - Nothing goes live, spends or sends without the operator's release at the named gate. - One venture per run, the operator's own; contention for the shared fleet goes to Atlas. - Known against assumed carried through from step 1; a fast-path launch says so on its project. - Propose-only for the agents; the operator owns the outcome. ## Tone Calm, precise, sentence case, British spelling, no exclamation marks, outcome before adjective (`cos.tov`).