Your Shopify store doesn't run on Shopify alone. It runs on Klaviyo, Stripe, ShipStation, ReCharge, Gorgias, and a dozen other apps that have to work in sync. When one of them goes down, your checkout might still load — but orders won't fulfill, emails won't send, and customers won't hear from you.
Here is the exact checklist to run through in the first 10 minutes of any third-party app outage.
Minute 1-2: Confirm the problem and identify the source
Before doing anything else, figure out which app is actually down and whether the problem is on their end or yours.
- Check the app's status page directly (search "[app name] status page" or look for a statusbird alert)
- Check whether the problem is isolated to one function (e.g. email only) or total failure
- Ask a coworker to test from a different connection to rule out your own network
Do not spend 20 minutes debugging your Shopify theme if the issue is Klaviyo's servers.
Minute 3-4: Assess the revenue impact
Not all outages are equal. Walk through these questions quickly:
- Is checkout still functional? (Payment processor down = maximum urgency)
- Are orders still being created even if not fulfilling? (Shipping app down = medium urgency)
- Is it a customer-facing feature or back-office? (Email platform down = medium; inventory sync down = lower)
If checkout is broken, go directly to minute 5. Everything else can wait slightly longer.
Minute 5-6: Pause your paid ads if checkout is broken
This is the single most expensive mistake store owners make during outages: leaving ads running while checkout is non-functional. Go to Meta Ads Manager, Google Ads, and TikTok and pause every active campaign. You can resume them in five minutes once the issue resolves. The money you waste sending traffic to a broken checkout is gone forever.
Minute 7-8: Put up a store notice
Go to Shopify Admin > Online Store > Themes > Customize and add an announcement banner. Keep it simple:
"We're currently experiencing a technical issue. Our team is working to resolve it. Thank you for your patience."
Do not mention which app is down. Do not make promises about timing. This is just to stop customers from assuming your store is closed permanently.
Minute 9-10: Open a support ticket with the app provider
Even if there is already a public incident on their status page, open a ticket. It creates a timestamp, gets you into the support queue, and sometimes surfaces information about your specific account that the public status page doesn't show.
Keep the ticket short: what is failing, when it started, and what you have already confirmed.
After the outage: set up monitoring so this doesn't catch you off guard again
The first 10 minutes of an outage only go smoothly if you know it's happening immediately. Most store owners find out from customers — which means you've already lost 20-30 minutes.
StatusBird monitors all 84 major Shopify-adjacent services and texts you the moment something goes wrong. It takes about 3 minutes to set up and costs nothing to start.