Is Squarespace Good for Ecommerce in 2024?
As an expert Squarespace web designer, many of my clients who want to build an online store ask me this same question: Is Squarespace Good for Ecommerce?
The answer is yes. Squarespace is a good platform for ecommerce nowadays. It offers user-friendly tools, attractive templates, and powerful ecommerce features for small to medium-sized businesses.
Squarespace is a good option for online stores. It has stylish templates that highlight your products and are simple to customize. You can also customize the layout and design to fit your brand. The platform has strong e-commerce features and a large inventory system that makes it worth the investment.
In this article, we will cover the features of Squarespace e-commerce as well as its pros and cons to see if it’s a good option for your business. We will give you all the info you need to help you make the right decision.
What is Squarespace Ecommerce?
Squarespace Ecommerce is an all-in-one solution for businesses looking to set up an online store. As a powerful website builder, Squarespace Ecommerce offers a lot of features specifically designed to create an exceptional online shopping experience.
With Squarespace Ecommerce, you can easily showcase and sell your products or services through their beautifully designed templates. These templates are customizable, allowing you to create a unique and professional online presence that aligns with your brand vision.
Squarespace Ecommerce comes with advanced commerce features that cater specifically to online businesses. These features include unlimited product listings, built-in SEO tools to improve visibility on search engines, and the ability to accept credit card payments.
In addition to that, Squarespace Ecommerce provides a seamless transaction experience through secure payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal. It also offers features like abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, and customer accounts.
Is Squarespace Good for Ecommerce
Yes, I can say based on my experience that Squarespace is a solid choice for ecommerce. It’s an easy-to-use platform with good-looking templates, integrated marketing tools, secure payment options, and advanced e-commerce features.
It's especially suitable for small to medium-sized businesses and creative entrepreneurs looking to establish an online store without the complexity of more advanced e-commerce platforms.
Here is why Squarespace is Good for Ecommerce:
Beautiful Templates: Squarespace comes with customizable templates that are not only beautiful but also optimized for mobile use. This makes your online store look professional and engages potential customers on any device.
Easy Payment Processing: With Squarespace Commerce, you have multiple payment processing options available, including trusted providers like Stripe and PayPal. This flexibility allows you to seamlessly accept credit card payments so that customers can have a smooth checkout experience.
Digital Product Support: Whether you're selling online courses, e-books, or other digital products, Squarespace has you covered. Its built-in features enable you to quickly sell any product on your website. So you can sell physical products and also sell digital products on Squarespace.
User-Friendly Tools: Squarespace simplifies the ecommerce process with its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality. You can effortlessly manage your product catalogs, create custom discount codes, and set up customer accounts.
SEO Features: Squarespace offers built-in SEO tools to help optimize your website for search engines. This ensures your online store gets the visibility it needs to reach potential customers and drive traffic to your site.
In summary, Squarespace Ecommerce is a user-friendly and reliable platform for small businesses looking to build an online presence and boost their sales. You can try the platform free for 14 days to have a look at its features.
Squarespace Ecommerce Features
Squarespace is a very popular website builder and content management system(CMS) that offers a lot of advanced ecommerce features.
While the specific features may vary depending on the pricing plan you choose, here are some of the key e-commerce features typically available on Squarespace:
1. Selling Products
Squarespace ecommerce allows you to easily add an online store to your website with just a few clicks. The platform allows you to sell your products with stunning visuals and provide a compelling shopping experience for your visitors.
You can add and manage thousands of products, from physical items to digital downloads. The user-friendly interface makes it easy for customers to browse, add products to their cart, and securely check out.
Plus, Squarespace provides essential tools for product management, such as inventory tracking and low-stock alerts. This is to make sure you stay on top of your stock levels and orders.
2. Selling Services
Beyond physical products, Squarespace lets you sell services. This makes it ideal for businesses that offer appointments, consultations, or any service-based offerings.
Customers can book or schedule your services directly through your website. As a result, this simplifies the booking process and makes it convenient for both you and your clients.
With the ability to display service descriptions, availability, and pricing, you can effectively attract and manage new customers on your Squarespace website.
3. Selling Subscriptions
Squarespace makes it easy for you to have recurring revenue with a subscription-based selling feature. Whether it's a weekly, monthly, or customized subscription model, you can set up and manage it effortlessly.
This feature is particularly valuable for businesses that offer membership services, subscription boxes, or digital content on a regular basis. Also, keep in mind that Squarespace gives you a 14-day free trial to try all the platform features.
4. Selling Digital Content
For creators, musicians, authors, or any business offering digital content, Squarespace's direct download functionality is a game-changer. You can sell music, ebooks, software, or any digital product with ease.
Customers receive their purchases via customized email links, which expire within 24 hours. As a result, this ensures secure and timely delivery of digital content.
5. Product Merchandising
The Squarespace product merchandising tools empower you to organize your product catalog effectively. The drag-and-drop sorting tool, tags, categories, and visibility and scheduling settings help you present your products in an attractive and organized manner.
Furthermore, you can customize product detail pages with multiple layout options. This improves the shopping experience for your customers.
6. Product Subcategories
Organizing products into subcategories not only makes navigation easier for customers but also improves your store's search engine optimization(SEO). Squarespace automates the creation of category pages that are indexed by search engines.
This ensures that your products are discoverable by a wider audience. As a result, it increases your online visibility.
7. Shipping Labels
Squarespace offers a convenient solution by allowing you to buy and print USPS shipping labels directly from the platform. This improves your workflow and saves you time and money on shipping logistics.
You can configure shipping options, including different shipping carriers, and set up shipping rates based on factors such as product weight or customer location.
So whether you're a small business or a larger operation, this feature can greatly improve your shipping efficiency.
8. Limited Availability Labels
Creating a sense of urgency in your online store is a proven way to encourage conversions. Squarespace lets you add Limited Availability Labels to products to inform customers of the current inventory level.
As a merchant, you have control over when and how these labels are displayed. This feature helps create a sense of urgency and boosts sales.
9. Discounts
Running promotions and offering discounts is a common marketing strategy. Squarespace simplifies the process by enabling you to create automatic discounts that apply to entire orders, orders over a specific amount, or particular products.
You can also offer free shipping. To control the use of discounts, Squarespace allows you to limit them to one use per customer or set a total number of uses.
You can watch the YouTube video below by Squarespace Help to learn how to create custom discounts in Squarespace 7.1.
How to create discounts in Squarespace.
10. Related Products
Cross-selling and upselling are excellent ways to increase your sales revenue, and Squarespace's Related Products feature helps you do just that.
By displaying relevant products on your product listing pages, you increase the chances of customers finding complementary or alternative items they might want to purchase along with their original choice.
11. Inventory Management
Keeping track of your inventory is essential to avoid stockouts or overstock situations. Squarespace offers an easy-to-use interface for inventory management. The platform allows you to do quick views into your product variants and stock levels.
In addition to that, they send you email alerts when your stock levels are low. This is to make sure that you can restock in a timely manner.
12. Checkout on Your Domain
Offering a consistent and secure shopping experience is very important in e-commerce. That's why Squarespace's "Checkout on Your Domain" feature helps achieve just that.
By directing customers to a secure checkout process on your own domain, you not only provide a seamless experience but also show a sense of trust and security.
This feature can strengthen your brand's image and reduce cart abandonment rates as customers will feel more confident during the checkout process.
13. Customer Accounts
Allowing customers to create accounts and sign in can greatly improve your e-commerce operations. With the Squarespace Customer Accounts feature, you can encourage a faster checkout experience, as repeat buyers won't need to re-enter their information for subsequent purchases.
In addition to that, customer accounts enable you to build ongoing relationships with your buyers. This can potentially lead to increased loyalty and more sales.
14. Squarespace Point of Sale
For businesses that also have a physical presence, the Squarespace Point of Sale feature is a valuable addition. It allows you to sell in person using the Squarespace iOS app and Android app.
By connecting a Square account and pairing a reader, you can accept payments and keep inventory, customer information, and sales analytics synchronized with your online store. This feature, however, is currently only available in the United States.
15. Sales Analytics
Informed decision-making is essential for growing your e-commerce business. Squarespace provides detailed sales analytics that helps you understand your business's performance. You can track revenue, orders, units sold, and more.
These commerce-specific analytics cover sales by product, the purchase funnel, and abandoned cart data. This insight is invaluable for optimizing your strategy and improving your sales.
16. Tax Rates
Managing tax rates is a critical aspect of running an ecommerce store. Squarespace simplifies this process by allowing you to manage tax rates for countries and regions where you are required to charge tax.
With support for many tax systems like VAT, HST, and GST, you can easily comply with local tax requirements, set prices inclusive or exclusive of tax, and provide customizable invoices to suit your business needs.
17. Commerce APIs
For businesses with specific integration needs, Squarespace offers Commerce APIs. These allow you to build custom integrations with third-party systems to handle various back-office and e-commerce operations.
Whether it's order fulfillment, inventory management, or other unique requirements, the Commerce APIs provide the flexibility to create tailored solutions that match your business processes.
18. Import and Export Products and Data
If you're transitioning from another ecommerce platform or need to manage your data effectively, Squarespace offers tools to simplify that process.
You can import your existing products from platforms like Shopify, Big Cartel, or Etsy using .csv importers. Moreover, Squarespace also allows you to export your order data to .csv format, which is compatible with accounting and spreadsheet tools.
19. Shipping
Shipping plays an important role in ecommerce stores. That's why Squarespace enables you to set up shipping methods that best fit your business.
You can add as many shipping options as you need, whether it's flat-rate, weight-dependent, carrier-calculated, or through the use of shipping extensions. This flexibility ensures that your customers have choices when it comes to receiving their orders.
20. Gift Cards
Squarespace lets you sell gift cards. You can create and sell them for self-use or gifting. This adds a flexible revenue stream, as gift cards are often used by customers who want to introduce others to your brand, even if they're not familiar with your products.
Users can customize gift cards with messages and values. They can also send these cards digitally or print them for physical gifting.
Gift cards are a great way to drive repeat business and attract new customers. Squarespace's management tools help you track balances and ensure smooth redemptions.
21. Cart Abandonment Recovery
Cart abandonment is a common issue in e-commerce. Squarespace offers a solution to recover potentially lost sales through automated email reminders. If users add products to their cart and don't complete the purchase, the abandoned cart recovery feature comes into play.
These emails remind customers about their abandoned items with compelling product descriptions, images, and direct links back to the cart. They serve as gentle nudges, motivating customers to finalize their purchase.
You can customize these emails with engaging content and even offer discounts or promotions. This feature can significantly boost your conversion rates and revenue by re-engaging customers who left without making a purchase.
Pros and Cons of Squarespace Ecommerce
Just like any other e-commerce platform, Squarespace has its own pros and cons when it comes to building an online store. There are advantages as well as disadvantages to using Squarespace ecommerce.
Pros of Squarespace Ecommerce
Squarespace has a lot of pros for building a professional ecommerce store. Here's an overview of the pros of using Squarespace for ecommerce:
Ease of Use: Squarespace is known for its ease of use and user-friendly interface. Even beginners can create a professional-looking ecommerce website without extensive coding knowledge. In addition to that, the platform is easy to learn compared to its competitors.
Beautiful Online Store Templates: Squarespace offers a lot of modern and stylish ecommerce templates. These templates are responsive and designed to work well on both desktop and mobile devices. This allows you to create an online store quickly and make it look beautiful.
Integrated Analytics: Squarespace provides built-in analytics tools that give you insights into your store's performance. You can track sales, site traffic, and more from the dashboard.
Customer Support: Squarespace offers customer support through various channels, including email and live chat. They also have extensive documentation and community forums to assist users.
Excellent Inventory System: Squarespace's inventory management system allows you to efficiently track and manage your product inventory. You can set up low-stock alerts and easily monitor stock levels to ensure that you don't run out of products.
If you want to try all these features for free, I highly recommend that you start your Squarespace free trial now. If you decide to pay for the platform, you can use my code MEHDI10 to get a 10% discount.
Cons of Squarespace Ecommerce
Squarespace also has its cons when it comes to ecommerce. Here is an overview of some of the Squarespace ecommerce cons:
Advanced Features: Squarespace is great for most small to medium-sized businesses, but it may lack some advanced features that large or more complex e-commerce operations need.
Third-Party Integrations: Squarespace's integration options are somewhat limited compared to platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce. If you need a lot of third-party integrations and plugins, this could be a limitation. But Squarespace still allows you to add third-party plugins to your website by using code injection tools.
Export Limitations: Migrating away from Squarespace can be challenging due to export limitations. You may encounter difficulties moving your data to another platform if you decide to switch in the future. You may encounter this if you have a very large online store.
In conclusion, Squarespace is a solid choice for individuals and small to medium-sized businesses looking to quickly build a professional online store.
However, it may not be the best fit for larger or more complex e-commerce operations. So always consider your specific needs and features of the platform when starting your ecommerce business.
Squarespace Ecommerce Pricing
Squarespace has four pricing plans, but only three of them support ecommerce functionality. So that means there are 3 plans that allow you to build an online store. The personal plan doesn’t allow ecommerce as you can see below.
So for e-commerce, you can start with the Squarespace Business Plan. But if you’re more serious about your online store, you can pick one of the two Commerce plans: the Commerce Basic Plan or the Commerce Advanced Plan.
Here is an overview of the Squarespace Commerce pricing plans:
The Business Plan: This entry-level plan allows limited e-commerce functionality and costs $23 per month. It comes with a 3% transaction fee. It suits small businesses getting started with online sales.
The Basic Commerce Plan: Ideal for businesses with growing product catalogs and costs $27 per month. this plan offers features like unlimited product listings and 0% transaction fees.
The Advanced Commerce Plan: Tailored for larger e-commerce operations and costs $49 per month. This plan provides advanced features like shipping options, abandoned cart recovery, and subscriptions, all without transaction fees.
If you want to know more about the features available on each plan, I highly encourage you to read my article about Squarespace Business vs Commerce plans.
As you can see, Squarespace's e-commerce pricing structure provides options for businesses at different stages. From those just starting with online sales to more established ecommerce brands.
So carefully consider your business requirements and expected sales volume to select the plan that best aligns with your goals.
Is It Easy to Sell on Squarespace?
Yes, selling on Squarespace is easy. The platform provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies the process of setting up an online store. With their drag-and-drop tools, you can easily create good-looking product pages and customize them to match your brand.
In addition to that, Squarespace integrates with popular payment gateways. This makes it easy to set up and process online payments securely. The platform also makes your store mobile-friendly automatically. That means you don't have to worry about how your store looks on different screen sizes.
Overall, Squarespace makes it straightforward for businesses to create attractive and functional e-commerce websites. As a result, it makes the selling process simple and accessible.
Squarespace Ecommerce Templates
There are a lot of awesome Squarespace ecommerce templates that you can use as a starting point for your online store. These templates save you a lot of time in the website-building process and also make it easier for you to design your online store.
Once you pick a template, you will have all the tools to customize and edit all its styling to match your brand. No matter what ecommerce template you start with, you can edit and customize its design based on your needs.
Here are some Squarespace templates for ecommerce:
Hester template: Hester is the best Squarespace template for ecommerce. It has a simple and straightforward design. It's a great choice for businesses that prioritize clear product presentation and ease of navigation for their customers.
Vandam template: VANDAM is known for its bold and dynamic design. It's a clean template that is ideal for businesses looking to make a strong and memorable impression on their customers. It offers a unique and creative layout for showcasing products.
Alameda: Alameda is another template with a clean and modern design. It provides a versatile and user-friendly layout for a lot of e-commerce businesses.
Stanton: Stanton offers a sleek and beautiful design that's suitable for bloggers who want to sell products. It features dynamic layouts and is ideal for products with rich visuals.
VENTURA: VENTURA is designed for businesses that want a good-looking and simple e-commerce experience. It provides an engaging layout to showcase products with impact and creativity.
These templates offer different design styles and features. However, no matter which template you choose, you still can fully customize it and add features to it.
Squarespace Marketing Tools
Squarespace is an all-in-one website-building platform that comes with many marketing tools to promote your ecommerce store. By taking advantage of those marketing features, you will be able to increase your online sales and conversion rates.
Here are some of the key marketing tools offered by Squarespace Commerce:
Email Campaigns: Squarespace has an integrated email marketing feature that allows you to create and send newsletters, product announcements, and promotional emails to your subscribers. You can build email campaigns using customizable templates and track their performance through analytics.
Social Media Integration: Squarespace makes it easy to connect your website with your social media accounts. That's by adding social sharing buttons on your site for visitors to share your products.
Multilingual Support: If you target a global audience, Squarespace offers multilingual features that enable you to create content in multiple languages. This helps you reach a broader international market.
SEO Optimization: Squarespace offers tools for optimizing your site's SEO. You can customize meta titles, descriptions, and alt tags for images to improve your site's visibility in search engine results.
Product Reviews: Squarespace also lets you add product reviews and ratings to your online store. This can influence potential customers and encourage them to make a purchase if your reviews are positive. Moreover, you can also import reviews from Etsy.
These marketing tools are integrated into the Squarespace platform. As a result, they make it convenient to manage your online marketing efforts and grow your e-commerce business.
Squarespace Blogging and SEO Features
Squarespace offers an easy platform for blogging and provides many built-in features to improve SEO on your online store.
With Squarespace blogging tools, you can easily create, organize, and manage your blog content. The platform includes features like customizable content blocks, built-in commenting systems, and options for categorizing and tagging your blog posts.
In addition to that, Squarespace also offers some useful features for your blog posts such as AI text generation and blog content scheduling. You can check out my previous article for more content about blogging on Squarespace.
In terms of SEO, Squarespace allows you to customize key elements, such as meta titles, descriptions, and image alt text. This helps your blog content be optimized for search engines.
The platform also lets you create custom page URLs. Plus, it auto-optimizes all your pages for mobile, making them more search engine-friendly.
It also provides SSL security to enhance user trust and SEO ranking. Squarespace also offers built-in auto sitemap generation, 301 redirects, and integration with tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. These features collectively help you create and promote your blog content more effectively.
Squarespace Customer Support
Squarespace has great customer support for its users who are in the Business and Commerce plans. With 24/7 availability, you can reach out for assistance at any time, which is crucial for ecommerce businesses that operate around the clock.
You can easily contact their support team through email or live chat to receive prompt responses to your inquiries. In addition to that, the Squarespace support team knowledge base is extensive.
They offer detailed guides and tutorials for e-commerce-related topics. This makes it a valuable resource for anyone looking for self-help with their Squarespace store.
Additionally, their community forum allows users to seek advice and share experiences. For ecommerce questions, Squarespace offers assistance on topics like payment processing, inventory management, and checkout customization.
Some Squarespace Commerce plans even include priority customer support for faster response times. This will allow you to solve any website problems quickly.
I have tried Squarespace customer support many times and my experience with them was always good. They quickly answer any questions I have and I was also able to reach out to their help team on Twitter.
Is Squarespace Better Than Shopify for Ecommerce?
Squarespace and Shopify are both popular for e-commerce, but your choice depends on your specific needs.
Squarespace is a user-friendly platform known for its beautiful templates. It's great if you want an elegant website with e-commerce as part of it. On the other hand, Shopify specializes in online selling for ecommerce stores.
It offers advanced e-commerce features, making it the better choice if your main focus is online sales and something more advanced.
Your decision should align with your business goals. Squarespace is a good choice if you need an online store and want to create content as well. While Shopify excels in building feature-rich and scalable online stores. You can even integrate both for the best of both worlds.
Squarespace Ecommerce Examples
There are a lot of Squarespace ecommerce examples that you can check out to get some design inspiration. You can have a look at other people’s Squarespace online stores to see what you can learn from them.
For example, Cosmik is an ice cream brand that uses Squarespace for its business. They have a beautiful website design that is eye-catching and clean. You can also check out Kerin Cunningham's store for a creative artist who sells a lot of art and decorations.
Squarespace flexibility and elegant templates make it attractive to businesses looking for a seamless and visually engaging shopping experience. You can read my previous article about the 21 best Squarespace store examples if you need more ecommerce inspiration.
Squarespace Ecommerce Review: Conclusion
In conclusion, Squarespace stands out as an attractive option for ecommerce. It offers a blend of user-friendliness and essential selling features. With its beautiful templates and easy customization, it's great for creating professional online stores.
While it may not as scalable as platforms like Shopify, Squarespace excels in seamlessly integrating ecommerce into its website builder. It's an ideal choice if you want a good-looking website with ecommerce functionality as a central part.
Whether you're a small business, artist, or creative, Squarespace provides a user-friendly e-commerce solution to help you build your online brand.
In my opinion, you should take advantage of the Squarespace free trial now to check out the platform and its ecommerce features. So just pick a template and start playing with the platform because it’s easy to use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are our answers to some FAQs that we often see:
Who is Squarespace Ecommerce For?
Squarespace is an excellent choice for small to medium-sized businesses, creative professionals, artists, and those who want to showcase their products alongside other content, such as blogs or portfolios. It's particularly well-suited for businesses that want an easy-to-use platform.
Can I customize my e-commerce store's design with Squarespace?
Yes, Squarespace provides a range of customizable templates that allow you to create a unique look and feel for your online store. You can modify the design to align with your brand identity.
How does Squarespace handle SEO for e-commerce?
Squarespace provides customizable SEO settings, clean URL structures, mobile optimization, and SSL security to improve your online store's visibility in search engines.
How to Connect a Payment Processor in Squarespace?
To connect a payment processor in Squarespace, follow these steps:
Log in to your Squarespace account and access your website's dashboard.
Click on the "Settings" option in the main menu, and then select "Payments."
Choose the payment processor you want to integrate(e.g., Stripe, PayPal, or Square).
Follow the provided instructions to set up your payment processor account if you haven't already.
Configure your payment processor settings within Squarespace, including currency, transaction details, and any other specific requirements.
Save your settings, and your chosen payment processor will now be integrated into your Squarespace e-commerce store.
Remember to test the payment processing system thoroughly to ensure that it's working as expected and that your customers can make purchases.
Can I migrate my existing e-commerce store to Squarespace?
Yes, Squarespace provides tools and guidance for migrating your e-commerce store from other platforms. It's a seamless process and you can retain your domain and important data during the transition.
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