3 Ways to Crush This Holiday Selling Season with Your Squarespace eCommerce Website
eCommerce merchants are facing a double whammy of things to be nervous about this holiday selling season. Chances are you’re worried about 1) ongoing supply chain issues AND 2) the threat of longer than normal shipping times this holiday season (again).
This is resulting in:
Being uneasy about promoting too much too early because you’re not sure you’re even going to have inventory to sell, and…
Sleepless nights spent worrying about an even shorter-than-normal selling season, not sure you’ll be able to fulfill and ship in the teeny tiny window of time you have.
Eek!
Don’t worry - I have three solutions you can try to help ease the nerves so you can sell with confidence this holiday season.
1. Add a Local Pickup Option
Adding a local pickup option will allow for sales right up to the very last minute -- no need to cut things off early to allow for extra shipping and fulfillment time!
Bonus: you can use local pickup as a competitive advantage over non-local online competitors - winning over shoppers who don't want to risk not having gifts arrive in time.
Not sure if this is for you? Let’s explore the idea:
The best of both worlds - offering in-store pickup or curbside delivery are great ways to combine the ease of eCommerce with the familiarity of buying from a favorite local business.
Win back customers who are accustomed to “free” 2-day shipping - It’s about more than just convenience; providing a local pickup option can help you compete with the big guys! Customers are used to shopping online with Amazon or Walmart and getting whatever they want delivered fast. Local pickup is a way to beat them to it!
I think that if more businesses knew how easy it was to set these options up that they would definitely do it - and possibly attract a whole new batch of customers as a result!
I mean, how nice would it be if you could pick up all your holiday shopping curbside on your way home from work?!
Marketing curbside or in-store pickup as a service can really give you a competitive edge! Plus, you can throw in upsells like free gifts with purchase or free gift wrapping to really sweeten the deal.
Tips for Offering a Successful Local Pickup Program
Like I said, setting this up is pretty easy to do from a technical perspective but here are a few quick tips to make sure you’re set up for success before you so:
Document your fulfillment process. This includes making sure that everyone on your team is educated on the in-store pickup or curbside delivery procedures. Write down every step that happens between the time someone submits an order until that order is picked up. Who monitors your inbox for new orders? Who marks them as fulfilled and when? How and when are customers notified? Be specific. Your plan doesn’t have to be complex but it should be organized.
Add info about local pickup to your FAQ page. It’s important to set expectations early about how long it will take to fulfill an order, what needs to be done when the customer arrives at your location, etc. Add information about pick-up hours, where to park, what they need to bring to pick up their order, and your contact information -- especially a phone number! (When in doubt, my rule of thumb is to treat every visitor like a lost tourist 😂)
Provide directions and ALL the information again in your email confirmation. You may have put all the info on your website and FAQ page but just count on the fact that people are busy and assume they didn’t see it. Don’t worry about repeating yourself and provide the directions about what to do again in your email confirmation email. Be explicit. For example, are they to proceed directly to your location right away or will you be emailing again when their order is ready for pickup? Is there a phone number they need to keep handy? Can they stay in their car? Is there a special line to stand in for online orders?
Put up easy-to-read signage at your location regarding curbside pickup procedures. At the risk of repeating myself, I’m telling you to go ahead and repeat yourself :) If you need people to park in a certain spot or area, call or text a certain number or follow some other procedures, let them know. Make it simple and clear. The goal is to reduce frustration and confusion. Great on-site signage also has the benefit of advertising to anyone passing by that you offer local pickup so be sure to mention your website on any and all printed materials!
Two Options for Local Pickup on Squarespace
Use the built-in Local Pickup option. This will create an option at checkout toggle between shipping & pickup and will be available to all customers. (Get there: HOME > COMMERCE > PICKUP)
Set up a free flat-rate option. This will allow you to restrict local pickup options to people in certain areas using zip or postal codes. While it isn’t technically necessary to limit this as an option at checkout, it’s nice to only show it to people who could reasonably choose it. The trick on this is to make sure you give the pickup option a very clear name like “Curbside Pickup - YOUR AREA ONLY” so that it differentiates the local pickup option from any other (potentially free) shipping options you offer. (Get there: HOME > COMMERCE > SHIPPING > ADD SHIPPING OPTION > FLAT RATE)
Tip: for more complete, step-by-step instructions on both of the ways outlined above to set up a local pickup option on Squarespace, check out the bottom of this post where I break down all the details!
2. Simplify Your Shipping Strategy + Add a Shipping Extension
For traditional eCommerce orders, adding a shipping extension can help you fulfill orders FAST and save you some money in the process. Using a shipping extension can help you control costs so that you can offer the #1 thing that online shoppers are looking for: FREE SHIPPING!!!
Plus, I’m pretty sure waiting in line at the post office with other frazzled shippers isn’t exactly you’re idea of a good time! Let’s get you out of there!
Start By Making a Smart Shipping Game Plan:
The best shipping strategies are SIMPLE. Like, stupid simple. And most online sellers make it unnecessarily complicated. Here’s what I recommend for the easiest (and highest converting) shipping strategy you could possibly have:
Set a per order flat rate shipping option. Make the cost cover some nominal amount of whatever it costs you to ship your average order. Don’t worry about making it cover everything, just make it something easy. Like $5. Or $7. Or something relatively easy for online shoppers to stomach and understand.
Set up an automatic free shipping discount for orders above a certain amount. The threshold for free shipping should ideally be somewhere just north of your current average order value. You’ll be surprised at how many people choose to add just a little something to their cart in exchange for free shipping! The key here is that you’re not offering free shipping to just anyone so be sure to set this up in the discount section, not the shipping section!
Why this combo works:
Simply, people hate feeling nickel-and-dimed and love feeling like they got a deal. That’s it.
Offering a flat rate shipping option that will apply to orders under your free shipping threshold feels honest and transparent and ensures that shoppers won’t face any nasty surprises in their cart.
Setting up an automatic free shipping discount encourages people to spend just a little bit more while still making it easy - no coupon code required!
This combo is also super easy to promote!
Imagine how simple it will be to boil your shipping program down to something as easy as: “$5 flat rate shipping. All orders over $45 ship free, no code required!” Swoon. I love it.
On the fence about offering free shipping? Let me convince you it’s worth it!
I go into all the pros and cons of free shipping in this post: eCommerce Strategy 101: Should You Offer Free Shipping? but here are some of the benefits of this for anyone with lingering doubts about how well it works as a strategy.
Free shipping:
Reduces cart abandonment rates
Increases conversion rates
Boosts revenue
Increases order volume
Increases average order value
Helps attract new customers
Encourages repeat visitors
Boosts loyalty, and more!
Combined with a minimum order amount requirement and a low flat rate for any orders below that amount, you’ve got a winning shipping strategy!
Sanity Saver: Shipping Extensions!
Ok, now that you have a winning customer-facing shipping strategy it’s time to focus on what happens behind the scenes when orders come in.
For small- to medium-sized businesses, managing shipping is typically one of the biggest headaches and often eats up tons of resources - time, money, and sanity!
Luckily, Squarespace pairs well with several popular shipping extensions that can help take a load off.
How shipping extensions work:
Shipping extensions are basically apps that use the Commerce API to pull in order data to a third-party platform that takes care of all things shipping for you. Some popular Squarespace shipping extensions are:
ShipStation
GoShippo
ShipBob
Easyship
(Pssst - I give you all details on my fave option below!!)
All of the shipping extensions with native Squarespace shipping integrations work pretty much the same way:
Sign up for an account directly with the app you’d like to use then connect it to your Squarespace site
When orders are placed on your website, the order information will get automatically pulled into your extension of choice and a shipping label will be created for you to print when you are ready to ship.
Once shipped, the tracking information will get sent back to Squarespace and automatically included in a shipping confirmation email to your customer.
Sidenote: A common misconception about shipping extensions is that connecting one to your site somehow “takes over” the shipping options that are displayed to your customers at check out. What you need to remember about shipping extensions is that they only take care of what happens behind the scenes for you, the merchant. You’ll benefit from discounted rates plus a ton of saved time and headaches managing fulfillment manually on your own. The time and cost savings shipping extensions offer still need to be balanced out with a winning customer-facing strategy like above!
My Favorite Shipping Extension: Easyship!
Knowing that all shipping extensions work in essentially the same way, how do you go about choosing one over the other? Well, let me save you the agony of starting a bunch of free trials and testing them for yourself :) My fave is Easyship. Here’s why:
As its name implies… it’s easy. Easyship has a nice, clean interface and offers just enough options to allow you to customize the experience without feeling bloated. Some of the other extensions have complicated user interfaces and offer a bunch of unnecessary options that just bog things down.
The discounts are great! As an online seller, you should never, ever, ever pay retail for shipping. You are not a retail customer. Easyship has great discounted rates that are passed along to you for over 250+ carriers worldwide.
3. Add Fresh (No Cost) Inventory with Print on Demand & Printful
You are not alone if you’re nervous about buying a bunch of inventory that you won't be able to sell - or if you’re one of the zillions of sellers who has a critical shipment you’ve been waiting on stuck in port somewhere. Inventory also costs (wait for it)... money.
Solution:
If you’re running short on both time and resources - you should definitely give a print-on-demand solution like Printful a try!
I think this is an especially good idea if you already have some of your own products in stock but just want to round out your product lineup in a low-risk, high-reward way.
With Printful you can quickly add new products to their shop to make it look like you have tons to offer but you don’t need to worry about:
Buying inventory that will never sell
Production
Warehousing
Fulfillment
Shipping
Returns
… or any of the other headaches that go along with making and selling your own goods!
What is print on demand and how does it work?
Somewhere between manufacturing your own products and dropshipping someone else’s goods from overseas lies the print-on-demand industry. To me, it’s the perfect medium and, in many ways, the best of both worlds.
With print on demand you can offer your own customized products in your own online store... without needing to worry about production, warehousing, shipping, or any of the other headaches that come along with traditional eCommerce.
It’s a win-win!
The Best Print on Demand Solution for Squarespace: Printful!
The secret to making POD work without too much actual work is choosing the right company to partner with and I think you can’t beat the combo of Squarespace + Printful! With your Squarespace site all set up to sell, adding Printful into the mix is easy. And the beauty of it is that it works whether:
Your entire inventory is print-on-demand products or...
You’ll just be adding a few SKUs to your mix to round things out.
It can really be as much or as little a part of your product lineup as you need it to be.
About Printful
If you’re new to POD or Printful, let me share with you how things work and some of the benefits of adding it as an extension of your Squarespace eCommerce business.
Printful itself is FREE! There are NO monthly subscription fees, ZERO set up costs, and NO order minimums. You only pay the wholesale price + shipping for each item that is produced.
Everything is made on demand. Because items are never made in bulk and only go to print when they are actually ordered you can feel free to test drive designs & products without any upfront investment costs, no inventory to store and no worries that you’ll be left holding the bag if something happens to be a flop. (Hey, it happens!)
It’s a completely white-labeled experience. From start to finish, your customers will only know that they saw something they loved on your site and that it arrived in perfect condition to them. Everything from the emails they receive about their order to even the packing slip in the package can be personalized to match your brand. If you want, you can even ship pack-ins like stickers or custom packaging to Printful to use on all your orders!
How Printful Works:
You markup products as much or as little as you want. You’re free to markup the products that Printful will be making as much or as little as you want - you’re in complete control! Remember, it’s not just the product cost itself that matters - it’s your design and style that people are willing to pay for!
Customers pay you directly. When a customer places an order on your site, they’ll pay you directly and in full.
Squarespace sends new order info to Printful for you. The integration between Squarespace and Printful will automatically push the order info from your customer into Printful which means that from here you’re pretty much hands-off completely!
Printful takes care of the rest! Printful will charge you the wholesale cost of the product your customer ordered (plus shipping and taxes) and take care of production, fulfillment, and shipping. They’ll even automatically send the tracking information back to Squarespace so that your customers get a shipping confirmation email from you!
Ready to give print on demand a try? Get started with Printful here!
Have a Stress Free Holiday Selling Season!
One of the reasons I love working with small- to medium-sized businesses like yours is that entrepreneurs are a scrappy bunch! You’re quick to adapt to changing market conditions and don’t let things like inventory delays or tight shipping windows get you down.
Running an eCommerce business can be stress-free, even during the holidays!
By using built-in tools like Local Pickup or a shipping extension like Easyship you can streamline your operations. Incorporating a print-on-demand solution like Printful can get you the inventory you need in a low-risk way.
If you’ve been stressed about how you’re going to make things work, I hope you give these things a try!
