How to Connect Squarespace to ANYTHING
This is probably going to be one of the more “techie” blog posts I’ve written recently but I’m going to put a giant disclaimer right here upfront: DON’T BE DISCOURAGED BY TECHNOLOGY! Once you learn how things work, even in general, the mystery kind of falls away and even if you don’t want to take on any of the nitty-gritty yourself you will at least know what’s possible! Because if you’re running an eCommerce business on Squarespace, knowing stuff like this is GAME CHANGER status. First, some background!
One of the reasons people seem to think they need to go with Shopify over Squarespace is because they see an app they like from the Shopify app store. And I can see why - there are tons of shiny apps there that seem like they are going to be revolutionary for your business. A few problems I have:
It’s way too easy to fall into needing 3-5 paid Shopify apps and even if you’re only paying a few bucks a month for each, those subscriptions can add up to major $$$ each month.
Not all apps play nice with each other and adding a bunch of random apps can add a ton of unnecessary bloat to your site. This can cause bugs or problems that Shopify isn’t responsible to help you fix since they are caused by third-party apps.
If you’re using the Shopify Lite Button to connect Shopify with Squarespace, you can’t use any apps at all anyways since they are just straight-up incompatible. So there you go.
You know that I’m a huge fan of a highly functioning site AKA one that works as hard for your business as you do. This is exactly why I rely on Squarespace Commerce APIs to strategically add capabilities to my beautiful Squarespace websites without the need for apps or bloat. In this post, I’m going to give you a 30,000-foot view of how this works, how to get started and some ideas on how to connect Squarespace to pretty much anything else. Because, as the title suggests, with Squarespace Commerce APIs you can do ANYTHING your little heart desires.
How APIs Work
Simple answer: APIs are just the way different apps talk to one another. Each software has data/information that it can send in response to a request for that information from another app or software. Each software (like Squarespace) determines what information it will make available and sets the parameters for how to inquire about it.
I think of it kind of like this (using Squarespace commerce as an example): your site has tons of info about who ordered what and when, whether things have shipped and how, how you were paid, etc. And without asking any questions, that information is mostly just stuck in Squarespace. BUT all that data is there and available to you - if you know to ask for it. And (here’s the fun part) you can use that information in all sorts of behind-the-scenes aspects of your eCommerce business. From marketing campaigns to fulfillment and logistics, using the data your site has stored up for you to automatically inform/trigger other actions is magic.
The last cool thing about APIs is that now that you’ve got systems talking to one another, you can do more than just ask for information -- you can also PROVIDE information! This means you can do things like telling Squarespace you shipped an order or to adjust a stock level automatically after receiving a shipment of inventory. 🤯
Webhooks
So, where an API is a request for information that demands a response, a webhook is more passive; waiting for the information to roll out. One is a push and the other is a pull. A webhook is basically like when you sign up to get notified about when something comes back into stock. Sure, you could ask every day: Is it in yet? Is it in yet? Is it in yet?... but with a webhook, you can just sit back and wait. You’ll get the news when there’s news to share.
Zapier
A Lot of people start zoning out when it comes to APIs/webhooks because they see things like this and just say NOPE 🙅♀️
But remember what I said at the beginning of this post? You are not going to let strange-looking code freak you out! Why? Because you have Zapier. There’s a reason why the tagline is “Zapier makes you happier” and it’s not just to help you remember how to pronounce it. :)
Zapier basically takes what can otherwise be a little overwhelming (code!) and turns it into simple formulas AKA zaps. Each formula (zap) contains one trigger and at least one action. The trigger is the catalyst that sets the whole rest of the chain in motion and the action is the thing (or chain of things) you want to happen. Zapier makes it easy to piece together all the bits and pieces all your apps require to talk to one another and gives the conversation a home.
Most people love Zapier because all their favorite services (like Squarespace) have built-in triggers or actions that make setting up zaps crazy simple. You can literally just pick from the list, fill in the blanks and you’re in action.
But let’s check out the built-in options for Squarespace:
Boo :( Just one trigger - and a kinda boring one at that: new form submission. I mean, this is helpful for some marketing activities and can help you get subscriber info into other apps (more on my favorite tech stacks here) but beyond that, it’s kind of MEH.
This is where just even having a basic understanding of APIs and webhooks comes into play. Because now that we know that there’s info there and we just need to either know to ask for it or to sign up to get notified about it, Zapier can help us connect Squarespace to literally ANYTHING-even if there aren’t any built-in triggers or actions for us to choose from. The trick is the unassuming-looking Webhooks by Zapier integration which can be set up to kick off a workflow or send info as a result of another trigger.
Now, I will admit that this is where things can get a bit technical but just a reminder: the goal here is that I think it’s important that you know what’s possible, even if setting it up yourself isn’t your jam. Just understanding that you can connect Squarespace to whatever email marketing platform you want, or that you can automate parts of your fulfillment process, or that you can connect your website to your CRM or project management software is what matters.
✅ It’s important to know that just because Zapier shows only one measly built-in trigger that you’re not limited to just that.
✅ It’s important to know you shouldn’t rule out Squarespace as a super-powerful commerce solution just because there isn’t a native integration between it and your other favorite apps.
✅ It’s important that you feel empowered to explore out-of-the-box solutions for your Squarespace eCommerce business with confidence.
The Squarespace Commerce APIs
Ok. So. The first half of this post was pretty heavy-duty. You learned a lot. You got a little pep talk. You’re (hopefully) ready to explore just all you can do to connect Squarespace to whatever other apps you’re using in your business. Enter: the Squarespace Commerce APIs. This is where Squarespace tells us exactly what information is available to us and what information we can edit ourselves from outside the platform.
Remember, just like above, some things push for info, others pull. Some things are triggers, others actions. If you dig into the API documentation you’ll see that slightly different words are used for these: GET and POST. This is just the API way of saying push or pull. A GET is a request for information, a POST is a depositing of information.
In the sections below, I’m going to give an overview of all the different triggers and actions you can set up in Zapier so that you know what’s possible! Hopefully, it will help you start to see just how powerful Squarespace commerce can be and get your mind thinking about ways to connect and integrate it into your own workflows.
Inventory API
What it does: Allows you to access and/or edit stock information for products + product variations on your site
What you can do:
Retrieve all inventory
Retrieve specific inventory
Adjust stock quantities
Ideas:
Automatically pull inventory into a spreadsheet so you can manage things like stock levels or product availability without needing to go item-by-item on your site
Automatically adjust stock quantities based on incoming shipments or sales through other channels
Orders API
What it does: Allows you to access the order history for your site, including both one-time orders and recurring orders/subscriptions.
What you can do:
Create an order
Fulfill an order
Retrieve all orders
Retrieve a specific order
Ideas:
Import orders from other sites or sales channels, mark orders as fulfilled, and then trigger shipment notifications through Squarespace.
Automatically mark orders as fulfilled when you mark them as done in your project management system
Pull all pending orders into a spreadsheet so you can have a list of what needs to get shipped out that day
Lookup order info and pull it into your CRM automatically so that you can instantly see the status and details of what people ordered when chatting with them
Products API
What it does: Allows you to manage your products and product variations. You can also manage product images and add/delete/modify products.
What you can do:
Create a product
Create a product variant
Upload a product image
Retrieve all store pages
Retrieve all products
Retrieve specific products
Product image upload status
Assign a product image to a variant
Reorder a product image
Update a product
Update a product variant
Update a product image
Delete a product
Delete a product variant
Delete a product image
Ideas:
Manage product info in bulk from a spreadsheet
Automatically adjust pricing for specific products or shop categories without needing to open each product and/or product variant in Squarespace
Automatically delete products that are discontinued or no longer available
Update product images after a new photoshoot in bulk
Profiles API
What it does: Allows you to manage site users
What you can do:
Retrieve all profiles
Retrieve specific profiles
Create or update a profile
Update a profile
Ideas:
Pull all site user information into a spreadsheet for analysis or reporting
Lookup specific user profile information and add it to your CRM so that you can automatically see things like how long they’ve been a customer, how many total orders they’ve placed, and how much they’ve spent over their lifetime.
Automatically update a Squarespace user profile to indicate that they’ve opted out of receiving marketing emails in a third-party email marketing platform to make sure you’re complying with anti-SPAM laws.
Transactions API
What it does: Allows you to access transaction history for orders (or donations) on your site
What you can do:
Retrieve all transactions
Retrieve specific transactions
Ideas:
Automatically pull all transaction history before or after a certain date into a spreadsheet for analysis or reporting
Create a backup of transaction history for auditing purposes
Webhook Subscriptions API
What it does: Allows you to subscribe to notifications from your site with webhooks.
What you can do:
Create a webhook subscription
Update a webhook subscription
Retrieve all webhook subscriptions
Retrieve a specific webhook subscription
Delete a webhook subscription
Send test notification
Rotate a subscription secret
Ideas:
Automatically send notifications to production any time a new order comes in
Automatically send a notification to management any time an order is updated
Automatically receive a notification any time a Squarespace extension is uninstalled from your site
Bottom Line
As I’ve said a few times now, the point of this kinda technical post is really just to let you know what’s possible with Squarespace. I’ve seen a lot of shop owners choose Shopify over Squarespace just to take advantage of slick-looking apps only to be frustrated by mounting monthly subscription costs and let down by a bloated, disjointed experience managing everything. Even if it’s not your ambition to understand exactly how APIs and webhooks work, my hope is that learning just a bit about these things can help you feel empowered to make more informed decisions when it comes to your business website.
If You Want to Learn Zapier
I’ve used Zapier casually for many years but last year decided that I really wanted to dig deeper because I knew I wasn’t using the tool to its fullest potential. I’m kinda obsessed with productivity and automation so learning more about Zapier was really fun and helped me be able to explore some of the more technical aspects with confidence. I 100% attribute this to taking Jimmy Rose’s Zapier Mastery course.
Of all the online courses I’ve taken over the years, this one has offered the best ROI by far. Jimmy explains things in an easy-to-understand way and uses lots of examples that help bring the concepts to life. The course link above is an affiliate link but this post is by no means sponsored by Jimmy; I just thought I’d give it a shout-out because if you’re also interested in learning more about Zapier, it’s definitely worth checking out. If you’re looking for some more on this topic you can also check out this other post of mine: Fun With Zapier for eCommerce!
