How to Pick The Right Squarespace Template for Your eCommerce Site
In the olden days, every website was hand-coded from scratch. All the elements were built (and rebuilt) every single time. This made web design take a loooooong time (sometimes many months or years) and cost aloooooot of money. That’s ok. You’ve got to walk before you can run.
Now, all modern websites are built off a starting theme or, in the case of Squarespace, a “template.” A template is just a rough framework or layout that’s used as a jumping-off point so that you don’t have to start from scratch on your web design. After all, every website has 90% of the same elements: a home page, a header with navigation links, a footer with more calls-to-action, a shop page, cart, and checkout, etc. so why spend time and money reinventing the wheel?
Common Template Traps
When it comes to choosing a website template here are some of the most common traps I see people fall into:
They think all the templates are “pretty” but can’t pick the right one because they don’t have a clearly defined idea of their own brand or target audience.
They can’t decide between templates because they obsess over finding the “perfect” one or nitpick slight differences between templates.
They assume that their finished site will look exactly like the template it was based on and can’t find one that they think will work.
We’re going to help you avoid falling into any of these! First, by learning what three areas to focus on when reviewing a template!
Template Features That Matter
Picking the right template does require you to kind of see the forest through the trees and depending on the template’s design this can be easier said than done. However, focusing on these three areas should help you on your quest:
Home Page Layout - Your homepage is your chance to make a great first impression with your customers or clients. The right template for you should have room to feature the elements that you want “above the fold” or before you need to scroll down. You should also think about what you’re selling when looking at a home page layout. Do you need to be able to list the top three features or benefits? Do you only have a single product shop? Do you want to be able to link out to different shop categories? Look for templates that have home page layouts that include areas for those things. Keep in mind that the content itself doesn’t have to be an exact match to be a good fit; a template with a home page gallery could just as easily use that area to feature shop products. After all, a shop is really just an interactive gallery!
General Style - Strong emphasis on the word GENERAL. Don’t worry about the specific colors or fonts a template uses because those elements are easy to update to suit your brand. So what you’re looking for is a little more esoteric: the general look/feel or “mood” of the template. Does it have layouts that are fun, playful, and a little quirky? Or is it a little more serious, conservative, and traditional? Which feels right for your brand? Again, not worrying about whether the template uses the same colors or fonts you use but more whether it makes you feel the same way you want your customers to feel. Keeping the focus on your target demographic also takes away the urge to focus on your own personal likes and dislikes.
General Navigation Areas - Just like the above, you don’t need to worry about finding an exact match when it comes to the navigation areas on a template but it’s helpful to find something that’s as close as possible to what you’re looking for. For example, if you like the look of a logo centered above links to shop categories a great template for you might already have that setup. Don’t just look at the main (top) navigation, either! For lots of sites, the links that all appear at the bottom of every page are just as important.
Example: How to Check Out a Template
To give you a real-life example of putting this into practice, check out the two screenshots below. The one on the left is Exurban by GoLive. At first glance, it may be hard to see past the fact that the demo content is set up for an interior design company. Or that they offer services if that’s not something you do. Or that there’s a lot of beige if that’s not your color :)
But when I’m checking out a template, I do my best to ignore all those things and try to imagine it in a grayscale, pared-down version like the mockup I made based on this template on the right. I’m looking for places to plug in the content I know I’ll have to work with and in this template, I see spaces for promotional content, a shop, featured products, and a newsletter sign-up form, among other things. I see that when I look at just the layout - ignoring everything else - that this is a really clean design that has room for all the things a great home page typically needs. If I was looking for a modern design that included simple CTAs I think this template would be a great fit!
What the template looks like:
What You Should See:
Free or Paid?
Alright, so you’re sold on templates and know what to look for in one. But there are so many to pick from! One of the reasons Squarespace is so awesome is that even the free template designs are all pretty great but they’re not your only option.
The good news is that no matter what template you choose, you’ll have all the same features and functionalities available to you. This is an improvement over both Shopify and older versions of Squarespace where choosing a template also means you need to pay attention to what each template allows you to do because some come with major limitations that you’ll be stuck with! So no worries on that front -- you can make pretty much anything happen on any page of your Squarespace website.
With this in mind, I think it’s most important to use the criteria above in selecting a template versus whether it is free or paid. Even if you go with a paid template, you’re looking at spending <$500 which is a steal compared to the cost of a fully custom web design.
Free Templates - You can’t really go wrong with any of the free templates offered by Squarespace and they are a great choice if you feel comfortable learning how to customize and style your site on your own as you go. That being said, you may need to allot time to work on building out the interior pages of your site which tend to be less “styled” and filled with lots of dummy content on Squarespace. Also, if you’re not comfortable being super hands-on and taking care of everything yourself, it may mean that you end up paying a web designer or developer which is a cost you may not have had with a paid template that is more finished from the start.
Paid Templates - If you’re looking for something more complete from the get go and/or are looking to cut down development time and costs, try a paid template from a trusted source. This can be a great compromise between a fully unique design and a generic template and get you to launch day quickly! Paid templates typically come with very thorough instructional videos or are completely set up for you. This means that there’s very little learning or no learning curve required at all. Just add your content and brand elements and you’re good to go. Another benefit to a paid template is that even though they are super affordable a lot of people aren’t willing to pay for them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ which means that there are tons of sites based on the free Squarespace templates and way less based on the paid ones. If you’re concerned about your finished site looking too much like everyone else's, this is definitely something worth considering!
Best Squarespace Templates for eCommerce
Here are some options for your consideration:
The Best eCommerce Templates for Squarespace which has links to some of my favorite free and paid templates!
More Great Squarespace eCommerce Templates - in case you didn’t find what you were looking for in the first post! :)
Bottom Line
It’s important that you remember that just because a template is the starting point that it does not mean that your finished site will - or should! - look exactly like that template at all! Templates are great because they get the ball rolling but if you don’t put the time and effort into customizing the copy and photos (or maybe zhuzhing things up with a little custom CSS) your site isn’t going to feel like yours.
All this said, there are tons of options available and different routes you can take when it comes to picking a website template to start from. Remember that templates are a way to cut down on both the time and money required to start a website. As a jumping-off point, they can help you get to launch day faster and cheaper which means you can start selling fast while your competitors are busy reinventing the wheel.
