How to Use Squarespace Scheduling as an eCommerce Tool

Updated: Aug 2022

If you’re a service-based business that’s looking for ways to productize your services (or a traditional eCommerce shop looking to add services to your mix), you’ve probably realized that you really have only a handful of good options: 1) Try to find a specific app or tool that’s focused on your industry so that it has all the features you need and just hope and pray it’s not $973 zillion dollars a month; 2) String together free or “freemium” apps that only kinda get the job done and also kinda make it look like you’re a high-end hobbyist and not the professional badass you are; 3) end up on this blog post because you’re like, “I just wish there was one tool that I could customize to do exactly what I want at a decent price so I can focus on running my business.” 

Solution: Squarespace Scheduling

Whoa, now - I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that you need to sell access to events or provide packages of services or host virtual classes and sell gift cards, not a meeting scheduling tool. Good news: Squarespace Scheduling does all those things and more and it’s actually kind of the low-key rock star of the Squarespace family of features that we’ve all been sleeping on. I’ve used it for lots of clients to create an easy and professional way for them to move their service-based businesses online. The best part: it’s nearly infinitely customizable so no matter what industry you’re in, you can make it look and feel exactly how you need it to. The second best part: since it’s built right into your website, you can manage everything about your business in one place. Priceless.

Features

Appointment Types

If you’ve used any sort of online booking tool before, you’re probably used to thinking of appointment types in terms of “30-minute meeting” or “60-minute meeting” which are both totally possible with Scheduling. But you can ALSO set up group classes or a series of events, offer optional add-ons or upsells, or even create coupons or discounts for any of the above. There are also lots of little details you can add that help with merchandising and branding your offerings - from being able to add photos to displaying custom confirmation pages. 

Availability 

The Availability section has a lot of options but this is part of its strength. In this panel, you have options to set two types of resources: your time + rooms. There are all the settings you’d expect in a typical meeting scheduler when it comes to your own availability: setting daily/weekly hours, controls for how far in advance people can book, how many appointments can be booked each day, etc. 

What sets Scheduling apart though is all of the other control it gives you. Want to minimize gaps in your day so that you don’t have unproductive downtime between meetings? Done. Want to only offer certain events on certain days? Easy. Want to look super popular and in-demand? Just enable the “look busy” feature so that it doesn’t look like you have all day every day completely wide open. 😳

The second resource you can control is “Rooms” but don’t let the name limit you. Sure, you can use this to set availability for actual rooms (think: booking the conference room at your coworking space) but you could also use it to represent stations or chairs (like in a hair salon) or even things - like how many snowboards your outdoor adventure company has available for rent. You could use this to control booking at a company level so that you can never overbook or oversell if you have more people or demand than you have resources or inventory. 

Payment Options

It’s not eCommerce if you’re not getting paid! Scheduling allows you to connect Stripe, Square, or Paypal… plus a few combos of all of those. My favorite processor is Stripe because it’s super easy to get set up and it’s pretty much the gold standard for how to get paid via anything across the whole internet (which means you only need one account).

Customer Emails & Reminders

I’m a huge proponent of the idea that providing a great customer experience doesn’t end once a sale is made; to me, that’s just the beginning, and all of the interactions you have with your clients and customers after the sale are just as important! Scheduling allows you to customize and personalize every.single.detail. of all the confirmation, reminder, and follow-up emails that get sent out. You can also tailor them to each different appointment type, package, or subscription versus a lot of other tools that require you to create just one generic confirmation email that needs to work as a one-size-fits-all solution. 

It’s also really easy to set up reminder and confirmation emails that put the power to cancel or reschedule into your customer’s hands (notice a recurring theme here on not spending time being your own secretary??). 

Intake Forms

The name “intake” forms may make you think this feature is only helpful if you run a medical practice (which you could absolutely do with Scheduling as the advanced plan is HIPAA compliant!) - but you can also use forms to collect any other type of information from clients upon booking. You can also have some forms be internal only so that you can complete them on behalf of your clients or even use a form as a client agreement for “terms and conditions” or other fine print stuff. Back on the healthcare note, if you happen to be in the medical profession there’s even a built-in SOAP notes feature if you don’t feel like creating your own custom form.

Packages, Gifts & Subscriptions

This is where Scheduling really starts to feel like an eCommerce solution! By building on top of the foundation of a typical “scheduler”, Squarespace Scheduling allows you to transform simple standalone services into easily sold products. Booking a meeting is selling a service but buying a package of 3 consultations is a product. You can even get fancy and make and set up “Buy 2, Bet 1 Free” type offers! The best part of this is that the booking is still handled entirely by the client so you don’t have to be in charge of handling any of the admin. 

Subscriptions are another way to take a standard service and transform it into a product with a recurring revenue stream. Subscriptions can either be for a set number of installments, such as every month for 6 months, or set to repeat indefinitely until canceled. You can choose to charge a “setup” or enrollment fee… or not. You can put packages into categories so that your booking pages and links only show the most targeted products. This would allow you to do things like creating targeted landing pages or sales pages and direct people just to the selected subset of your packages or subscription products, which can be a highly effective sales tool.

Generate & Send Customizable Invoices🆕

You no longer need a third-party invoicing tool to get paid from clients, regardless of whether they’ve scheduled with you yet or not. With Scheduling Invoices, you can quickly create invoices with your own custom line items and share them with clients via a link. They can pay online through the same account that you use to accept other payments through scheduling, either via Stripe or PayPal. This is a great option for people who may offer standalone or add-on services for clients before or after their scheduled appointments or classes. For example, if you are a personal trainer you could use scheduling to get paid for sessions and then follow up with a personalized invoice for supplements. All of the info for this client will be in one place, their payment experience will be consistent and you can easily see analytics for everything all on one dashboard. (Another great way to use Squarespace as your CRM!)

Clients

If you’re looking for a way to manage and view your client’s info all in one place, you’ll love that the Scheduling tool has a Client panel that is as good as any other CRM platform out there. You can see each client’s contact info, record private notes about them, and see a history of any forms they’ve completed. You can also schedule things for them on their behalf as well as place new orders for them for any packages or subscriptions you might offer. Also, for those that sell packages and subscriptions, you can manage all your orders and subscribers from within the same system. It’s like a powerful little POS system!

Reports

Any serious eCommerce business owner is always looking to get their hands on as much data as possible to help inform decisions and keep a finger on the pulse of their business. The Reports panel inside the Scheduling tool has built-in (and good-looking!) reports for things like revenue, tips, appointments, users, and forms. You can also export the data to a CSV file so that you can dig in further in a spreadsheet if that’s your jam.

Link & Embed Options

Since Scheduling is part of Squarespace, you probably already understand that you can add a Scheduling block to any page, post, or product anywhere on your website. Super easy. But Scheduling also gives you options for a branded landing page you can direct people to (perfect for that link in profile!) in addition to embed codes for booking buttons and booking bars that you can add anywhere else you might need them. You can even generate a QR code for the Client Mobile App to allow your clients to book and manage their own appointments, classes, subscriptions, and packages. 

Integrations

As much as I always want the tools and apps I use to do as much as possible without the need for other subscriptions, there are also select times when stacking a few choice pieces of software together definitely makes a final tool that’s more powerful than the sum of its parts. Scheduling plays nice with the following tools/software. The list is long so I’ve bolded my favorites! 

Accounting & Invoicing

• Quickbooks

• FreshBooks

Email Marketing

• Squarespace Campaigns 

• MailChimp

• AWeber

• Active Campaign

• ConvertKit

• Constant Contact

• Drip

• MadMimi

• Simplero

CRM

• Google Contacts

• Salesforce

• Infusionsoft

• Pipedrive

• Google Sheets

• Uplaunch

• Wufoo

• Zoho CRM

• Daylite

Client Engagement

• Referral Candy

• ReviewRail

Video Conferencing

• GoToMeeting

• Zoom

• Join.me

• Google Meet

API

• API & CSS Support

• Zapier

• Automate.io

• Zoho Flow

• Custom Sidebar Integration

• Webhooks

Payments

• Stripe

• Square

• Paypal

Web Builders & Social

• Squarespace

• Facebook

Analytics & Conversion Tracking

• Google Analytics

• Facebook Pixel

Sync With Other Calendars

IDK about you but I’m sure not into checking several different apps each day just to know what’s going on. It’s way easier to just sync everything into one place so you can get the big picture. No more accidentally booking a work meeting when you’re really supposed to be at the dentist's office. Scheduling syncs with Google calendar (everyone’s fave) and also with others like iCloud and Outlook. 

Users

If you have multiple team members that all need access to your Scheduling tool (or even their own calendars), you can just add them as a contributor to your Squarespace account and give them only Scheduling permission. This will allow them to access everything in the Scheduling section but still not be able to edit or mess with the rest of the content on your website!

eCommerce Use Cases

Not sure if using Scheduling is a viable solution for your business/industry? Here are a few different use cases that could all use this tool: 

• Small Businesses - Set up a class series (like a cooking class or other educational series) or sell access to online or in-person workshops

• Fitness or Health-based Businesses - Sell subscriptions or gift certificates to either in-person or virtual sessions

• Consulting Businesses - Use Scheduling to sell group classes/workshops or book private sessions. You could also sell digital products like ebooks or other downloads by attaching links to those products to custom confirmation emails.

• Retail Shops or Boutiques - Provide options to book private “shop in person” time slots or sell services like personal styling or shopping

These are just a few ideas to show you that there are so many ways to take your services (or launch new ones!) and make them easy products for people to engage with. I hope it also shows you that there are so many ways you can make the everyday interactions you have easier with a tool like Scheduling.

Give It A Try!

If you have a Squarespace site, it already comes with a free trial of Scheduling! From the home menu just click SCHEDULING and then follow the prompts to get started on your free trial.