A Minimalist's Guide to Squarespace Shipping Extensions
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, there are a handful of extensions that can help take a load off. In true minimalist fashion, you know I’m not a fan of adding software to the mix unnecessarily so here’s my take on each extension so that you can strategically add just what you need. There are solutions for high-volume or low-volume shippers and even things to help you upsell, manage returns or just offer more advanced order tracking than Squarespace does out-of-the-box.
AfterShip Tracking
You can totally send shipment notification emails directly from within the orders management panel in Squarespace but sending just one lonely tracking email could mean that you’re missing out on other opportunities to connect and engage with your customers… after things ship ;) Guess the name makes sense, right?
What it does:
Allows you to track all your shipments on one dashboard and also send customers to a branded tracking page so that they can see their order’s status. The coolest feature is that you can feature other items there to upsell!
Who should try it:
Anyone looking to reduce the number of customer service-type emails and is looking to bring customers back to their site to make another purchase.
Pricing:
Free plan available that includes up to 50 trackings per month, but you don’t get notifications or a custom domain. The next plan up is $9/month and you get all the features + 100 trackings per month. Beyond this plan, you just pay per how many trackings/month you need.
Easyship
I used to think that Easyship was really only geared for international shipping or very large, enterprise-level stores but the recent Squarespace partnership shows that they’re just as committed to the smaller shippers out there.
What it does:
With Easyship, you can connect your store, sync your orders, generate labels, and more - even on the free plan. Syncing is easy and you can set up rules to help you automate shipment processing.
Who should try it:
Business owners who appreciate a clean interface and who are looking for a good all-in-one shipping platform to automate their process.
Pricing:
Free plan for up to 100 shipments per month but you don’t get a branded tracking experience to offer customers. For $29/month you get more features and up to 500 shipments per month. The Plus plan comes with a 30-day free trial so you can try it out before committing!
Aftership Returns
Aftership Returns is by the same company as Aftership Tracking, above, but they are separate subscriptions. Aftership Returns does just what the name implies: lets you set up an automated returns management portal for customers to initiate self-service returns.
What it does:
Allows customers to request return requests, generate return shipping labels, and then keeps them in the loop on how things are going. You can also set up automations and rules that comply with your return policy.
Who should try it:
Anyone who finds themselves processing a lot of returns! ;) Even though there is a free plan (see below) I wouldn’t add this unless you’re actually having a lot of returns. The bigger question I would have is WHY so many people want to give your products back?! 😬
Pricing:
Free for 3 returns per month (although at this rate you could probably manage them yourself). Higher level plans start at $9/month and have additional features that may be attractive such as also being able to offer exchanges.
ShipBob
If you like Amazon Prime 2-day shipping, you’re going to love ShipBob. More than just a shipping platform, however, ShipBob is full-on order fulfillment. They have inventory locations across the US so that you can offer fast, 2-day shipping just like Amazon from pretty much any location.
What it does:
Allows you to warehouse your inventory at their location(s) to automatically fulfill online orders and make sure they show up at your customer’s door in 2 days. You can use your own packaging to ensure that even the unboxing experience is on-brand.
Who should try it:
Store owners with larger inventories that can absorb the setup costs of using a fulfillment center or anyone who has a static inventory that hates processing shipments themselves!
Pricing:
The cost of ShipBob is going to vary depending on how much storage space you use each month in their warehouses, how many orders you have each month to pick and pack, and how often you need to ship new inventory to them to process. In addition to the fulfillment cost, you’ll pay for the shipping costs per shipment but they offer competitive rates and (bonus!) free plain boxes and tape if you decide to not use branded.
Shippo
I mean, I’m just a fan of this company’s name. Because, honestly, I’m jealous that I didn’t think of it. It’s a shipping hippo! You can import your orders and compare discounted rates for various USPS options.
What it does:
Shippo allows you to offer on-demand tracking, customer notifications, and seamless handling of returns in addition to the standard order syncing / shipment label printing capabilities. Shippo will also automatically sync orders from your Squarespace account and then send back tracking information.
Who should try it:
Anyone who may run multiple stores but just wants to process orders from one platform or who wants to take advantage of their “Pay As You Go” pricing without a big commitment. This is perfect if you have varying shipment quantities from month to month.
Pricing:
I’m a big fan of the “Pay As You Go” option which allows you to print up to 5,000 labels per month for just $0.05 per label. (And actually, at the time of this post, they’ve waived those fees entirely through July 7, 2020, due to Coronavirus which is pretty cool of them!)
ShipStation
I always think of ShipStation as kind of the OG of shipping platforms. It has tons of features and a very robust platform although it may be overkill for some. You can just quickly and easily manage your Squarespace shipments or also take advantage of some of their other fulfillment and inventory tracking features.
What it does:
Allows you to import Squarespace orders and then shop rates from a wide lineup of carriers. You can create customizable automation rules, crate branded labels, and packing slips
Who should try it:
Higher volume shippers who want or need all.the.features. The interface is a little busier than some of the others but that’s because they offer a lot!
Pricing:
There is no free plan. The cheapest option starts at $9/month and allows you to process up to 50 shipments. Like most of the others, prices and features go up along with the more advanced plans.
Bottom Line
Most of these extensions offer free plans or trial periods so that you can try them out before signing up for a long-term relationship. I would definitely recommend adding a shipping extension to your software lineup if you’re finding yourself spending too much time each week waiting in line at the post office, wasting time on carrier websites trying to get quotes, or need some help processing orders & returns in general. If you’ve not yet outsourced some of the “grunt” work for your business, I say that shipping is the best area to leave to the pros. Managing printing labels and sending notifications and monitoring tracking numbers can be a headache that you just don’t need to worry about!
Want more on shipping? Check out this post: eCommerce Strategy 101: Should You Offer Free Shipping?
