Notes on building smarter websites for actual humans.

Kristine Neil 3/15/26 Kristine Neil 3/15/26

A Minimalist's Guide to Squarespace Sales & Marketing Extensions

Launching an eCommerce website is not a “build it and they will come” situation - you’ve got to do your work on sales & marketing! Here is my take on all the Squarespace extensions that can help you with things like getting customer testimonials, running digital ads, and syncing your product feed to other sales platforms or channels.

UPDATED: March 2026

Launching an eCommerce website is not a “build it and they will come” situation - you’ve got to do your work on sales & marketing! Squarespace has a few extensions just for things like getting customer testimonials, running digital ads, and syncing your product feed to other sales platforms or channels. Here’s the 411 on all of them!

Ad Manager

If you've ever wanted to run ads, promotions, or sponsored placements on your Squarespace site without handing the keys (or your sanity) over to Google AdSense, Ad Manager is worth a look. It was built by fellow Squarespace Platinum Partner Braunsberger Media after years of running into the same problem with clients - they wanted control over what showed up on their sites, and traditional ad networks just weren't it. I love tools built by fellow Squarespace pros because I know they have first hand knowledge of what it takes to solve real problems! With AdSense, you don't get to pick what shows up, the ads rarely match your brand, and they take a cut. Ad Manager flips that on its head.

What it does:

Gives you a central dashboard to create, schedule, and track your own promotional content - banners, timed campaigns, sponsored placements, rotating creatives - directly on your Squarespace site. Setup is a one-time code injection paste and then everything else is managed from their dashboard. You also get real-time analytics for impressions, clicks, and click-through rates, plus a built-in image editor so you're not bouncing between tools.

What makes it really interesting is the marketplace model. You can collaborate with other site owners - either advertise on their websites or field proposals from brands who want to run campaigns on yours. The platform handles the money through an escrow system powered by Stripe Connect, so the website owner gets paid once the campaign has actually run. That's a smart setup for anyone looking to monetize without chasing invoices.

Who should try it:

Anyone who wants to monetize their site with ads or run partner campaigns but doesn't want a third-party network deciding what shows up. This is especially useful for bloggers, content-heavy sites, or agencies managing promotions for clients. You keep 100% of the revenue, which is a pretty big deal compared to the AdSense model.

Pricing:

You can use Ad Manager privately on up to 5 of your own websites for free. The marketplace features go beyond that, and the platform only takes a share on actual transactions - so you're not paying for something you're not using.

Try AdManager

Delighted

Making sure that your customers had a great experience is obviously super important for brands of all sizes but Delighted makes it easy even for small businesses to get super actionable feedback from customers in the same way huge companies like Target, Uber, and Instacart do. Most importantly (to me, at least) is that it’s automated since this extension will automatically pull from your Squarespace order data.

What it does:

Allows you to send one-question surveys of several different types to customers either right after they order or on a specified delay. You can collect feedback in one area, track trends, or even automatically send responses to certain people on your team so they can follow up.

Who should try it:

Anyone looking to build up social proof with positive testimonials from customers without having to do a ton of setup tracking them down. Since the surveys are so simple and easy, customers are super likely to submit their feedback, which you can use on social media or your website to delight future customers. And the circle continues.

Pricing:

Free plan available that includes up to 1000 trackings per month and 3 users which I think would work for most teams. You only get one survey type on the free plan but everything can be automated so if you’re running a smaller shop, this would work great for you.

Try Delighted

GoDataFeed

Not going to lie to you that setting up data feeds for shops on Facebook, Instagram, Google or Pinterest is NOT my jam. I know people who are great at this and am happy to refer them but for those that are looking to run online ads without having to worry about syncing product data across multiple channels or platforms, GoDataFeed will save you so many headaches.

What it does:

GoDataFeed automatically pulls in your Squarespace product data and optimizes your catalog for multichannel marketing. You can manage all your product info from one place, create optimized ads and make it so much easier for you to manage digital marketing campaigns in-house.

Who should try it:

Anyone who is looking to run ads or sell on platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or 200+ marketing channels.

Pricing:

The lite plan is $39/mo will cover up to 1,000 SKUs and is still super robust in terms of all the other features (unlimited stores, users, and data modifications) compared to the Plus plan which is $99/mo. The right plan for you will really depend on how many products you have but the time GoDataFeed will save you on either plan is well worth it in my opinion.

Try GoDataFeed

Outfy

A lot of people have “social media” on the marketing to-do list but realize it can be… a lot. With Outfy, you can automate social media posting, saving you a ton of time working on getting new traffic to your site. You can easily create videos, GIFs, collages, or even put the whole thing into “autopilot” mode.

What it does:

Once you sync your Squarespace site to Outfy, you can easily generate ads for Facebook, Instagram, and Google for any product in your shop. Share on social media, automate posting or create graphics all from the Outfy dashboard.

Who should try it:

Anyone who wants to try their hand at social media marketing without needing to hire a graphic designer or digital marketer.

Pricing:

All the plans basically include the same features so you’re basically just going to pay for how much you use or share via the app. The free plan gets you 30 credits/month, where one credit = one post to a social network. If you want to use any of the GIF, video, or collage layouts those are more credits.

Try Outfy

Bottom Line

Running an eCommerce business on Squarespace is made even more powerful by taking advantage of some of the extensions that are available to supercharge the experience. (See also: this post all about Squarespace shipping extensions!) If you’re looking to get more eyes on your store either through social media marketing, selling on other platforms, running digital ads, or building up a huge roster of satisfied customers, give one of the sales & marketing Squarespace extensions a try.

Kristine Neil 11/23/25 Kristine Neil 11/23/25

Advanced Product Manager for Squarespace: Finally, Bulk Editing That Actually Works

If you've ever had to update prices across 50+ products in Squarespace, you know the pain. Here's the tool that finally fixes Squarespace's biggest product management bottleneck.

If you've ever had to update prices across 50+ products in Squarespace, you know the pain. Click into product one, change the price, save. Click into product two, change the price, save. Repeat until you question your life choices.

Or maybe you've tried the CSV import route - download, edit in a spreadsheet, re-import, fix the errors it inevitably throws, re-import again, and wonder why this feels like you're working against the platform instead of with it.

Here's the thing: Squarespace Commerce can work beautifully… until you hit scale. Once you're managing a catalog of any real size, the one-by-one product editing workflow becomes the bottleneck that can keep you stuck spending more time working in your business than on it.

That's exactly the problem Advanced Product Manager from SquareHero solves - and I've been lucky to be beta testing it for the past few weeks so I can tell you exactly what it does, what it doesn't do, and whether you should add this to your toolkit.

How to edit Squarespace products in bulk

What It Actually Does

Advanced Product Manager is a plugin that gives you a spreadsheet-style view of all your Squarespace products. You can see everything in one, clean table and make changes instantly. No more clicking through products one by one every time you need to make a price increase.

Here's what you can edit in the table view (think Shopify-style spreadsheet):

Product titles: Edit product names directly in the table
URLs: Update product URL slugs
SKUs: Manage product SKUs
Categories: Add or remove categories
Pricing: Adjust regular and sale prices
Stock levels: Update inventory quantities

Bulk Editing aka The Real Magic

Things really get fun when you can make updates like this en masse:

Price changes: Adjust regular prices by percentage, dollar amount, or set a fixed price across multiple products. For sale prices, you can adjust based on the regular price (say, 25% off) or modify existing sale prices by percentage, dollar amount, or fixed price.
Smart rounding: This is particularly useful. If a 25% discount creates an awkward price like $24.93, you can set rounding rules to automatically adjust to $24.99, $24.95, a whole number, or a custom amount. The final price might not be the exact percentage you specified, but it looks better to customers.
Sale toggles: Turn sale prices on or off across multiple products at once.
Product status: Bulk change products between public, hidden, or scheduled.
Category management: Add or remove categories in bulk. This is useful when you want to do things like move everything into a "clearance" category and apply sale prices all at once 🪄
Inventory adjustments: This is for all the inventory managers out there who need to update their site to match physical stock levels. When you receive a shipment and need to add 25 units each across multiple products, you can make that adjustment in seconds rather than updating each product individually.

Who Actually Needs This

Let's be honest - if you have 10 products and update pricing once a year, you probably don't need this tool. But if any of these sound familiar, it's worth looking at:

You're running regular sales or promotions. Black Friday prep used to mean clicking through every single product to toggle sale prices on and off and entering the right prices. Now it's a bulk selection and one click. No math required.
You manage multiple collections with different pricing strategies. Think: food brands rotating seasonal menus, retail stores with different margin requirements per category, anyone managing wholesale vs. retail pricing - this saves you from juggling spreadsheets.
You're a designer managing client stores. SquareHero offers multi-site plans (3-site and 10-site options), which makes this particularly useful if you're maintaining product catalogs for multiple clients. You’ll literally look like the hero when clients ask if you can make price updates and you have that done in minutes vs. days.
You're just tired of the CSV workflow. Honestly, same - and you know I love a spreadsheet! The CSV export/import process in Squarespace works really well, but I know that it can be overwhelming for a lot of people. This is faster and, honestly, just way less frustrating.

How It Works

Installation is genuinely super simple - it's a quick code snippet added once to your site and you’re done.

Once installed, you'll see the SquareHero icon in your editor and you can click on that to display your products in a sortable, filterable table. Select the ones you want to edit, make your changes, and save. The updates happen directly in Squarespace, so everything stays in sync.

One feature I particularly appreciate: demo mode. You can try the full product before buying, no credit card required. Test it with your actual product catalog and see if it solves your specific workflow problems before committing.

The Real Talk Section

This isn't going to solve every Squarespace Commerce limitation. It won't give you more advanced selling features, it won't replace a proper POS system if that's what you need, and it won't magically make Squarespace's variant system work any differently (though it does make editing pricing for those variants much, much faster).

The tool is for pricing or inventory updates and not things like:

Editing product descriptions
Adding/removing variants
Adding/removing photos
Controlling advanced selling tool features such as product add-ons or custom forms
Editing the Additional Info section

But honestly? These are Squarespace limitations, not limitations of this tool. Within Squarespace's current constraints, this tool eliminates the most repetitive, time-consuming part of managing a Squarespace store at scale. And that's actually super valuable even if you need to do some of the other product management the old school way.

How to bulk update product prices on Squarespace — Pricing

I think the pricing structure is super fair and with single-site, 3-site and 10-site plans there’s something for you whether you’re a site owner yourself or a web designer or store manager on multiple sites. Even on the single site plan at $14/mo paid annually, I’d say if you're spending even an hour per month on bulk product updates, this pays for itself pretty quickly.

The Bottom Line

If you're running a Squarespace store with more than a handful of products and you regularly need to make bulk changes, this tool does exactly what it promises. For Squarespace users who've been stuck with one-by-one editing for years, this actually feels, dare I say, revolutionary - even if it's just bringing the platform up to what other eCommerce platforms have offered all along. But it's really well-executed - and honestly, that's what matters when you're trying to actually run a business instead of fighting with your website.

It’s quick to install, demo mode lets you test before buying, and the interface is clean enough that you won't need a tutorial to figure it out.

Squarespace Commerce is a solid platform, but the product management workflow has always been its weakest point at scale. Advanced Product Manager fixes that specific problem without overcomplicating things.

Try Advanced Product Manager →

Full disclosure: I beta tested this product and received access in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links - if you purchase through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I actually use and believe solve real problems.

Kristine Neil 11/18/25 Kristine Neil 11/18/25

Measuring What Matters Without Losing the Plot

Analytics are helpful, but they don’t tell the whole story. This post explores how to interpret Squarespace website metrics with empathy and intention, using UX insights to improve engagement, trust, and conversion without losing sight of the humans behind the data.

If you’ve been around the internet long enough, you’ve probably heard some version of: “what gets measured gets managed.” That’s true, but only up to a point. In web design, the real danger is that once you start measuring something, you risk mistaking the metric for the meaning.

We obsess over numbers - bounce rates, conversions, time on page - but forget what those metrics actually represent: human behavior. Behind every data point is a real person making a decision based on how your site made them feel: clear, confident, or confused.

So instead of chasing better metrics, what if we used them to diagnose where people are getting stuck? That’s where my Clarity → Trust → Action framework becomes a practical lens for what your analytics are really telling you.

Step 1: Clarity Metrics

Are You Easy to Understand?

Clarity is the first hurdle. You don’t earn trust if people don’t get what you do.

Instead of asking “How many people landed on my homepage?”, ask:

How many stayed past 10 seconds?
Which pages have the highest bounce rate - and do they share a confusing headline or layout?
Where are people hovering or clicking that they shouldn’t need to?

Clarity metrics don’t measure volume, they show whether people can get their bearings. If visitors can’t tell what you do in five seconds, they’ll take those clicks elsewhere.

👉 Quick check: Open your homepage and squint. Can you still tell who it’s for? If not, your copy isn’t doing its job.

Step 2: Trust Metrics

Do People Believe You Can Deliver?

Once people understand you, they start evaluating whether to believe you. Trust lives in patterns: consistent visuals, tone, and user experience.

Look at:

Return visitor rate (are people coming back?)
Scroll depth (are they reading or skimming?)
Navigation flow (are they exploring logically or jumping around?)

Trust lives in both the data and the experience people have on the page. You can’t force it with popups or pushy CTAs, you earn it through consistency. Every broken link, mismatched font, or outdated photo chips away at credibility. Every thoughtful touch adds it back.

Step 3: Action Metrics

Are You Moving People Forward?

Once clarity and trust are solid, action should feel natural. But this is where most analytics dashboards go off the rails because we start worshiping conversion rates without asking why people took action.

Look at your actions in context:

Which CTAs convert best (and why)?
Do people complete the checkout or donation process smoothly, or do they drop off part way?
Are you seeing repeat conversions - or one-and-done interactions?

The goal isn’t just more conversions, it’s smarter ones. One rooted in understanding, not impulse. When a site rushes people to buy, it might spike short-term sales but erode long-term trust.

Remember, a good website doesn’t just make it easy to act, it makes it feel right to act.

The Mirage of Measurement

Here’s where it gets tricky. The more we measure, the easier it is to lose the plot. Metrics can only tell you what people did - not why they did it.

A high conversion rate doesn’t automatically mean the experience is working well.

A lower bounce rate doesn’t guarantee people actually liked what they found.

Numbers will show what’s happening, but not whether it aligns with what users need.

My recommendation? View data is a compass, not a script. The numbers can help orient you and provide some rough navigation, but you still need intuition, empathy, and context to interpret what the data means.

Adding Empathy to the Equation

All the analytics in the world can’t capture the complexity of real life. Numbers won’t tell you if someone abandoned their cart because they got distracted by a crying baby, a power outage, or just plain decision fatigue. Metrics capture behavior, not the feelings or circumstances behind it.

That’s why empathy belongs in your analytics conversation. So before we get to what you should be measuring, remember that every data point is a real person. Someone with context, chaos, and competing priorities. This will help you make smarter decisions with your data. You'll be able to stop optimizing for perfection and start designing for reality.

👉 Related read: 12 Ways to Build a More Empathetic Brand

A Smarter Dashboard: Metrics That Matter

Framework Phase: Clarity

Metrics to Watch:

Bounce Rate
Time on Page

What These Really Tell You:

Do people understand what you do right away?

Framework Phase: Trust

Metrics to Watch:

Scroll Depth
Return Visitors
Session Duration

What These Really Tell You:

Are people comfortable engaging with your content?

Framework Phase: Action

Metrics to Watch:

Conversion Rate
Completion Rate
Repeat Actions

What These Really Tell You:

Are you moving visitors from awareness to confidence to commitment?

The point isn’t to hit perfect numbers - it’s to use them as clues. Every conversion, bounce, or cart abandonment is your audience saying something without words. When someone doesn’t click “Add to Cart,” donate, or book now, they’re telling you a story in reverse. You have to put on your little emotional detective hat and figure out what their actions are trying to say through your metrics.

The numbers connect the dots between what we think people want and what they’re actually experiencing. They’re not admissions - they’re context. Little breadcrumbs that lead you toward empathy and better decisions.

The Bottom Line

Measuring is easy. Interpreting is art.

Your analytics should inform decisions, not dictate them. Because the real measure of a great website isn’t how many clicks it gets, it’s how confidently it guides people toward something that actually matters to them.

Good design doesn’t just look good in the data. It feels good in real life. It’s something people can understand quickly, trust easily, and move forward with confidently.

Kristine Neil 9/26/24 Kristine Neil 9/26/24

Mastering Product Variants in Squarespace

Harness the power of product variants to transform your Squarespace store. This comprehensive guide covers everything from basic setup to advanced strategies, helping you create a more efficient, user-friendly, and profitable online shop.

If you've ever felt like your product catalog is starting to resemble a digital version of that notorious junk drawer, you're in the right place. Today, we're exploring product variants - your secret weapon for turning chaos into order in your Squarespace store.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll cover everything from the basics of setting up variants to advanced strategies for optimization. You'll learn how to streamline your product offerings, improve your store's user experience, and make informed decisions about your product structure. By the end of this post, you'll have the knowledge to create a more efficient, user-friendly, and scalable Squarespace store that's primed for growth. Let’s dig in!

The Importance of Product Variants

Product variants allow you to offer multiple versions of a product without cluttering your store. While this feature is commonly used for products that come in different sizes, colors, or styles, its applications are far more versatile than you might think.

For example, if you're selling t-shirts in various sizes and colors, using variants lets you present all options under a single product listing, rather than creating separate entries for each combination. It's like having a really efficient personal shopper for your customers.

But let's think outside the box. Here are some creative ways to use variants that you might not have considered:

Customization options: Use variants to offer personalization choices, like engraving text on jewelry or selecting gift wrap styles.
Bundle building: Create a "build your own gift box" product where each variant represents a different item customers can include.
Service add-ons: For service-based businesses, use variants to offer different service levels or add-on features.
Product pairings: Use variants to suggest complementary products, like "Shirt Only" or "Shirt + Matching Accessory."

By thinking creatively about variants, you can streamline your product offerings while providing customers with more options and a smoother shopping experience while you see increased average cart values. Win-win!

ℹ️ FUN FACT! Did you know that Squarespace allows up to 6 options and 250 total variants per product, giving you ample flexibility for most product types. For context, Shopify caps at 3 options and 100 total variants without add-ons and Podia offers unlimited digital products. (Podia's living its best digital life, apparently.)

Variants vs. Separate Products: Making the Right Choice

Deciding when to use variants versus creating separate products can significantly impact your store's organization and user experience. Here's a simple decision guide:

Use variants when:

The item is essentially the same product with different options
You want to simplify inventory management
You're well within the 250 variant limit

Create separate products when:

The item has unique features beyond basic options like color or size
You need more detailed, separate tracking for inventory or analytics
You're approaching the 250 variant limit

Let's look at some examples across different industries:

Clothing Store:

Use variants: Different sizes and colors of a t-shirt design
Separate products: "Classic Tee" versus "V-Neck Tee" (different styles)

Electronics Shop:

Use variants: Storage capacity options for a smartphone (64GB, 128GB, 256GB)
Separate products: Different models of smartphones (e.g., iPhone 16 vs. iPhone 16 Plus)

Furniture Store:

Use variants: Fabric choices for a sofa
Separate products: Different sofa models (e.g., loveseat vs. sectional, or different designs)

Jewelry Business:

Use variants: Necklace chain lengths or gemstone choices
Separate products: Different jewelry types (necklaces, bracelets, earrings)

Digital Products:

Use variants: License types for a software product (personal, business, enterprise)
Separate products: Different software applications or courses

Food and Beverage:

Use variants: Different flavors of the same product
Separate products: Different product formulations (sugar free vs. regular)

Home Decor:

Use variants: Sizes of a picture frame
Separate products: Different frame styles or materials

Subscription Boxes:

Use variants: Subscription durations (3 months, 6 months, 1 year)
Separate products: Different types of subscription boxes (e.g., beauty box vs. snack box)

The key is to use variants when the differences are primarily in options or customizations of the same basic product. Create separate products when the items have distinct features, purposes, or when you need to manage them independently for inventory or analytics purposes.

How variants (or the lack thereof) can make better product pages:

There's another significant benefit to creating separate products: it allows you to craft more specific and tailored product descriptions and pages. When you're not trying to cover multiple variants in a single description, you can:

Focus on unique features: Highlight the specific benefits and features of each product without diluting the message to cover all variants.
Target specific customer needs: Speak directly to the customer who's looking for this particular item, addressing their unique pain points and desires.
Optimize for specific keywords: Create more focused SEO strategies for each product, potentially improving your search rankings for specific terms. (More on this below! 😉)
Provide detailed information: Include in-depth specifications, use cases, and customer testimonials that are relevant to the specific product.
Showcase product-specific imagery: Use photos and videos that highlight the unique aspects of each item without confusing customers about which variant they're viewing.
Tailor your call-to-action: Create more compelling and specific calls-to-action that resonate with the target audience for each product.

By not offering too many options on a single page, you can really cater to the needs of customers interested in each specific item. This approach allows you to communicate more effectively about the benefits and features of each product, rather than trying to cover all bases with a broader, less focused description.

Understanding Variant Calculations

Calculating the total number of variants is straightforward but crucial for planning your product structure. Here's how it works:

Total Variants = Option 1 choices × Option 2 choices × Option 3 choices (and so on)

For instance:

A t-shirt with 4 sizes and 3 colors: 4 × 3 = 12 variants
Adding just 3 additional colors and 5 design choices to the above: 4 × 6 × 5 = 120 variants

As you can see, the number of variants can increase rapidly as you add options! It's important to plan your variant structure carefully to avoid hitting Squarespace's 250 variant limit unexpectedly. Trust me, hitting that limit is no fun because it forces you to go back and rethink your product strategy when you’d probably rather just get to selling.

Optimizing Your Product Page for Variants

Now that you know a bit more about product variants, when to use them and how they work, let's talk about how to display your product options effectively on your product details pages. A well-designed product page is crucial for effectively presenting variants to your customers so it’s important to pay attention to the details. Here are some best practices:

Use visual elements: Implement color swatches or pattern images for relevant options. This helps customers quickly understand and select their preferred choice.
Utilize button options: For options like size or style, buttons keep the interface clean and options easy to navigate.
Clear impact display: Ensure that customers can easily see how their variant choices affect price and availability.
Descriptive labels: Use specific, clear labels for each option. "Size" is more helpful than "Option 1." After all, we're not playing a game of "Guess What This Dropdown Does."
Logical ordering: Present the most important variant options first, typically size for clothing or main feature for other products.

ℹ️ TIP! If you’ve set up specific images for each product variant (as you should), they will only display after ALL options are selected. This means that if you have a shirt in 5 sizes and 3 designs that the thumbnail will only change to match the selected after both size AND design have been selected. In this case, I would always recommend having size as the first option and the design as the second one so that as soon as the design is selected the corresponding thumbnail will display.

The key takeaway here is that a well-optimized product page with variants should be intuitive and easy to use. It should guide customers smoothly through their options without overwhelming them with choices.

I’m going to start to sound like I’m repeating myself, but it’s just SO important: your goal should always be to make the shopping experience as easy as possible, not over-complicate it. A clear, well-organized variant display can significantly reduce decision fatigue and increase conversion rates. On the flip side, a confusing or cluttered variant setup can lead to abandoned carts and lost sales. This means that when you’re thinking of how to set up your products, you’re really aiming for that perfect balance between offering variety and maintaining simplicity.

SEO and Inventory Considerations

When dealing with product variants, it's crucial to consider both search engine optimization (SEO) and inventory management. These elements can significantly impact your store's visibility on the front end and operational efficiency on the back end.

SEO for Variant-Rich Products

Optimizing variant-rich products for search engines requires a strategic approach. You need to balance providing detailed information for each variant while maintaining a cohesive overall product page. Here are some key tactics:

Strong main product title and description: This forms the SEO foundation for all variants. Ensure it encompasses the core product while hinting at the variety available.
Include key variants in the product title if commonly searched: "Women's T-Shirt - Sizes XS to 3XL" is more informative than just "Women's T-Shirt."
Use alt text on variant images: "Red V-neck T-shirt front view" is better for SEO (and accessibility) than "DSC12345.jpg".
Create unique content for significant variants: If certain variants are particularly popular or distinct, consider creating separate sections on the page with unique descriptions for these. (ℹ️ TIP! The Squarespace product additional info section is perfect for this!)

Google isn't psychic (yet 😬) so if you help it understand your products, it'll help customers find you. Create rich, informative pages that serve both your human visitors and search engine crawlers effectively. (For more on SEO, check out this video on my most recommended Squarespace SEO tool.)

Inventory Management

Effective inventory management is crucial for businesses with variant-rich products. Squarespace offers tools to help you stay on top of your stock levels across all variants. Here's how you can leverage these features:

Squarespace allows you to track stock for each variant separately. This means you can:

Set different inventory levels for each variant
Receive notifications when a specific variant is running low
Display "Out of Stock" messages for unavailable variants without removing the entire product

To make the most of these features:

Regularly review your inventory levels: Set aside time to regularly assess which variants are selling well and which might need to be discounted or discontinued.
Use low stock alerts: Set up notifications to alert you when variants reach a certain threshold, allowing you to reorder in time.
Analyze sales patterns: Use the data from your variant sales to inform future purchasing decisions and identify trends in customer preferences.

ℹ️ TIP! Use out-of-stock variants as an opportunity to collect email addresses for restock notifications. It's like turning lemons into lemonade, except the lemons are disappointed customers and the lemonade is future sales 🍋 This not only helps retain potential customers but also gives you valuable data on demand for specific variants!

Good inventory management isn't just about keeping products in stock—it's about optimizing your inventory to meet customer demand while minimizing holding costs. Your variant strategy plays a crucial role in striking this balance.

Money Talk: Variant Pricing Strategies

When it comes to pricing in Squarespace, it's important to understand the platform's capabilities and limitations. Here are some strategies you can implement:

Flat pricing: Set the same price for all variants of a product. This is the simplest approach and works well for products where all options have similar production costs.
Variant-specific pricing: Charge different prices for different variants. This is useful when some options (like different colors or premium materials) cost more to produce.
Product-level sales: While you can't discount specific variants, you can put entire products on sale. This can be useful for clearing out inventory or running promotions.
Limited-time offers: Use Squarespace's sale feature to create urgency around entire products or categories for a set period.

Here's how these strategies might look in practice:

Strategy: Flat Pricing

When to Use: Simple products with similar costs across variants
Example: All t-shirt sizes and colors for $25

Strategy: Variant Pricing

When to Use: When some options cost more to produce
Example: All red shirts are $25 but black shirts are $30

Strategy: Product-level Sales

When to Use: Clearing inventory, seasonal promotions
Example: 20% off a specific t-shirt product for a week

Strategy: Limited-Time Offers

When to Use: Create urgency, boost sales during slow periods
Example: lash sale: 15% off all hoodies for 48 hours

Remember, while Squarespace has some limitations, you can get creative within these constraints:

Create 'bundle' products: If you want to offer a deal on multiple items, create a new product that represents the bundle. (More on bundling & kitting on Squarespace.)
Use tiered products: Instead of variants, create separate products for "Standard," "Deluxe," and "Premium" versions if the differences are significant.
Leverage your product descriptions: Use this space to explain the value of higher-priced variants or to highlight limited-time offers.

ℹ️ TIP! While you can't automatically apply discounts to specific variants, you can manually adjust variant prices for sales. Just remember to change them back when the sale ends!

The key is to work smartly within Squarespace's framework. Your pricing should still reflect your brand positioning and target market. It's about finding the right balance between simplicity (which Squarespace enforces) and the flexibility your business needs.

User Experience: Don't Make Your Customers Play Hide and Seek

A great variant setup means nothing if your customers can't find what they're looking for. Here's how to ensure your store is more "helpful librarian" and less "labyrinth designed by M.C. Escher":

Organize categories logically: Group similar products together. "Tops" can include t-shirts, blouses, and sweaters, each with their own variants.
Use clear, descriptive category names: "Women's Tops" is better than "Upper Body Decor."
Implement robust filtering options: Let customers filter by size, color, style, etc. The easier it is to find, the easier it is to buy!
Optimize site search: Ensure your search function can handle variant-specific queries like "red XL t-shirt."
Create intuitive navigation paths: Think about your customer's journey. For instance, a path like Home > Women's > Tops > T-Shirts > Graphic Tees guides the user naturally through your store hierarchy.
Use breadcrumbs: These not only help with navigation but also with SEO.
Consider a mega menu: For stores with many categories and variants, a well-designed mega menu can provide an at-a-glance view of your product structure. (ℹ️ TIP! Looking for a mega menu? I love this plugin from Will Myers!)
Mobile optimization: Ensure your category structure and filters work well on mobile devices. Remember, a significant portion of your customers may be shopping on their phones.
Use the related products feature smartly: Many people use Squarespace’s built-in related products feature to display related products but did you know that you can specify exactly which categories you’d like to display for each product? This may be better than the default which is just going to show products at random based on either stock levels or what’s been most recently added to your store.
A/B test your navigation: What works best can vary depending on your specific audience. Don't be afraid to test different category structures or menu designs to see what resonates with your customers.

Ultimately, your site structure should feel invisible—guiding customers to their desired products without them having to think about the navigation process.

Future-Proofing Your Variant Strategy

As your business grows, so might your product offerings. Here's how to ensure your variant strategy scales with you:

Monitor your numbers & consider splitting high-variant products: Regularly check how close you're getting to that 250 variant limit. If you're approaching the limit, it’s probably time to think about creating separate product lines.
Consolidate when possible: Do you really need 15 ever so slightly different shades of blue tees? Would your sales really drop if you offered fewer options?
Plan for scalability: When adding new products or options, consider how they'll fit into your existing structure.
Stay flexible: The eCommerce world moves fast. Be ready to adapt your strategy as your business evolves.

Bottom Line

We've covered a lot of ground, from understanding the basics of product variants to strategizing for the future. Armed with this knowledge, you're now ready to transform your Squarespace store into a well-oiled, variant-powered machine.

Remember, mastering product variants is about finding the right balance - offering enough options to meet your customers' needs without overwhelming them (or yourself). It's about creating a shopping experience that's intuitive, efficient, and dare I say, even enjoyable.

Kristine Neil 4/8/24 Kristine Neil 4/8/24

3 Essential Squarespace Product Page SEO Tips to Boost Sales

Discover the power of Squarespace product page SEO with these three essential tips. Learn how to optimize your titles, descriptions, and images to attract more customers and boost your online sales.

Are you struggling to attract customers to your Squarespace shop? Implementing the right Squarespace product page SEO tips can make all the difference in driving organic traffic and boosting your sales. In this post, I'll cover three essential strategies for optimizing your product pages and getting your products in front of the right people.

Why Following These Squarespace Product Page SEO Tips Matters

Picture this: you've poured your heart and soul into creating an amazing line of artisanal candles. You've spent months perfecting your scents, designing beautiful packaging, and setting up your Squarespace shop. But when you finally launch... crickets 🦗

It's a disheartening feeling, knowing that your incredible products are just sitting there, waiting to be discovered. But here's the thing: if you haven't optimized your Squarespace product pages for SEO, you're essentially leaving money on the table 💸

Think about it - when someone searches for "lavender vanilla candle", you want YOUR product to be the first thing they see. But without the right SEO strategies in place, your candles might be buried on page 5 of the search results, gathering virtual dust.

The good news is that with a few simple tweaks, you can start attracting more organic traffic (and sales!) to your Squarespace shop. Let's dive in!

1. Optimize Titles, Meta Descriptions, and Alt Text with Target Keywords

When it comes to SEO for your Squarespace product pages, your titles, meta descriptions, and image alt text are prime real estate. These elements are not only visible to potential customers on the search engine results pages (SERPs), but they also give search engines crucial context about what your page is all about.

To make the most of these elements, be sure to incorporate your target keywords naturally. For example, if you're selling artisanal candles, your product page title could be something like "Handmade Soy Candles - Lavender & Vanilla | Your Brand Name". This title includes relevant keywords while also showcasing what makes your product special.
Your meta description should expand on this, providing a compelling and concise summary of what customers will find on your product page. Aim for around 150-160 characters and be sure to reiterate your primary keyword.
Finally, don't neglect your image alt text! This is a golden opportunity to provide context to search engines about your image content while also improving accessibility for visually impaired users. Describe your product images clearly and concisely, like "Lavender and vanilla scented soy candle in a glass jar".

2. Write Unique, Keyword-Rich Product Descriptions

Your product descriptions are your chance to really sell your items - both to potential customers and to search engines. Instead of using generic manufacturer descriptions, take the time to craft unique, compelling copy that highlights your product's key features and benefits.

As you write, weave in relevant keywords where they fit naturally. But remember - your ultimate goal is to provide value and answer any questions a potential buyer might have. Focus on creating helpful, engaging content and the SEO benefits will follow. (The simple Squarespace product page SEO tips in this post are a great place to start!)

Consider using storytelling techniques or highlighting what makes your product special. Maybe your candles are hand-poured in small batches using locally sourced ingredients, or perhaps they're inspired by your grandmother's favorite scents. These details not only make your products more enticing but also give you opportunities to include valuable long-tail Squarespace product page SEO tips.

3. Optimize Your Product Images for SEO and User Experience

Your product images play a crucial role in both SEO and user experience. High-quality, visually appealing images can help your products stand out in the search results and encourage potential customers to click through to your site.

To optimize your images for SEO, start by choosing descriptive, keyword-rich file names. Instead of using generic names like "IMG_1234.jpg", go for something more specific like "lavender-vanilla-soy-candle.jpg". This helps search engines understand what your image depicts and can even contribute to your rankings for image search.
Next, be sure to compress your images before uploading them to your Squarespace site. Large image files can slow down your page load times, which is a major red flag for SEO. Squarespace recommends using images that are no larger than 2500 pixels wide and keeping file sizes below 500KB for optimal performance.
Finally, consider adding alt text to your product images. We touched on this briefly in the first section, but it bears repeating! Alt text is a great place to include your target keywords while also making your images more accessible to visually impaired users and search engine crawlers alike.

Bonus tip: If you have multiple images per product, consider using Squarespace's built-in focal point feature to ensure that the most important part of each image is always visible, even on different device sizes. This can help keep your product pages looking polished and professional, no matter how customers are browsing.

The Bottom Line

Phew, that was a lot of information! But don't worry - SEO doesn't have to feel overwhelming. By focusing on these three key areas - keywords, product descriptions, and images - implementing my proven Squarespace product page SEO tips, you'll be well on your way to boosting your Squarespace shop's visibility and sales.

Remember our example candle shop? By implementing these Squarespace product page SEO tips, they could start ranking for relevant searches like "best soy candles" or "unique scented candles gift". And that means more potential customers discovering (and falling in love with) their products every day.

Kristine Neil 1/2/24 Kristine Neil 1/2/24

What does it cost to start an eCommerce website in 2024?

Are you thinking about starting a website on Squarespace in 2023? In this blog post, I break down the costs of getting started on Squarespace, including domain registration, hosting fees, and premium design templates. Whether you're launching a simple shop or a robust online store, I've got you covered with all the pricing information you need to make an informed decision. Find out what it really costs to start a Squarespace website in 2023 and start building your online presence today.

Starting an eCommerce website can be an exciting way to sell products or services online and reach a wider audience. It’s no secret that my favorite platform for building an eCommerce website is Squarespace, which offers a range of templates and features to create a professional-looking website and super powerful online shop. But what does it cost to start an eCommerce website on Squarespace in 2024? In this post, I’ll break down the various costs associated with building and maintaining an eCommerce website on Squarespace, including template and plan pricing, payment processing fees, and other potential expenses.

Before we jump into the details, I have a few helpful tips to keep in mind about pricing in general:

Tip #1

Choose the right tool (or suite of tools) for the job

There are still a lot of people out there who seem to think that eCommerce is a costly undertaking, completely out of their reach. While this can definitely be the case if you’re using the wrong tools, I think it’s why it’s so important to make sure you know about all the options out there and what exactly each tool does. It’s also important to have a clear idea of exactly how each piece of software or app you plan on using specifically fits into your business ecosystem. I’ve seen too many business owners paying for redundant systems because they didn’t realize that Software A had the same features or capabilities as App B. (For some of my favorite tech combos for small businesses check out this post.)

Tip #2

Don’t be afraid of monthly subscription costs - just be smart about them

Look, I hate being nickel-and-dimed as much as the next person and I know it’s super annoying that everything these days seems to come with a monthly or annual subscription cost. However, paying monthly subscription costs for apps or software is definitely no more expensive than developing something custom. In fact, custom development is often much, more more expensive. I’ve had more than a few potential clients come to me over the years and inquire about building a custom solution for them because they either “can’t afford” or “don’t like” the monthly costs associated with various apps or tools to do the job. TL;DR things didn’t work out.

Think of it like this: if a company like Squarespace spends a lot of money on R&D to build a powerful eCommerce platform they can either charge a small number of big companies a ton for it (because those companies can afford it) -- or they can charge a large number of small businesses a little for it. Monthly subscription costs offer smaller players the opportunity to use the same tools that used to only be available to the big guys and so I say this is a huge win for small businesses! Love it or hate it, that SaaS model is what has helped put the cost of eCommerce website development into the realm of possibility for many small business owners that may not otherwise be able to afford it.

Tip #3

Don’t forget about tangential costs

It would be impossible for me to estimate all of these things because there are so many variables but there can be quite a few “non-website” costs that can impact the overall success of a website. Upfront costs are things like investing in great branding, strong product photography and compelling copywriting. You might also have ongoing expenses for things like paid ads, promoted posts, social media marketing, social media strategy and SEO. All of this is just to say that while the costs I’m going to outline below are a good place to start for the actual website part of things that you should expect to budget for these other upfront and ongoing costs to get the most out of your investment in a website.

What does it cost to start an eCommerce website in 2024?

Upfront Costs

The bulk of the expenses of an eCommerce website project come in the setup / getting started stage. There are three main factors to consider: the cost of a custom website template (if you choose to go that route), the cost of working with a web design professional to design/build/develop your site, and whether you need to add any third party plugins to customize your site.

Squarespace Template

All modern websites are built off a starting theme or template. This is just a framework that’s used as a jumping-off point so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every new website.

One of my favorite things about Squarespace is that even the free templates are all modern and beautiful. Even better, sites built on the Squarespace 7.1 platform don’t even really need to choose between templates like before because all templates have the exact same features. This means that you’ll never be locked into anything by choosing the “wrong” template.

You also have the option on Squarespace from buying a template design from a third-party designer which is kind of like a compromise between using one of the free templates and going all-in with a web designer (like below). Paid templates are a really affordable way to get a “custom” look without the custom price tag and allow you to get started really quickly so IMHO they are well worth their very affordable price tags!

For more on templates, check out these posts:

Total template cost: $0-$399

Web Designer

I mean, not to be too biased or anything but this is where your investment can really make the difference 😉 especially when it comes to making your chosen template stand out from the crowd. An experienced web designer can use custom CSS, HTML, and javascript to tweak templates so they don’t look so generic and will have an excellent understanding of UX/UI best practices so that your finished site looks professional and converts visitors into customers!

The cost of a web designer is going to vary based on their years of experience but also just the going rate for the type of projects they specialize in and the clients they work for. For example, a designer that works mostly for local businesses in a small, rural town is probably going to have a lower hourly rate than someone who works for brand name companies in NY or LA. This doesn’t mean that one’s work is necessarily more valuable than the other, just that they cater to different markets and meet different needs. For an average small-to-medium business looking to either build their first eCommerce site or revamp an existing one, I have seen designers charge as little as $1000 and as much as $7000 or more.

When comparing web designers, it’s important to not just compare the bottom line cost but also the deliverables. What are you getting exactly? How many pages? How many products? Will you be getting help with SEO or copywriting in addition to the web design setup? What’s not included or is going to cost extra? Take a look at all of these things so you know exactly what you’re paying for.

Last note on this subject: if you feel like you’re somewhat technically inclined and interested in learning some of the basics you could always forgo hiring a designer and go the DIY route. As with most things of this nature, you have to understand that what you save in money doing it yourself will probably cost you in time. An expert can work a zillion times faster and knows what pitfalls and roadblocks to look out for. In most cases, I think that optimizing your time to market is a super relevant factor to consider; after all, you can’t start making money until you launch so spending too long in the development phase has a cost all its own.

Total web designer cost: $0-$7000+

Squarespace Plugins

These are code snippets that extend the functionality of your site and unlike other third party apps below, most of these you only have to pay for once when you first set them up. Check out my favorite plugins for Squarespace eCommerce in this post.

Total Squarespace plugin costs: $0-$160

Recurring Costs

Beyond the initial setup, there are some website expenses that you’re going to get billed regularly for, either monthly or annually. Paying annually almost always comes with a discount over paying monthly so save yourself some $$ and always sign up for subscriptions annually!

Squarespace Costs

Here are the main expenses for a Squarespace eCommerce website:

Website Subscription $276 - 588 / year - I break down the difference in all the plans in this post but this cost is for either the Basic or Advanced Commerce plans
Domain $9-12 / year - Unless you’re new to Squarespace and pay for an annual subscription in which case you get your first year FREE!
Email (G Suite)* $6 / user / month - Same as with the domain/hosting, above - Squarespace offers this FREE for one year for new accounts.

Third Party Tools

Alright, this is where things get VARIABLE because the apps you choose to use are going to probably different than the apps someone else uses making this super unique to each business. That being said, here are the rough costs for the things that I recommend for ALL business:

Email Marketing Subscription $60 - $420 / year - Compare my top three picks in this post
LiveChat $492 / year - more on my favorite tool for this and why I think it’s so important here
Legal Policies $99 / year - make sure you protect your business with an ironclad privacy policy and terms of service
Aftership $108 - $1188 / year - a custom order tracking page can make your small business look totally awesome
Automatic Returns Platform $0 - $1188 / year - worth every penny even if no one returns a thing. Find out why in this post.

Bottom Line

Modern eCommerce software has made it so much more affordable for small businesses to enter the market and even those pesky monthly costs should be considered manageable versus the high custom development costs of yesteryear. When it comes to total expenses, there are some ways to make sure you get the best bang for your buck by carefully selecting a platform and template that meets your business needs. Armed with the right tools and people on your team, you can keep monthly expenses in check and focus on growing your business.

Kristine Neil 12/21/23 Kristine Neil 12/21/23

Shopify vs Squarespace: Which eCommerce Platform is the Best in 2024?

The question I’m asked more than anything is whether small businesses and startups should choose Squarespace or Shopify for their eCommerce website. There are lots of variables that go into that decision but this post covers the biggest factors (ease of use, features & pricing) to determine the best option.

Are you looking for an e-commerce platform to launch your online store? Two popular options that you may have come across are Shopify and Squarespace. Both of these platforms are designed to help small and medium-sized businesses build and manage their online stores, but which one is right for you?

In this article, we'll compare Shopify vs Squarespace, looking at their features, ease of use, pricing, and more. By the end of this article, you'll have a better idea of which platform is best for your needs.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that lets you create and manage your online store. It's a cloud-based platform, which means that you don't need to worry about hosting or server maintenance.

You can use Shopify to build your website, manage your inventory, process payments, and more. As of 2023, 4.4 million websites use Shopify across 175 different countries. This popularity has led to Shopify being the go-to when someone thinks of building an e-commerce platform.

What is Squarespace?

Squarespace is a website builder that also offers e-commerce capabilities. It's known for its user-friendly interface and beautiful templates.

Squarespace lets you build your website using drag-and-drop tools, and you can use it to sell physical and digital products. Unlike Shopify, Squarespace is not exclusively an e-commerce platform; it's designed to help you build any type of website.

With over 3.7m subscribers on Squarespace's platform, not only is this a popular place to build a website, but the platform is also improving massively, especially compared to its competitors like Shopify.

Considerations of Each Platform

Below are some considerations you should bear in mind when deciding between Squarespace and Shopify. They are both fantastic platforms in their own right, so make sure to take the time to weigh them up for your business.

Ease of Use

Both Shopify and Squarespace are designed to be user-friendly and intuitive. Shopify has a straightforward interface that makes setting up your online store easy. The platform offers a variety of templates (some free and some paid), and you can customize your site by editing the HTML and CSS. Shopify Themes built on the newer Online Store 2.0 framework do feature better drag-and-drop functionality and more options to add sections to non-shop pages. This opens up a lot of design capabilities that Shopify previously lacked.

By comparison, Squarespace features a full drag-and-drop interface. Squarespace sites built on the latest Fluid Engine platform have almost endless possibilities for customization and design and while there are paid Squarespace template options out there (see some favorites here) all design features and functions are available even if you choose to start from a free template. Setting up a store on Squarespace is also a simple process, though some sellers with larger catalogs may find it harder to organize or manage their inventory without some extra support.

Features

Both Shopify and Squarespace offer a wide range of features to help you build and manage your online store. Here are some of the key features of each platform:

Shopify:

Inventory management
Payment processing
Order management
Shipping and fulfillment
Marketing and SEO tools
App store with over 4,000 apps and integrations

Squarespace:

eCommerce tools
Marketing and SEO tools
Customizable templates
Domain registration and hosting
Blogging tools
Exciting extensions and plugins, such as the Squarespace SEO plugin
Third-party integrations with platforms like EasyShip and TaxJar

Pricing

Pricing is an important factor to consider when choosing an e-commerce platform. Here's how Shopify and Squarespace stack up in terms of pricing:

Shopify:

Basic Shopify: $29 per month
Shopify: $79 per month
Advanced Shopify: $299 per month

Squarespace:

Business: $23 per month
Basic Commerce: $27 per month
Advanced Commerce: $49 per month

It's worth noting that both platforms offer free trials, so you can test them out before deciding which one to move forward with for your business.

Aside from monthly platform costs, you also need to factor in costs for any extra apps or plugins that you may need. Shopify features a very large app store which can be tempting to turn to but nearly every quality app requires a monthly subscription in addition to what you pay Shopify. These fees can range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars or more per month so if you’re not careful they can really add up quickly.

There are apps, extensions, and plugins that you can add to Squarespace as well but in general, there is more built-in functionality within Squarespace that does not require any extra monthly spend. Aside from features such as Scheduling or Email Campaigns, everything else is included with your Squarespace subscription which can help you keep your budget in check.

Bonus: Check out this post to determine which Squarespace plan is right for you and use code KRISTINE10 for 10% off your Squarespace subscription.

Shopify vs. Squarespace Conclusion

After a detailed comparison between Shopify and Squarespace, it is evident that both platforms offer a lot of features and benefits to their users. However, Squarespace comes out on top due to its ease of use, affordability, and the availability of all the essential features required to run an online store. Shopify is a great solution for some businesses but Squarespace is the ideal solution for small businesses and startups who want a sleek and modern-looking website with the ability to sell products with ease. As your business grows in complexity or needs to scale, you may find yourself looking to Shopify as a solution but you’ll need to be willing to take on the additional costs and some design limitations when you do.

Shopify Vs Squarespace FAQs

Yes, Shopify does offer website templates that don't have an e-commerce functionality. However, these templates may not be as flexible as that Squarespace offers. If you don’t plan on selling anything right away or plan on using an alternate checkout method, go with Squarespace!
Squarespace does not offer a free plan.
Shopify does offer a very low cost “Starter” plan but it’s really geared towards those that do not want or need a full website of their own and is not really recommended for most users.
Both platforms offer free trials so that you can try them out before subscribing to a paid plan.
Yes, Squarespace allows users to sell digital products like ebooks, music files, and video downloads. Check out this post for all of the things you can sell on Squarespace without the need for any additional third-party apps.
Yes, Shopify does charge transaction fees of 2% on their Basic Plan, but these can be waived if users use Shopify Payments as their payment gateway.
Both of the Squarespace Commerce plans feature 0% transaction fees.
Yes, Squarespace allows users to use their own custom domain name or purchase one through Squarespace.
To improve your Squarespace SEO you can follow this Squarespace SEO checklist or list of Squarespace SEO tips.

This post was co-authored by guest contributor Henry Purchase, Founder of SEOSpace. SEOSpace offers an easy-to-use Chrome plugin created specifically for Squarespace. Their tool analyzes your Squarespace website for SEO and provides actionable steps to help you improve your search performance. It’s the “Yoast for Squarespace!”

Kristine Neil 12/4/23 Kristine Neil 12/4/23

Everything You Need to Know About Podia

Podia is a (nearly) all-in-one platform that been making headlines if you're looking to sell digital downloads, courses, workshops, webinars, coaching, consulting or access to a community. Should you give it a try?

Updated Oct 2024

If there’s an eCommerce trend that I don’t think is going away anytime soon (if ever!) it’s the continued productization of services. Customers love the ease of eCommerce and want interacting with other parts of their favorite businesses to be just as simple. For you, the business owner, making it easier for clients to book with you, learn from you, engage with you and even interact with your other fans is a great way to boost revenue or even create passive income. (I’ve even done this myself - learn about it here!)

The trouble I find most people have in getting started is just in the pure overwhelm of all the technology and tools out there to get the job done! (How to choose? Which is best? How to link everything together??)

With this in mind, I’d like to introduce you to Podia. Podia, meet business owner - they’re looking to create a course or launch a community or book webinars or sell digital products.

Business owner, meet Podia. The (nearly) all-in-one tool to do all of the above and more.

What is Podia?

Podia started off back in the day as a simple course-building platform that also had some cool features if you sold digital products but it has evolved into a really well-built platform with a range of capabilities for all types of businesses that have digital products. This could be anything from an ebook to a webinar, full-fledged course or even an online community.

Here’s a high level overview of the main features:

Website Builder - Podia’s website builder is SIMPLE. As in, it doesn’t hold a candle to Squarespace or any of the other builders out there. BUT. It is easy to use and there’s a case to be made for simplicity. If what you’re needing is just a simple sales page or landing page for your stuff to live on, Podia is going to make that super easy. For everything else, I would recommend checking out the section below on how to integrate Podia with Squarespace.
Email Marketing - Much like the built-in website builder, Podia’s email marketing platform is simple and easy to use. It’s another feature that I would lean on for simple updates for products within Podia itself such as notifying students of course updates, etc. Personally, I think email should be such an integral part of any eCommerce marketing strategy that most people will be better served by another platform. (Check out this post for my faves - and note that ConvertKit integrates supremely with Podia!)
Digital Downloads - Ok, now we’re getting into where Podia really shines! Digital downloads can be pretty much any file type you can think of so you can sell ebooks, templates, audio files, video files, spreadsheets - whatever your little heart desires. Selling digital products on Podia is a dream and has some powerful capabilities that Squarespace doesn’t. The biggest of these is that customers are able to access a history of all the digital products they have purchased from you by logging into their account. On Squarespace, they need to go back to their inbox, find the original order confirmation and request the download be resent to them (original download links expire after just 24 hours). Other notable features are the ability to create bundles, add upsells, do pre-sales or use digital products as free lead magnets. So many possibilities!
Coaching - Podia makes it easy to “sell your knowledge” via consultations or other session types. The built-in coaching tools are perfect for any type of expert that’s been trying to use a traditional scheduling tool to book and get paid for their time. Now, I do really enjoy Squarespace Scheduling for this type of set up as well but just like with digital downloads above, there are some features in Podia that may tip the scale in its direction. The biggest of these is that it’s just a really great customer interface! Not that Squarespace Scheduling isn’t - just that I do think customers really like using Podia. And, just like with digital downloads, coaching products can be bundled with any other product or used as upsells (or with an upsell). This makes marketing your coaching options or consulting services a breeze!
Communities - I’m going to throw a curveball out there and say that this may be one of my favorite features of Podia? I know, I know - weird, right? Well, you know I’m no fan of social media and I will tell everyone who will listen that they need to do all they can to make sure they actually own their audience and the interactions they have with them. Think of the community feature on Podia as a Facebook group that you set up except for you own everything about it and you don’t have to compete for your audience’s attention while engaging with you or one another. Communities can be free (like a private FB group) or paid (more like a VIP slack channel). You can also use a community similar to a Patron or Substack where it’s a place you release exclusive content or provide VIP access to you or your products. You can even set up things like subscription tiers with communities, giving some members more exclusive access than others.
Courses - Courses are where Podia got its start and I would say that it’s probably what most people know them for. Podia’s course builder is just like everything else they offer: well-organized and straightforward. I personally find it less overwhelming to use than other products in this category such as Teachable - which has a ton of features but is almost so bloated it’s unusable and not very intuitive to use. Podia has the features you need to set up and sell courses (bundles, drips, pre-sales, pre-launches, upsells, bundles, quizzes, etc.) but somehow just makes all those things so accessible and easy to use. Of course another strong selling point on using Podia as your course platform is that it integrates with all the other features you may also have there like digital downloads or coaching products so it’s easy to use the different parts to leverage off of and support one another.
Webinars - If you’ve been using YouTube Live or Zoom to host online workshops, webinars on Podia are a huge win; no more anonymous views or losing people to someone else’s competing content. If you offer paid webinars you can even earn passive income through replays of your content, automatically stored by Podia.
Affiliates - The last big feature worth highlighting is Podia’s built-in affiliate management capabilities. If you’re looking at adding an affiliate program (as you should) and you have everything on Podia anyways it’s nice to know that you won’t have to add a third-party system to the mix.

Are there any Podia alternatives worth trying?

As I mentioned above, there are quite a few platforms that you could look at if you’re just interested in one specific aspect of Podia and not all the others: Squarespace Member Areas, Squarespace Scheduling, Slack, Teachable, Peach’s, etc. All together though, Podia could in theory replace all those extra subscriptions except Squarespace + your email marketing platform of choice which I think are still best handled independently. Together, those three could become your ultimate tech stack!

The only other platform that I’ve come across that has similar all-in features as Podia is Kajabi but I personally find Kajabi to be a headache to work with and not worth the hefty price tag. Compared to the closest plan possible, you’ll save up to $2400 per year by skipping Kajabi in favor of Podia! Speaking of pricing…

Which Podia plan is best?

Podia has two simple plans. Here’s how they compare:

When selecting a Podia plan, the most significant factor to consider is the transaction fees. Podia has recently updated its pricing structure, simplifying it to just two plans:

Mover: $33/month with 5% transaction fees
Shaker: $75/month with 0% transaction fees

Let's break down which plan might be best for you based on your monthly sales:

If your monthly sales are less than $840, the Mover plan is more cost-effective, even with the 5% transaction fee.
If your monthly sales are $840 or more, the Shaker plan becomes more economical due to the absence of transaction fees.

Here's a quick calculation to illustrate:

At $840 in monthly sales:
- Mover: $33 + (5% of $840) = $75
- Shaker: $75 flat fee

Beyond the cost considerations, there is one other key feature to take into consideration: affiliates. If you're interested in using affiliates to promote your products, you'll need to opt for the Shaker plan, as this feature is not available in the Mover plan.

Summary:

Choose the Mover plan if:
- Your monthly sales are less than $840
- You don't need affiliate marketing capabilities
Choose the Shaker plan if:
- Your monthly sales are $840 or more
- You want to use affiliate marketing

Remember, as your business grows, you can always upgrade from the Mover to the Shaker plan to take advantage of the 0% transaction fees and affiliate features.

Who is Podia a good fit for?

Anyone who has knowledge to share, is an expert in their field or creates things! I’ve also seen so many of my “traditional” eCommerce clients look to add features like those that Podia offers as a way to transition some of their services into products or add a human touch to an otherwise very transactional experience. I also think Podia is a great fit for anyone who has been running a private (or public) Facebook group, allowing you to take control of your audience and message, build community and cross-sell your other products.

How to integrate Podia with Squarespace

Since I recommend you keep all of your main content on your primary domain for SEO purposes, I would suggest linking out to Podia from your Squarespace site via buttons and text links placed strategically throughout your site. Here’s a quick checklist of where and how to do that:

Podia Account Login Link - Add a link to the top level navigation on your main site for existing clients to login to their podia accounts. This makes it so people only have to remember your main domain but can then easily access their purchased products via Podia.
Links to Products - Use the provided checkout embed codes from Podia to send people directly from a sales page on your website to the Podia checkout for that particular product. Again, this allows you to keep all that great keyword content on your main site (good for SEO!) and still take full advantage of all Podia’s features.
Links Back to Your Site - Even if you keep the majority of your content on your main site, customers and clients are still going to end up on your Podia site as they interact in your community, work through courses or access digital content, etc. To keep people from ending up down a dead end road, be sure to also add a link back to your home page in the navigation area of your Podia site. You can also add links in Podia to any other frequently visited pages on your main site such as your blog.

I’m sure there are lots of other places you can think of to organically link content back and forth between Squarespace and Podia but the three things above are the must haves!

The Bottom Line

Podia is an awesome nearly all-in-one platform that people looking to sell digital content, offer workshops or webinars, sell courses, build communities or even sell coaching or consulting services should definitely check out. It’s an affordable solution that can help simplify things for both you and your customers while still being super rich in features and tools. For some, it could even replace a website builder and email marketing provider but for most I think of it as a perfect addition to those platforms.

Try Podia for Free Today →

Kristine Neil 11/17/23 Kristine Neil 11/17/23

How to Use Product Categories & Tags in Squarespace

In this post, we’ll discover the difference between a category & a tag (hint: they aren’t the same!), how to incorporate them into your site’s navigation and how to create shop subcategories on Squarespace. Plus, I’ll share 4 of my favorite ways to use categories and tags that you may not have thought of yet!

Updated November 2023

Product categories and tags sometimes get relegated to the “I’ll take care of that later” pile for busy eCommerce sellers. But I say put this off at your own peril because categories and tags are AWESOME. Not only can they help people quickly and easily find things, they also have SEO-boosting secret powers! It’s definitely worth it to think strategically about how you can use product categories and tags on Squarespace to help your customers or clients find what you’re selling, discover new things and understand what you’re all about at a quick glance. In this post, we’ll discover the difference between a category & a tag (hint: they aren’t the same!), how to incorporate them into your site’s navigation and how to create shop subcategories on Squarespace. Plus, I’ll share 4 of my favorite ways to use categories and tags that you may not have thought of yet! Let’s get started!

What’s the difference between a category & a tag?

Great question. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be any difference between these two different classifications. However, these should not be used interchangeably and you definitely want to plan out how you’ll use them before you just go willy nilly tagging products with all sorts of crazy things.

I always use the example of a t-shirt shop because it’s pretty easy to understand but you don’t have to sell physical products to use categories or tags! So, pretend we have a t-shirt shop and we want people to be able to find what they are looking for quickly. Think of categories as the “departments” of a department store. They are what organizes what you offer by subject or category. Smart categories might be :

Men’s
Women's
Kids

Tags, on the other hand, are descriptions of products in each of those categories. So, in the example of our t-shirt shop, some helpful tags might be:

Colors (red, blue, yellow, etc.)
Brand (Hanes, Bella/Canvas, Under Armour, etc.)
Material (Cotton, Polyester, Triblend, etc.)

Another way to think about the difference between categories & tags is that most products/services will fall into only one category but may have several different tags. So a blue, cotton, Hanes youth tee is going to be in just the “Kids” category but then be tagged blue + cotton + Hanes.

Categories are great for SEO

I wasn’t lying when I said that categories have SEO-boosting secret powers! Why? Because categories and tags are considered “metadata” and it’s little language snippets like these that search engines like Google can pick up on to help decipher what you’re all about. Turns out it doesn’t take a ton of artificial intelligence to figure out that if my store’s categories are:

Haircuts
Color
Blowouts
Styling

… that I’m probably operating a salon.

Video: More on categories & tags, when to use them, and why they matter

During a live November 2023 webinar with Squarespace called Five eCommerce Tips, a viewer asked a great question about categories & tags! Check out my answer for more about how to use categories & tags on Squarespace:

Incorporating Categories Into Your Site’s Navigation

Here’s the other awesome thing about product categories on Squarespace: every category is automatically added to the navigation area of your shop. Magic. But, also: dangerous. This is why it’s so, so, so important to make sure that you have a plan in place for your categories. You don’t want your navigation to be too long or cluttered.

It’s also important to note that categories and tags are case sensitive so if you create categories named: Womens, womens and WOMENS you’ll end up with THREE navigation links in your shop with all essentially the same name but none of the same products. Messy!

Another way to use category or tag landing pages in your site’s navigation is to use them to create drop-down navigation menus. This allows you to create another layer of organization.

Using categories in drop down menus on Squarespace

Creating Nested Categories

Creating multiple levels of shop navigation is like making sure your department store is organized logically into different departments, each with its own little “sub-departments” within them. This makes it easy for people to find what they are looking for quickly, which can reduce frustration and lead to higher conversion rates.

Let’s consider an expanded example from our simple t-shirt shop and pretend we have a full-fledged department store. It would make sense that the navigation would need to visually allow us to “nest” categories within each other. So instead of just lumping everything together in one category called “Women’s” you can instead make subcategories like this:

Women’s
- Tops
  - Tees
  - Hoodies
- Bottoms
  - Denim
  - Joggers
- Accessories
  - Sunglasses
  - Bags

* Note that if you want to create nested subcategories like above that you can add up to three levels max. This means you can have Main Category > Subcategory > Subcategory like in the example above. You would not be able to break the Denim category into more subcategories. If you wanted to do something like that, I would recommend just moving the category up the food chain. If you have enough products that you need more than two subcategories beneath it, that probably means it’s important enough to be the main category all by itself.

*Look how fast we can find exactly what we’re looking for!*

Other Ways To Use Categories & Tags on Squarespace

Link to filtered collections - Another benefit of creating categories and subcategories is that doing so creates individual page path URLs for each category, optimized for SEO and allowing categories to act as standalone pages. This means that if you are running an ad or a promo for all blue shoes, you can link people right to the filtered subcategory: Shoes > Blue. 🤯 For more on this, check out this Squarespace help article.
Make summary blocks smarter - This is one of my absolute favorite things about Squarespace summary blocks! I almost always add one to a home page design as a way to feature selected categories of products… or to feature “featured” products! Doing this is simple by just clicking on the content tab of your summary block settings and then choosing “Filter Items” to have that block only show what you want it to.
Influence what related products are displayed - I recommend everyone turn on the Related Products feature in their commerce settings because why not?? This is such an amazing built-in Squarespace selling tool that I think gets underutilized by most new sellers. Not only does it help keep people on your site longer by showing them more to look at it, but it can also actually show them more of what they WANT to look at. By default, products that share the same first category are shown in the related products section. If your product happens to not have a category, then matches using the first tag will be shown. If you’re into related products, you might also like this post: How to Upsell & Cross-Sell on Your Online Store.
Display more accurate search results - Adding search blocks or using your store’s built-in search page are other ways to help customers find what they are looking for. And, you guessed it, adding categories to your products helps here too! This is because both categories and tags are indexed for search results in addition to being indexed by major search engines such as Google.

Who should be using categories & tags?

I think everyone could benefit from using categories and tags, if only for their aforementioned SEO benefits! From a size standpoint, you probably don’t need to worry about people not finding what they’re looking for if you only sell one signature service or only a handful of products. But even if you have a small shop with just a dozen or so products or services, why not add that layer of categorization to help people be able to decide what is best for them? For example, if you’re an interior designer and offer multiple virtual design sessions you could categorize them by investment level:

This would help people self-sort and see just the services that they can afford. When you start to think about tags & categories as strategic tools to help visitors find what they need on their own, all sorts of doors start to open up! Done right, taking advantage of this simple feature can boost your SEO, help reduce visitor frustration and increase sales. Thinking about what you sell in terms of categories (and tags, to a lesser extent) can help you create ways for customers to easily discover more and help you create a more dynamic eCommerce website.

Kristine Neil 11/14/23 Kristine Neil 11/14/23

How to Set Up Product Add-Ons on Squarespace

Learn how to set up add-on products in your Squarespace shop to offer complementary items and increase your average cart value. Follow a step-by-step guide to enable the add-on feature and link add-on products to your main shop. Boost your sales and enhance your customers' shopping experience!

UPDATED 11/29/23

Watch The Videos

Read The Steps

I have a cool update from Squarespace to share with you that can make your Squarespace shop even better. In this blog post, I'll show you step-by-step how to set up add-on products in your Squarespace shop. It's a great way to offer complementary items to your customers and increase your average cart value. So let's dive in!

First things first, log in to your Squarespace account and go to your shop dashboard. Once you're there, follow these simple steps:

Choose the product you want to add an add-on to: Let's say you're selling a delicious marinara sauce. To set up an add-on product, go to the product page and click on "Edit Product".
Scroll down to the "Selling Tools" section: You'll find it by scrolling down the page or clicking on "Settings" and then "Selling Tools".
Enable the add-on feature: Squarespace has made it super easy for you to include a product add-on on your product page. Look for the option that says "Product Add-On" and click on it.
Add the add-on product: You can add up to two four products as add-ons. Keep in mind that the add-on products need to be physical, service, or digital products. They can't be subscription-based, and they can have up to one product variation. In our example, let's add some fresh ravioli as an add-on to the marinara sauce.
Save and publish: Once you've added the add-on product, click on "Save" and let Squarespace do its magic. Now, when your customers visit the marinara sauce product page, they'll have the option to add the fresh ravioli as well.
Repeat the process for other products: If you have another product, like pesto sauce, that you want to offer add-ons for, simply go to the product page, click on "Edit Product", and follow the same steps to set up the add-on.

Remember, if a product has multiple variations such as both size and flavor, like our marinara sauce, that product can’t be set up as an add-on to any other product. However, if a product such as the parmesan which only has one product variation (size) or no product variations (ravioli) that can be set up as an add-on to another product.

But what if you want to offer an add-on that is not available in your main shop? No worries! Squarespace has a solution for that too. Here's what you can do:

Create a new store: In your shop dashboard, click on the plus icon and select "Store". Instead of adding a new category in your existing shop, create a new store.
Add the add-on product: Let's say you want to offer handmade spaghetti as an add-on. Fill in the necessary details like title, description, image, and price. Don't worry, this new store won't be visible to your customers.
Link the add-on to your main shop: Go back to your main shop, choose the product you want to add the add-on to, and follow the same steps as before. This time, you'll find your handmade spaghetti available as an add-on.

And that's it! With Squarespace's new add-on feature, you can easily set up add-on products in your Squarespace shop. It's a fantastic way to offer complementary items and enhance your customers' shopping experience.

I hope this step-by-step guide has been helpful to you as a small business owner running your eCommerce business on Squarespace. Give it a try and see how it can boost your sales. Happy selling!

Kristine Neil 10/10/23 Kristine Neil 10/10/23

Squarespace and ConvertKit: The Dynamic Duo for Your Online Business

Unleash the power of Squarespace and ConvertKit! They're the ultimate tech combo that turbocharges your online business. Discover how this dynamic duo takes your eCommerce email marketing to new heights.

There's a dynamic duo in the tech world that's been flying under the radar for too long: Squarespace and ConvertKit. They're like the perfect pair, just as inseparable as peanut butter and jelly or Batman and Robin. Squarespace is the master of providing a seamless selling experience, while ConvertKit swoops in with its superpowers in email marketing. Together, they create an unstoppable force that can turbocharge your online business and take it to new heights. Forget about ordinary, these two are extraordinary when combined.

Seamlessly Sell with Squarespace Commerce

Squarespace Commerce is renowned for its user-friendly interface and stunning templates that make setting up an online store a breeze. But when you combine Squarespace Commerce with ConvertKit, you unlock a world of possibilities. With Squarespace Commerce, you can showcase your products, securely handle transactions, and effortlessly manage your inventory. And with ConvertKit, you can automate post-purchase emails, recommend related products, and keep your customers engaged long after they've made a purchase.

One of the standout features of Squarespace Commerce is its integration with popular payment gateways, such as Stripe and PayPal. This ensures a seamless checkout experience for your customers, increasing trust and reducing cart abandonment. By connecting ConvertKit to Squarespace Commerce, you can leverage these selling capabilities and send targeted emails to customers based on their purchase history, interests, or other criteria. This level of personalization and segmentation can significantly improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns and drive repeat business. With an email list, you’re no longer reliant on social media!

Unleash the Power of ConvertKit's Email Marketing

While Squarespace does offer its own email campaigns feature, there's no denying that ConvertKit takes email marketing to a whole new level. With ConvertKit, you'll have the ability to create highly targeted and personalized email sequences that are triggered by specific customer actions. This means you can send product-specific emails to your customers, nurturing them throughout their buying journey and increasing the chances of repeat purchases.

ConvertKit's automation feature allows you to set up workflows that automatically send emails based on customer behavior, such as purchases or website interactions. This helps you deliver timely and relevant content to your subscribers, boosting engagement and driving sales. With ConvertKit, you can say goodbye to generic email blasts and hello to personalized, conversion-focused communication. (Not sold on ConvertKit yet? Check out this post where I break down my top 3 email marketing platform picks.)

How to Connect Squarespace and ConvertKit: Simple Step-by-Step Guides

Now that you're ready to harness the power of this tech combo, let's walk through how to connect Squarespace and ConvertKit.

Two Options for Collecting Subscriber Info

Option 1: Embedding a ConvertKit Form onto Squarespace

This option is perfect if you'd like to use ConvertKit's forms for collecting subscriber information. The best part is even though you can customize and tweak each form within ConvertKit, you also have freedom to customize these forms with your very own custom CSS on Squarespace.

In your ConvertKit account, create a captivating form that captures the information you need from your website visitors. You can customize the fields and design to align with your brand.
Copy the provided embed code from ConvertKit. Don’t worry, it’s just one line of code - you can’t mess this up!
Head over to your Squarespace website and navigate to the page where you want to add the form.
Edit the page, then add a Code Block.
Paste the ConvertKit embed code into the Code Block.
Save your changes, and like magic 🔮 your ConvertKit form seamlessly integrates into your Squarespace website.

Option 2: Adding Squarespace Subscribers to ConvertKit

If you'd like to use Squarespace's own forms for collecting email addresses instead of embedding a ConvertKit form, don't worry! You can still easily send the subscriber data to ConvertKit. All you have to do is create a Zapier account, which you can sign up for absolutely free. Just remember that to access the API and use this integration, a paid ConvertKit plan is required. With Zapier, you can automate the process of transferring subscriber data from Squarespace to ConvertKit, ensuring a seamless and efficient workflow for your email marketing efforts.

Connect your Squarespace form to Zapier:
- Click on your Squarespace form and go to the Storage tab.
- Click on the Connect button next to "Zapier".
- Save your work and go back to your Home Menu.
- Navigate to Settings > Advanced > Developer API Keys.
- Click on Generate Key and name your key. Check the "Forms" box.
- Click on "Generate Key" and Copy Key to copy the API key.
Set up the Zapier trigger step (Squarespace):
- Go to zapier.com and create a new automation workflow or "Zap".
- Choose Squarespace as the Trigger App and New Form Submission as the Trigger Event.
- Connect your Squarespace account with Zapier using the API key.
- Select the Squarespace form you want to send subscriber data to ConvertKit for.
- Test the trigger to ensure everything is set up correctly.
Configure the Zapier action step (ConvertKit):
- Choose ConvertKit as the Action App.
- Select the desired Action Event (e.g., Add Subscriber to Form, Add Tag to Subscriber). For example, you may have a form called "Freebie XYZ." When someone signs up through that form, ConvertKit can tag them as "Freebie XYZ". This tag allows you to trigger various automations and sequences. This allows you to serve your subscribers a customized experience, tailored just for them!
- Connect your ConvertKit account to Zapier.
- Map the Squarespace subscriber data to ConvertKit's subscriber fields.
- Test the Action to confirm it's working as expected.
Name your Zap and turn it on to activate the integration.

This integration eliminates the need for manual importing or exporting of subscriber lists, saving you time and ensuring accurate data.

How to Capture Squarespace Customer Info in ConvertKit

The ConvertKit + Squarespace Commerce integration allows you to send product-specific, post-purchase emails to your customers, nurturing them and encouraging repeat purchases. By setting up automations in ConvertKit, you can create a personalized customer journey that keeps your audience engaged and increases their lifetime value. With ConvertKit's analytics and reporting tools, you can also track the performance of your email campaigns and optimize your marketing efforts for maximum results.

Using The ConvertKit + Squarespace Commerce Integration

Generate an API Key in Squarespace:
- Go to Settings > Advanced > Developer API Keys in Squarespace.
- Click the 'Generate Key' button.
- Give your key a name and select 'Orders' > 'Read and Write' under Permissions.
- Click 'Generate Key' and then 'Copy Key' to save the API key.
Connect the Integration in ConvertKit:
- In ConvertKit, go to Automations > Integrations.
- Click on Squarespace.
- Paste the API Key from Squarespace into the API Key field in ConvertKit.
- Click Next and then click the 'Sync Squarespace orders to ConvertKit' button.
- Click Next again, and now you can track your Squarespace Commerce purchases from within ConvertKi

Now, here's the icing on the cake: this integration doesn't require any coding or complex workarounds. It's designed with small business owners and startups in mind, making it accessible to everyone. Give Squarespace and ConvertKit a try today and see how they can transform your eCommerce email marketing. With this dynamic duo by your side, you'll have the tools to grow your online business and engage your customers like never before.

Kristine Neil 9/12/23 Kristine Neil 9/12/23

Squarespace eCommerce Life Hack: CSV Import Tutorial

Check out my latest YouTube video all about how I use CSV files to make uploading and managing inventory on Squarespace eCommerce websites fast and easy!

Updated May 2025

If you’re tired of manually adding products one by one to your Squarespace shop, this is the video you’ve been waiting for. I’m walking you through the process of using CSV imports to bulk upload products and save yourself a ton of time (and headaches).

In this step-by-step tutorial, I show you how to customize Squarespace’s CSV template, add all your product details in one place, and import them into your store with just a few clicks. Whether you’re setting up a brand new shop or doing a seasonal update with a bunch of new products, CSV imports can seriously streamline your workflow.

This tip came straight from audience questions after my presentation at Squarespace Circle Day in August 2023. So many of you wanted to know: “How do I efficiently manage larger inventories on Squarespace?” This is how.

It might seem a little intimidating if you’re not a “spreadsheet person,” but I promise it’s doable — and honestly kind of satisfying once you get the hang of it. Plus, this method helps reduce errors compared to adding items manually (been there, made that typo).

If you’re a fellow Squarespace web designer, this is also a great trick to have in your toolbox when working with client shops. It’s faster, more scalable, and gives you a solid process for handling larger product catalogs.

👉 Ready to learn? Watch the full tutorial below and follow along.

Got questions about using CSV files in Squarespace? Or maybe you’ve got your own tips for managing eCommerce shops more efficiently? I’d love to hear your thoughts — drop a comment on the YouTube video and let’s chat.

Kristine Neil 9/7/23 Kristine Neil 9/7/23

Maximizing Your Squarespace Site with Extensions, Plugins, and Code Snippets: A Comprehensive Guide

Maximize your Squarespace site with this guide to extensions, plugins, code snippets, and apps. Learn the differences between these tools and discover every Squarespace extension available, along with trusted plugin and code resources.

If you're using Squarespace to create your website, you're probably aware that extensions, plugins, code snippets, and apps can help you do so much more with your site. But, do you know the differences between them and how to use them effectively?

In this post, I’ll go over everything you need to know about Squarespace extensions, plugins, code snippets, and apps. I'll explain the differences between them and provide useful tips for using them in the most effective way possible.

I'll also give you a rundown of every single Squarespace extension currently available. That's right, every.single.one! We’re talking extensions for shipping and fulfillment, finance, inventory and products, sales and marketing, and more. You'll get a comprehensive list of all the add-ons that integrate seamlessly with Squarespace, and to help you get to the bottom of things quickly I'll even highlight my favorite ones.

And, since I know that finding the right plugin or code snippet can be a daunting task, I’ve got some trusted plugin and code resources to check out. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced Squarespace user, you'll find something useful in this post.

So, if you're ready to take your Squarespace site to the next level, keep reading! I'll help you make the most of Squarespace extensions, plugins, code snippets, and apps.

Extensions, Plugins, Code Snippets, Apps - what’s the difference?

Plugins can be anything from short code snippets to more complex code solutions. Most Squarespace plugins allow you to change the look of something on your site with CSS or to do something that isn’t necessarily possible by Squarespace right out of the box using JavaScript. These are all written and created by third-party developers outside of Squarespace.
Extensions are third-party apps or programs to help you manage, optimize, and expand your site’s functionality or help you in some tangentially related aspect of business (such as with accounting, taxes or shipping). Think of these as “official” Squarespace plugins or Squarespace apps if Squarespace had an app store.

3 Squarespace Code & Plugin Tips

Less is More - I usually advise that extra code and plugins are added sparingly. Consider these the “accessories” to a really great outfit instead of the main show. You’re always best off doing as much as possible sans code (and that’s actually quite a lot, thanks to Squarespace 7.1’s Fluid Engine!) and then peppering in a few impactful code tweaks just to personalize things a touch. This not only makes it a lot easier (less custom code to sort through!) but can also help ensure that your site loads quickly which is great for SEO.
Know Your Platform - There’s a lot of legacy code floating around out there for Squarespace 7.0 but all new sites are built on Squarespace 7.1 and the code is often not applicable to both platforms! A good code developer will make sure to indicate which platforms (or themes for 7.0 sites) their code works on but if you find something out there that’s not working the first thing I would check is that you’ve found code that applies to the platform you’re currently on.
Test Thoroughly - It’s easy on Squarespace to add in some code and just walk away but you always want to be sure to to test that things are working as expected when you’re not in edit mode. View your site in an incognito window and on different screen sizes. Does everything look and act as it should? Is your code having any unintended impact on other areas of your site? Even well-written code snippets and plugins can have some negative interactions with other customizations you may have added so test, test and test again just to be on the safe side.

What doesn’t require an extension on Squarespace?

There are so many different things that don’t require any additional add-ons or extras on Squarespace that I think they’re worth mentioning! These are all things that often require extra third-party apps or add-ons on other platforms but that are just built right in on Squarespace.

Social Media - Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest
Content - YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, SoundCloud
Payments - Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Afterpay
Shipping - USPS, FedEx, UPS
Files - Google Sheets, Dropbox
Google Things - Google Search Console, Google Analytics

To connect any of the things above, you can do so right from within Squarespace!

A Brief Rundown of Every Single Squarespace Extension Currently Available

As mentioned above, consider this list of Squarespace Extensions like the “Squarespace App Store.” All of these add-ons integrate seamlessly with Squarespace - they have the official Squarespace stamp of approval! (p.s. This is a looooong list so I’ve highlighted my faves 😉)

Shipping & Fulfillment

Aftership - Boost sales with branded tracking pages, proactive notifications, and actionable shipping insights (Related post: How to Send Delivery Confirmation Messages with Squarespace)
Easyship - Save up to 91% on shipping across 550+ courier services & boost global revenue growth 56% with this feature-rich platform (Related post: How To Set Up a Profitable Shipping Strategy on Squarespace)
Order Desk - Order management app that helps you automate your order fulfillment process
Returns Center by Aftership - Frictionless self-service returns management portal to give smooth returns experiences (Related post: How to Manage eCommerce Returns on Your Small Business Website)
ShipBob - Simple, fast, affordable two-day fulfillment from a global fulfillment network
Shippo - Save time and money on shipping
ShipStation - Import, organize, and ship orders from over 180 channels, carriers, and fulfillment providers

Finance

Avalara - Create ready-to-file sales tax returns
Dext - Simplify, standardize and streamline your digital sales accounting with Dext Commerce (formerly Greenback)
FreshBooks - Generate reports and automatically sync clients, items, and orders from all your sales channels
MYOB - Automate the flow of your Squarespace sales, payment and tax information into your MYOB file through a daily sync.
Quickbooks Online - Connect Squarespace to QuickBooks Online to automate accounting of your sales data
TaxJar - Automated sales tax calculations, reporting, and filing (Related post: The Definitive Guide to Squarespace Sales Tax)
Xero - Automate the flow of your Squarespace sales, payment and tax information into your Xero file through a daily sync.

Inventory & Products

Art of Where - Design your custom printed products made on-demand. Leggings, silk scarves, t-shirts, handbags, notebooks & more
Candid Wholesale - A better way to buy, sell, and pay for wholesale (Related post: How to Set up a Wholesale Shop on Squarespace)
Printful - Print on demand for your Squarespace site powered by Printful (Related post: 3 Ways to Crush This Holiday Selling Season with Your Squarespace eCommerce Website)
inFlow Cloud - A complete inventory management system (Related post: A Minimalist’s Guide to Squarespace Inventory & Product Extensions)
LitCommerce - Enable Multichannel Selling: Bulk List Products & Sync Orders with the top-global marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, TikTok Shop, etc.
Printify - Create, sell, and ship custom products anywhere in the world (Related post: Creating a Custom Print-on-Demand Store with Squarespace)
Printique - Professional photo lab delivering high quality fine art prints, frames, canvas, acrylic, and metal
Soona - Meet Soona. The virtual content studio for e-commerce product photography and video. Over 15k brands love Soona. Only pay for the content you love. $39/photo and $93/video. (Related post: 6 Simple Tips for eCommerce Photography that Converts)
Spocket - Add dropshipping products from US & EU suppliers directly to your store
SPOD - Design & sell custom products
Syncee - Find products for your dropshipping business
Trunk - Multi-channel real-time stock syncing and bundling (Related post: How to Sell Bundles & Kits on Squarespace)

Sales & Marketing

Channable - Empowering your eCommerce growth
Delighted - Automate post-purchase customer feedback surveys
EZ Texting - Send Smarter text promotions and automated SMS campaigns to your customers
GoDataFeed - Transform static product catalogs into dynamic product feeds for hundreds of channels like Google, Facebook, and Amazon
Judge.me - Product reviews with free photos & videos for social proof
LiveChat - Delight your customers and fuel your sales with a complete customer service platform (Related post: How to Add LiveChat to Squarespace)
MailChimp for Commerce - Drive traffic and sales with personalized marketing
Outfy - Create stunning social media graphics and automate social media posts
Progressier - Transform your Squarespace site into a mobile app and deliver push notifications
Sprout - Use Sprout to easily plant trees, become more sustainable, and reach eco-conscious customers.
Weglot Translate - Translate your website into multiple languages

Want to connect something not on the list above? Don’t worry - it’s probably still possible through the use of the Squarespace Commerce API + Zapier!

My Most Trusted Plugin & Code Resources

Will Myers’ Curious Coder Membership - If you’d like to learn a little behind how code works (or even how to write some yourself), I highly recommend Will’s Curious Code Membership! There are some code snippets you can just copy and paste which is nice when you’re in a hurry to just solve a problem but the real magic is in Will’s super easy-to-understand videos where he explains how and why things work the way they do.
Inside The Square - Becca’s YouTube is filled with answers to all of your most frequently asked Squarespace code questions and she always keeps it fun and high energy.
Chris Schwartz-Edmisten - Chris has a really great way of explaining things that I also really enjoy.
Beatriz Caraballo - Beatriz has a ton of great code resources, especially if you’re a fellow Squarespace web designer.
Ghost Plugins - My favorite all-around source for plugins is Ghost because I trust that they’ll all work well and they’re curated and sourced from the best Squarespace pros around (including yours truly).
For specific plugins that I use & recommend, check out one of these round-up posts:
The Squarespace Plugins for eCommerce Sites a Pro Uses
My Favorite Squarespace Plugins & Extensions for eCommerce
Squarespace Plugins an eCommerce Pro Uses

Bottom Line

You now know all the basic ins and outs on Squarespace extensions, plugins, code snippets, and apps! With this knowledge, you can now explore the vast world of Squarespace customization and know when and how you can get the most out of your Squarespace website. By experimenting with different plugins, code snippets, and apps, you can add exciting new features and functionalities to your site and make it even more effective and impressive. Whether you want to optimize your site for search engines, enhance its performance, or simply make it look more beautiful, Squarespace has everything you need to achieve your goals. So go ahead and try new things and experiment with different tools and techniques. With Squarespace, the sky's the limit!

Kristine Neil 8/22/23 Kristine Neil 8/22/23

All About Courses on Squarespace

Sell access to course content directly on your Squarespace website. Same user experience, same content and branding - just a whole new way to expand your eCommerce offerings!

Squarespace’s latest update completely revamps digital products and adds a new feature: the ability to add course content right on your own Squarespace website! If you’ve been toying with the idea of augmenting your eCommerce lineup with a course or other digital product - I think you’re going to be so excited by this. If you haven’t yet thought about adding a course or digital bundle to your online shop, I think that once you’ll see how easy and beautiful it is your mind is going to start thinking of things (or at least that was just me 🤣)!

Crash Course on Squarespace Courses?

It’s as simple as it sounds and as pretty as you’d expect a feature from Squarespace to be! Squarespace Courses allows you to build online courses, offer them for sale in whatever way works for you and have everything live right online next to the rest of your content. Here’s the features in a nutshell:

Keep your students & customers on your site with everything you sell in one place.
Create a standalone course or bundle digital products together.
Offer pricing that works for you: one-time payments that offer lifetime access, monthly access with recurring payments, or free!
Courses can feature video, text or whatever content fits your needs & industry.
Offer discounts & promotions on digital products.
Customers are all managed in one place - the same as customers buying other products types from you.
Most importantly, it's easy to make your content look good because it's Squarespace! Built-in project tracking, clean course navigation, simple chapters & lessons and a beautiful course overview page are just the latest.

What’s the difference between Courses and Member Areas?

Good Q. Courses allow you to create sequential lessons (organized into chapters, if you’d like) where your customers aka students can visually track their progress. Even though both require paid access this differs from a Member Area in that it has that traditional course structure in place. So, for example: if you were an expert in making pies and wanted to offer student access to your paid video library of pie-making videos, creating gated content through a Member Area would be perfect for you. However, if you wanted to organize those videos into an order that helps give more structure to the lessons (first you talk about ingredients, then prep, then actually making the dough and rolling it out before moving on to fillings, etc.) then Courses is what you want.

What about bundles of content?

Want to bundle together your beginner’s guide to pie making and your advanced pie making tips into one mega pie making super class? DONE. New digital product pricing plans allow you to do just that so that granting access to multiple things can happen in one fell swoop.

What does Squarespace Courses cost?

Ok, let’s break this down because at first glance I’ll admit that it’s a lot to take in!

First, keep in mind that the pricing info below is on top of your regular Squarespace subscription. (Check out this post if you want my breakdown on those options. Hint: I always recommend at least Basic Commerce to all my clients to avoid transaction fees and score a ton of other perks.) Now this is also a benefit because if you’re on a Commerce Plan already, technically you don’t need to add anything else in order to start selling a Course or other digital product such as a Member Area. There are some

Selling Without
Add-On

Any Commerce Plan

9% Transaction Fees on Digital Products
(still 0% fee for physical products)

Digital Products
Add-On Pricing

Starter

7% Transaction Fees
10 Hours of Video Storage

$9/mo

Core

3% Transaction Fees
50 Hours of Video Storage

$34/mo

Professional

0% Transaction Fees
Unlimited Video Storage

$119/mo

So, as you can see the only thing that’s different about the options above are the transaction fees and the # of hours of allowed video storage. All other features including the ability to sell unlimited courses & memberships, have unlimited students, offer multiple pricing plans including bundled options, and access to customer analytics & insights are all included on ALL plans.

How does this pricing compare to other learning management platforms?

Things range quite a bit in this space so it can be tough to compare apples to apples. For example, my favorite course platform up to this point has been Podia and it’s most expensive plan tops out at $75/mo.

Comparatively speaking that does make Squarespace the more expensive option however, I think there’s something to having everything in one place.

Here’s how similar plans on other platforms compare to Squarespace’s top-of-the-line Professional Digital Products Add-On:

Kajabi - $399/mo
Teachable - $199/mo
Thinkific - $199/mo
Podia - $75/mo
Other alternative checkout methods with even more pared down features are available for less.

Bottom Line

This new feature is a really powerful addition to Squarespace’s Commerce lineup and if you’re anything like me, it should inspire you to start thinking of what knowledge you have that you might be able to start sharing with your audience. Even if you only offer a free class to start to try it out, I think you’ll find that brand fans are always eager for new ways to engage with you. Adding Squarespace Courses or new digital products can be a great way to augment your existing product lineup - or even offer a way to stick your pinky toe into the pool! Give it a try!

Try Squarespace Courses →

Kristine Neil 7/31/23 Kristine Neil 7/31/23

More Squarespace Plugins to Level Up Your eCommerce Site

Ready to take your site to the next level? Give one of these plugins or apps a try to take your basic site up a notch. From shipping to marketing there’s a little something here for you!

Here are some of plugins and apps I’ve been turning to again and again lately! These will take your already awesome Squarespace site and turn it into a super powerful eCommerce powerhouse. As a reminder, my take on plugins or apps is to use them judiciously; add in one or two to tweak or customize your site - you don’t need them all!

However, unlike some of my previous posts about plugins (check the bottom of this post for links!) these ones really hone in on specific pain points you may be facing on your Squarespace site. From making sure your shop pages look super unique to adding video to your product details pages, all of these plugins or apps come in super handy for eCommerce on Squarespace!

How to set up variant pricing on Squarespace for add-ons or upsells — Variant Pricing Extension

Paid ($30)
If you’re selling customizable products on Squarespace or want to offer upsells or add-ons, this plugin is for you! It ingeniously creates an intuitive customer experience where they can select from some options/variants to increase the cost but can also bypass options if they’re fine with the base product.

Give It a Try

How to add product description tabs to Squarespace — Product Description Tabs

Paid ($20)
Want to give your product details pages a little facelift? Ditch the long, boring descriptions and consolidate info into these cool-looking product tabs. I especially like this type of layout for products that have details like care instructions or other specs that might be helpful to some shoppers but that everyone doesn’t necessarily need to see right up front.

Check It Out

How to make unique product page layouts on Squarespace — Featured Product Layout for Product Pages

Free
I showed my pal Will Myers if he could come up with a solution for shop pages that would allow you to feature a product versus just having everything the same size in the grid. You know, just to give things a little more *flavor*. Boy did he deliver! This simple code does just the trick and will help your shop pages look way more interesting.

Add This Now

How to add video to products on Squarespace — Squarespace Product Gallery Video Plugin

Paid ($29)
Product videos - especially ones that can show your product from all angles or those with 360 degree views - are super highly converting. Oddly, Squarespace doesn’t allow you to add video alongside product thumbnails on your product details pages. Luckily, this plugin does just that and videos look just like the native Squarespace thumbnails so no one would ever know this is an add-on!

Check It Out

Looking for more great eCommerce plugins for Squarespace?
Check out these other plugin posts:

Kristine Neil 4/28/23 Kristine Neil 4/28/23

5 Simple Steps to Optimize Your eCommerce Site for Mobile Sales

With mobile purchases making up about half of all eCommerce sales, it's important to optimize your website for mobile sales. It’s not enough to just put your products or services online for people to discover. You’ve got to make sure that your site is designed for selling on devices big and small.

It's highly likely that your clients or customers are searching for your products or services on their mobile phones, regardless of what you sell. In fact, some estimates suggest that mobile purchases account for roughly half of all eCommerce sales! This means it's crucial to consider these users when designing your website. They don't just want information about your company or offerings; they want to take action, make purchases, enroll, sign up, and connect with you. For many users, the entire process from research and discovery to purchase and beyond occurs on their mobile devices.

Is “Mobile First” outdated?

Web designers have been discussing "mobile-first" web design since the first iPhone was released, but as with all things tech, there have been numerous improvements and changes over the years. Mobile-first design simply means that instead of designing a website for desktop screens first and then attempting to scale it down to fit mobile devices, it may be more effective to approach it the other way around.

While this buzzword is relevant when considering eCommerce, modern web design platforms like Squarespace and Shopify now handle responsive design so well that we don't need to focus as much on creating two separate experiences. Instead, it's more important to build an empathetic brand that considers the distractions and emotions users may experience while visiting your site. This entails paying attention to your content, organization, structure, layout, and site architecture just as much as the design of your website.

So, knowing that mobile commerce is something we need to think about as we take all phases of our interaction with brands onto our phones, here are five things you can do to optimize your website for mobile sales.

1. Have your site built on a platform that does eCommerce well.

If you're considering building your eCommerce site on Squarespace or Shopify, you're already ahead of the game! Page layouts on both platforms automatically adjust to any screen size, from the smallest phone to the largest desktop. This is crucial because users prefer vertical scrolling on small screens rather than having to zoom in or scroll sideways. Plus, Google rewards mobile responsiveness with higher search engine rankings!

If you're struggling to make your design work seamlessly on mobile devices, Squarespace 7.1 Fluid Engine has got you covered. With the added feature of adjusting layouts exclusively for mobile, you can create bespoke designs that cater to users on varying screen sizes. For more information on Squarespace 7.1 and its impact on eCommerce sites, be sure to read this post.

2. Pay attention to site speed.

Slow loading times can be detrimental to your website's success, not just because it's frustrating for users. Google takes note of this and may penalize your site accordingly. To improve the speed of your site, pay attention to page size (keep them under 5 MB) and image size (below 500 KB or with a width of no more than 2500px). You can easily compress or downsize your image files using free online tools before uploading them to your site. If you're experiencing slow loading times, start by reducing your image sizes. If you're interested in doing more to optimize your Squarespace site's SEO, I highly recommend SEOSpace!

3. Consider a minimalist’s approach to visual content.

Some design trends may look stunning on a 27-inch iMac, but they can be a disaster when viewed on mobile devices. There’s a fine line between designing for the sake of design and designing for conversion. Every aspect of your website, from headlines to images to text blocks, buttons, and even white space, should serve a purpose. If an image looks great on your giant desktop but crops weirdly on mobile, it’s not going to work. And you’d be remiss to sacrifice the mobile experience for the sake of desktop aesthetics.

Keep in mind that things need to work when stacked vertically, one element at a time, which is how they are viewed on mobile. You’ve only got a few scrolls to get your point across or visitors will abandon your site - most likely off to one of your competitors.

Struggling to keep your design in check? Check out my post on this: A Minimalist’s Guide to Branding

4. Navigation matters more than page content.

I want to emphasize that your page's content is crucial, but I often see clients fixate on minor details for a paragraph buried deep in their website while neglecting the organization of their site as a whole. The way you structure and present your information, known as information architecture, is vital to your site's success, particularly if you want to appeal to mobile users.

Of course, page content matters too - visitors shouldn't have to struggle to understand what you're offering. To be mobile-friendly, prioritize smart content and intuitive navigation. For eCommerce sites, consider using categories and subcategories to thoughtfully nest information. When it comes to main navigation, keep titles brief and limit the number of links. Or consider one of my favorite suggestions: replace your typical website navigation (Home, About, Contact) with your shop categories instead!

For more on making sure your site is as user-friendly and easily navigable as possible, check out this post: UX Lessons from a Former Sign Designer.

5. Make checkout easy.

If you’ve done all of the above and got someone to add something to their cart, don’t make it hard for them once they get there! To optimize the checkout experience, I highly recommend minimizing the amount of information required. While it may seem beneficial to gather additional details such as a customer's birthday or how they found you, these actions create friction that can lead to lost sales. The checkout process is not the ideal time to get to know your customers better. Instead, consider shifting all extraneous communications to a weekly newsletter, social media feed, or personalized post-sale follow-up email. For more information on setting up product-specific email automations, check out this helpful guide.

Bottom Line: Elevating the Mobile eCommerce Experience

To maximize your mobile sales, it's crucial to pay attention to the small details. Keep in mind that your customers may be distracted or in a hurry when browsing on their mobile devices. Therefore, your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for them to discover and purchase your products. With the increasing number of mobile shoppers, optimizing your website's size, content, and checkout process is more important than ever. For additional web design tips, check out this post: Website Tips from an eCommerce Pro!

Kristine Neil 3/2/23 Kristine Neil 3/2/23

The Best Alternative Checkout Methods

Squarespace offers a way to sell almost everything almost everywhere, but sometimes you just need another option. Whether it’s because you sell something super custom or because you’re just wanting to create a specific user experience for your customers - here are the best alternative checkout methods that can all be embedded or linked to from your current website.

Updated April 2023

Squarespace offers the ability to sell so many different types of things but sometimes you might need to look to an alternate checkout method. This could be because you’re selling something super unique that doesn’t fit well within Squarespace’s existing checkout options or because you use other business tools that integrate better with other options. Whatever the case may be, there are a number of alternate checkout methods that you can integrate into your current Squarespace website and still offer a streamlined way to get paid. Check out some of my favorite options below but be sure not to miss my final notes at the very bottom of this post with some tips on how to pull this off seamlessly!

Stripe

There’s a reason this is at the top of the list, and that’s because if you’re going to circumvent the built-in checkout system on your website, you might as well go straight to who was going to be processing the payments anyways, which in 99% of cases is Stripe. Stripe has been rolling out some awesome no-code and low-code solutions that offer some powerful ways to get paid while still keeping that sleek, minimalist design that makes my heart sing.

What I would use this for:

Pricing tables
Subscriptions
Client Portals
Payment Links
Quoting

What it costs: 2.9% + 30¢ which is the same rate as you’d be charged for accepting credit card payments through your site. (There are some additional features that come with additional fees, but most elements are included at no extra charge. See Stripe’s pricing page here.)

Try Stripe →

Flodesk Checkout

Most people know Flodesk for their great-looking email templates and easy-to-use email marketing platform, but they recently released Flodesk Checkout, which allows you to sell services, digital products, access to a course, or membership - whatever it is you sell! The process is smooth and, in true Flodesk fashion, pretty stylish too! This is an especially attractive solution because Flodesk automatically segments customers based on purchase activity, so you can seamlessly send targeted follow-up emails.

What I would use this for:

Digital goods or services
One-click upsells
Mini sales pages
Targeted email campaigns as a result of a purchase

What it costs: $35/mo as a standalone product; $59/mo to access all of the Email features in addition to Checkout. There are no other platform fees or limits, just the standard Stripe processing fee of 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.

Try Flodesk →

ConvertKit Commerce

ConvertKit is another popular email marketing platform (and the one I love most), and it has its own built-in way to get paid for things like ebooks, music, presets, or coaching. The biggest difference between Flodesk Checkout, above, and CovertKit Commerce is that you can set up subscription options. This means that in addition to all the regular digital or service products, you could also use ConvertKit to set up a subscription-only email newsletter or other services with recurring billing.

What I would use this for:

Digital goods, services, or subscriptions
Embeddable “buy now” buttons
Multiple pricing options: standard, subscription, donation, or payment plans
Targeted email campaigns as a result of a purchase

What it costs: ConvertKit has a free plan, but most people will want to be on the Creator plan, which starts at $9/mo. Commerce purchases are charged a 3.5% + 30¢ transaction fee.

Try ConvertKit →

Gumroad

Gumroad is a great option if you’re interested in spending less time tinkering around with the platform you’re selling on and more time creating whatever it is you sell! You can really get up and running in no time at all on Gumroad because it’s just so simple and well-designed. Another thing that sets Gumroad apart is that you can create a little community of people, not just customers. People can follow your page, and you can even embed a “follow” button on your website. They also recently launched the ability to offer upsells (an upgrade to whatever they intended to purchase) and cross-sells (new products that might pair well with what they’re purchasing. You can offer discounts on these and completely customize the experience for users.

What I would use this for:

One-click upsells & cross-sells
Digital services, memberships, subscriptions
Selling software or other licensed products
Selling multiple versions of products
Accepting payments in multiple currencies

What it costs: 10% flat (plus the standard i.e. 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction for Stripe).

Try Gumroad →

Buy Me a Coffee

If you’re looking for a simple alternative checkout method that allows you to accept donations, sell memberships or offer commissions, you should definitely consider Buy Me a Coffee! You can even use it as a digital tip jar (like I do here 😉) or build wishlists for your fans to buy from. I really like the public-facing landing page that Buy Me a Coffee creates for you, and there are also options to embed your BMAC link on your site or even create a QR code for people to scan and pay you. It’s overall just so easy to use for all!

What I would use this for:

Memberships, services, donations
Commissions and physical products
Embeddable widgets
One Tap Payments

What it costs: There is no fee to create a Buy Me a Coffee account, and you can use all features like email and publishing for free. There is a 5% transaction fee charged for things aside from donations, in which case you’re just charged Stripe’s transaction fee (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction), which you can opt to cover for your customers or choose to have them pay for.

Try Buy Me a Coffee →

Paperform

I’ve written before about how Paperform can be used to create a custom order form for Squarespace, but the commerce capabilities really need more of a shout out! On Paperform you can create products, set up subscriptions, book paid appointments or other services on a calendar, and collect as much or as little extra information as you need from your customers in the process. I love how customizable Paperform is and how simple it is to create a really nice-looking checkout process that you can either embed on your own site or link out to, depending on the flow you’re going for.

What I would use this for:

Services or bookings
Subscriptions
Complex or highly customizable products that require advanced calculations or conditional formatting
Any instance where you also need to collect extra info at the time of checkout

What it costs: There are no transaction fees charged by Paperform - just the standard processing fees by Stripe or Paypal. Paperform subscriptions start at $24/month but I would suggest an annual Pro subscription ($40/mo) for most.

Try Paperform →

Proceed With Caution: Drawbacks to Keep in Mind

If you decide to implement one of the options above, you’ll need to keep in mind that doing so bypasses Squarespace Commerce entirely, which means that you’ll need to take care of things like order confirmation emails and reporting on your own somehow. Most of the options listed have some of their own options for things like this, but some don’t.

Just know that any products, services, classes, subscriptions, or downloads you sell through an alternate checkout method will NOT show up on Squarespace, and you may need to take some extra steps to do things like generate shipping labels (for physical products) or make sure your customers receive adequate communication from you about their purchases.

This isn’t to say that one of the above options isn’t a perfectly good solution for your unique business needs, just a reminder to think about the whole experience from start to finish for both you and your customer!

Kristine Neil 2/9/23 Kristine Neil 2/9/23

My Favorite Squarespace eCommerce Templates for 2023

Check out 6 of my favorite new templates + exactly what I would do to each of them to make them eCommerce ready.

I’ve posted before about some great templates to check out if you’re looking to launch or update your Squarespace eCommerce website (see here and here) but I’m back with some of the latest and greatest for 2023!

Keep in mind that while not all of these are necessarily eCommerce-forward right out of the gate, there’s no reason why you can’t add a shop big or small to any of them. This is one of the things I love most about Squarespace: that you can have a beautiful content-rich website AND an eCommerce storefront all in one place. If you’re feeling skeptical about how to transform any template you may find into your online shop’s new home, be sure to read the notes on each template below on what I would do for each of these to make them more shop-able. It may be easier than you think!

Plate

GHOST - $199

What I like:

This fun template by Ghost (one of my faves!) immediately stands out because of it’s bright color but that’s not the only thing to love. I really like how the lines and shapes create well-defined sections. This template’s design allows for plenty of areas to call out content without feeling cluttered in any way.

What would make it even better for eCommerce:

This template could easily transform into something perfect for an online shop. I would use the sections at the top of the home page to call out shop categories and the section on the home page that currently features the menu a place for shop bestsellers. This template would work especially well for a brand with a mission that needs to be conveyed - think: a B Corp or woman-led business, etc.

Start Your Site With Plate →

Save 10% off any Ghost template with discount code: KRISTINENEIL

Quinn Method

GOLIVE - $299

What I like:

GoLive always does a great job at providing lots of space for content to shine so I would use this template to show off benefits and features of your online course, membership, classes or community. I love that it has a place for reviews and that pricing table is also pretty cool!

What would make it even better for eCommerce:

This template is already set up as a sales page for an online course so I think it would be perfect if you’re selling any sort of digital good or services. I think this template would also work well if you’re using Squarespace Scheduling or Podia to book classes, sell memberships, provide access to a community and more.

Start Your Site With Quinn Method →

Seen

Squarespace - FREE

What I like:

This free template from Squarespace is already set up as an eCommerce shop so it’s a great jumping off point. I love the minimal aesthetic and it would expand easily to fit almost any brand. I especially enjoy the scrolling banner on the homepage with the featured coupon code. Many sites put this at the very top so adding it a little below the fold makes it unique and eye-catching.

What would make it even better for eCommerce:

I would bulk up the home page content by adding a section about the brand plus ones that help shoppers discover helpful information such as a FAQ page or returns info. Also, instead of the section with a featured product I might make that for featured shop categories so that people can see at a glance what the shop is all about.

Start Your Site With Seen →

Boho Social

Applet Studio - $189

What I like:

This template by Applet Studio is a great mix of cheerful + minimal which is an aesthetic right up my alley! I love the strong CTA in the home page banner and that there’s a spot right away to sign up for an email list - so important for eCommerce! I could easily see this template working well for a fashion, jewelry or home good line.

What would make it even better for eCommerce:

Something to keep an eye out for whenever you’re looking for an eCommerce template is a template that already highlights a blog, as this one does. It’s easy to convert section highlighting posts into ones featuring products. A shop is really just a blog that you can take action on!

Start Your Site With Boho Social →

Tilt - Paper Template

Ghost - $149

What I like:

If you have a hard time seeing the forest through the trees, any of the Paper templates from Ghost should be on your radar. These are just like regular templates except there’s no placeholder branding to have to update; everything is in black and white making it a blank slate ready for you to customize to match your brand. Genius!

What would make it even better for eCommerce:

What I like about this template (be sure to check out the demo) is the tidy header area. I would add shop categories and just like my tip above, change any featured blog posts out to shop products instead. All those pics on the home page could be featured products or categories!

Start Your Site With Tilt - Paper →

Save 10% off any Ghost template with discount code: KRISTINENEIL

Affiliate Shop Page Add-On

GoLive - $99

What I like:

The last item on this list is another one that’s a little different but I think is so smart! This template from GoLive is designed to be an add-on to any existing website. It will automatically update to match your existing site’s branding and is perfect if you are looking to add an affiliate shop to your site so that you can show off sponsored content or even link out to your Like To Know It.

What would make it even better for eCommerce:

I wouldn’t change a thing! This add-on is already perfectly designed for adding an affiliate shop to your existing Squarespace site. I think it’s so important that this add-on allows you to keep all this content on your own site - great for a SEO boost!

Add an Affiliate Shop to Your Site →

Kristine Neil 2/1/23 Kristine Neil 2/1/23

Upcoming Privacy Laws and How You Can Protect Your Business

Those teeny little links at the bottom of every website for Privacy & Terms pages may not be super sexy but they sure are important! Learn why privacy matters so much, all about upcoming privacy laws and how you can protect your business online.

Note: This post is regularly updated to include the latest data privacy laws. (Most recently updated in Februrary 2023)

I used to pick on FAQ pages for being one of the least alluring pages on a website but I was wrong. When it comes to the ugly duckling of web pages, privacy policies and terms of service take the cake. Usually buried in teeny tiny links at the bottom of websites, only clicked on by lawyers, and almost never actually read word-for-word -- the legal pages of your website are probably the last thing on your mind every day.

So why does every website need these pages filled with what looks like gibberish and legalese? Well, #1 because it’s just good business and #2 because there are current laws - and many proposed new ones coming down the pike - that could equate to fines for violations of privacy laws starting at $2,500... per website visitor 😱 Don’t do the math on that, it will def make you sick to your stomach. And that’s just the start. In this post, we’re looking at what a privacy policy is, why it’s important that you have one that’s always kept up to date, and what I think the best solution is.

What is a Privacy Policy?

In short, a privacy policy is a document that discloses what personal information you collect on your website, what you can do with that information, and who you share it with, among other things. Your website needs a privacy policy if you use it to collect personal info such as names and email, which is pretty much every website out there. I mean, I’ve never made a website that doesn’t collect this type of information and more ever. Basically, if you even have a contact form or an email newsletter signup form on your site, you need a privacy policy.

Why is a Privacy Policy Important

Having an up-to-date privacy policy on your website can help you avoid fines and lawsuits. Remember what I said above about the only people really checking these pages out are lawyers? Well, I wasn’t exaggerating. Currently, there are a number of laws in the US and EU that require websites that collect personal information to have a privacy policy. These include:

European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA)
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
Nevada’s Revised Statutes Chapter 603A and SB220
Nevada Senate Bill 260 - signed into law June 2021

There are 6 new laws that are going into effect in 2023 that will cover even more ground:

The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)
Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA)
Colorado Privacy Act (SB190)
Utah Consumer Privacy Act
Connecticut SB6
Quebec Bill 64

These laws all are designed to protect consumers of those states and countries - which is good - but these laws are not in place to protect online businesses like yours. What this means is that these laws can apply to businesses outside of those states and countries and may apply to you if you collect the personal information of or enter into transactions with consumers from the EU, California, or Nevada. With eCommerce being a truly global endeavor, there’s no way to prevent people from anywhere accessing your site and exposing you to some level of risk.

Why You Need to Keep Your Privacy Policy Up to Date

In addition to the laws above, several US states have proposed privacy bills that, if passed, would require websites that collect personal information to have a compliant Privacy Policy. This is all well and good but things get tricky when you consider that these bills all have different requirements for the disclosures that need to be made in a Privacy Policy and would impose heavy fines for failing to include those disclosures.

In fact, some states are proposing to allow consumers to sue businesses directly for not having a compliant privacy policy. This boils down to the fact that if your website gets inquiries or does business across state lines (and let’s hope it does!) it’s not enough to just have a privacy policy; you need to have a privacy policy that complies with multiple state privacy laws. Yikes. Now, I’ve done a fair bit of research into privacy policies and website terms of service and I know for sure that I don’t have the bandwidth or legal acumen to stay on top of all of this myself.

The Best Solution I Know Of: Termageddon

Termageddon is an auto-updating privacy policy generator. This means that it will automatically update your website’s policies any time laws change, making sure you are always 100% in compliance. It works through small snippets of code that are added to your privacy and terms pages and uses information from a simple questionnaire that you only have to answer once at setup. It’s also fun to know that it is the only privacy policy tool listed as a trusted privacy technology vendor by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

A super affordable solution:

Most people aren’t looking to spend thousands for a lawyer to draft these types of documents up for them which means that most people are out there unprotected from risk. The thing I like about Termageddon is that for just $10/mo or $99/yr, you receive the following expert-prepared policies to protect your site:

Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Disclaimer
End User Licence Agreement

Why they’re awesome:

I mean beyond the tech magic that makes sure your site is always in compliance, you can set up your policies in 15 mins or less and the team at Termageddon is top-notch. You’ll basically have access to the best of the best when it comes to privacy and data protection if you ever have any questions. Their team has already helped some of my clients that have some pretty unique setups ensure they are protected now… and in face of whatever future laws may bring. Privacy matters a ton but so does protecting your business need to continue to do business online confidently.

BONUS: You can use this link or code KRISTINE for 10% off your first-year payment on your Termageddon subscription!

Kristine Neil 1/19/23 Kristine Neil 1/19/23

How to Display Your Products on Google for Free

I bet you didn’t know that one of the easiest tools you have out there to get your products seen in Google search results and across Google is not only easy to set up, but it’s also completely free to do so! Here are the steps you need to take to set up a free Google Merchant Center account and sync your Squarespace eCommerce site up to it.

I bet you didn’t know that one of the easiest tools you have out there to get your products seen in Google search results and across Google is not only easy to set up, it’s completely free to do so! Here are the exact steps you need to take to set up a free Google Merchant Center account and sync your Squarespace eCommerce site up to it.

Bonuses:

🚫 No confusing CSV files to format.
🚫 No manually adding products to Google one-by-one.
🚫 No need to update Google anytime you make a change to your shop’s inventory.
🆓 (Did I mention it’s free??)

What is Google Merchant Center & Where Do Products Display?

Google Merchant Center is the place where you’re basically telling Google what it is you sell and how you sell it. It’s where you can set up and manage free product listings that control how your products are displayed across Google’s various products, such as:

Google Search

Google Maps

YouTube

Google Shopping

Google Images

Create a Google Merchant Center Account & Connect It To Squarespace

Connecting your eCommerce site to Google Merchant Center is the way to go because it allows you to automatically sync all your products to Google versus having to add them one by one or worrying about formatting everything correctly. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to display your Squarespace products in Google Product Listings:

On your Squarespace site, go to the Commerce panel and then click on Google under Sales Channels.
At the bottom of the page click on “Sign Up With Google.” Assuming you don’t already have a Google Merchant Center account, you’ll be presented with a few prompts to help you create a new account. (Alternatively, you can also go directly to Google Merchant Center here and create your account first. The steps will be the same from here.)
Once you’ve create your Google Merchant Center Account, click Verify & Claim Website and copy the code provided for the HTML tag.
Back on Squarespace, click on the "Paste Google verification code into site header” button which will jump you to that section of Squarespace. (You can also get there by going to Settings > Advanced > Code Injection.) Paste the code provided by Google into the Header Code Injection area which is the top box on that page.
Click Save!

What happens next?

Now that you’ve connected your site and store to Google, all the physical products that you sell will be automatically synced and sent to Google Product Listings. If you’d like to check on the sync status, you can always head back to Commerce > Google right within Squarespace.

Squarespace + Google Merchant Center FAQs

- A google-based email address (note: this does NOT mean you need a gmail.com address but just a business email address that’s through Google Workspace)
- A business phone number that you can receive a phone or text on for verification purposes
If you’re having issues creating a Google Merchant Center account or connecting it to Squarespace, make sure you meet the following requirements:
- You sell physical products. Google Merchant Center doesn’t work for service-based products. (Note: you can sell both on your site, but only the physical products will sync.)
- Make sure your site language is set to English (United States). (Sorry, this is the only one it works with for now!)
- Make sure that you’ve already set up at least one shipping option in Squarespace.
LOL I understand the skepticism.
Of course, Google would love it if you also decided to pay for Google Ads after you have all your products set up BUT, yes, displaying your products and store on Google is completely free.
Think of it this way: adding your products to Google allows them to be seen in search results just like how your site shows up on Google BUT if you want to jump to the very top of that list you’ll need to pay for it.
Yes! Why wouldn’t you take every free opportunity out there to get your products on Google’s radar? You can set this all up and never mess with paid Google ads if you don’t want to. But the potential payoff here is pretty big considering the set up process is so simple!
Once you’re all connected (meaning your site is claimed & verified by pasting the Google code on your Squarespace site), you can always check on the sync status for your physical products by going to Commerce > Google.
If you want more information, you can also log in directly to Google Merchant Center.
Nope. It’s all or nothing for all the physical products you sell. However, if you log in to your Google Merchant Center account you can see some more options for managing how your products are displayed.
Once your Squarespace site is set up and connected to Google Merchant Center, any product changes you make on Squarespace are automatically synced to Google meaning you never really need to do anything else. Magic! 🔮

If you’ve got 15 minutes, you can get your Squarespace products synced to Google!