Introducing SquareSpace
Episode #6 of the course Guide to choosing an eCommerce platform by Adam Bastock
SquareSpace is well-known within the podcasting community for their famous tagline “Build It Beautiful.”
While not fully sold as an eCommerce platform, SquareSpace has some excellent functionality while remaining easy to use and manage. Aimed at artists and small businesses, the interface is easy to navigate and use, with support on-hand if you get into any trouble.
Ease of Setup and Use
It is quite feasible that you could set up your SquareSpace site in an afternoon. It does have limitations on the site layout and design, with all sites on the platform restricted to templates provided by SquareSpace itself.
Thankfully, what they offer is of high quality, with a broad choice of styles to make each one unique. Due to the restrictions on what you can and can’t do to the templates, styling is mostly down to colors, fonts, and page layouts—important stylistic changes that make it quick to set up.
Updating content is made simple with their visual builders, as is adding products.
eCommerce functionality is offered with all packages; however, their Advanced package includes all the bells and whistles, such as abandoned cart functionality, account integration, label printing, and other handy tools for small businesses.
Associated Costs
There are several tiers of pricing charged on a monthly basis. Discounts and transaction fees apply based on the length of subscription you choose and which tier you’re in.
For the quality of the site you end up with and the time you save, their pricing is well placed. All sites are available with a free 30-day trial, and agencies with SquareSpace Circle access have six-month free trials, providing healthy development time before a launch.
Third-Party Integrations
While certainly not as broad or open as WordPress, SquareSpace does offer out-of-the-box integrations with a wide range of market leading platforms such as Xero, Stripe, MailChimp, Google AdWords, etc. Third-party app integration is also available; however, they are not officially supported.
Use Applications
One of the strongest use cases for SquareSpace is to create a “minimum viable product.” A professional-looking website can be quickly and easily set up at low cost.
If you are selling in small quantities and are running a small business with few employees, then the value in time saved is really SquareSpace’s biggest feature. It’s certainly a capable platform for eCommerce; however, if you want to start testing and changing beyond the basics, it will become limited.
Conclusion
SquareSpace is a well-respected platform for easily building attractive, functionally pleasing websites. If you’re an artist, local store, or don’t need anything too complex, SquareSpace is a great solution, but it’s important to be aware of its limitations.
Recommended book
“Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms” by David S. Evans and Richard Schmalensee
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