Shopify & Squarespace - Our Complete Platform Guide.
When it comes to consumer spending more than 2 billion people regularly turn to online shopping, so it makes more sense than ever to launch a e-commerce store, however its no longer as easy as building a website and expecting your ideal clients to find you. It is more important than ever to have a stronger focus on easy to use navigation, strong SEO practices, and top notch design. Many platforms offer e-commerce options, with most of them integrated into your website for a one-stop service, However the two main offerings dominating the market are Shopify and Squarespace.
While both platforms have benefits when starting your e-commerce journey we wanted to explore the pros and cons of both and why we feel Shopify stands out when growing your business.
SQUARESPACE VS SHOPIFY : AT A GLANCE
Squarespace
Squarespace is a website-building platform that enables individuals and businesses to create and manage websites without extensive technical expertise. The platform provides an all-in-one solution, offering tools for website design, domain registration, hosting, and content management. Squarespace is known for its user-friendly interface and visually appealing templates, making it accessible to people with varying levels of technical proficiency.
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows individuals and businesses to create and manage online stores. It provides a comprehensive set of tools to facilitate the entire process of setting up and running an e-commerce business, from designing the website to processing orders and managing inventory.
Inventory Management + Sales
Both platforms provide robust sales tools, catering to different user preferences. Shopify stands out for its extensive functionality in sales and marketing tools, while Squarespace emphasizes creating visually stunning ads and marketing materials.
Shopify offers a significant advantage by enabling users to sell on diverse marketplaces and sales channels like Facebook, Google, Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram seamlessly, without the need for additional integrations. This multi-channel approach naturally boosts sales and brand awareness. Shopify's app marketplace further enhances functionality with a plethora of hyper-specific sales and marketing tools, including pop-up ads, spin-to-win widgets, reviews, loyalty programs, and a variety of fulfillment and inventory management options.
On the functional side, Squarespace's sales tools are more limited. While it integrates with Amazon for tracking purposes, direct selling on Amazon from your Squarespace store is not supported. Squarespace facilitates business positioning across various platforms and allows product imports from Etsy. However, it lacks the native functionality that Shopify provides for reaching diverse sales channels.
The integration on Shopify with Facebook and Instagram facilitates selling and advertising through stories, posts, and shops. However, as of the current writing, these are the only social sales integrations available. Fulfillment integrations include FedEx, UPS, and USPS. On the ads side, Shopify integrates with Mailchimp and Google Ads (with AdSense via custom coding), and its Meta Pixel integration aids in more targeted advertising by tracking visitor activity.
In summary, while both platforms offer strong sales tools, Shopify excels in functionality and multi-channel sales capabilities, while Squarespace focuses on creating visually appealing marketing materials. The choice depends on the user's priority, whether it be advanced sales features or aesthetically pleasing marketing collateral.
SEO
While both platforms cover the fundamentals of SEO, some distinctions emerge. Shopify, known for its scalability, offers a broader range of third-party apps that can extend SEO capabilities.
In the ever-evolving world of online business, a strong digital presence is paramount. Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in ensuring your website is discoverable by potential customers. We believe that the additional features offered by Shopify over the Squarespace built in default settings are much more powerful and scalable for long term growth in the e-commerce space.
Shopify Overall
If you're looking to expand your eCommerce store, Shopify stands out with a robust set of tools designed for scalability. While both Shopify and Squarespace provide essential tools for running an online store, Shopify excels in areas that reflect its foundation built by experts in eCommerce.
Sales:
From the Shopify dashboard, seamless integration with various sales channels is possible. This includes direct connections to Facebook Marketplace, Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads, and even major platforms like Amazon and Walmart.
Payments:
Shopify supports a wide array of payment gateways, encompassing popular options such as Apple Pay and PayPal, pay-later platforms like Affirm and Klarna, and international and crypto-based payment systems. In contrast, Squarespace is limited to PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Apple Pay.
Shipping:
Shopify's direct integrations with USPS, UPS, DHL, and dropshipping services empower sellers to calculate carrier rates, generate labels, and leverage significant shipping discounts—all within the Shopify platform. While Squarespace's basic packages cater to lower-volume sellers, they may not offer the same scalability in shipping functionality.
In-person Selling:
Shopify boasts its own point-of-sale system with transaction rates that undercut Squarespace. Squarespace, on the other hand, relies on Square for point-of-sale capabilities, potentially resulting in higher transaction costs.
In essence, if you're aiming to elevate your eCommerce business to new heights, Shopify's comprehensive tools for sales, payments, shipping, and in-person selling make it a standout choice for scalability and efficiency.
