Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

When it comes to setting up an online store, the choice of the right eCommerce platform is crucial. With so many options available, two of the most popular ones are Squarespace Commerce and Shopify. In this article, we will look at the features, pros and cons of both to help businesses make an informed decision.

Introduction to Squarespace Commerce and Shopify

Squarespace Commerce is a popular website builder that offers eCommerce capabilities, while Shopify is a dedicated eCommerce platform. Squarespace Commerce is known for its user-friendliness, beautiful templates, and customer support, whereas Shopify boasts robust features, a thriving app store, great payment options, and superior marketing tools.

One of the key differences between Squarespace Commerce and Shopify is the level of customization they offer. Squarespace Commerce provides a limited range of customization options, while Shopify allows for more advanced customization, making it a better choice for businesses with unique needs. Additionally, Shopify offers a wider range of integrations with third-party apps and services, making it easier to connect with other tools you may be using for your business.

Another important factor to consider when choosing between Squarespace Commerce and Shopify is pricing. Squarespace Commerce offers a more affordable pricing structure, with plans starting at $18 per month, while Shopify’s plans start at $29 per month. However, Shopify’s higher price point comes with more advanced features and tools, making it a better choice for businesses that require more robust eCommerce capabilities.

Pros and Cons of Squarespace Commerce

Squarespace Commerce is renowned for its elegant templates, making it an excellent option for businesses with a focus on aesthetics. It also has an intuitive interface that is easy to use, especially for beginners. Furthermore, it provides excellent customer support in the form of chat, email, and video tutorials.

On the downside, Squarespace Commerce’s eCommerce tools are limited compared to Shopify. For instance, there are no free apps that offer advanced features such as recurring payments, memberships, shipping calculations, and multi-currency support. Nevertheless, Squarespace Commerce remains an excellent choice for businesses with basic eCommerce requirements.

Another advantage of Squarespace Commerce is its built-in SEO features. It allows you to optimize your website for search engines, which can help increase your website’s visibility and attract more traffic. Additionally, Squarespace Commerce offers a mobile-responsive design, which means your website will look great on any device, including smartphones and tablets. However, if you need more customization options, Squarespace Commerce may not be the best choice for you as it has limited flexibility compared to other eCommerce platforms.

Pros and Cons of Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that offers businesses a wide range of features, integrations, and apps that they can use to grow their online stores. One of its most significant advantages is its robust payment gateway, which allows businesses to accept payments from over 100 different processors. Additionally, it has several third-party integrations available, making it an ideal choice for businesses looking to build complex eCommerce solutions.

However, one of Shopify’s main drawbacks is its pricing, which can be quite high, especially for businesses just starting. Additionally, some users find its interface and dashboard a little overwhelming and difficult to navigate.

Another advantage of Shopify is its mobile responsiveness. With more and more people shopping on their mobile devices, having a website that is optimized for mobile is crucial. Shopify’s themes are designed to be mobile-friendly, ensuring that your customers can easily browse and purchase products from your store on their phones or tablets.

On the other hand, one potential disadvantage of Shopify is its limited customization options. While there are many themes and apps available, some businesses may find that they are unable to achieve the exact look and functionality they want without hiring a developer or using custom code. This can add additional costs and complexity to the process of building and maintaining an online store.

Pricing Comparison: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

One of the most significant factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform is pricing. Squarespace Commerce has a flat-rate pricing model and offers four levels of monthly subscription plans ranging between $18 and $40. On the other hand, Shopify offers three levels of monthly subscription plans ranging between $29 and $299 per month.

In addition to these plans, Shopify also charges transaction fees when using third-party payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe. Squarespace Commerce, on the other hand, does not charge transaction fees.

It’s important to note that while Squarespace Commerce does not charge transaction fees, they do have a processing fee of 3% for transactions made through their platform. Shopify, on the other hand, offers lower processing fees ranging from 2.4% to 2.9% depending on the subscription plan chosen. It’s important to consider both the subscription plan pricing and transaction/processing fees when deciding which eCommerce platform is the best fit for your business.

Design Features: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

Both Squarespace Commerce and Shopify offer great design features. Squarespace Commerce provides over 100 stunning templates, while Shopify offers over 70 templates that users can choose from. Both platforms allow users to customize their sites by changing fonts, colors, and logos. Additionally, Squarespace Commerce offers better layout control and more advanced design options, while Shopify is more flexible and provides further customization options for themes.

When it comes to mobile responsiveness, Squarespace Commerce has an edge over Shopify. Squarespace Commerce templates are designed to be mobile-friendly, ensuring that your website looks great on any device. On the other hand, Shopify’s templates are not always optimized for mobile devices, which can result in a poor user experience for mobile users.

Another important design feature to consider is the ease of use. Squarespace Commerce has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for users to create and customize their websites. Shopify, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve and may require some technical knowledge to fully utilize its design features. However, once you get the hang of it, Shopify can offer more advanced customization options than Squarespace Commerce.

eCommerce Functionality: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

When it comes to eCommerce functionality, Shopify outperforms Squarespace Commerce. Shopify offers full eCommerce functionality, including support for over 100 payment gateways, order and inventory management, abandoned cart recovery, automatic tax calculation, and more.

While Squarespace Commerce offers essential eCommerce features such as product management, inventory tracking, and order fulfilment, it is limited in comparison to Shopify. There are also no full-fledged eCommerce apps on the Squarespace Commerce platform that offer advanced features such as subscriptions or payment plans.

However, Squarespace Commerce does have some advantages over Shopify. For example, Squarespace Commerce offers a more streamlined and user-friendly website builder, making it easier for small businesses to create and manage their online stores. Additionally, Squarespace Commerce offers a wider range of design templates and customization options, allowing businesses to create a unique and visually appealing online store.

Payment Processing Options: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

Both platforms allow users to accept payments from an array of payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and Square. However, Shopify has an advantage in this area. They offer their own payment gateway, Shopify Payments, which enables merchants to process payments through Shopify’s native system. Shopify Payments charges only transaction fees, unlike other third-party payment gateways which usually have a transaction fee and a percentage of the sale price.

On the other hand, Squarespace Commerce offers a more streamlined checkout process. Their checkout page is customizable and allows customers to complete their purchase without leaving the website. This can lead to a higher conversion rate as customers are less likely to abandon their cart due to a complicated checkout process.

Another advantage of Squarespace Commerce is their built-in tax and shipping calculators. This feature can save merchants time and effort as they don’t have to manually calculate taxes and shipping costs for each order. Shopify also offers this feature, but it requires an additional app or plugin to be installed.

Shipping Options: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

Both platforms offer a similar set of shipping options, including integration with major carriers and creating custom shipping rules for customers. However, Squarespace Commerce offers more flexibility in setting up shipping and tax calculations. Shopify also offers rates calculated by carrier but at an additional cost.

Marketing Tools: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

Both platforms offer a range of marketing tools to help businesses promote their products and boost sales. Squarespace Commerce offers basic marketing tools such as email campaigns, social media integration, and SEO optimization. Shopify, on the other hand, provides more advanced marketing tools such as abandoned checkout recovery tools, retargeting campaigns, and referral programs.

Customer Support: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

Both platforms offer excellent customer support. Squarespace Commerce provides the option to contact support via chat, email, or video tutorial, while Shopify offers 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and live chat. Shopify also provides extensive documentation and a community forum for users to get help from other users.

User Reviews: Squarespace Commerce vs Shopify

According to user reviews, both Squarespace Commerce and Shopify offer excellent features and functionalities. However, Shopify receives more positive reviews for its extensive eCommerce features and integrations, while Squarespace Commerce receives more positive reviews for its user-friendly interface and design templates.

Which platform is best for your business?

Choosing the right eCommerce platform for your business depends on your needs and priorities. Squarespace Commerce is an excellent choice for businesses looking for a user-friendly interface and aesthetically pleasing templates. Shopify, on the other hand, is a better choice for businesses in need of extensive eCommerce features, integrations, and apps.

Case studies of successful businesses using either platform

Several successful online stores use either Squarespace Commerce or Shopify. For instance, Bully Boy Distillers switched to Squarespace Commerce and saw a 90% increase in website traffic within the first six months. Another example is MVMT watches, which has had tremendous success using Shopify; they have reported over $60 million in sales since their launch in 2013.

Comparison with other eCommerce platforms

In comparison to other eCommerce platforms, both Squarespace Commerce and Shopify are excellent choices. Wix and WooCommerce are other popular eCommerce platforms that businesses may want to consider. Like Squarespace Commerce, Wix offers an all-in-one website builder with limited eCommerce functionality. WooCommerce, on the other hand, is a fully-fledged eCommerce platform built on top of WordPress. It is generally less user-friendly than Shopify but offers more flexibility and advanced features.

Future developments and trends for both platforms

Shopify has been steadily improving its platform year over year, releasing more functionalities and integrations to support businesses. Squarespace Commerce, too, has not lagged; they recently launched the ability to customize checkout pages and ‘buy online pick up in-store’ options. In the future, Shopify plans to focus on multi-channel retail, while Squarespace Commerce is likely to focus on improving its eCommerce features and templates.

Conclusion – Which is the better option for eCommerce?

Both Squarespace Commerce and Shopify are great eCommerce platforms with excellent features. However, it ultimately comes down to the specific needs of each business. For businesses focused on aesthetics and user-friendliness, Squarespace Commerce is an excellent choice. For businesses requiring advanced eCommerce features, integrations, and flexibility, Shopify is the better option.