Key Takeaways:
Understand some of the benefits of migrating from Squarespace to Shopify.
Review some important things to consider before making the switch.
When you decide to launch your first eCommerce site, many factors play a role in your decision; price, ease of use, and outside influencers. You’re choosing a platform that will get you up and running quickly and easily—and for many start-up retail shops, this is the reason they choose Squarespace. Now you’re growing your online retail store and you’re feeling the limits of the Squarespace platform. This is the time for many businesses to begin looking at more robust and popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify.
Here at Technology Therapy® Group, we like to view these two platforms through the lens of a cooking analogy. Squarespace is like a basic kitchen setup where you have the essentials you need to prepare and cook simple meals. Squarespace is great when you’re learning your way around your first kitchen. This platform does a great job of helping you learn the basics. Shopify, on the other hand, (out of the gate) offers more developed features. It is like getting a kitchen upgrade with all new equipment and features. It’s the more advanced platform, better-equipped gourmet kitchen where you can create complex, diverse dishes and handle higher cooking (sales) volumes.
Join us as we explore the benefits of migrating from Squarespace to Shopify.* We’ll also guide you through the steps involved in the process to help you determine if a Shopify conversion is right for your business’s current phase.
Understanding the Shift: Why You Should Migrate
Many start-up eCommerce businesses begin their online journey with Squarespace due to its user-friendly interface and straightforward design options. However, as these businesses grow, they often encounter limitations with Squarespace that can hinder growth and often cause friction for their online customers. Common challenges include enhanced product detail page design, varied templates for collections, and customizable cart pages.
This is where Shopify shines. Endorsed by significant partners like QuickBooks, Shopify has established a reputation for its extensive ecosystem and enhanced functionality, offering a robust platform designed for growth. The platform is well-suited for eCommerce brands of all sorts. It’s currently ranked as the #1 most popular eCommerce app in the US, with 28% of online businesses using it as their store’s platform, per research from BuildWith. According to recent data from Statista, merchants in the fashion industry were the top users of Shopify, followed by those in the home and garden industry.
“Shopify is currently the #1 eCommerce platform for online stores in the U.S.”
– BuiltWith
More Reasons Why Shopify Surpasses Squarespace
Shopify outshines Squarespace in terms of eCommerce functionality and scalability. It provides robust tools, new AI functionality, and extensive integration options tailored to online stores, including advanced inventory management and a wide array of payment gateways. Shopify’s customization capabilities through its vast app marketplace make it adaptable for diverse eCommerce needs, from drop shipping to managing large inventories.
While Squarespace offers aesthetically pleasing designs and basic eCommerce features suitable for smaller sites, it falls short in supporting more complex online business operations. Shopify offers dedicated 24/7 support, which is essential for businesses dependent on their online presence, so you can have peace of mind knowing any platform issues will be resolved promptly.
Moreover, Shopify’s capability to connect with various sales channels such as online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon, as well as social media platforms including Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok, enhances market reach and simplifies management across these different platforms. This extensive integration highlights Shopify’s advantage for businesses seeking dynamic growth and expansion.
Preparing to Migrate
When planning to migrate from Squarespace to Shopify, it’s important to approach the process strategically for a smooth transition. At TTG, we advise against outsourcing the migration to companies that may charge excessive fees to transfer your products, orders, and history. Instead, partnering with a platform migration service that offers a comprehensive package—including a website makeover and data migration—is more beneficial and cost-effective.
The migration process begins with exporting your product data from Squarespace, which is straightforward and user-friendly. However, you will need to manually handle other elements, such as images, unless you use a paid third-party migration application. This stage is an excellent opportunity to convert your images to the more efficient WebP format for faster page loading; enhancing your website’s performance and SEO (currently, Squarespace supports only JPG, GIF, and PNG formats). While you’re at it, take some time to revisit and refine your website content to better convey your brand’s story on your new Shopify platform.
Getting Set Up on Shopify
Setting up your business on Shopify involves more than just transferring data. The platform offers a variety of themes that can be customized to match your brand’s aesthetic and functional needs. Selecting the right theme is crucial as it forms the backbone of your site’s user experience. Note free themes and paid themes do not provide all the same features. You will want to take your time in deciding what theme is right for your business. This is a great time to schedule a meeting with one of our mentors to talk through your business.
When migrating any website, you want to maintain as much of your URL structure as possible during the migration since this is vital for SEO and user navigation. Use tools like Google Search Console to export your current indexed pages and URL structure, then leverage this to create a redirection URL list. Shopify provides a place for you to upload this file. This will help your site keep its SEO credibility and support users in finding what they need without running into dead links.
Enhancing Your New Shopify Store
One of the significant advantages of moving to Shopify is its seamless integration with various marketing and sales platforms. For example, Shopify’s integration with the Google Merchant Center and social platforms like Facebook and Instagram can significantly enhance your marketing capabilities and online presence. Connecting your Shopify store with third-party platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, and others can broaden your market reach. That way, you can offer more channels through which customers can discover and interact with your products. You will need to spend time updating your data to the required fields, but Shopify makes this easy by providing these fields on each product, and they are labeled to map to Google Merchant Center.
“As of Q3 of 2024, there were over 525,000 apparel online stores on Shopify and approximately 2026,000 home and garden online stores.”
– PageFly
Technical Considerations
It’s important to note that while Shopify offers great flexibility, certain lower-tier plans do not allow for changing URL slugs. This limitation can impact your site structure and should be considered when planning your migration. You also want to update your Google Analytics and set up new tracking measures on Shopify. These actions will help you monitor your site’s performance and gather valuable data on user behavior and conversion rates on your new platform.
Preparing For Change
Shopify is not Squarespace, and one of the comments we hear after clients migrate is, “I liked how Squarespace did [insert some feature].” You should know what you’re getting into before you switch and recognize that changing from one platform to another will require learning how the new platform works. Just like upgrading a kitchen, newer or more advanced appliances will require you to spend time reading the manual—and switching from Squarespace to Shopify will require the same commitment. However, to grow, remember that what gets you to the first milestone won’t get you to the second; and in business, you’ll need to adapt to grow.
Before and After:
Real Life Squarespace to Shopify Makeovers
Here are some visuals of actual Technology Therapy® Group clients’ eCommerce sites to give you an idea of what your Squarespace website could look like after converting to Shopify:
Holly Wach Art:
OccipitalNYC:
Make Your Migration Easier with Technology Therapy® Group
When you partner with us, you’ll experience a smooth web platform migration that minimizes stress and ensures that no important data gets lost in the process. As Shopify Partners since 2014, our team will be able to help prepare you and train you on how to use your Shopify store.
Did you know when you work with a Shopify Partner, you won’t be charged any Shopify fees until your store is ready to launch? Contact us today and let’s discuss your seamless transition from Squarespace to Shopify.
*DISCLAIMER: Links included in this article might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that we provide, TTG may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you!
