Shopify or Squarespace: Which website platform should you choose?
Choosing a website platform can be a tough decision and one that could be very costly for your business, if you make the wrong choice.
I build websites on both Shopify and Squarespace and I love them both, for very different reasons. Like people, they have their strengths and their weaknesses so knowing those will help you decide which is best for you and your business. Don’t confuse this with a Shopify vs Squarespace thing. It’s not. I believe there is a time to use Squarespace and a time to use Shopify and I wanted to write this article to help you decide which is best for you.
When you should choose Shopify?
You have a lot of products.
Shopify has a killer product and collection (think categories) component to it. You can add multiple products with multiple variations quickly and easily. So if you have a large category of products, this function is priceless for you. If you are a clothing store for example, you can upload hundreds of products all with different colours, sizes and materials. Better still, you can edit them just as easily and keep track of your inventory in real time. Who does this in the real world, brands like Jigsaw, Skims (Kim K’s shapewear brand) and Victoria Beckham.
You want to offer your customers a wide range of Payment Gateways.
What is a payment gateway you ask. It’s an online payment processor. You need payment gateways to process secure debit and credit card payments worldwide. The gateway ensures that payment data is transmitted securely. Shopify has lots of them, including (but not limited to); Shopify Payments, PayPal, Stripe, Klarna, Worldpay, Amazon Pay and Square. To find more information specific to your region, take a look on Shopify. More options for your customers means the opportunity to open up new markets and make more sales. Who doesn’t want that right!
You want additional Features without having to code them in.
A lot of the functionality on a Shopify store comes from using Apps. Apps enable you to add different features and functionality that help you to make your customer experience a good one. Shopify has a feature rich App store. Good news for you if you want to be able to further track marketing campaigns, have people sign up to subscriptions or offer additional lines of communication like WhatsApp. If you can think of it, chances are there’ll be an App for it. Generally speaking, Squarespace doesn’t have the same range of Apps (they are around but it’s not an integral part of their platform) so any additional functionality you want to integrate into your website, will may need to have it coded in. This can start to get very expensive.
You want to sell through other Sales Channels.
Shopify integrates seamlessly with other sales channels like Facebook, Amazon and Instagram. I think we all know how important these platforms are today. When you connect a sales channel to your Shopify store, you can keep track of products, orders, and your customers in one place.
To make things really simple, I believe Shopify is the best platform to choose if you have an e-Commerce store with over 25 products. It’s entirely scalable and the support from Shopify is very good. For a full list of Shopify features, check out the Shopify website. Or, if you still need a bit of help to decide which platform is best for you, get in touch with me for a chat.
When you should choose Squarespace.
You’re a Service-Based Business.
If e-Commerce is not your bread and butter and you don’t require the functionality of a huge product catalogue, then Squarespace might be the best option for you. Shopify is an e-Commerce platform, it was built for that reason. Squarespace was initially developed for photographers. So if you’re a creative or you provide a service, Squarespace is a great platform to get your information out there. It also has an integrated Scheduling function to manage appointments or book classes. To find out more about their features, take a look at this Squarespace overview.
Your focus is on aesthetic.
I’ll say it again, Squarespace was initially developed for photographers. It was designed to showcase beautiful images and portfolios. All the templates available (around 140 of them) are very elegant and have a professional contemporary look and feel to them. You can start with a template and DIY your website, or you can work with a designer/developer who uses code to create a completely unique website. So, who uses Squarespace in the real world?
Pixar
Zendaya
Sophia Bush (Work in Progress Podcast)
User-Friendly & Easy to Maintain.
If you’re using a designer to build your website, you might be concerned that you’ll have to keep paying them to maintain or update the site once it’s built. While I believe this is true for some platforms (yes Wordpress I’m talking about you) it’s not true for Squarespace. The back-end of Squarespace is very user-friendly. A good designer will provide you with some training on how your website works and after a little bit of time getting familiar with it, you’ll be able to edit it yourself. No paying for website management services or ongoing edits.
All-In-One Platform.
This is a big plus for me. Squarespace offers unlimited hosting, fast content delivery, SSL certificates, built-in security, and 24/7 support (although support is US based and therefore US work hours). You can even register your domain with Squarespace. This saves time and money. Of course, if you already have a domain name through a third party, you can always transfer this to Squarespace or connect it to continue using your third party host.
There are, of course, other platforms to have your website built on. Platforms like Wordpress, BigCommerce, Wix and ShowIt but if we work together, we’ll either be using Shopify or Squarespace. That’s my personal preference as I genuinely believe they are the best in the business! Get in touch with me if you need further help deciding on which website platform will work for your business.
