There are hundreds of different website building platforms available today, but two of the biggest players are Shopify and Squarespace. Both have an abundance of different capabilities and features, but what exactly sets them apart?
Traditionally speaking, Shopify is a website building platform that is intended for online stores and Squarespace is a website making platform geared towards content creation. However, both platforms have added more features throughout the years.
E-Commerce
Today, both Squarespace and Shopify have the ability to provide e-commerce services to their users, but Shopify has more robust e-commerce capabilities than Squarespace.
Payment Options:
One of the defining differences between the two platforms’ e-commerce capabilities is the payment options each provide. Squarespace only has the ability to accept three payment options: PayPal, Square and Stripe. Shopify, on the other hand, has the ability to accept more than 100 different payment options. As a result, Shopify stores tend to have higher conversion rates than Squarespace.
Multi-Currency Capabilities:
Squarespace has virtually no abilities to provide multi-currency selling, while Shopify users can choose from several different currencies. Shopify store owners can provide multi-currency compatibilities automatically by designating Shopify Payments as the payment processor or they can download an app that would give them the freedom to choose any payment processor they’d like.
Point of Sale (POS):
For business owners looking to grow their business with a brick and mortar store, both Squarespace and Shopify offer point of sale (POS) functionalities. Shopify has provided this functionality for a number of years now, while Squarespace has only recently jumped on the POS train. Shopify has its very own POS system that comes with every Shopify subscription. This system can easily sync with users’ online stores making it super simple to track sales, inventory and product availability. Shopify business owners can either purchase Shopify specific POS hardware or hardware from a third party provider. If you want a POS system with Squarespace though, you have to purchase additional software and hardware from Square, as that is the only POS system that is compatible.
Marketing and SEO
While both Shopify and Squarespace have beneficial marketing and SEO features, the differences in what they provide can be apparent.
Email Marketing:
Both Shopify and Squarespace give their users the ability to integrate third party email marketing tools, but the integrations are typically far more easy with Shopify. Shopify has an app store that provides a number of different third party integrations. With Squarespace, one must take a more roundabout way to integrate by doing it through code or Zapier.
Social Media Marketing:
With social commerce becoming more necessary for growing businesses, many store owners have begun connecting their social media to increase sales. Shopify gives users the ability to connect up to 10 different social media platforms. Those include Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Squarespace is currently only compatible with Instagram. As a result, the reach that Squarespace has is much more limited than Shopify.
SEO:
According to Chris Singleton from The Style Factory, both Shopify and Squarespace have advanced SEO capabilities, giving users the ability to alter and improve the below elements.
- URL’s
- Titles
- Meta Descriptions
- 301 Redirects
- Alt Text
With regards to ease of use though, Shopify is more user friendly. There are a number of SEO features that can only be altered manually with Squarespace. For users that are newbies to owning an online store, this can make it more difficult to make a store visible to potential customers.
Analytics
When running a business, it can be difficult to keep track of all the moving parts. As a result, it is imperative to choose a platform that has several analytic capabilities.
Shopify has far more extensive analytics than Squarespace. While both are compatible with Google Analytics and have the ability to track orders and revenue, Shopify can provide several different easy to digest reports. According to Joe Warnimont of E-Commerce Platforms below are some examples of reports that are accessible to Shopify users.
- Sales reports
- Financial Reports
- Customer Reports
- Behavior Reports
- Acquisition Tracking
With Shopify and Squarespace being the big players when it comes to website building platforms, it can be difficult to choose the best one. At the end of the day, it comes down to preference and the robustness of the platform capabilities.
If you’re interested in building a Shopify store for your business, please feel free to contact us at support@hazil.studio.
Cheers!
The Hazil Studios Team
References
Shopify vs Squarespace (Feb 2022): Ecommerce Platform Comparison
Shopify vs Squarespace: Who is Your Online Store Super Hero?