How Web Designers Can Tap Into the Ecommerce Opportunity on Squarespace
The Squarespace Circle: State of the Web Design Industry 2025 report revealed a key insight for web designers—ecommerce site setup is a growing area of opportunity. According to the report, 38% of Circle members offer ecommerce services, reporting an average gross revenue of $12,376. This represents notable growth, with ecommerce services increasing from 32% to 38% from 2024 to 2025.
As the Squarespace platform continues to expand its capabilities, it provides even more tools to create dynamic, conversion-ready online stores. Whether your clients are just starting out or preparing to scale, Squarespace equips you with everything needed to build impactful ecommerce sites.
Read on to explore the essential components of Squarespace ecommerce and discover tips to create enticing online stores that help your clients succeed.
Many ways to sell
By crafting exceptional websites with stunning, on-brand visuals, you help clients attract more new and returning customers than ever before. But getting them through the digital door is just the first step—clients also need to convert visitors into buyers.
Here’s a look at where you can support clients during their ecommerce journey.
Physical products
Enable clients to showcase and sell a full range of merchandise, apparel, and other physical goods. For clients selling physical products, set up at least one shipping option in their Squarespace storefront. This makes it possible to include tracking numbers in email notifications, so customers can stay on top of their orders. Learn more about selling products online.
Services
Clients can sell services such as classes, consultations, events, and more—no physical tickets required. Squarespace also enables you to build sites for schools, camps, and daycares, with functionality to collect tuition directly through the platform. Capture customer or student information with customizable checkout forms while streamlining the process of promoting and selling the services. Learn more about selling services online.
Subscription products
Squarespace subscription products empower merchants to sell products on a recurring basis. Whether it’s a coffee of the month club or a weekly consultation, your clients sell subscriptions to earn reliable revenue and build customer loyalty. In just a few clicks, you can give your clients a new way to sell without the hassle of third-party software. Plus, with Squarespace’s powerful marketing and analytics tools, your clients will have everything they need to scale and grow their businesses. Learn more about selling subscriptions on Squarespace.
Digital products
Help clients sell digital products like ebooks, audio files, on-demand courses, and more. Once a customer purchases a digital product, Squarespace automatically sends them a secure download link after purchase. The link remains active for 24 hours, ensuring a seamless and efficient delivery of digital goods. Learn more about selling digital products.
Fundraising
Leverage donation blocks so clients can accept contributions for their cause or nonprofit organization. Or, create a personalized cash gift registry for wedding websites or similar events. With the option to enable recurring donations, clients can offer their supporters the convenience of setting up regular, automated contributions to a cause they care about. Learn more about accepting donations on Squarespace sites.
Gift cards
Help your clients boost sales and attract more customers by enabling them to sell digital gift cards directly through their Squarespace site. Each gift card is automatically generated with a unique code, which can be emailed to recipients or even purchased as a treat for the buyer themselves. By adding this flexible option, you give your clients a powerful tool to increase revenue and build customer loyalty. Learn more about selling gift cards online.
Powerful product marketing
Now that you have a better idea about what's possible to sell on Squarespace, explore the built-in marketing tools that help your clients attract new audiences, drive conversions, and build lasting success.
Attract
SEO
Built-in SEO tools help customers find your client’s store. Customize store pages, optimize product descriptions, and add keywords, a physical business location, and a search engine description to get started. Then, follow this SEO checklist to optimize the site’s discoverability.
Social media
Your client can reach a wider audience by connecting their social media accounts to their online store. From there, they can share content and products with their networks, connect with customers, and create an online community that’s an extension of their online presence.
With integrations like Meta Pixel and Instagram Shopping, your clients can seamlessly sync products to their profiles, empowering them to sell and advertise directly through posts, stories, and shops. This strategy can significantly expand reach and drive engagement.
Convert
Set up a sale
Squarespace online stores empower your clients to plan and execute discounts and sales. Merchants can offer percent discounts, flat dollar amounts, or free shipping to entice new and repeat customers to make a purchase. Set discounts to automatically apply or require that customers enter a code at checkout. Once your client has a new product or sale, they can advertise through social media or promotional site pop-ups.
Announcement bars
Display messages at the top of your client’s site with an announcement bar. This is a great space to promote a new product, highlight a sale, or feature press mentions.
Promotional pop-ups
Like announcement bars, promotional pop-ups are a great place to share important messages with visitors. You can help your client customize its appearance, when it appears, which pages it appears on, and the call to action. For example, a pop-up can announce a sale, ask visitors to sign up for a newsletter, or lead to a specific product or service page.
Email marketing
With Squarespace Email Campaigns, you can help your client create and send branded announcement and promotional emails that strategically repurpose their existing website content. Integrated with their site, Email Campaigns empower clients to use email addresses collected from newsletter blocks at checkout to send targeted communications, encourage repeat business, and maintain loyal customer relationships. Learn more about setting up Email Campaigns.
A seamless path to purchase
Checkouts are secure and integrated into a Squarespace site’s domain. At checkout, your client’s customers will see a URL with the primary domain (e.g., “https://yourdomain.com/checkout”) in their browser address bar, informing them the transaction is secure and verified.
Express checkout
Express checkout takes customers directly to the checkout process after clicking a product instead of adding the item to their cart. This built-in feature can help reduce cart abandonment rates and expedite conversions, especially when a client only sells one type of product or service.
Customized store policies
Squarespace’s ecommerce tools support whatever policies your client needs to do business by the book. They can fully customize their return policy, terms of service, and privacy policies, which will then become clickable links on the checkout page. Learn more about customizing the checkout experience.
Product and checkout blocks
Create custom product blocks for customers to complete when they purchase specific products. These are great for collecting personalized information for an item like custom engravings, particular order information, or special instructions for a product.
If your client needs extra information to complete an order, such as delivery instructions, gift messages, or service agreements, you can create a custom checkout form to help them collect what they need from clients.
Order fulfillment
Your client can fulfill orders through the site, updating customers on order progress in the process. They can also view order activity, add notes, and print the order for their records.
Pro tip: Walk clients through a test order to help them better understand the customer product purchasing experience so you and your client can improve it.
Shipping
Establish shipping options that will automatically apply to physical products at checkout.
These include:
You can even set up shipping zones to specify which shipping options are available in specific areas. For example, a client who runs a bakery might offer same-day shipping for local orders and overnight options for customers who are farther away.
Refunds and cancellations
Help your clients set up cancellations and full or partial refunds based on their store policies. Full refunds include the cost of the product plus taxes, shipping, and transaction fees. If your client wants to issue a refund that excludes any of those line items, they can specify a partial refund amount.
Measured success
Commerce analytics give an in-depth perspective at the impact of your client’s website. Here are the need-to-know numbers you and your client should use to make informed decisions about the site’s design, user experience (UX), and ability to convert:
Abandoned cart analytics
The Abandoned cart panel gives insight into products or services that shoppers have in their carts but never purchased. Your client can use this information to re-engage those customers with abandoned checkout recovery emails. Additional analytics share how often customers leave products in their carts without completing an order; how many of those orders were recovered through an abandoned cart recovery email; and how any changes you make to the store affect abandonment rates over time.
Form & button conversions analytics
The Form & button conversion analytics panel shows how visitors engage with your client’s site forms and buttons. This tool helps you and your clients track specific site goals, so you can identify what elements should be refreshed to yield a better clickthrough or conversion rate.
Purchase funnel analytics
The Purchase funnel analytics panel shares a visual report on the store’s sales funnel and how well each stage converts. It includes data about how many visitors convert into purchases, where customers drop off, and how any site changes affect conversion rates over time.
Sales by product analytics
The Sales by product analytics panel offers key per-product statistics like revenue, order volume, and conversion rates. This panel can help you and your clients understand product performance and plan their sales strategies accordingly.
Finding ecommerce clients
Now that you're familiar with the basics of Squarespace ecommerce, you can use this knowledge to attract clients wanting to build their online stores.
Past clients, referrals, and word-of-mouth
Let your past clients know you now build online stores—many may not have been ready to sell products or services when you first worked with them. Don’t hesitate to ask for referrals, as 78% of Circle members cite word-of-mouth as a key driver of business. Promoting your ecommerce services to previous clients could uncover new leads. You could even create a referral program, offering discounts or gift cards to clients who refer new business your way.
Business bureaus and directories
To find more potential ecommerce clients, explore business bureau websites and local directories. Many small- and medium-sized businesses in these networks may lack a website or need a site refresh. While cold calling or emailing can be time-consuming and require persistence, it can be an effective way to secure your first few ecommerce clients. If you’re just getting started, read our guide to selling your Squarespace services.
Create sales-ready digital storefronts
Leverage the most comprehensive range of ecommerce and Squarespace platform insights to build more impactful websites for your clients. Whether the goal is to boost sales volume, enhance product marketing, or streamline the checkout process, Squarespace offers the tools to create exceptional online store experiences that not only meet but exceed client expectations.
Related resources:
Every Website Is an Ecommerce Site: A Look at Digital Commerce with Squarespace
From Clicks to Customers: Branding for Squarespace Ecommerce Sites
This article was originally published on November 2, 2020. It has since been updated.
Want more?
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