Squarespace Shipping Cheat Sheet
Squarespace is a website building and hosting platform that offers a range of modern designs for businesses and individuals. Since its humble inception in a dorm room in 2003, today it has grown to become one of the most popular and effective e-commerce channels.
Squarespace is one the most intuitive and easy platforms to get started on building your e-commerce online shop. You have the option to choose from a wide range of high-quality website templates with ‘drag and drop’ elements that allows you to easily create a fully customisable, user-friendly online store without having to write a single line of code.
Setting up shipping for your Squarespace store
So, you are ready to launch your e-commerce business. You have created an eye-catching Squarespace store, managed to drive customers to your site through sophisticated marketing campaigns, set up your payment options, and designed an exceptional shopping experience that directs buyers seamlessly to your checkout page (don’t forget to make sure your Squarespace e-commerce store is GDPR compliant, as well).
You are now (almost) ready to start selling your amazing products. The next big step to consider is your Squarespace e-commerce shipping and how to create an order fulfilment and shipping strategy before orders start coming in.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up shipping on your Squarespace store and streamline your e-commerce fulfilment process with the best Squarespace shipping options.
Before we dive into how to setup shipping with Squarespace, a quick caveat...
If you are using Squarespace for e-commerce, you will need to be on either the Business Commerce Basic or Commerce Advanced plan with Squarespace. The other Basic and Business plans don't include all the features we cover in this place, such as Point of Sale (POS), checkout on the domain, analytics or shipping. Luckily you can easily switch plans if you need to via the site manager page. Explore the Squarespace pricing structure to make sure you have all you need.
Shipping rates
To get started with your shipping you'll need to define your Squarespace shipping rates. You will be given the options of: 'Flat Rate'; 'Depending on Weight'; or 'Carrier Calculated' via FedEx, UPS, or USPS to choose from.
If you're completely new to shipping, it may seem a bit intimidating to have to pick an option when you don't know the difference. See what you need to know about each shipping rate method here.
Flat rate
• Define a standard shipping cost for all products, with no effect on weight, size or shape
• Competitive for e-commerce as customers know what to expect at checkout e.g. free shipping
• Much easier for you to anticipate shipping costs
Depending on weight rates
• Shipping charges are set based on the weight of an order
• The best option if you sell products in similar sizes but different weights e.g. furniture
• In Squarespace, you can set as many shipping cost tiers as you need for weight ranges
Carrier calculated rates
• Also known as real-time rates, shipping is calculated from FedEx, UPS, and USPS shipping rates
• All product dimensions and weights must be added, as these make the costs vary
• Profits can be made by adding a flat mark-up option to add to shipping, covering extra costs such as packaging
Free shipping
• The most attractive shipping rate for your customers.
• You can offer free shipping on all products by creating a free shipping rate. Alternatively, you can create a free shipping discount.
• If you're on the Commerce Advanced plan, you can set the free shipping discount to apply automatically at checkout.
• Before offering free shipping, you need to determine whether you’ll be able to absorb the shipping costs.
• If you can’t afford free shipping, you can offer free local pick up where customers collect orders in person from your brick-and-mortar store or warehouse instead.
Squarespace international payments
Receiving international payments from customers is simple. If you connect your store to PayPal or Stripe, global payments are supported by Squarespace. There may be restrictions for certain countries depending on the payment method given.
Although only one currency can be selected for your store, Squarespace Commerce supports most currencies including GBP, EUR, USD and more.
Don't panic if your desired currency isn't on the list, PayPal and Stripe allow for currencies that aren't supported by Squarespace.
Choosing your delivery carrier
If you are shipping on Squarespace without a third-party app, you can only send orders with FedEx, UPS or USPS.
All three delivery carriers offer a diverse range of shipment services such as next day, plus air and ground services.
FedEx has the largest selection of shipping services, offering:
• FedEx Ground Home Delivery®
• FedEx Priority Overnight®
• FedEx Standard Overnight®
• FedEx 2Day®
• FedEx Express Saver®
• FedEx First Overnight®
Squarespace order notifications
Squarespace order notifications are emails that are sent to your customers when they shop, create an account, or purchase from on your site.
These automatic emails can be customised to stay in keeping with your brand and sent at different stages of the order journey.
When an order has been shipped, your customer can also receive an email with the shipment tracking number.
Inventory management
To edit your product inventory or move it to another app/website you can do a product form export as an editable .csv file.
In Squarespace, there are two places where you can view your products, the 'Inventory panel' and 'Products Pages'. On these pages, you can manage stock levels, pricing, and add new products.
We've all had that frustrating online shopping experience when you're about to buy something which is out of stock.
You can prevent this horror from happening to your customers with notifications to show that items are low in stock. To do this, simply enable limited availability labels or low stock alert emails.
Custom checkout form
Another great feature is the ability to create a custom checkout form. This can be used to gather delivery instructions, comments, or special requests.
A use case for this is if a customer has a delivery request they can type this in the box, such as 'Ring doorbell when outside'.
Find the correct shipping label printer
After setting up shipping for your Squarespace shop, the next obvious step is to invest in a good-quality shipping label printer. But why do you need a dedicated label printer for shipping, and what difference will it make compared to the printer set-up you already have in your office?
A shipping label printer is equipped with features designed to make your Squarespace shipping label printing a fast, easy, and cost-efficient process; unlike your current all-in-one printing set-up, they are designed to do one thing and to do it well. A shipping label printer prints durable, waterproof labels that are the right size, pre-cut, and ready to stick on your package. Furthermore, a label printer is much faster and more durable than your all-in-one printer and takes up less space on your desk.
But with so many options out there, how will you choose the correct shipping label printer for your Squarespace ? The answer to that question is simple: just read this comprehensive guide on shipping label printers that includes a list of the top shipping label printers in the market that will help you streamline your Squarespace shipping process.
What if I want to connect more carriers to my Squarespace shop?
Needless to say that FedEx, UPS, and USPS are all excellent carriers that offer a variety of shipping services. Nevertheless, your company might be based outside the US, or you would like to use different carriers for different destinations, product sizes, shipping methods, etc. Deciding which carriers to work with is another crucial aspect of your Squarespace shipping strategy.
Globally, there are hundreds of local and international carriers to choose from, so selecting the right one(s) and connect them to your Squarespace shop can be pretty overwhelming (this is where having a shipping management platform like Shiptheory can come in handy, but more on that later).
Moreover, as your e-commerce business grows, keeping track of all the different ways you ship your orders (ensuring that the correct carrier or service is selected for a specific type of product or destination country, for example) can become complex and highly time-consuming. Keeping all those rules in your head or even on a spreadsheet will eventually get complicated, make your shipping process unnecessarily stressful, and even lead to shipment mistakes that will ruin your customer’s experience.
So if you wish to connect more carriers to your Squarespace shop and negotiate your own shipping rates, or simply wish to automate your Squarespace shipping process, you might need to start looking for a more advanced solution.
How can Shiptheory automate your Squarespace shipping labels?
A shipping management platform like Shiptheory integrates fully with your Squarespace store and will allow you to streamline and automate several shipping-related tasks. That way, it will enable a more efficient shipping process for your Squarespace orders and save you money and time while eliminating manual data-entry errors.
Shiptheory connects your Squarespace store with more than 40 of the world's best international, regional, and local carriers, like USPS, UPS, DHL, Royal Mail, FedEx, DPD, and more, to automate shipping labels, manifests, customs documentation, and tracking.
With Shiptheory, you can import orders automatically from your Squarespace store into a single, easy-to-use platform that offers various shipping label printing options, multiple-user support, advanced reporting features, and an excellent customer support team.
Connect your Squarespace store to Shiptheory and gain access to powerful shipping automation!
Shiptheory's intelligent shipping rules engine allows you to automate every step of your shipping process based on a combination of shipping destination, order weight, value, product SKU's, and more. In addition, your Squarespace shipping labels are automatically printed, and shipment tracking information is sent back to your Squarespace store and customers moments after an order is complete.
If you want to start right away shipping your online orders, connecting your Squarespace store to Shiptheory and creating your first shipping label is a matter of minutes: this guide will get you up and running booking shipments in no time!
Try our Squarespace shipping integration for FREE!
If you have any queries regarding our Squarespace integration, please do not hesitate to reach out to support. We are more than happy to answer your questions and give you a hand to get it up and running.
Otherwise, create a free Shiptheory account and start shipping smarter and faster today!