So you are thinking of starting a successful business? Shopify and SquareSpace have come to your final list. But which one is more suitable for your need?
Selecting the most suitable eCommerce platform can be intimidating.
Without needing to have any design or coding skills, both platforms provide clear guidance and simple usability, which is enough to help you get everything started.
Initially, SquareSpace started out only as a website builder, blogging, and hosting platform. Hence, it’s a very powerful page editor which allows you to design a very beautiful website. Whereas Shopify originated focusing on providing innovative features to help your online stores. So its design and features are more business-specific.
Shopify vs SquareSpace
Ease of Use
Even though SquareSpace provides many stunning design templates as well as having drag-and-drop functionality just like Shopify. Its ease of use isn’t as powerful as Shopify.
SquareSpace is a bit trickier to navigate around, whereas Shopify provides visual cues to prevent you from getting lost.
Customisability and Templates
Just like in a real-life store, the presentation is very important. Having an attractive online store may even greatly reduce the bounce rate and eventually convert more leads.
With SquareSpace being a design-focused eCommerce builder, it provides one of the best modern and sleek design templates in the market.
Shopify, on the other hand, provides 100+ themes which are around the same for SquareSpace. Most of Shopify’s designs are quite attractive, however, it still can’t compare with what SquareSpace can offer. Instead, Shopify offers complex business tools to help you sell.
Features for Sales
Shopify offers one of the best sales features in the market. If you have read the article on Shopify vs Wix, you will know that Shopify has also won in this comparison.
Product Types
Both Shopify and SquareSpace allows you to sell physical, digital and service products.
Product Presentation
SquareSpace: It provides features like zoom and the ability to give your customer a 360 visual experience by turning your images into videos.
Shopify: Although Shopify does not have the zoom functionality, its app store provides an app called Magic Zoom Plus, which does the same thing. We must say Shopify is really winning in the scalability game.
Payment Options
SquareSpace: Similar to Wix, SquareSpace has provided limited payment options for their customers.
Shopify: Shopify supports all major payment gateways but does not currently support Square.
Shipping
Shopify: To help your business become more streamlined, Shopify provides everything you need in the shipping domain. These include shipping labels, built-in integration with NHL or UPS, and drop shipping.
SquareSpace: It is currently losing on the shipping game, but they are slowly improving and catching up. They are currently working with USP.
Inventory Management
Both platforms are quite well equipped in this section. Both allow unlimited products, the ability to add individual or bulk items, in-house revenue reports, and even shoots email alerts when low stock.
Features for Marketing
Both Shopify and SquareSpace have very similar features. However, Shopify provides more marketing tools which allow your online business to grow even faster.
Social Media Integration
SquareSpace: Square space does not have any app market, and the only social media that can be integrated is Instagram.
Shopify: Shopify Provides at least 10 social media platforms for advertisement. Furthermore, they provide many marketing, accounting and shipping apps to help your business more streamlined. Hence in the scalability point of view, Shopify is the clear winner.
Email Campaigns
SquareSpace: According to SquareSpace, its email campaign allows you to “automate your email marketing efforts, streamline contact list management, and personalise every message you send.”
Shopify: Shopify also provides you with the ability to create email campaigns.
Blogging
SquareSpace: Even though SquareSpace does not have the capability to integrate with many social media platforms yet, it provides all the blogging features with successful website needs. These include built-in analytics, archive functionality as well as search features.
Shopify: Shopify lack features in the blogging section. However, it does come with blog-specific SEO features.
SEO
SquareSpace: SquareSpace allows you to edit things such as meta titles and description, and other basic SEO functions. However, compared with Shopify, it does not provide any SEO advice.
Shopify: Although Shopify lost in the blogging domain, Shopify can help your online store achieve higher ranks in SEO than SquareSpace with its own range of SEO apps.
Performance Analytic Monitoring
By monitoring your online store’s performance, you get feedback on what area your store has done well and what needs to be improved. Which can be very important in ensuring continuous growth.
As mentioned previously, as a business-focused eCommerce platform, Shopify consists of many analytic tools such as tracking customer behaviours and receiving stock level report emails. If google analytics is needed, integration functionality is also provided to do so.
SquareSpace also consists of its own analytics tools, however, you will not be able to integrate your store with google analytics nor receiving stock monitoring alerts.
Fonseka Innovations
Overall, both platforms provide all the necessary tools to help you grow your business. Selecting an eCommerce platform really depends on the sort of store you are trying to create. With our rich experience in web development and business consultation, Fonseka Innovations is here to help you! Contact us now.