Am I building an online store or a 'website'?
Okay, so an online store is a website, but for all intents and purposes, a website is an informational platform. Its main priority is to inform an audience.
Before you can really make a decision, you need to be clear:
Your business goals
Your target customer base
Initial and projected numbers of the products and services you sell
Your budget for setting up and the initial cost of running your store
Having this information before you begin the decision process ensures that your final choice bc data taiwan is the best one for your needs. There are some features that an online store must have, and then there are some that are nice to have. You may also want to consider that there are some possibly advantageous features that you don't need yet. Depending on your business model and where you are in terms of growth, there are some bells and whistles that you don't necessarily want to pay for.
Defining exactly what you need in order of priority can go a long way in deciding whether Shopify or Squarespace is the right platform for your needs.
My guess is that since you’re here, you’re leaning toward an online store – a website where the priority is selling products or services. Based on that factor alone, Shopify is the better solution, but since that’s not the only consideration, let’s give Squarespace a fair chance.
Squarespace and Shopify are both reputable eCommerce platforms. Squarespace entered the eCommerce space later in the game.
Squarespace
Squarespace eCommerce Landing Page 2018
Squarespace was developed in 2004 as a blogging platform. They added a suite of eCommerce features in 2013 to better compete with store builders.
If you consider yourself a newbie to web design, you will find Squarespace easy to use. It features a drag-and-drop editor. Little to no technical experience is needed to get it working for you. It is one of the most popular Shopify alternatives out there today.
If you want to run a small online store for print-on-demand products like t-shirts, this is a good option. It integrates with Printful and offers a cheaper way to sell products compared to Shopify. Squarespace is also a good option for selling subscriptions. Recurring billing can get quite expensive with Shopify.
That said, if you need multi-channel syncing and more robust features for your ecommerce store, Squarespace won't do it for you.
Squarespace takes a closed approach to building your website because integrating third-party solutions isn't always a simple process and you don't get full access to your website's code.
