Answers to common questions about selling online with the Squarespace Commerce platform.
This guide answers some common questions about the Squarespace Commerce platform.
Is Commerce available in my billing plan?
Commerce and payment processors are premium features available in the Business, Commerce, Professional, and Premium plans. To learn more, visit Premium features.
Can customers from around the world purchase my products?
Yes. You can accept our payment methods from anywhere in the world where they're supported. We don't impose additional location restrictions for shoppers buying products from your store. For more information, visit Supported countries and currencies for Squarespace Commerce.
To limit your business to specific countries, create shipping zones, ensuring only customers within your supported area can check out.
What shipping methods can I offer?
You can create shipping options that automatically apply to physical products at checkout. Shipping options include:
- Flat rate
- Rates by weight
- Free shipping
- Carrier calculated (available on the Commerce Advanced and Premium plans, and certain legacy billing plans)
Per-product shipping rules aren't available at this time.
Tip: You can use print-on-demand and drop ship products by connecting an inventory and products extension. While we work with third-party services to ensure Squarespace Extensions work properly, extensions fall outside our scope of support. We can help with connecting or disconnecting your extensions. For all other questions, contact the extensions provider directly.
What can I sell on my site?
Squarespace approves the sale of most products, but our payment processors, Stripe and PayPal, prohibit certain types of businesses. For detailed information, visit Section 1.2 of our Product Specific Terms, Stripe's documentation, and PayPal's Acceptable Use guidelines.
What subscription or recurring payment options can I offer?
You can charge customers on a recurring basis by selling physical or service products as subscriptions. When a subscription automatically renews, you earn recurring income and maintain relationships with your loyal customers. Subscriptions can renew indefinitely or a set number of times.
Which payment processors can I use?
You can connect a payment processing solution, like Squarespace Payments, or a third-part processor (Stripe, PayPal, or Square). To learn more about these options, visit Connecting a payment processor to Commerce.
Note: Squarespace Payments will be rolling out to users in the United States in the coming months and will launch in additional markets in 2024.
Is Commerce available in my country?
To use Squarespace Commerce, you'll need to connect a payment processor that supports your country. For details, visit Supported countries and currencies for Squarespace Commerce.
Can I accept multiple currencies?
No. Your store can only accept one currency at a time. Your available store currencies depend on your payment processor.
Can customers buy items that are out of stock?
If a product is sold out, the product displays in your store with a SOLD OUT flag. Customers can't add the product to their carts until you change the quantity in stock. To learn more, visit Sold out products.
Can I export orders to a .csv file?
Yes. Open the Selling panel, click Orders, then click Export CSV. To learn more, visit Exporting orders.
When will a product be removed from inventory?
A product's stock level will reduce when a customer checks out. If you have one of a product left in stock and two customers added it to their carts at the same time, the product will be sold to whoever completes checkout first.
Will a customer's cart save if they leave my site and return later?
Products added to a customer's shopping cart will remain in the cart indefinitely. If a customer leaves your site and comes back later, the cart will appear as they left it. If a product sells out before they return, it will be removed from their cart.
You can track and recover abandoned carts with abandoned checkout recovery.
Can I accept donations?
Yes. Use the donation block to collect donations for your organization or cause. Donations are a premium feature available in the Business, Commerce, Professional, and Premium plans, and sites on the legacy Personal plan. To learn more, visit Premium features.
Can I accept deposits?
You can collect deposits for projects in the Invoicing panel. It's not possible to collect deposits for physical, service, or digital download products.
Can I offer free digital downloads?
Yes. You can set a digital download product to have a price of $0.00.
Customers will still be directed to the checkout page but won't need to enter any credit card information to complete the order.
Can I sell gift cards or gift certificates?
Yes. You can sell gift cards as a unique digital code that customers can receive as a printable .pdf or email directly to their recipient.
Can I sell products to an exclusive audience?
Yes. You can add Member Areas to your site, then add a store page to your gated content. To learn more, visit Getting started with Member Areas.
Is Commerce available in Squarespace 5?
Commerce isn't available for Squarespace 5. To sell products on a Squarespace 5 site, you'll need to use a third-party payment processor.
When will customers be charged?
Customers will be charged as soon as they check out. It's not possible to delay payment until an item is shipped.
Is SSL offered with Commerce?
Yes. Checkout and payment pages are served over SSL in your Commerce site. To learn more about how SSL works with Squarespace, visit our overview guide.
Can I delete the cents from the price and only display dollars?
No. All prices must show cents, even if your price is rounded to the whole dollar ($10.00 rather than $10).
Can I charge tax?
Yes. How you set up tax rates depends on if you sell products inside or outside of the United States.
- In the US - You can add automatic tax rates by using our TaxJar extension—which is free with our Commerce, Professional, and Premium plans—or you can set up manual tax rates. Keep in mind, if you only sell products inside the United States, it's not possible to use manual tax rates and automatic tax rates with TaxJar at the same time.
- Outside the US - You can set up manual international tax rates. If you're selling both in the US and outside the US, you can use our Taxjar extension for domestic sales, and manual tax rates for sales made abroad.
Where should I charge taxes?
Per our Terms of Service, Squarespace doesn't provide advice or recommendations regarding laws applicable to your site or business. If you have questions about collecting taxes, you can consult with a tax advisor. You can also use this resource for checking US state sales laws.
Can I collect VAT or GST?
Yes. Squarespace supports tax-inclusive pricing and customizable order receipts. For help setting this up, visit Collecting VAT or GST.
Does Squarespace support Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)?
Yes. As of September 14, 2019, as part of PSD2, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is required for online sales the European Economic Area (EEA). All Squarespace sites support SCA. To learn more, visit Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
Where can I find my 1099-K form?
Your payment processor provides your 1099-K form, which summarizes your sales activity. For more information, visit your payment processor's documentation:
Can I add tracking numbers to shipping notifications?
Yes. To include tracking numbers in Order Shipped emails, enter the tracking number when marking the order as complete.
If the tracking number is associated with a standard carrier (Australia Post, Canada Post, DHL, FedEx, UPS, or USPS), it will be a link. Clicking the number opens the carrier's tracking page.
To learn more, visit Fulfilling orders.
How many products can I add to my site?
In version 7.1, you can add up to 10,000 products. This is both the site-wide and store page limit. In version 7.0, limit is 200 products per store page, and up to 10,000 products per site. The variant limit depends on the product editor your site uses. To learn more, visit Adding product variants.
Can I connect to a fulfillment warehouse or inventory service?
Yes. Visit Squarespace Extensions to see which third-party fulfillment services you can connect to your store. You can also visit Squarespace API keys to learn about creating your own integrations using our Order and Inventory APIs.
Can I use the Squarespace app as a point of sale system?
Yes. Use the iOS Squarespace app and supported Square card readers to accept cash and card payments that integrate with your online store. This integration is available for iPhones and iPads. Point of sale is not supported on the Android Squarespace app. To learn more, visit Selling in person with Squarespace point of sale.
Can I connect a ShipStation account to multiple sites?
Yes. You can connect the same ShipStation account to multiple sites.
Can I hide the quantity drop-down?
You can hide the product quantity in version 7.0, if your site's template is in the Brine, Farro, Skye, Tremont, or York families. In these templates, to hide the quantity drop-down menu on item pages:
- Log into your site and go to your store page.
- Open the individual item.
- Return to the Website panel, click Design, then Site styles.
- Scroll to the Products: Options section.
- Uncheck Show Quantity.
Tip: The quantity option will still display at checkout. You can disable this for service items in all templates.
How should I handle fraudulent charges or disputes?
Your payment processor handles any payment disputes related to your store, not Squarespace. If a customer reports a fraudulent charge, if you suspect fraudulent activity, or if your payment processor flagged a charge as fraud, contact Stripe or PayPal directly. You can also review Stripe or PayPal’s tips for preventing disputes and fraud.
If the customer requests a refund for a charge they recognize, you can refund the order in Squarespace. If the purchase is for a subscription product, you may also want to show the customer how to cancel their subscription.
Can I disable checkout?
No. It's not possible to disable checkout or hide the add to cart button in version 7.1. To display products on Squarespace without including the option to buy them, consider signing up for a website or personal plan and adding images and product details using blocks. To collect information from visitors, you can add a form block. To learn more about the different plans, visit Choosing the right Squarespace plan.
More help
In addition to our guides, we offer other resources to help you get started with Squarespace Commerce:
- Watch our Commerce video series.
- Learn more about boosting sales by visiting Increasing your store's sales.
- Hire a Squarespace Expert to help you set up your online store.