Best practices to keep your site active during unforeseen circumstances.

With Squarespace, you have tools at your disposal to expand your online presence and communicate with your visitors in times of crisis, or when you can't connect with customers in person.

These tools were especially critical during the shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they can also be used during other unexpected situations, natural disasters, or emergency situations specific to your business. Use this guide to learn more about these tools.

Add announcements and pop-ups for important updates

To place a prominent message with important updates, you can add an announcement bar at the top of your site, or use a promotional pop-up to display a message.

These are premium features available on Business or Commerce plans. To find your current plan visit the Billing panel. To upgrade to a Business or Commerce plan, follow the steps in Changing your website billing plan.

Add an online store with Squarespace Commerce

If you normally operate your business in person, but are unable to due to unforeseen circumstances, you can sell your physical and download products and services on the Commerce platform by adding an online store to any of your websites. Selling online requires a Squarespace Business plan, or higher.

Follow these steps to get started selling online:

1. Connect a payment processor.
2. Set up tax rules, if applicable to your business.
3. Set up shipping options, which can include local pickup or delivery.
4. Add products to a store page.
5. After receiving orders, you can fulfill them on a computer or on the Squarespace app.

To learn more about getting started with Commerce:

• Watch this video series
• Browse all Commerce guides
• Sign up for an expert-led webinar

Sell gift cards

Gift cards are important to small businesses and restaurants that can’t make in-person sales. Gift cards are available for all plans with Commerce features. Customers can also redeem gift cards in person, so they can support your business now and spend their gift cards in your store later.

Offer delivery

Deliver orders from your store

To add a delivery option, create a flat rate shipping option called Delivery, and add a custom form to checkout to collect delivery instructions. To learn more, visit Adding a delivery option.

Restaurant delivery

To set up delivery for a restaurant or bar site, we recommend using Tock, or our ChowNow integration.

If you use a different service—like DoorDash, Caviar, or Seamless—you can add a navigation menu link highlighting your delivery option on every page of your site.

Add a curbside pickup option

Add a curbside pickup option so customers can collect their orders without entering your store. To do this, add a flat rate shipping option called Curbside pickup. To learn more, visit local pickup.

Pause subscription renewals for your customers

If you sell subscription products, you can delay subscription renewals for your customers to help them if they need to reduce their expenses unexpectedly.

Ask for donations

To encourage donations, you can add donation blocks on Business and Commerce plans. If you’re using a different service to collect donations, you can add a text link or button block that links to your preferred service.

Use Email Campaigns to communicate

To keep your customers updated with new information, use Email Campaigns. You can build mailing lists, create campaigns that match your site’s branding, and send email blasts to your audience.

Add business policies to your site

Add additional pages to your site to outline any business policies you have. For example, a return policy, health and safety precautions, capacity limitations, business availability, etc.

Ask the community

Join the community in the Squarespace Forum for more ideas and strategies on how to improve your online presence and remain connected with your visitors during difficult times.