Where to sell Squarespace Templates to reach more customers and make more sales
If you’re selling Squarespace Templates for your business, either as your main gig or alongside your web design clients, then you’ll likely be looking into ways to sell more templates.
Selling Squarespace templates or website templates for any platform is such a great way to increase your income. If you’re already working with one-on-one clients to build websites, templates can be a great way to add some passive income to your web design business!
We’re huge fans of Squarespace here, and have tons of experience selling Squarespace Templates. If you’re interested and wanting to learn about how to start your own Squarespace Template shop, you’re in the right place!
Selling templates directly on your own site VS Other avenues
We talk a lot about the importance of creating your own shop on your own website to sell your templates. Selling directly to customers from your own site means that you’re not relying on another platform and you have complete creative control over your business, branding, and marketing.
If you haven't done this yet, get started by creating a shop on Squarespace and learning the basics of content marketing:
How to create content that converts visitors into loyal customers
How to get started with Email Marketing: a simple guide for beginners
How to create an organic Pinterest Marketing Strategy for your biz
But if you’ve already built your shop and are now looking for even more ways to get more eyes on your templates, there are a few other avenues that you could look into!
Selling templates on Design Marketplaces
Design marketplaces are great because they already have built-in audiences looking to purchase website templates. You don’t have to work as hard to generate traffic, because the marketplace is doing that for you. And the more you distribute your designs across different marketplaces the larger your reach, and the better chances of getting a sale. Here are some of the most popular platforms to consider:
Creative Market
Creative Market is an online marketplace for design assets. Independent creators list their design graphics, website templates, stock photography, and other digital goods to be sold to other creatives.
One of the best things about Creative Market is that it caters to a community of like-minded individuals. With over one million users, you can truly get your templates and themes in front of the right eyes.
A drawback of Creative Market is its high fees. They’ve just upped their transaction fee to 40% per sale. But while their fees might seem kinda crazy, you are paying for free marketing and a built-in audience. You can also consider raising your prices on Creative Market to help cover some of this, (we do this!). While the fees are high, we still think it's worth it and have made a lot of sales via Creative Market over the years.
Get Started on Creative Market
Etsy
You probably know Etsy as an online marketplace for unique crafts and handmade goods, but did you know that it’s also one of the most popular platforms for digital goods? Etsy allows you to sell templates and downloadables to its over 7 million users.
Because so many people use the platform, it can be a little challenging to stand out. But if you focus on optimizing your SEO or consider running ads, it could be a great option for reaching more customers.
Etsy recently upped their fees and currently charges $0.20 for a listing fee, 6.5% for the transaction fee, and anywhere between 3%-5% for payment processing fees.
We know a lot of template creators who have had success on Etsy (but it's not one we've tried yet, so can't speak from personal experience!)
Ghost Marketplace
Ghost Marketplace is the very first Squarespace design specific marketplace - so if you sell Squarespace templates or plugins, this is for you! Easily browse plugins, templates, and courses – all in one simple place!
Anyone is welcome to submit a theme to the marketplace but there is an approval process and only the best of the best will be showcased publicly! If you're interested in signing up, have a look at the details here.
This is a much newer platform, so there won’t be as many users but yet, but it's still worth checking out!
Marketplace Tips:
The thing about marketplaces that you need to keep in mind is that the fees are different for every marketplace, and they can get pretty high. For example Creative Market charges 30-40% per sale.
While that may seem really high, it’s important to remember that the people that found you via Creative Market, for example, probably wouldn’t have found you otherwise. So in a way, you're paying the marketplace for referring that customer to you.
This is another reason we always say to build your own shop first and focus on that. These marketplaces are really just extras that you can add on to grow your audience without having to do too much. But we wouldn’t really recommend putting all of your eggs in one basket and only selling on Marketplaces, because you’re always going to have high fees and you’re relying on another platform for your income (and you don’t really have control of it!)
Also it’s important to mention that there’s a lot more than these 3 marketplaces out there. There’s so many marketplaces for designs and for website templates. So go ahead and add your templates to any marketplaces that you think are worth it. Just remember that every marketplace is going to have different terms and conditions and you’ll just want to check that they accept Squarespace Templates before you go through the effort of signing up.
Using Social To Sell More Templates
We all know about Social Media, and you’ve probably noticed in the last few years that Shopping via social media has become more common. On Instagram there’s even a whole "Shop" tab!
While the majority of social media platforms still don’t have direct selling capabilities for digital products, you can still use them to drive leads to your existing website shop.
Pinterest:
The one social platform where you can actually add a shop is Pinterest. Pinterest is a great social media platform for discoverability. Its search algorithm is unmatched and the ability to add links to pins makes it an ideal platform for small business owners.
This is a fairly new feature, but similar to how Instagram displays products, you can link a shop to your Pinterest profile. People will still checkout via your website store, so it’s not an entirely hosted shop, but you can have a separate shop tab and set up a shop front in Pinterest which is pretty cool. We highly recommend using Pinterest for your online marketing anyway, but if you are using Pinterest, definitely get your Pinterest shop set up and add your templates so people can shop your templates via Pinterest!
How to use Pinterest for your business in 2022: Profile set up and optimization
How to create an organic Pinterest Marketing Strategy for your biz
Instagram/Facebook:
Unfortunately, it’s still against the terms to sell digital products directly from Instagram or Facebook. Some sellers are able to get their products through, but if the social media platforms find out, there are negative consequences. Instead, follow their guidelines and link your shop in your bio. Your social media content will still drive profile views, website clicks, and conversions!
While it’s clear that listing your templates on additional design marketplaces will expand your reach, the fees and competition make it challenging to turn a great profit. That’s why we definitely recommend prioritizing your own template shop and adding on these marketplace listings as extra!
Want more tips? Check out these posts:
4 ways to make more money as a Web Designer
How to create a Live Demo Squarespace Template (and what to do when the trial expires!)
How to send Squarespace Templates to customers after they purchase
Best Chrome extensions for Squarespace website designers
How to embed course videos in Squarespace from YouTube (free!)
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