Squarespace VS Etsy: Which is the Better Platform to Sell your Products Online?
Online businesses are more important now than ever (2020… am i right?) More people are shopping online than the traditional brick and mortar, so it’s important that if you have products, you get them available for purchase online!
But if you are starting an e-commerce business, you’re probably overwhelmed by the amount of platform options that are out there.
Etsy and Squarespace are probably two that you have heard of. Both are great, but they are quite different, and each has its strengths that suit different needs.
You need to choose a platform that will best help YOUR business and make your life easer, so today we’re going to tell you a little bit about both options and compare them on their their design options, ease of use, support, and value for money. And even better, I’ll give you my recommendations on if I think you should be using Squarespace or Etsy to sell your products.
Note: If you are planning to open an online store with a really large and diverse inventory and you think you will need more advanced e-commerce features, I definitely don’t recommend Etsy and maybe not even Squarespace! You should check out this post on Squarespace VS Shopify which might be more up your alley.
What is Etsy?
Etsy is a well-known marketplace and e-commerce platform for retailers that offer handmade products, vintage items, digital products, and craft supplies (technically you can sell more anything on there, but Etsy is generally more for smaller, hand-made goods)
It’s a straightforward and simple option for small businesses and individuals that want to get their products seen, and selling fast.
Etsy is different, and so easy, because it’s an existing marketplace. By joining Etsy you are setting up a shop page inside Etsy rather than actually having your own website.
Think of it like a mall. If the Etsy Marketplace is a mall, your shop is one of the stores. Because of this, you get access to all of the people who are already browsing through the mall looking for something to buy, you get access to Etsy’s pre-established audience (31.7 million active buyers, in fact!)
By running your store on Etsy, you’ll avoid many of the challenges that come hand-in-hand with starting a store from complete scratch. Because it’s purposefully built so that creators like you can hop on and easily create a store. That’s all Etsy is made for, so there’s so extra fluff or confusing features like you would find when you’re building a store from scratch. It’s simple and quick to get set up.
It’s so simple and quick, but that’s because you’re essentially piggy backing your store on someone else’s website. It’s an awesome starting point, but long term, it’s better to have your own brand and store. There are tons of limitations when it comes to having your shop on Etsy, but this is the trade off for having such a simple solution. Retailers with diverse inventories and high product turnover will almost certainly need a more feature-rich platform like Squarespace or Shopify.
It’s important to note that if you want to take it a step further, you can upgrade to Etsy’s separate solution, called Pattern, which enables you to build your store with your own domain and sell whatever you like on it while still using the Etsy engine. It’s the next step in taking your store off Etsy but still having the familiarity of the brand that you know. This isn’t really what we’re talking about today, as it’s not the traditional “Etsy”, but worth nothing in case you want to do some more research on it.
So on that note, let’s dive into some Etsy details:
Design
Design flexibility is not one of Etsy's strong suits. Most Etsy stores look very similar and this is because there are very limited options when it comes to customization. If you like the shop design, great! If not, you can only make changes to the colors, fonts, and photo styles in your store.
Users of the Etsy Plus premium plan will have access to additional features, such as the option to highlight top-performing products on the homepage, but still, these features are limited.
Ease of Use
Etsy is extremely easy to use. This is mostly because there aren't complex features to begin with, and, as stated above, the customization options are limited.
Working with Etsy is fast and straightforward. Setting up a store takes little effort, even for users who have little web development experience.
Support
If you do need help with your store, Etsy has a great support system, even on the free plan. Users can take advantage of live-chat and phone service, as well as in-depth training materials.
All support options are accessible from a tab in the seller dashboard, so assistance is easy to find when you need it!
Value for Money
At first glance, Etsy looks like the most cost-effective e-commerce platform on the market. It has a forever-free plan and even the premium option, Etsy Plus, only costs ten dollars per month. “Pattern" by Etsy, a service that allows you to run an “independent” online store on your domain (in conjunction with your Etsy store) only costs $15 a month.
But it’s crucial to take account of fees. Retailers are charged $0.20 for every listing. When a sale is made, Etsy takes a 5% transaction fee, along with a 4% payment processing charge, which amounts to nearly 10% of the overall item price.
So, it’s most definitely not FREE, don’t let that fool you when you sign up. Because you pay in sales fees, it will start to cost more when you sell more. It’s important to keep an eye on your sales to know how much you’ll be actually paying that month.
You can learn more about Etsy pricing here.
Recap
Advantages:
Exposure to a large, existing marketplace audience
Easy to use
Inexpensive (if using the free version and not making many sales)
Disadvantages:
A small number of design options
Limited sales features
High fees (nearly 10% of the overall item price)
Your store is technically owned by Etsy
You are a store amongst thousands of others
What is Squarespace Commerce?
Squarespace Commerce is an awesome choice for retailers that want to create and manage their entire store.
Here at Big Cat Creative, we are all about Squarespace. You’ve probably heard us go on about it a ton, because we think it’s the best overall platform to build your entire website for almost any business type.
Squarespace itself is a great general website builder, and you can add a shop which is called Squarespace Commerce. This opens up a ton of possibilities for customization.
The biggest difference between Squarespace and Etsy is that Squarespace is an entire website building platform, it is not a marketplace.
Because of this, Squarespace Commerce gives you a lot more control and creative freedom. But this means it also can be quite a bit more complicated than just setting up a marketplace store.
There are tons of extra features when it comes to Squarespace because you can host a whole website alongside your store. But if you’re trying to keep it simple and just have a basic store, you can do this too, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Unfortunately you don’t have access to a built-in audience like Etsy does, so you will need to drive traffic in other ways, rather than rely on marketplace buyers, by using marketing strategies like Search Engine Optimization, Advertising and Social Media.
Because Squarespace “hosts” your store rather than owns it, it has no transaction fees if you are on one of the Commerce plans. If you’re selling a lot of products, this will end up being the more affordable option, as you just pay a monthly fee.
Squarespace is a fully-hosted solution, so you can also create a beautiful site alongside your e-commerce store. Users have access to a powerful set of features, including unlimited bandwidth and storage, analytics, marketing tools, and point of sale system, along with a library of sleek, professional template designs!
Let’s dive into the details:
Design
Squarespace comes with a ton of different template options to start with, and they’re all pretty gorgeous. Not only that, but you can complete customize these to look however you like.
Because it’s a compete website builder, you have full control of the design. But, website design customization isn’t always simple, even though Squarespace makes it basically as simple as it can be, there’s still a big learning curve when it comes to Squarespace design.
If you’re worried about this, you can always hire someone to create the design for you, you can use a premium template to DIY, or you can just stick to one of the built-in template designs and not edit it too much, as these are great too!
If you’re thinking about choosing Squarespace, check that one of the templates meets your needs before signing up for a paid plan. There’s a 2 week free trial, so you can take the platform for a test-drive before committing.
Ease of Use
Squarespace is very easy to use but does require some practice. Once you are familiar with it, making customizations becomes a very simple task.
As long as you aren’t doing any crazy advanced customizations, shop building through Squarespace Commerce is very intuitive and becomes very easy to navigate quickly, thanks to the simple shop management dashboard.
Support
The support Squarespace offers is top-notch. Customer support is available 24/7 via email and Twitter. Also, on weekdays, live chat is available between 4 AM and 8 PM.
Because Squarespace is a well-known and popular site-builder, a large community of users are active on the forums and Facebook groups, which is another bonus.
Value for Money
All in all, Squarespace offers superb value for money.
A Squarespace Commerce subscription includes unlimited products, multi-channel management, POS, abandoned cart emails, customer accounts, and more. You also have the option to sell digital products and subscription services.
However, to take advantage of all the features, you’ll need to sign up for the 'Advanced' Commerce plan, but smaller retailers will get by happily on the 'Basic' Commerce plan.
You can also use Squarespace Commerce on just the 'Business plan' which is a cheaper monthly option, but you will get charged a 3% transaction fee, so this is really only viable when you’re selling less products.
You can see all of the Squarespace pricing details here!
Recap
Advantages
Unlimited products
Stylish templates
Easy-to-use site builder and management dashboard
Marketing and SEO features
More control and creative freedom
You own your website and store
Disadvantages
No built in marketplace/audience
Requires more effort to get users to visit store
More complicated and time consuming to use than a simple marketplace
So, Etsy or Squarespace?
Hopefully now you understand now just how different Squarespace and Etsy are.
Squarespace is a powerful website builder with an e-commerce option. It’s relatively simple to use when you’re considering building a whole website, and it is much more comprehensive and powerful than Etsy. No doubt, creating your store on Squarespace is the more complicated option.
Etsy is simple and easy to use, and it has an audience built-in. It’s a great way to start your online store, but as your business grows, it can become very limiting.
I believe whether you should use Squarespace or Etsy for your online store depends on what stage of business you are in.
Etsy is a great way to get your feet wet, get some sales and a gain an audience. Squarespace is a great option if you are ready to take your store to the next level and expand your sales beyond what Etsy can offer.
But ideally, I think you should use both to maximize your sales and boost your brand awareness!
How to Use Squarespace and Etsy
If you are just starting with your online shop, I recommend taking advantage of both platforms!
When you’re just starting, it’s great to utilize the audience Etsy can give you, because you probably won’t be getting much traffic to your Squarespace site. By having both an Etsy and a Squarespace shop, you can take advantage of Etsy's built-in marketplace audience to get initial sales and grow your audience, and then drive more traffic to your Squarespace store for more long-term success.
In the long term, it is best to have a stand-alone site that is completely controlled by you, rather than relying on Etsy for sales. It’s never a good idea to base your whole business model around a marketplace that could literally disappear tomorrow. Plus, having your own website makes customers take you more seriously as a brand and business.
So whether you start with Etsy and then move to Squarespace, or start with Etsy and then add a Squarespace website and continue running both shops, I think a great long term goal is to move towards a stand-alone shop so you’re not relying on Etsy forever. Eventually you would want to get to a place where your Squarespace store is your main focus.
Still not sure? Try them out!
Squarespace has a 2 week free trial , so you can get in there and have a good play around with the platform and see if you like it. Etsy is free to join, you only have to start paying when you add items for sale or making sales, so you can basically try that for free too. See what works for you!
Hopefully this post clarified the big differences between Squarespace and Etsy, and if you should use them or not. If you need some more help with your Squarespace site, make sure to sign up to our free course 5 Steps to DIY Your Dream Website which will help get you prepared for the web design process.
Want more? Check out the posts below for more tips!
How to Leave Etsy and Start a Shop with Squarespace (and why you should!)
How to add a shop to Squarespace - step by step walkthrough (7.1 and 7.0)
Squarespace VS Shopify — which platform is better for an online store?
If you liked this post, Pin it to Pinterest! 👇🏻
