Managing a business today means having a good online presence and, in particular, knowing how to present your own products.
However, building your own e-commerce shop could be a very complicated and expensive process that requires considerable technical skills.
Since not everyone has the possibilities or knowledge necessary for the creation and management of an online store, a possible solution to this problem is to use an e-commerce platform based on the saas model, which means to rely on a platform that offers an e-commerce service by subscription.
We have analyzed two different platforms, Shopify and Squarespace, that offer such service. Two companies with a ten-year history, which show very different features, but both valid answers to all businesses that want to create their own virtual store.
To help you have a bigger picture of these two platforms, we tried to make a comparison, starting from their stories, that will highlight the main differences in terms of price, tools offered, ease of use and customer support.
Shopify
The story of Shopify begins in 2006, with Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake attempting to create an online snowboarding equipment store.
Following the creation of their Snowboard shop, Tobias Lütke, the programmer of the group, realized there was a lack of e-commerce solutions available on the web. So he decided to launch the Shopify platform with the aim of allowing other entrepreneurs to create their own virtual shop without necessarily having to depend on a developer.
Since then it has been a climb into greatness, in 2009 independent developers were given the opportunity to create applications and themes that could be sold and integrated within Shopify online stores. At present, the ability to integrate third-party apps within your store to increase its functionality is one of Shopify’s strengths
In 2010, their first free mobile app was released on the Apple App Store. In 2013, they launched Shopify Payments, a tool that allowed online credit card payments without the need for processing by third parties.
Later, in 2017, through Shopify POS, the company gave the sellers the opportunity of accepting payments directly within the store by synchronizing data with the Shopify platform in real time.
Currently, the e-commerce platform has more than 1.7 million stores in 175 countries generating sales for over $ 277 billion and counts customers such as Tesla Motors, Budweiser, The New York Times and The Economist.
Sources
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/meet-our-ceo-of-the-year/article21734931/
https://fortune.com/2017/04/20/shopify-credit-card-reader/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopify
Squarespace
Founded in 2004 by Anthony Casalena, Squarespace was originally designed as a hosting service for creating blogs and later implemented for building DIY websites.
In 2013, with the integration of Stripe (a service for sending and transferring money) Squarespace entered the world of e-commerce, later integrating Paypal for the processing of payments.
In 2007, just 3 years after its founding, Squarespace had annual sales for $ 1 million. In 2015, it achieved a turnover of $ 100 millions and employed 550 people, hosting more than 1 million websites on its platform.
Sources
https://www.fastcompany.com/3030867/how-squarespaces-ceo-pivoted-to-scale-for-millions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarespace
Subscriptions for e-commerce services
Being based on a saas model, both platforms offer a service in exchange for a paid subscription.
Anyone who would like to test them can subscribe a free 14-day trial.
Shopify
To meet the demands of its customers, Shopify offers 5 different types of subscriptions, to be chosen according to your needs.
“Shopify Lite” is the cheapest plan and costs $ 9 per month. This option does not allow the creation of a real independent online store but ,thanks to the “Buy Shopify” button, it allows you to sell your products on an existing website or on a Facebook page.
“Basic Shopify” costs $ 29 per month and allows the creation of your own e-commerce within the platform. The options provided include hosting with unlimited bandwidth, the opportunity to insert all the products you want and a variety of useful features for managing your own online store, such as, for example, abandoned cart, discount codes, basic reports.
“Shopify” costs $79 per month and, compared to the previous plan, it gives you the option to receive professional reports on the activity progress and to use gift cards.
“Advanced Shopify” costs $299 per month and, compared to the previous version, it offers shipping discounts, advanced reporting, and third-party calculated shipping rates.
Finally, Shopify Plus, priced around $2000, offers more security options, as well as dedicated account management.
Source
https://it.shopify.com/prezzi (Prices of the subscriptions in the article are updated as of May 21, 2021)
Squarespace
Squarespace also offers five types of subscription:
Personal at a cost of $16 per month ($12 per year). This plan is suitable for those interested in creating their own website without e-commerce features, as this plan does not allow the sale of products.
Business at the cost of $26 per month ($18 per year), more suitable for businesses that want to integrate a small e-commerce in their website. This plan, compared to the versions with a higher cost, will charge a 3% commission on every purchase made on the site.
“Base Commerce” at a cost of $30 per month ($26 per year), which, in addition to the previous plan, offers a report for the analysis of sales. This plan, compared to the business version, is more suitable for those who want to have a more structured e-commerce, as the plan also offers tools such as abandoned cart.
“Advanced Commerce”, at a cost of $54 per month, offers additional services such as real-time courier shipping, advanced discounts and the ability to distribute gift cards. Besides, the plan offers more services that can be used on their social channels, giving the opportunity, for example, to tag their products on Instagram.
“Squarespace Select” addresses to business users. This service provides an account manager, priority support, SEO and design consultancy. However, the price of this service is not fixed and depends on the customer’s needs.
SquareSpace offers four online payment services: Paypal, Stripe, Afterpay and Apple Pay (and Square for those based in the United States).
Source
https://it.squarespace.com/prezzi (Prices of the subscriptions in the article are updated as of May 21, 2021)
Comparing Subscriptions
The main difference between the subscription options offered by the two competitors is that, while all the options offered by Shopify are focused on e-commerce activities, with a variety of tools depending on the chosen subscription, Squarespace, in the two most cheapest options, offers tools that could mainly satisfy those who are not interested in creating an e-commerce or those who have an interest in doing it with a limited number of products. In fact, Squarespace offers basic tools for the creation of an e-commerce starting from the “Base Commerce” plan.
Available Tools and Functions
Shopify
The greatest potential of Shopify concerns tools that give the users the opportunity of creating an e-commerce for selling products all over the world.
In fact, among the main strengths of this platform, is a high level of security, the possibility of paying with a wide range of currencies and the opportunity of integration with a variety of third-party apps that extend the functionality of your store according to your needs.
Although not always easy to use, the back office tools have been created precisely to give users the opportunity to enhance their products and analyze users’ behaviour by generating reports on sales. For example, you can create a catalog of products indicating their different features, such as color and size, differentiating the price and associating each version with certain tags in order to facilitate searches.
Tutorials provided by Shopify on building pages and tools for manage own shop.
Squarespace
Compared to other online competitors, one of the strengths of Squarespace is offering their users valid design solutions where to display their products. In fact, whoever uses this CSM can choose among a great variety of preset website templates and easy-to-use widgets, to add elements such as text and images.
Although many of the websites and e-commerces created through Squarespace have an appealing design, the creation of content and the website customization is easy and intuitive. Besides, the tools offered by the CSM to create and manage the blog section are of great help to improve SEO and increase visibility in search engines.
By contrast, the integration of third-party apps and the website code change seems to be harder. If this feature precludes greater customization, on the other hand it requires less maintenance.
Squarespace also offers less functions in favor of a greater ease of use. For this reason it might be considered a good choice for beginners o for those who want to exploit the potential provided by blog management tools, in order to enhance not only their products, but also their business in a more local and distinct context.
Comparing Tools
According to their nature and tools offered, Shopify might be considered a better choice for businesses that need to manage more complex and international e-commerces, while Squarespace is a more suitable platform for smaller businesses, with a limited number of products to be displayed in a more appealing way, thanks to CMS tools that prioritise design and ease of use.
Customer Support
Shopify
Shopify’s assistance service offers different options to its users. In fact, Shopify’s users can forward their requests in many ways such as email / phone or a support ticket. In addition to traditional tools, such as the service center, Shopify also offers a tool called Shopify Academy, a platform that hosts a number of free workshops regarding the creation of an e-commerce, product management and the use of different tools.
Squarespace
Squarespace offers a chat support, active from Monday to Friday, from 4 AM to 8 PM EST (Estern Standard Time), and a dedicated forum (https://forum.squarespace.com/) to help its users solve any kind of doubt. The forum is available in English; plus, unlike other competitors, at the moment Squarespace does not offer telephone support to its clients.
Comparing Assistance
The customer support provided by the companies seems to reflect the nature of the clients the platforms address to. While Shopify offers their users a multilingual assistance service with a wider range of functions, suitable to cope with more complex requests and businesses, SquareSpace offers a more basic type of assistance.
A Short Comparison
Squarespace can be considered as a valid and easy-to-use tool for smaller businesses, starting to approach the world of e-commerce. In fact, subscription plans are more affordable, as well as operating costs, also because there is no possibility of integrating the online store with third-party softwares. Besides, the provided website creating tools are easy to use and allow the user to create a website without need (and costs) of an expert.
On the contrary, Shopify is more suitable for bigger and more structured businesses, with a greater number of products to be displayed and with a vocation for international sales: not only managing a Shopify e-commerce can be quite elaborate, but it is also much more expensive. In fact, their subscription plans are usually more expensive in comparison with other competitors, and the online store can be implemented with third-party apps. Besides, the operations required to create and manage the e-commerce are not easy for anyone to use and can require the help of an expert.
