Squarespace Review by the experts at CMS Critic

SQUARESPACEREVIEW

BYCMS CRITIC

http://www.cmscritic.com/squarespace-review-the-long-awaited-commerce-solution/

RELEASED LAST JULY 17, 2012

winner of our 2012 Critics Choice Awards for Best Website Builder.

On Valentine’s day 2013 they released Squarespace Commerce.

"The ability to sell goods from Squarespace has been the most consistently requested feature throughout our history. We’re thrilled to be able to release a commerce offering we’re proud of.” - Anthony Casalena, CEO and Founder of Squarespace.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

No need to download any applications to install on your servers. You do everything via your browser. 

No need for maintenance and updates. You just need to make sure your browser is compatible with Squarespace.

You can use Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox to work with Squarespace 6.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR EDITING

Cookies must be enabled for login purposes. JavaScript must be enabled for the site

manager. Avoid running JavaScript blocking programs,

such as anti-virus software.

SQUARESPACE 6

There are 20 new templates you can use for your blog.

You can change the way your blog is set-up via the 'Blog Settings' button, such as changing the name of the blog.

The + symbol lets you add “Blocks” from images to

quotes, to video and code.

SQUARESPACE 6

The new Layout Engine lets you drop images onto your image blocks and once they are embedded you can drag them around to rearrange 

them in your post.

SQUARESPACE 6

There is a wide variety of social media you can tap into. While you build your website you are offered many ways to integrate your site into the social networks you connect to

your Squarespace account.

SQUARESPACE 6

SQUARESPACE 6

Commerce Section

SQUARESPACE 6

4 step 'Getting Started'

process to get your store up and running

quickly

CREATING PRODUCTS

Click content manager

Click “Add Page”

Click “Products”

You will be asked to enter a name for the page, which will

correspond to the search friendly URL it will create for the page, although if you wish you can

alter this to be different than the page's title if you want. It also gives you the option to set this page as the homepage of your

website.

ADDING PRODUCTS

When the products page is created it creates a new option

under the Top Navigation in the Content Manager called 'Products', which has similar

options to the Inventory page in the Commerce section.

Click “Add Product”

 Lets you describe your product, add images, add

categories for your product, and an option to make the product visible

or not in your store.

EDITING PRODUCTS

EDITING A PRODUCT VARIANT

Click to set price and stock details for each variant

Click to add options to your

items

ADDING A URL AND IMAGE TO YOUR PRODUCTS

 it is set to 'new-product' by default and you can’t edit this, regardless of

what you set your product page URL to be. You will

be able to type something after “new-products”.

Click “Save & Publish” once done

You can view the product you have

added here.

IF YOU MADE IT AVAILABLE SO PEOPLE CAN FIND IT ON YOUR STORE THEN IT WILL ALSO SHOW ON YOUR PRODUCTS PAGE. IF YOU CLICK ON THE PRODUCT IT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

THE SHIPPING PORTION OF THE COMMERCE ENGINE:

Click to add shipping method

ADDING SHIPPING OPTIONS

Lets you set a single price for shipping costs.

Cost will be based on how

heavy a product is.

EDITING THE WEIGHT RANGE RATES FOR SHIPPING

You get the option to set

weight ranges and the rate each one will

cost.

Click to add more options

SETTING COUNTRY RESTRICTIONS

lets you say which countries you will deliver

to.

CREATING COUPONS

You have the option to make your own

coupons for special promotio

ns and sales etc.

TAX RULE EDITING

You can set how much tax will be charged for your products on a state-by-state basis (and is therefore limited to the USA only). They also give you the option to charge sales tax on

the shipping costs.

EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS

you can customise the text that will be sent out to customers, including

header and footer options. There are two

message templates you can tweak for emails that are sent to the customer regarding

order confirmation and shipping.

If you cancel without doing anything, a

message will pop up asking to save or

discard changes even when none had been

made. Just click discard to move on.

SETTINGS

• Set up your Stripe payment account•Support email address•Express checkout option•Set shopping cart to dark or light•Integrate your MailChip newsletter account•Get stock level alerts•Write your own terms of service, privacy, and return policies

THUMBS UP

Create any kind of website regardless of technical ability Caters to developers

You can build your site for free until you go live

Same monthly cost as a low bandwidth Virtual

Private Server

THUMBS DOWN

Payment option is restricted to USA

only

LastPass does not work with the login

form while using Chrome

THANK YOU

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