Moving on up
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Finally, even after all my doubts and reservations I've been able to move from Squarespace to Shopify. Why? Was it easy? How long did it take? Was it easy?
Let start off by saying that Squarespace has been my successful website platform for a few years now. Originally I chose SS(Squarespace) due to it's simplicity and easy of design, so I thought. Wisdom comes with time and trial.
Why would I jump ship and force myself through an emotional Rollercoaster? In short, the list is growing. Shopify IS a commerce platform with all the tools and capabilities. You can find any app to do most anything you want to your sites front and back end. One big reason is support. I don't often need help but when I do it's crucial to get something fixed I screwed up. SS falls way behind. Writing this update I'm still 3 days out from even getting non automated response from a team member. I transfered my domain and they shut down my email threw google workspace even though I'm still paying for it. I'm waiting for someone from SS to get back with me and remove the bounce...
Shopify has a chat button and from what I've experienced it works 24/7. It will show you a few helpful tips as a self service device but an agent is quickly found if you ask. Twice I had issues while transferring and the Shopify reps have resolved my issues both times.
I made the move after being told by other shop owners how much better it is, finding SS is very limited in today's faster paced tech sector. "Shop" is a big part of the move. If you haven't used Shop... what? Shop is a seamless smooth app that ALL Shopify members can utilize for free. There are an endless amount of tools, add ons, and apps you can use for all sort of various tasks. Link shops, share products, affiliate programs, link with Meta, Google shopping etc. Some of this can be done with SS BUT you better know how to code, CSS, code injection... the forums make it look easy but alot of them are out of date.
A notable difference in the 2 is the search bar. SS search results are random at best. If I want to search for a titanium bead on SS site I get a bunch of random products. Shopify on the other hand is accurate and easy.
I started this process a week ago. Yes, the shop is moved and running but I'm still not done. The email is still on hold so I'm using a different Gmail for now. Shopify can be updated using CSV files for orders, products, customer data, and reviews. If you're good with a spreadsheet this is a fast way to keeps things up to date. Unfortunately I was not able to export all data from SS. They don't have a way to export reviews. I just copy and pasted all of them, all 360 of them, one by one. It took a few hours but worth it. Shopify does have many apps for this. They all come at a price but for me I was comfortable just doing it. So to answer the timing question, it's not done yet due to SS lack of response.
Hopefully I've answered the easy part a little. It's not easy to leave SS but much easier to transfer to Shopify. Don't forget there's a friendly support team just a few clicks away to help with anything. I haven't polished and refined my site yet but that will happen in time.
If you've made it this far I hope it's been informative and helpful. Go check out the rest of the site and feel free to send me recommendations
Let start off by saying that Squarespace has been my successful website platform for a few years now. Originally I chose SS(Squarespace) due to it's simplicity and easy of design, so I thought. Wisdom comes with time and trial.
Why would I jump ship and force myself through an emotional Rollercoaster? In short, the list is growing. Shopify IS a commerce platform with all the tools and capabilities. You can find any app to do most anything you want to your sites front and back end. One big reason is support. I don't often need help but when I do it's crucial to get something fixed I screwed up. SS falls way behind. Writing this update I'm still 3 days out from even getting non automated response from a team member. I transfered my domain and they shut down my email threw google workspace even though I'm still paying for it. I'm waiting for someone from SS to get back with me and remove the bounce...
Shopify has a chat button and from what I've experienced it works 24/7. It will show you a few helpful tips as a self service device but an agent is quickly found if you ask. Twice I had issues while transferring and the Shopify reps have resolved my issues both times.
I made the move after being told by other shop owners how much better it is, finding SS is very limited in today's faster paced tech sector. "Shop" is a big part of the move. If you haven't used Shop... what? Shop is a seamless smooth app that ALL Shopify members can utilize for free. There are an endless amount of tools, add ons, and apps you can use for all sort of various tasks. Link shops, share products, affiliate programs, link with Meta, Google shopping etc. Some of this can be done with SS BUT you better know how to code, CSS, code injection... the forums make it look easy but alot of them are out of date.
A notable difference in the 2 is the search bar. SS search results are random at best. If I want to search for a titanium bead on SS site I get a bunch of random products. Shopify on the other hand is accurate and easy.
I started this process a week ago. Yes, the shop is moved and running but I'm still not done. The email is still on hold so I'm using a different Gmail for now. Shopify can be updated using CSV files for orders, products, customer data, and reviews. If you're good with a spreadsheet this is a fast way to keeps things up to date. Unfortunately I was not able to export all data from SS. They don't have a way to export reviews. I just copy and pasted all of them, all 360 of them, one by one. It took a few hours but worth it. Shopify does have many apps for this. They all come at a price but for me I was comfortable just doing it. So to answer the timing question, it's not done yet due to SS lack of response.
Hopefully I've answered the easy part a little. It's not easy to leave SS but much easier to transfer to Shopify. Don't forget there's a friendly support team just a few clicks away to help with anything. I haven't polished and refined my site yet but that will happen in time.
If you've made it this far I hope it's been informative and helpful. Go check out the rest of the site and feel free to send me recommendations