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Ecwid vs Squarespace
May 21, 2023 | Author: Sandeep Sharma
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E-commerce SaaS service that offers the performance and flexibility you need, with none of the hassles you don't. Works with your existing site, takes less than 5 minutes to set up. Web, Facebook and mobile devices
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Whether you need simple pages, striking galleries, a professional blog, or an online store, it's all included with your Squarespace website. Unlike alternatives in Squarespace everything is mobile-ready right from the start. Creating your website with Squarespace is a simple, intuitive process. Just add and arrange your content and features anywhere you want with the click of a mouse.
Ecwid and Squarespace are two popular platforms that offer e-commerce capabilities to businesses looking to sell products online. Here are some key differences between them:
1. Integration: Ecwid is primarily an e-commerce solution that integrates with various website builders, including Squarespace. It allows users to add an online store to their existing website, blog, or social media platforms seamlessly. On the other hand, Squarespace is a comprehensive website builder that includes e-commerce functionality as part of its platform. It provides a unified experience for building a website and managing an online store.
2. Website Design and Customization: Squarespace offers a wide range of professionally designed templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, allowing businesses to create visually appealing websites. It provides extensive customization options, enabling users to create a unique and branded online presence. Ecwid focuses more on the e-commerce functionality rather than website design, allowing businesses to embed an online store into their existing website while maintaining its look and feel.
3. E-commerce Features: Squarespace provides a comprehensive set of built-in e-commerce features, including product management, inventory tracking, flexible shipping options, and secure payment gateways. It offers a seamless integration between the website and the online store, providing a cohesive customer experience. Ecwid offers a robust set of e-commerce features as well, including inventory management, order management, multi-channel selling, and various payment options. It also provides additional functionality through its app marketplace, allowing users to enhance their store's capabilities with third-party integrations.
4. Pricing: Squarespace offers tiered pricing plans that include both website building and e-commerce features. The pricing is all-inclusive, with no additional transaction fees, making it easier to budget for online selling. Ecwid, on the other hand, offers a freemium model, with a free plan available for businesses with a limited number of products. It offers various premium plans with additional features and functionality, and transaction fees may apply based on the chosen payment gateway.
5. Target Audience: Squarespace caters to businesses and individuals looking for a comprehensive website builder with integrated e-commerce capabilities. It is suitable for small to medium-sized businesses that want an all-in-one solution for their online presence. Ecwid, on the other hand, is popular among small businesses, individual entrepreneurs, or businesses that already have an established website and are looking to add e-commerce functionality.
See also: Top 10 Online Store Builders
1. Integration: Ecwid is primarily an e-commerce solution that integrates with various website builders, including Squarespace. It allows users to add an online store to their existing website, blog, or social media platforms seamlessly. On the other hand, Squarespace is a comprehensive website builder that includes e-commerce functionality as part of its platform. It provides a unified experience for building a website and managing an online store.
2. Website Design and Customization: Squarespace offers a wide range of professionally designed templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, allowing businesses to create visually appealing websites. It provides extensive customization options, enabling users to create a unique and branded online presence. Ecwid focuses more on the e-commerce functionality rather than website design, allowing businesses to embed an online store into their existing website while maintaining its look and feel.
3. E-commerce Features: Squarespace provides a comprehensive set of built-in e-commerce features, including product management, inventory tracking, flexible shipping options, and secure payment gateways. It offers a seamless integration between the website and the online store, providing a cohesive customer experience. Ecwid offers a robust set of e-commerce features as well, including inventory management, order management, multi-channel selling, and various payment options. It also provides additional functionality through its app marketplace, allowing users to enhance their store's capabilities with third-party integrations.
4. Pricing: Squarespace offers tiered pricing plans that include both website building and e-commerce features. The pricing is all-inclusive, with no additional transaction fees, making it easier to budget for online selling. Ecwid, on the other hand, offers a freemium model, with a free plan available for businesses with a limited number of products. It offers various premium plans with additional features and functionality, and transaction fees may apply based on the chosen payment gateway.
5. Target Audience: Squarespace caters to businesses and individuals looking for a comprehensive website builder with integrated e-commerce capabilities. It is suitable for small to medium-sized businesses that want an all-in-one solution for their online presence. Ecwid, on the other hand, is popular among small businesses, individual entrepreneurs, or businesses that already have an established website and are looking to add e-commerce functionality.
See also: Top 10 Online Store Builders
Ecwid vs Squarespace in our news:
2023. Squarespace acquires Google Domains
Squarespace, a website building platform, has acquired Google Domains from Google for $180 million, leading to Google's exit from the domain name registration business. Squarespace will now take over as the domain name registrar for the existing 10.1 million domains registered with Google Domains. This acquisition positions Squarespace as one of the world's largest domain name registrars, trailing only GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Tucows in terms of total registered domains. Google initially launched Google Domains in 2014, but it remained in beta until March 2022. The service was primarily seen by Google as a means to enhance its business email and app product, Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite), as indicated by the sales copy on the Google Domains website.
2021. Lightspeed buys Ecwid for $500M
Lightspeed is continuing its acquisition streak by adding two more companies to its portfolio. The Canadian point-of-sale software provider has acquired the e-commerce platform Ecwid for $500 million and NuOrder, a B2B ordering platform catering to wholesalers, brands, and retailers, for $425 million. Ecwid has established itself over the years as a prominent partner of Facebook, assisting small businesses in creating commerce experiences on the social media platform. It has expanded its services to support merchants using platforms such as Square, Wix, Instagram, and Google, sometimes in competition with, but also potentially integrating with, other e-commerce backends like Shopify.
2020. Squarespace adds support for memberships and paywalled content
Squarespace is introducing a new revenue-generating feature for websites built on its platform: Member Areas, enabling businesses to monetize exclusive content. This opens up possibilities for various scenarios, such as online publications implementing article paywalls, chefs offering paid access to cooking videos and recipes, or fitness instructors generating income from online classes. Squarespace supports different membership levels and facilitates the creation of member-only podcasts and newsletters. Moreover, site creators gain access to CRM data pertaining to each member, with plans to introduce additional segmentation tools in the future.
2020. Web store building startup Ecwid raises $42M
Ecwid, a startup specializing in e-commerce tools, has successfully raised $42 million. The company offers direct sales of its e-commerce solutions and also partners with platforms like Square and Wix, enabling businesses to create their own e-commerce experiences on websites, apps, and various online channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and Google. Ecwid belongs to a group of e-commerce companies, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, which have capitalized on the growth of online shopping in the past decade. These platforms have played a crucial role in helping small and medium-sized brick-and-mortar businesses transition into the digital economy. Notably, Ecwid's pricing structure emphasizes accessibility, with a starting option that allows shopping on a website featuring 10 or fewer products available for free.
2018. Squarespace introduced Conversion Metrics
The introduction of new Conversion Metrics in Squarespace provides valuable insights into the performance of buttons and forms, allowing you to assess visitor engagement and interaction on your website. These metrics enable you to understand how visitors engage with your website, whether it's by contacting you, booking services, subscribing to your mailing list, or responding to an event invitation. The Conversion Metrics offer features like Pinpoint engagement, Spot patterns, and Filter by device, providing comprehensive information to identify opportunities for optimizing conversions. Armed with this data, you can confidently make informed changes to forms and buttons, test alternative versions, refine their placement, choose effective wording, and experiment with different styling options. By leveraging these metrics, you can enhance the user experience and maximize the conversion potential of your website.
2017. Squarespace released new analytics app
The newly launched Squarespace Analytics app for iOS and Android allows users to conveniently access essential insights and website analytics from any location and at any time. This app simplifies the process of incorporating analytics into daily workflows by presenting comprehensive business metrics through a user-friendly dashboard that has been specifically designed for smaller screens. Users can effortlessly check key metrics at a glance and further explore more detailed views to gain actionable insights. The app now includes a range of newly added metrics that offer the same comprehensive analytics available on desktop but with the convenience of mobile accessibility. Additionally, the app introduces an enhanced date picker feature, enabling users to access a broader range of historical data and select from new time frames or set custom date ranges.
2017. Squarespace introduced Gift Cards for Online Stores
Squarespace has recently introduced digital gift cards for Squarespace Online Stores, providing merchants with an additional means to boost sales and attract new customers. Selling gift cards offers various advantages beyond revenue generation. It encourages customers to spend more, as they often exceed the card's initial value. Furthermore, gift cards facilitate last-minute shopping, promote brand recognition, and help reduce return rates. Seamlessly integrated into your store, digital gift cards can be purchased and redeemed like any other product. This feature is accessible to all users on the Commerce Advanced plan, regardless of their location or the currency supported by Squarespace Commerce.
2017. Squarespace adds checkout on your domain for Online Stores
Online stores hosted on the Squarespace platform now have the capability to provide secure checkout directly on their domains. With the introduction of "Checkout on Your Domain," customers can complete their purchases without being redirected to a third-party website for the checkout process. This ensures that the entire shopping experience remains within one domain, resulting in a consistent visual presentation and instilling a stronger sense of security for customers. "Checkout on Your Domain" is a feature available in the Advanced Commerce plan and is automatically activated for websites with SSL enabled. SSL is a complimentary feature for all Squarespace websites and can be enabled by navigating to Settings > Security & SSL. By securing your site and activating SSL, customers who are ready to make a purchase will be seamlessly directed to a checkout page on your domain, accessible via a URL such as https://yourdomain.com/checkout.
2016. Squarespace integrates with Paypal
Squarespace is introducing PayPal integration for its Online Stores, making it effortless to incorporate PayPal as a payment option, regardless of whether you're a new business or have been operating a store for an extended period. By integrating PayPal, a trusted, secure, and user-friendly payment method, you can expand your sales potential by offering shoppers an additional payment choice and by accessing a broader global customer base. This collaboration simplifies international transactions, providing a seamless integration that allows you to concentrate on crafting a visually appealing brand and expanding your business. Additionally, the partnership grants you access to PayPal solutions that can further enhance your business's success, such as PayPal One TouchTM, PayPal Credit, and comprehensive Purchase and Seller protection services.
2016. Squarespace provides free SSL
SSL is now offered for free on all Squarespace websites. This means that millions of additional domains on the Internet will benefit from SSL encryption, providing our customers with the assurance and trust that secure websites offer to users. By facilitating this easy transition, Squarespace takes care of most of the process, ensuring a seamless experience for customers. To efficiently manage SSL certificates for all our websites, we have partnered with Let's Encrypt, a free and open certificate authority (CA) dedicated to the public's welfare, offering free SSL certificates. Additionally, websites hosted on Squarespace may experience improved search rankings as an added advantage.
