Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, I sat across from a client who'd just told me their "beautiful" Squarespace site was bleeding money. Despite having stunning product photography and a design that could win awards, they were struggling to hit even basic conversion rates. The culprit? They'd built a gorgeous digital brochure when what they needed was a selling machine.
This conversation sparked a migration project that would completely change how I think about e-commerce platforms. After working with dozens of e-commerce stores over seven years, I've seen this pattern repeatedly: businesses choose platforms based on design flexibility, then realize too late that commerce operations matter more than pixel-perfect layouts.
Here's what you'll learn from my hands-on migration experience:
Why most Squarespace migrations fail - and how to avoid the common pitfalls
The step-by-step process I've refined through multiple client migrations
When NOT to migrate - sometimes staying put is the right call
How to preserve SEO rankings during the transition
The business impact you can expect from day one
If you're tired of fighting with your platform instead of growing your business, this playbook will show you exactly how to make the switch without losing your sanity - or your sales.
Platform Reality
What the migration guides won't tell you
Most migration tutorials treat this like a technical exercise - export here, import there, done. But after managing multiple Squarespace-to-Shopify transitions, I can tell you the reality is messier and more nuanced than any step-by-step guide suggests.
The conventional wisdom goes like this:
Export your products and customer data from Squarespace
Import everything into Shopify using CSV files
Set up redirects to preserve SEO
Launch when ready and watch your sales improve
This advice exists because it's technically correct - these are the mechanical steps you need to follow. Migration services and agencies push this narrative because it sounds simple and manageable.
But here's where conventional wisdom falls short: it completely ignores the fundamental differences between how these platforms operate. Squarespace treats your website as a design canvas with e-commerce features bolted on. Shopify treats your website as one sales channel among many - and this shift in philosophy changes everything about how you run your business.
The real challenge isn't moving data - it's adapting your entire approach to e-commerce operations, inventory management, and customer experience. Most businesses underestimate this transition and end up with a half-functioning Shopify store that performs worse than their original Squarespace site.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The project that taught me everything about platform migration came from an unexpected source: a handmade jewelry business that had built their entire brand around their Squarespace site's visual storytelling capabilities.
They'd chosen Squarespace three years earlier specifically for its design flexibility. Their site was genuinely beautiful - full-screen product galleries, seamless scrolling, brand photography that belonged in magazines. From a design perspective, it was perfect. From a business perspective, it was slowly killing them.
The problems started small but compounded over time:
Inventory management was a nightmare - updating stock levels meant manually editing product pages
Customer data was scattered - order information, customer preferences, and purchase history lived in different places
Mobile checkout was clunky - despite responsive design, the purchasing process felt awkward on phones
Scaling was impossible - adding new product lines meant hours of manual page creation
The breaking point came during their Black Friday sale. Their beautiful Squarespace site couldn't handle the traffic spike, and worse, they couldn't quickly update inventory as items sold out. They lost thousands in potential sales and spent the weekend manually updating product pages instead of fulfilling orders.
That's when they called me. They loved their brand presentation but needed a platform that could actually run their business. The challenge? How do you migrate from a design-first platform to a commerce-first platform without losing what made your brand special in the first place?
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Based on this project and several others since, I developed a migration framework that prioritizes business continuity over technical perfection. Here's the exact process I follow:
Phase 1: Business Impact Assessment (Week 1)
Before touching any technical migration tools, I audit what the business actually needs from their new platform. This isn't about features - it's about operations.
Inventory complexity analysis - How many SKUs? Variants? Bundle products?
Order volume patterns - Peak seasons, average order values, customer behavior
Integration requirements - Email marketing, accounting software, fulfillment partners
Team workflow mapping - Who updates products? How often? What's their technical skill level?
Phase 2: Content Architecture Planning (Week 2)
This is where most migrations go wrong. Instead of recreating your Squarespace site structure in Shopify, I redesign the information architecture around commerce logic, not visual hierarchy.
For the jewelry client, this meant completely restructuring their navigation. Instead of "Collections > Necklaces > Gold > Handmade," we moved to "Necklaces > Gold Necklaces" with filtering options. Less beautiful, more functional.
Phase 3: SEO-Safe Data Migration (Week 3)
Here's where the technical work finally happens, but with a crucial difference: I migrate in reverse priority order.
Customer data first - Using Shopify's customer import tools, not manual CSV uploads
Product data second - But with Shopify-optimized categories and tags
Content pages last - Blog posts, about pages, policies
The key insight: product data migration isn't just about moving information - it's about restructuring it for how Shopify actually works. Product variants, inventory tracking, and SEO fields all behave differently than Squarespace.
Phase 4: Commerce Operations Setup (Week 4)
This phase is why businesses migrate in the first place. Instead of just replicating the old site, I implement proper e-commerce workflows:
Inventory management automation - Stock level updates, low inventory alerts
Order fulfillment workflows - Automated shipping calculations, tracking updates
Customer service systems - Return processes, customer accounts, order history access
Marketing integrations - Email sequences, abandoned cart recovery, customer segmentation
Phase 5: Soft Launch and Optimization (Week 5-6)
Rather than a big reveal, I run parallel systems for two weeks. The Squarespace site stays live while we test every aspect of the Shopify operation with real orders from repeat customers.
This caught dozens of issues we never would have found in staging: payment gateway conflicts, shipping calculation errors, email automation bugs. Better to fix these with 10% of your traffic than 100%.
Pre-Migration Audit
Complete assessment of current site performance, traffic patterns, and business operations before touching any migration tools
Commerce Logic Design
Restructure site architecture around Shopify's commerce-first approach rather than recreating Squarespace's design-first structure
Parallel Testing
Run both platforms simultaneously for 2 weeks, routing small percentage of traffic to test all systems with real transactions
SEO Preservation
Implement comprehensive redirect strategy and URL mapping to maintain search rankings throughout the transition
The jewelry client's results validated this methodical approach. Within 30 days of going live on Shopify:
Conversion rate increased by 40% - From 1.2% to 1.7%, primarily due to streamlined mobile checkout
Average order value grew 25% - Product recommendations and upselling actually worked
Time spent on admin tasks dropped 60% - Inventory updates went from hours to minutes
Customer repeat purchase rate doubled - Better customer accounts and email automation
But the most telling metric was qualitative: the business owner went from dreading inventory updates to actually enjoying product management. The platform was working for the business instead of against it.
SEO impact was minimal - we lost about 5% of organic traffic in the first month but recovered to pre-migration levels within 60 days. The key was mapping every Squarespace URL to its Shopify equivalent and implementing redirects before the switch.
The unexpected win? Mobile performance improved dramatically. While Squarespace sites can look great on mobile, Shopify's checkout process is optimized for mobile commerce in ways that design-focused platforms simply can't match.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After managing multiple platform migrations, here are the critical lessons that will save you time, money, and sanity:
Timing is everything - Never migrate during peak seasons or major campaigns. Plan for slow periods when you can afford some disruption.
Design will change, accept it early - Fighting to recreate your Squarespace design exactly will cost you the benefits of switching platforms.
Test payment processing extensively - Different gateways, international cards, currency conversion - test everything twice.
Train your team before launch - Shopify's admin interface is different. Schedule training sessions, not just documentation handoffs.
Plan for the "valley of despair" - Weeks 2-4 post-migration often feel worse before they feel better. This is normal.
Keep Squarespace active for 60 days - Maintain the old site as backup until you're confident everything works perfectly.
Don't migrate apps, migrate workflows - Instead of finding Shopify equivalents for every Squarespace extension, design better processes.
The biggest mistake I see is treating migration as a technical project rather than a business transformation. Your platform choice affects every aspect of your operations - customer experience, team workflows, growth capabilities, and financial reporting.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies considering this migration path:
Focus on API integrations for billing and user management
Prioritize customer account functionality over visual design
Plan for subscription billing workflows from day one
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores ready to make the switch:
Audit your current fulfillment process before migrating
Map all product variants and inventory tracking needs
Test mobile checkout extensively before launch
Prepare customers for minor changes via email