Why stores make the move
The most common reasons are pure ecommerce: growing catalogs that need filters and automated collections, selling in several countries with local prices and currency, wholesale, a connected physical store or a checkout that converts better. Shopify covers all of that natively with Search & Discovery, Markets, B2B, POS and Shopify Payments, and has a much broader app ecosystem.
If your site is mostly content and you sell little, it may not be worth it. If the store is already the center of the business, the migration usually comes later than it should: the longer you wait, the more content and URLs there are to move.
Which data can be moved and which cannot
Squarespace lets you export products to CSV from its commerce panel, as well as customer lists and orders. Check its help center to see which product types each export includes, because not every format exports the same way. Those CSV files do not have the structure Shopify expects, so they need to be transformed: columns, handles, variants and images.
Customer passwords are never migrated in any move to Shopify. On top of that, Shopify's current customer accounts work with email and a one-time code, with no password, so customers sign in with their email without having to create anything new.
Pages and blog posts take more work. Squarespace's content export is designed for other content management systems and does not map directly to Shopify. With a few pages you rebuild them by hand; with a large blog you process the export and import it with a script or a migration app.
- Products and variants: CSV export and transformation
- Customers: imported without passwords
- Historical orders: with a migration app or script
- Pages and blog: rebuilt or imported by script
- Design: built from scratch in Shopify
Variants, options and extra data
Shopify supports a maximum of 3 options per product and up to 2048 variants. If you had products in Squarespace with more combinations, you need to decide how to split them: break them into several products, use one fewer option or move information to metafields.
Data that was written into the description in Squarespace (composition, dimensions, care) is best moved to metafields. That way the theme shows it in the right place, Search & Discovery filters can use it and you no longer depend on every description being written the same way.
Design is not migrated, it is built
Squarespace templates cannot be moved to Shopify. The design is rebuilt as an Online Store 2.0 theme, with sections and blocks your team can edit in the theme editor without touching code. It is a good time to fix what was not working: navigation, product page, cart and mobile version.
If you liked the look of your Squarespace site, you can keep the visual identity. What changes is the structure underneath, which is now built to sell.
Define the sections before designing: which blocks the homepage needs, what information goes on the product page, how collections are presented and which content pages are truly necessary. A theme with just the right sections is faster, easier to maintain and does not force you to install apps to fill gaps.
Payments, taxes and shipping
Store settings are not migrated: they are configured again in Shopify. With Shopify Payments you enable cards and other payment methods without an external gateway, plus Shop Pay as accelerated checkout. If you need a specific method that is not included, you add it with a payment app.
Review taxes with your advisor and configure in Shopify how prices are displayed (with or without IVA, Spanish VAT, included) and which countries you sell to. Shipping is set up by zones and rates; if you want real-time calculated rates from your carrier, they are included in Advanced and Plus; on other plans you will work with flat, weight-based or price-based rates.
It is also a good time to review transactional emails: order confirmation, shipping and returns. Shopify provides them ready-made, but you should adapt them to your brand's tone and look.
URLs and 301 redirects
Shopify uses a fixed URL structure: /products/ for products, /collections/ for collections, /pages/ for pages and /blogs/ for the blog. Squarespace URLs almost never match, so you need to create 301 redirects from each old URL to the new one. Without them, Google loses track of pages that were already ranking and external links return errors.
Build the URL list before touching anything: the Squarespace sitemap, pages with traffic in Search Console and external links. Redirects are added in the URL redirects section of the Shopify admin, one by one or by importing a CSV.
Domain, email and launch
If your domain is registered with Squarespace, you can transfer it to Shopify or another registrar, or simply point its DNS to Shopify. Before changing anything, check whether your business email depends on that domain, so you do not cut off email on launch day.
The recommended order: store built and reviewed in Shopify, a real test purchase, redirects loaded, domain switch and a check in Search Console. During the first weeks, watch for 404 errors and organic traffic to your main pages.
- Full test purchase with several payment methods
- 301 redirects loaded and checked
- Domain pointing to Shopify and email verified
- New sitemap submitted in Search Console
- Pixels and analytics connected
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose rankings when migrating from Squarespace to Shopify?
If 301 redirects are done properly and the titles and content of ranking pages are kept, the impact is usually temporary. Without redirects you do lose traffic.
Can I keep my domain?
Yes. You can transfer it or point its DNS to Shopify. Check first whether your business email depends on that domain.
Will customers have to create a new account?
Not exactly. Passwords are not migrated, but Shopify accounts work with email and a one-time code, so customers sign in with their email.
Can I copy my Squarespace design to Shopify?
Not directly. The theme is built again in Shopify, although the brand's visual identity can be kept.