The Squarespace Guide to Making Your First Sale

Getting started on Squarespace doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Our Squarespace pros are here to guide you through the steps to set up your online store and make your first sale. 

Watch the video above or read the transcript below for tips on how to launch and run your business from anywhere and reach customers everywhere. 

Transcript

Narrator: It's time to get selling. First things first, let's get the boring stuff out of the way. Make sure you have an active payment processor account via a Squarespace-approved partner, such as Stripe, PayPal, or Square, linked to your site [or are connected to Squarespace Payments, our payment solution]. Then, make sure you have an easily identifiable page with answers to any customer questions that might come your way. 

So at the very least, you're gonna wanna list your return policy, contact information, hours of operation and location, subscription policy, and FAQs. Next comes the fun part: telling the world about your business. That means it's time to talk promotion strategies. And of course, what is business promotion without social media? 

Read our guide to building an online store

Brandon Smithwrick: The best teaser content really just is relatable. For example, it's great to look across social and see what your consumer's asking for and how your product will satisfy that need. The best way to really build an engaged audience is to look at your insights. A lot of platforms will tell you what's saveable, what's shareable, what people are engaging with. From that, you really get a good sense of what your audience really wants. 

Ashley Fouyolle: Now for the fun part: the first sale. Social media was a really huge driving force in my business. I was able to talk to my consumers, educate my consumers, and really display the product for all of its worth. When I finished the website, I had a launch date and time in mind, but I made sure that I had a social presence. I made sure that all the images that were on the website were also displayed on social media, so that way, when I was ready to hit “Go Live,” I had an audience that was ready to receive and make a purchase. So on social media, you wanna make sure that you're engaging your audience, communicating your messaging, and building a community. 

Narrator: But don't just take our word for it. With all of your hustling on social, you're gonna wanna give your customers a little extra incentive to buy or subscribe once they make it to your site. So let's talk banners, pop-ups, and discounts. 

Samantha Kogle: Banners and pop-ups are a great tool to use on your website, especially when you need to get the attention of customers. They're easy to use, you can change them whenever you want, and they're super noticeable. 

Discounts can be a little tricky, but when they're used correctly, they can be your best friend. A lot of people like to give discounts for new customers or a first-time purchase. This is a really great way to get somebody who might not be sure about your products to give it a chance. There's also ways to create discounts seasonally, for major events, maybe for a big sale you've been planning. All these are great ways to use discounts that can actually help propel your business forward.

When you're using discounts with Squarespace, you can also check out in the discounts panel who's using it, how many times, and how much is being taken off. This allows you, as the seller, to have more control and understand how your discounts are affecting your business. 

Narrator: And when you're offering any kind of promotion or incentive for customers, don't underestimate the power of an email. Securing a place in someone's inbox is crucial to staying on their radar. Oh, and another thing, have a trusted friend or two click through your site as if they were a customer and call out anything that might need some adjusting or clarification. Having a fresh pair of eyes is invaluable. And finally, as your sales become more consistent, you're going to want to be able to monitor your customers and overall success of your business. So allow us to introduce you to ecommerce analytics. 

Read the guide to email marketing

SK: When you're running a brand new business, analytics can be your best friend and there's definitely a few things you can pay attention to. A couple I like to check would be traffic, (Are people coming to your website?) page views (Which pages do they find most interesting?), and then of course, which products are their favorite?

You can check out all of these things in Squarespace Analytics. I always love looking into page views. It tells me what people are interested in once they land on my website. Are they getting stuck at the home page? Do they go to the about page every time? Or is there one or two product pages that are always the most popular? 

Being able to see your product analytics is really helpful when you're getting started. It helps you understand which products people like, which products people don't like, and maybe what you can do different. One thing that starts selling really well, you can start to experiment and try selling something similar, see if people like that, just the same. 

Narrator: And just like that, you're not only selling products, you're growing a business. Congrats. 

Read our guide to selling online

This post was updated on November 8, 2023.