Curious -- where do you host your website?

[mickPOWR]

Are you guys hosting your website with Square or using only their POS? 

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Hey @mickPOWR.  I’m not a retail store, but I do have an online store for my ice cream shop.  I used to use Weebly (before it was acquired by Square).  But I moved it to Square Online’s builder and hosting services.  Mostly I did this just to consolidate the number of vendors I was using for everything, as I’ve done with other Square services over time — like Payroll, team management, marketing, etc.  For me, it’s about convenience and simplification.

[mickPOWR]

@TheRealChipA thanks for the reply. I knew that Square had acquired Weebly some time ago, and I assume a lot of those folks would move their site over. I host my site on Wix but I use Square POS, so I was just wondering if there was an advantage for doing all the things in the same place. Migrating a website is a LOT of work though ugh

[TheRealChipA]

@mickPOWR It’s a lot of work for sure.  But it can be worth it.  For example, Square Online is tightly integrated with the rest of the Square ecosystem.  This means that when you make changes to your items in your POS those same changes are  made to your online store.  For retailers, the biggest obvious advantage is that you don’t need to make products additions/changes in two places.  I looked at the Wix/Square integration, and it doesn’t seem to offer item syncing, for example, so you could save serious time doing this if you have constantly evolving inventory.

That being said, you’d want to seriously look at the Wix store features that you use and make a list.  Then, you could create yourself a test store in Square (use a free .square.site subdomain) and ensure that critical features exist in Square for your store.  A lot depends on why you are using Wix and how much you use features that might be unique to them.  Everyone is different here.  

In my case, as an ice cream shop, I decided to cut my losses and just create a site/store from scratch so that I could explore what Square could do for me as I went along.  I kept my old store in place while I built my new one.  That way, if I ran into a roadblock that was unacceptable to me, the only thing I lost was my time.  Fortunately, I found that Square gave me more features and capabilities that Weebly or others I had looked at.  I have to admit, however, that my needs are few and straightforward, and my online store only exists for my customers’ pre-ordering habits.  Mine is a low-volume store so my experiences won’t necessarily line up with yours.

There are advantages to doing things in one place.  But there are sometimes disadvantages, too.  You have to weigh the pros and cons and determine whether you want to switch or not.  If you have specific questions I (or others I know here) would be willing to assist you and answer those.  But this is as much as I can really say when we are talking theoretically and not practically.  Let me know if you need anything else.

[Candlestore]

@mickPOWR ;

Depending on what your are selling, Items verses a service it sometimes is better to have this all under one roof.  With retail it gets complicated using A POS, A different Webhost, which may or may not integrate with your payment processor.  Then you need integrations from Web Host and from Payment processor and any other channels to record these payments (income) to an accounting program.  With selling items you need stock counts of said item, using different providers adds another step to keeping Website Inventory and Retail Inventory levels in check.  If you use one processor that does your website this, if setup right can be done though this 1 provider.  With Services you may not need to track Inventory levels, but how many sites do you need to log into to seeing if you have appoints for your service today?  Did you take some with your POS and also get some through your web Host?  If everything is under one roof, its easy to log in to 1 account and see everything.  Also accounting for this would be easier under one roof also as you accounting package only needs one integration and not getting 1099's from multiple sources.  I have my Website hosted outside of Square.  So when I make a sale online I need to subtract what was sold online from my Square Inventory.  When Square integrated for Payments with my online store, Square would just show the total amount of the online sale as a Custom amount, with no items being sold.  So with help, I got a system where I would export my Square Items sales, My online Item Sales then import both these to my Accounting package to get the remaining inventory levels to export back to my Square POS and my Online store.  Alot of time and work that would not be need if my Online Store and My POS were under one company.  

[Bronze_Palms]

I found the same - the more I could keep in one place, the better. Do you find analytics tracking is robust enough on square?

[TheRealChipA]

Honestly, since I don’t have a retail online store, my analytics tracking is pretty simple.  I just want to know basic site traffic, page traffic and most importantly the sources of visits to my website.  Square handles that just fine.  If I were a retail shop with a bustling online store I might have other needs.  Anyway, I’ve never looked at Square Online’s analytics tracking that closely.

[JessPoynter]

I have a website hosted on Wix and then use Square POS. 
I have tried having my website through Wix, but for services and Appointment-based businesses, Online doesn't have quite what I need yet. When I launch my retail line later this year I will have that one Online instead of hosting with Wix. 

[CareyJo]

We use Wix.  We only use Square for POS and we do that on our phones.

[JUYBoutique20]

I use Square online and the pos system...I love having everything in one place.  Also, if you're a product-based store whenever you update anything in your library it automatically updates throughout square.  

[indianathomas]

A few years ago, we migrated from WordPress and GoDaddy to Square Online, and honestly, the decision came down to one core principle: vertical integration rules.

When we were using WordPress with Square plugins and third-party tools, things would break constantly—whether it was inventory not syncing, checkout issues, or feature incompatibilities. We were often stuck waiting for updates, patches, or support from multiple sources just to keep things running smoothly.

Switching to Square Online allowed us to stay one step ahead of updates and changes because everything is built to work together from the start. That’s the power of vertical integration—having all critical tools lined up in one system so your online strategy flows seamlessly.

For us, that includes:

• Marketing

• Loyalty

• Inventory syncing

• Delivery

• Our App

• Customer list management

It’s all in one place and working together without a hitch. The only things we don’t currently run through Square are inventory management and HR, as we feel Square still has some catching up to do there.

But for everything else, Square Online has been great. If your business relies on tight coordination between online and in-store, I highly recommend considering the switch.

[BofBArtStudio]

We use a WordPress website and square POS. 

We use a third party application to integrate the two so that our website and our POS always keep the inventory current. 

We started out 11 years ago before square had an online option. Therefore we have not moved to square online. 

One day we might move to square online if some of their features become more fitting for what we do such as events and inventory.  We love Square and like to have all of our features in one place whenever possible.

For now, though, our WordPress site works perfectly and integrates with square to keep inventory and events current.

[rtfulk]

We moved from Shopify to Square, I know Square doesn't have as many apps as shopify but having our inventory synced through the website and POS is a big plus for us. We also have a website with CommentSold, that is because we do live shows and that runs through CommentSold. CommentSold has an app that syncs with square so all our items are synced.

[akramer]

This is such a timely question for me; I'm struggling with this challenge as well. I had previously hosted my website on Squarespace (better design, flexibility, galleries, etc); and I was able to do some online sales there as well. But easily 75% of my annual revenue comes from in-person sales at art festivals, and for that Square is the clear winner.

Additionally, I wanted a really robust email marketing platform to provide a single source of customer truth, from which to communicate and track engagement, sales history, etc. So I started with Mailchimp to run email marketing campaigns. My thinking was that I could integrate both my Square POS data and my Squarespace online sales data into Mailchimp, and Mailchimp would effectively be my central dashboard.

SO WRONG. Do not do this. Learn from my dozens of hours of lost time and hair-pulling; trying to integrate these three tools is a recipe for madness. Months later now I have ditched Squarespace entirely and have set up a fairly rudimentary website on Square (could be better I know, still fiddling with it; I was correct in that it's considerably less intuitive and slick than Squarespace).  I'm down to just Square and Mailchimp -- and even this is giving me fits. One of these tools has to go; or maybe both.

My question for this group now is this: has anyone had experience working with the Square email marketing tools? What is your takeaway about their usefulness? I am very seriously considering ditching both Square and Mailchimp in favor of starting afresh with Shopify -- a platform that makes much of its wholly integrated end-to-end sales and marketing, without having to shoehorn this or that extra feature into the mix from elsewhere. Of course that's a huge undertaking. Talk me out of it? 

[BofBArtStudio]

@akramer ,

We switched from mailchimp to square marketing several years ago, and we send out a newsletter every week, typically on Tuesday, and it is Great.   I love that all of our customers are already there and we don't have to integrate them over to another platform. 

The features that are available for laying out the newsletter are good.

It does take a bit of getting used to when you're already used to MailChimp. But once you get used to the method and the layout, it's great.

[Amyeichlerart]

We need to connect! I'm also currently dealing with the artist struggles of juggling Square, Squarespace, and Mailchimp, and while each have tried to do an e-commerce/web design/email marketing bundle, I'm still using them separately for their actual strengths.  I'd love to chat with other artists through these issues!

[bonny]

You have a duplication of services if you are using all of those tools.  Both Square and Squarespace offer email services, both similar yet different. I don't use Mailchimp so I can't compare but if it's primary purpose is to communicate with your customers, you can do that in Square or Squarespace.  Both offer a solid e-commerce platform to work with.  If you have both going at the same time, I wouldn't say it's a duplication of services but there is significant overlap.  It's enough that you should ponder which one serves your purpose best and focus your energies on streamlining on that platform.  Or maybe there's something unique each platform offers. I'd really do some deep diving to figure out which one checks most of the boxes and focus your efforts there.  

Bonny Wagoner - Artist/Illustrator

PS - my disclaimer: I use both Square and Squarespace.  Squarespace is primarily for my on-line retail sales. I lean on Square more for my wholesale side of the house but I use Square for my in-person event transactions. 

[Fetched-Up]

Depends on what is most important to you.  You indicated 75% is done via in person, so I would assume the POS is most important.  Not sure if you are using free version of Square or a paid version; we use retail plus with Square Register.

We have a retail store front, so the POS is important as well as inventory integration online.  We use loyalty, email marketing, messages plus and text message marketing.  All these add up monthly, but complete integration is very useful.  We can track all of our conversations with clients or potential clients.  Marketing campaigns show attributable sales.  We also have our own 800 number, so customers know it isn't spam. 

The campaign editor isn't as flexible as mailchimp, but it works well enough for us.   We run specials and coupons.  We also use the bounceback (customers that haven't shopped in 45 days).

I looked at migrating to shopify.  Shopify was ecommerce first, POS second.  Square is just the reverse.     

As a side note, we also have Wix for our other business.  Website is much better and the online scheduling booking is what we needed.  We also use their integrated marketing called Ascend, which is similar to Square's.  However, their POS is newer and haven't tried it, but we don't really have a need.  

[kyLisJewelry]

I use the square website, it's free and easier to use in my opinion, i didnt want to pay to have a website I guess it's because I don't make enough on my products to have a paid website 

[gotrisports]

I use Square Marketing to communicate with the customers I have obtained via my storefront. And, I use EmailOctopus to communicate with customers I obtain via events and activities outside the store. I'd like to eliminate the need for two email marketing services - Question: can I import contacts into the Square Marketing database - and, also separate them into categories so I can send email campaigns to each?

[Fetched-Up]

Yes, you can bulk import into the customer directory.  Then you can create groups and use them in marketing campaigns. Then use automations for things like lapsed customers.  No need to have two marketing platforms.