How to Move From Shopify to Squarespace

Squarespace publishes its own guide for sellers moving from Shopify, and for website content it names exactly two things you can import: your products and your contacts, each downloaded from Shopify as a CSV file. The same guide says your old site's layout, design, fonts and other content can't be imported.

No Shopify Help Center page we have found describes this move (the search is listed in the box further down), so the order of steps across the two platforms is the part you assemble yourself. This guide does that: what Squarespace can hold, what each route moves, and the sequence that keeps your data, your domain and your rankings.

Can Squarespace Hold Your Shopify Store?

Check these limits before you export anything: they decide whether your move is a straight CSV import or a restructuring job first.

The product cap is the one that can stop a move outright. Squarespace says store pages can't exceed the site-wide limit of 10,000 products on version 7.1, so a larger Shopify catalog has to shrink before it fits. The variant cap comes from Squarespace's product options article, and sellers outside the countries Squarespace Payments covers connect a third-party processor instead.

Whether Squarespace is the right platform for you at all, with its fees and plans, is a separate decision that our Squarespace vs Shopify comparison works through before you commit.

Which Squarespace Plan Does a Moved Store Need?

Product import is available on Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced, and on the legacy Business, Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced plans. What differs is the fee: Squarespace charges a commerce fee of 2% on Basic when you sell physical products, downloads or services, and 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced, on top of your payment processor's own rate.

On US month-to-month billing, Basic is $25 and Core $39 a month, according to Squarespace's US price list. That $14 monthly gap is exactly what the 2% fee costs on $700 of monthly sales, so above that level the cheaper plan stops being cheaper. If you need discount codes, Basic is out either way: among current plans, Squarespace lets you create discounts only on Core, Plus and Advanced.

Keeping Shopify Checkout on a Squarespace Site

If what draws you to Squarespace is the design rather than the store, you may not need to move at all. Squarespace says Shopify checkout buttons such as Shop Pay can be added to a site with custom code, and JavaScript in a code block needs the Core, Plus or Advanced plan. That keeps your Shopify store running behind the site; our guide to adding Shopify to an existing website covers the setup.

What Moves From Shopify, and What Do You Rebuild?

Shopify lets you use CSV files for products, customers, inventory, admin and POS users, orders and discounts, the last two as exports only. Squarespace takes two of those back in. The table maps each kind of store data to its route.

Pages and blog posts are the largest manual job for a content-heavy store. Squarespace's guide to moving an existing site imports pages and posts only from WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. Whether Shopify can export them at all is its own question, answered in can you export blog posts, pages and menus from Shopify.

The theme stays behind too. Shopify's theme download includes none of your products, collections, menus, pages or blog posts, and a Theme Store theme is licensed only to the store you bought it for, so the Squarespace design is a rebuild on one of its templates.

Customers Arrive as Mailing-List Contacts

Squarespace's Shopify guide sends your customer file into a mailing list, not into the store. Its Customers panel can't create, import or edit customers by hand; customer contacts are created automatically after a customer checks out. A returning buyer therefore starts a fresh history on the new store.

The subscriber import is strict about the file, so prepare the Shopify export first:

1. Put email addresses in the first column. Squarespace asks you to make sure the first column holds them.
2. Keep first and last names in columns two and three. Any column after the third is ignored, and the first three are imported whatever their titles or contents.
3. Keep each file to 500,000 contacts or fewer.
4. Switch on the consent toggle only for people who agreed to marketing. The toggle confirms you have permission to send them marketing emails.

Which Route Moves Your Product Data?

Squarespace's help gives one route for Shopify products: download a .csv of your products from Shopify and import it. Its import article then tells anyone coming from another platform to start from Squarespace's own CSV template, so plan on mapping Shopify's columns into that template rather than uploading the export untouched.

LitExtension publishes a page for this exact direction, and its price for the service starts at $129 as of November 2026, according to LitExtension's Shopify to Squarespace page, rising with the number of records you move. The same page scopes the route to product data and elsewhere lists customers as contacts only, so get the scope in writing before you pay.

Cart2Cart lists Squarespace as a target you can reach from any other e-commerce platform, through its own Squarespace Migration App installed for the API connection. Its Squarespace page doesn't name Shopify among its most popular directions, so confirm the Shopify direction and the price with Cart2Cart before you plan around it.

One shortcut doesn't exist in this direction. Shopify's Store Migration app imports data from other platforms into Shopify, and its listing names no Squarespace route at all; the history of that app is covered in what replaced the Shopify Store Importer app.

Find Your Route and What You Rebuild

The table above answers by route. The quiz below answers by your store's combination of catalog size, what you sell, who does the work and where your domain is registered, and adds the caveats that apply to you.

In What Order Do You Move?

Squarespace's guide gives the order in one line: once the new site is complete, transfer or connect your domain, then cancel Shopify and publish the new site. Until then it suggests keeping the in-progress site private, so you never have two live stores at once.

The checklist turns that line into ten steps. Steps one and two apply to every route and come before you pay for anything. Step nine depends on the domain: Squarespace redirects only work on a domain connected to the site, so the redirects follow the domain move rather than precede it.

Export Everything While Shopify Is Live

Cancelling Shopify ends your access to the admin at the end of the current billing cycle, so every export happens first, while the store is still running normally.

URLs. Squarespace asks you to record your old site's URLs in a spreadsheet before you migrate, and that list is what you redirect from later. You don't have to collect it by hand: every Shopify store generates a sitemap.xml file at the root of its domain, such as example.com/sitemap.xml, which links to separate sitemaps for your products, collections, blogs and pages.

Product images need the most care. Shopify's product CSV doesn't contain the images, only links to them, and a new store generates them only while they stay viewable on a publicly accessible website. Squarespace's importer reads images from web URLs and then hosts the files itself, so the order matters.

Products. In your Shopify admin, go to Products, click Export, choose All products and a CSV type, then click Export products. SEO titles and descriptions are filled in only for products where you edited them by hand. If a large catalog fails with “There was an error exporting your products”, filter the list and export it as several smaller files.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Products

Zoom

Customers. Go to Customers, click Export, choose All customers, then click Export customers; the customer export downloads in your browser for up to 50 customers and arrives by email above that. Exported customer files are limited to 15 MB, and the dialog lists what every export includes by default, marketing consent among it.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Customers

Zoom

Orders. From the Orders page, click Export, then choose All orders, or Orders by date with start and end dates that cover the period you want to keep. The order export downloads to your device for up to 50 orders or the current page, and larger or by-date exports are emailed to you and the store owner.

Orders with several line items take several rows. Keep this file: the Squarespace help we read describes no import of order history from Shopify (see the box above).

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Orders

Zoom

Discount codes and gift cards. On the Discounts page, click Export: Shopify lets you export discounts only to a CSV, so this file is a list to re-create from.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Discounts

Zoom

Gift cards export from Products > Gift cards, but the standard export shows only the last 4 characters of each code, and Shopify's gift card help says to issue new codes when needed if you move cards to another system. Squarespace says it can't accept gift cards from a different platform and recommends discounts with unique promo codes for unused balances, which need the Core plan or higher.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Products
2. Gift cards

Zoom

Build and Import on a Private Squarespace Site

Every Squarespace site begins with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required, and Squarespace's trial rules shape the build: a trial site can't accept payments, only paid sites can be public, and Google Search Console can't verify a trial until you upgrade. You can extend the trial by seven days, but when it expires the site isn't made public and all content is marked for permanent deletion, so upgrade before that date.

Create the store page first. Squarespace's product import article asks for a store whose URL and categories match the Product Page and Category columns of your file, and the template for imports from another platform sits in the Products panel under Import, then Download CSV template. These rules catch Shopify files most often:

• One-time import: nothing syncs with Shopify afterwards.
• Images from web URLs only: you can't upload them from your hard drive into the file.
• Variant images and featured images: the file can't set either, so you add them by hand.
• Prices: two decimal places, and products priced over 1,000,000 in any currency don't import.
• No scheduling: imported products can't be scheduled for later publication.
• Blank SKUs: Squarespace generates SKUs for any product or variant left blank.

Shipping rates, tax settings, payments and store policies are set up in Squarespace itself. This guide doesn't cover their mechanics, so configure them from Squarespace's own help for your country before the store goes public.

Move the Domain: Transfer or Connect

Keep the domain name: Squarespace recommends it so search engines and visitors still find you. A domain transfer moves only the domain hosting and its DNS settings, never the site, and is free apart from a one-year registration extension that ICANN requires. If the domain carries a custom email address, talk to your email provider before you transfer.

For a domain bought through Shopify, Squarespace offers two paths: transfer it, or keep Shopify as your registrar and point or forward it to Squarespace. To transfer, go to Settings > Domains in Shopify, click the domain, then choose Domain settings > Transfer to another provider. The authorization code appears on the domain's page, and if you don't complete the domain transfer within 30 days, your domain is locked again.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Domains

Zoom

Two waits stack up. A .com or other generic-extension domain, or a .us one, can't leave Shopify until 60 days after you bought it, transferred it in or changed its contact information, so a domain bought 40 days ago waits 20 more. Shopify then says a transfer can take up to 7 days to complete, while Squarespace says a transfer to or away from Squarespace can take up to 15 days.

Some extensions, .de and .eu among them, can't be transferred from the Shopify admin at all and need Shopify Support. On Squarespace's side the domain must be unlocked and free of DNSSEC records before the transfer starts.

One point matters if you close the store before the domain leaves, because Shopify's own pages disagree on it. Its domain-transfer page, read November 8, 2026, says you can transfer a domain when your store is paused, deactivated or frozen, without paying an outstanding invoice first. Its frozen-store page, read the same day, says a frozen store must be reactivated before you can transfer a domain.

You avoid both readings by moving the domain while the store is still active and paid up: transfer it, or point it at Squarespace, before you cancel anything.

A Domain at Another Registrar

A domain held at another registrar is simpler, because its DNS records live with that provider and you can point it at another platform at any time. Remove it from Shopify first: in Settings > Domains, click the domain, then Delete domain, after changing your primary domain if this one is primary, and update the DNS at your registrar as Shopify's removal steps describe. Connecting rather than transferring needs a provider that gives full access to DNS settings, and you keep paying that provider for the domain.

The 90-Day HSTS Tail

After you leave, Shopify's HSTS policy stays on your domain for 90 more days, and if the new platform doesn't serve the domain over HTTPS, visitors see a browser error for those 90 days. Confirm the Squarespace site loads over HTTPS before you switch; our explainer on the 90-day HSTS tail shows what the policy does.

Protect Rankings With 301s in URL Mappings

Squarespace's guide to changing platforms warns that switching can affect your SEO ranking if your URL structure changes, and in this move it does: on version 7.1, Squarespace puts /p/ before each product slug. The redirects start from the URL list you made before exporting (see URLs in the export step above). Shopify's own redirect tool can't help on the way out: it can't redirect the fixed /products and /collections paths and works only from broken URLs, so plan your redirects in Squarespace's URL Mappings.

Squarespace's URL Mappings follow a handful of rules:

• 301 for permanent moves: a 302 is meant for temporary changes.
• Old page gone first: a redirect works only if the page you redirect from has been deleted or disabled.
• Connected domains only: you can redirect only from domains connected to the Squarespace site.
• Size: the field is limited to 400 KB, which Squarespace says is usually around 2,500 redirect lines.
• Order: rules run from top to bottom, so put specific rules above general ones.
• Whole collections: the [name] variable redirects every item in a collection with one rule; Squarespace says it works best for collection URLs changed on Squarespace, and its example for content imported from another host covers blog posts, so test one product URL before relying on it.

Once the content and redirects are in place, Squarespace suggests requesting an index of the site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. You don't need to build a sitemap: Squarespace generates one automatically, though not for trial sites.

Close Shopify Last

Squarespace's guide puts this step last: cancel Shopify after your Squarespace site is online and you've moved or recreated the content from your old site.

Shopify Support can't deactivate a store for you, so the store owner does it in the admin; a Shopify Plus store is the exception, and you contact Shopify Plus Support to deactivate it. From Settings > Plan, click Cancel plan, or Cancel trial during a free trial; the full walkthrough, including Shopify Plus, is in our guide to cancelling a Shopify store.

Domain renewals keep running: Shopify's billing help says they aren't cancelled with the store, so a renewal invoice can still arrive. What Shopify keeps after deactivation, and the one step you can't undo, are in the table under Can You Come Back below.

If you hoped to park the old store instead, Pause and Build is a legacy plan that isn't available to new stores, so deactivation is what remains for stores not already on it. Don't count on a refund for unused time either: Shopify's deactivation page describes a strict no-refund policy, and its refund policy page says plans are generally non-refundable.

Can You Come Back If Squarespace Doesn't Work Out?

Keep the way back open until the new store has proved itself. Both platforms keep your data after you cancel, and both have one irreversible step: erasure on Shopify, deletion on Squarespace. Squarespace's cancellation article covers its side.

Moving back means exporting from Squarespace, which handles up to 10,000 products per export, and rebuilding on Shopify. Our Squarespace to Shopify migration guide covers that direction step by step.

The Bottom Line

The move is mostly sequencing. Squarespace gives you a product importer and a mailing-list import, and the rest of the store is either an archive you keep or a page you rebuild, so the order you do things in decides what you lose.

Frequently Asked Questions