Scaling Beyond Sessions: A Guide to Adding Products to your Squarespace Website
If you’re ready to dip your toes into the world of selling digital or physical products from your Squarespace website alongside your therapy or coaching services, this guide is for you! We'll cover how to make the shift, seamlessly add products to your existing Squarespace website, and reorganize your virtual space to showcase your new offerings. Let's get started!
1. Making the Leap: From Services to Products
Why Offer Products?
First things first – why venture into products? It’s not just about diversifying your revenue streams; it's an opportunity to extend your reach, provide ongoing support to your niche, and create additional value for your clients. Whether it's e-books, online courses, or tangible items (like card decks, journals, or t-shirts) that align with your practice, products can be a great way to help more people than you normally would.
Identify Your Niche:
Start by identifying the niche (group/demographic of people) you want to help with your products. This could be the same niche that you serve via your services, a subsection of this niche, or a different group entirely.
What knowledge or expertise do you possess that your audience would find valuable? Your products should align with your brand and resonate with your clients.
Engage Your Audience:
Before diving into product creation, engage with your audience. Conduct surveys, ask for feedback, and understand their needs. This ensures that the products you offer are not only aligned with your expertise but are also genuinely valuable to your clients.
Start Small and Test the Waters:
Don't feel pressured to launch an extensive product line right away. Begin with a small offering to test the waters. It could be a downloadable resource, a mini e-course, or a physical item that complements your services.
Aside from discovering whether or not your audience is interested in your product, starting small will help you develop a system for marketing, packaging, product delivery, and customer support. Once you work out the kinks in this system, you’ll be able to iterate with more ease.
While we currently have several Squarespace template designs to choose from, we started with just two designs. Starting small helped us learn what our customers needed in terms of support and provided a structure for us to hone our packaging and delivery before adding more templates to our shop.
2. Adding Products to Your Squarespace Website
Once you’ve engaged with your audience and created your product, it’s time to add your products to your Squarespace website. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Access Your Selling Tools:
Log in to your Squarespace account and click on your website from the dashboard. Once you're in, look for the "Selling" tab (previously “Commerce”) – this is your go-to place for all things products. Whether you’re selling physical products, digital products, subscriptions, memberships, or courses, you’ll set up your products here.
Step 2: Add a New Product:
Click on the "Selling" tab to see a page with step-by-step instructions to help you set up your store.
Click on "Products" to add your first product. Choose the type of product you’re selling (more on Squarespace product types here).
Pro Tip: If you’re selling pre-recorded workshops or another type of digital product, choose “Download” as the product type. Then, create a PDF (in Canva or Google Docs) that links to your product and upload it to as your product file so customers receive the PDF upon purchasing.
Once you’ve selected the type of product you want to sell, fill in essential details like product name, description, and pricing. This is your chance to tell the story of your product and answer any questions or objections your customers may have.
Pro Tip: Click on “Additional Info” to add more content blocks to the product page. This content will appear below your product images and description, and this is a great place to describe how your product works, to display customer testimonials, and to list FAQs.
Step 3: Showcase with Visuals:
A picture is worth a thousand words, and product images can make or break people’s perception of your offering. It’s really important that potential customers see what they’re going to get before they purchase. Think about displaying cover art, images, or even a sneak peek into your product.
Make sure your images are visually appealing and aligned with your brand. If you’re selling a physical product, hire a photographer to take photos of your product. If you’re offering a digital product or course, browse Canva’s mockup templates to give your product visuals a professional touch.
Pro Tip: Our Sales Page Templates come with a professionally designed digital product mockup that’s ready to go! Just pop your screenshots or cover art into the laptop, computer, and tablet frames and there you have it - your product image is set.
Mockup display from the Sol Sales Page Template
Looking for custom-designed product images or mockups?
Our team can help! We’ll create on-brand, professional product images for you to use on product pages, sales pages, social media, and other promotional materials.
Step 4: Connect Payment Methods:
Before you can start earning passive income from your website, you’ll need to connect a payment processor so that customers can pay for your product.
Head back the "Selling" tab, click “Payments”, and set up your preferred payment method. You’ll need to set up accounts through Stripe, PayPal, or Square, depending on which platform you’d like to use.
Pro Tip: Using more than one payment processor gives customers more options when they purchase, which may help encourage more sales.
Step 5: Configure Selling Settings:
Regardless of the type of product you’re selling, there are a few settings that you’ll want to customize before publishing your products.
From your website editor, navigate to “Settings” > “Selling” to get started. It’s worth perusing each settings category here, but I’ll point out the crucial areas here:
Checkout Settings. Add your store policies (including a Refund Policy), receipt details, and billing settings.
Shipping & Pickup Settings. If you’re selling physical products, don’t forget to add shipping options (and rates) and/or pickup options.
Taxes. If you plan to collect tax on your product sales, you can configure those settings here. Pro Tip: Consult a tax professional if you’re unsure about collecting taxes on your products.
Step 6: Choose Your Commerce Plan:
Adding a store to your Squarespace website will require a Business Plan or higher. The plan you choose depends on your needs and budget - compare plans here.
When I started Hold Space Creative’s online store, I started on the Business Plan and upgraded my subscription as my store and commerce needs grew.
Step 7: Publish Your Product:
Once you’ve subscribed to Squarespace (on a Business Plan or higher), you’ll be able to publish your first product and start accepting orders.
Navigate to “Selling” > “Products” to publish your products.
3. Reorganizing Your Website Around Your Products
Making your products available for purchase on your website is the first step. The next step is to make sure your website sells your product for you.
If you plan to sell your products on your therapy or coaching website, here are some tips to help you seamlessly integrate them with your existing offerings:
Update Your Navigation Menu:
Make sure your visitors can find your products quickly. Add a clear link to your product (or Sales Page) in the navigation menu.
Pro Tip: If you have several products in different categories, add a dropdown menu to your navigation menu with each category listed.
Integrate Products with Services:
If your products were created for the same audience as your services, consider spotlighting your products on your service pages. Add a section to your service page that’s dedicated to your product.
Create a cohesive narrative that showcases the synergy between what you offer in terms of services and the added value your products bring. Perhaps even create bundled offerings for a comprehensive experience.
Spotlight on Home Page:
Your homepage is prime real estate. Consider featuring your flagship products or a rotating selection on the homepage to grab immediate attention. Visual cues and calls to action can guide visitors to explore further.
Craft Engaging Product Sales Pages:
Dive deep into each product on a dedicated page. A sales page is a page on your website that sells your product/program for you. It's your product's hub where people can go to learn everything they need to know before purchasing, and where they can buy it.
Share the story, benefits, and unique aspects. Use engaging descriptions and visuals to make your product pages immersive and captivating.
In Squarespace, you essentially have two options for creating your sales page:
Use the product page as the sales page.
Use a regular page to create your sales page and add a Product Block to enable purchasing from this page.
Option 2 will give you more design freedom since Squarespace product pages are pre-formatted. This is the option we prefer at Hold Space Creative, which is why we created our Sales Page Templates - ready-to-use sales pages for therapists and coaches.
Send Out an Announcement:
Your clients are invested in your journey. Send out a heartfelt newsletter or announcement on your website about your new venture into products. Share the inspiration behind each creation and how it aligns with your commitment to supporting your clients.
Encourage Feedback and Reviews:
As your clients explore your new offerings, encourage them to share their thoughts and experiences. Whether you send your customers a Google Form to fill out, or you use Squarespace Product Reviews, testimonials create a positive feedback loop and build trust with potential customers.
To Recap:
Making the leap from offering services to introducing products adds layers of value to your practice. Your Squarespace website can help you seamlessly integrate your new offerings, and it doesn’t have to be as daunting as it may seem.
Remember, it's not just about selling products; it's about extending your support, sharing your expertise in new ways, and enriching the journey for your clients. Here's to your success in offering products on Squarespace – may your journey be as rewarding as the impact you make!
