Squarespace Shipping: What You Can (and Can't) Do

A client called me last month, frustrated. She'd built a beautiful Squarespace site for her handmade pottery business. The design was stunning. The product photos were professional. Then she tried to set up shipping and hit a wall.

"It's like they built an amazing house but forgot to put in a front door," she said.

That's a bit dramatic — Squarespace shipping does work — but she had a point. There are real limitations you should know about before you commit. So let's talk about what Squarespace can do, what it can't, and how to work around the gaps.

What Squarespace Shipping Does Well

Clean Shipping UI at Checkout

Squarespace's checkout is gorgeous. That's not surprising given the platform's design DNA, but it matters. Shipping options appear clean and clear. Customers aren't overwhelmed with a dozen carrier service names they don't understand.

You set up shipping rules, and those rules translate into simple options like "Standard Shipping - $7.99" and "Express Shipping - $14.99" at checkout. It's straightforward.

Flat Rate Shipping

Setting up flat rate shipping is dead simple:

Go to Commerce > Shipping

Click "Add Shipping Option"

Name it, set the price, assign it to countries

Done

You can create multiple flat rate options for different speed tiers:

Each option can be limited to specific fulfillment profiles (more on those in a minute) and specific countries.

Weight-Based Shipping

Squarespace supports weight-based rates. You create tiers — 0-1 lb at one price, 1-3 lb at another, and so on. This is way better than a single flat rate if your products vary in size.

The weight-based system uses a simple table:

You'll need to enter product weights in each product listing. If you skip this, Squarespace treats the weight as zero, and your customer gets the cheapest tier every time. That's a fast way to lose money.

Carrier-Calculated Rates (USPS, UPS, FedEx)

This is a relatively newer addition, and it's a big deal. Squarespace now supports real-time calculated rates from USPS, UPS, and FedEx. The platform calls the carrier API at checkout and shows the customer what the carrier actually charges.

The setup requires:

• Accurate product weights on every item
• Package dimensions (default or per-product)
• Your shipping origin address

Calculated rates work best when you sell products of varying sizes and don't want to subsidize heavy items with your flat rates.

Fulfillment Profiles

Fulfillment profiles are Squarespace's version of shipping groups. If you have products that ship differently — say, prints that ship flat vs. mugs that ship in boxes — you create separate profiles with their own shipping rules.

Each product gets assigned to one profile. At checkout, the shipping rates stack: the customer pays the appropriate rate for each fulfillment group.

Free Shipping Rules

You can set free shipping with conditions:

• Free for all orders (bold move)
• Free over a certain dollar amount
• Free for specific products or fulfillment profiles
• Free with a discount code

The threshold-based free shipping (e.g., free over $75) is the most common and effective approach.

What Squarespace Shipping Can't Do

And here's where the conversation gets real.

No Shipping Label Printing

This is the biggest gap. Squarespace doesn't sell shipping labels. You can't buy a USPS label, print it, and stick it on a box from within Squarespace.

You have to use a separate service for labels: Shippo, ShipStation, Pirate Ship, or even just go to USPS.com. This means:

• Extra monthly cost for a label service
• Orders don't automatically sync (unless you set up an integration)
• More manual work per order
• No discounted carrier rates through Squarespace

For the pottery client I mentioned? She was shipping 15-20 orders a week. Going to Pirate Ship for every order, manually entering addresses, buying labels — it added 30-40 minutes to her daily workflow. On Shopify, she could've done it all in one place.

No Real-Time Tracking Integration

When you mark an order as shipped in Squarespace, you can manually enter a tracking number. But there's no automatic tracking import, no carrier API pulling tracking status, and no branded tracking page.

The order confirmation email includes the tracking number (if you entered it), and that's it. The customer goes to the carrier's website to track.

Compare this to Shopify or BigCommerce, where tracking updates flow back into the platform and customers can see status on your site. It's a notable gap.

No Advanced Shipping Rules

You can't do things like:

• "If the cart contains a product from Category X, add a $5 handling fee"
• "If shipping to Alaska, only show USPS options"
• "If the customer is a wholesale account, show discounted shipping"
• "If the cart has more than 10 items, apply a bulk shipping rate"

Squarespace's rule engine is: flat rate, weight-based, or carrier-calculated. Per country/region. That's the extent of your conditional logic.

No Multi-Warehouse Support

If you ship from more than one location — maybe your own warehouse plus a supplier — Squarespace doesn't support origin-based routing. Every shipment calculates from your single shipping origin address.

This isn't a problem for most small businesses shipping from one place. But if you're growing into multi-location fulfillment, you'll hit this wall.

Limited International Shipping Controls

You can enable or disable shipping to specific countries, and you can set different rates per country/region. But you can't:

• Calculate duties and taxes at checkout
• Print customs forms
• Handle DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)
• Set different handling times per country

International customers on Squarespace sites often face surprise customs charges on delivery. That's a bad experience, and there's no built-in way to prevent it.

Workarounds for Common Limitations

Label Printing: Use Pirate Ship or Shippo

The best workaround for the no-labels problem:

Shippo has a direct Squarespace integration that auto-syncs orders. That's my recommendation for most Squarespace stores. You get multi-carrier rates, label printing, and tracking numbers pushed back to Squarespace orders.

Tracking: Use AfterShip

AfterShip offers a free tier (50 shipments/month) that provides a branded tracking page. You add tracking numbers manually or through Shippo/ShipStation, and AfterShip handles the customer-facing tracking experience.

It's an extra step, but it dramatically improves the post-purchase experience.

Complex Rules: Use Extensions or Accept the Limitation

Squarespace's extension marketplace is growing but still limited compared to Shopify or WooCommerce. For shipping specifically, the options are thin.

For most stores, the honest answer is: if you need complex shipping rules, Squarespace might not be the right platform for your commerce needs. You can build a beautiful site on Squarespace and handle shipping through a third-party platform, but you're bolting things together that aren't designed to work as one system.

Who Should Use Squarespace for E-commerce

Squarespace shipping works great for:

• Small product catalogs (under 50 products)
• Domestic shipping only or simple international rates
• Low order volume (under 100/month where manual label buying isn't too painful)
• Design-first brands where the website aesthetic is a priority
• Service + product businesses (like a photographer who also sells prints)

Squarespace shipping is a struggle for:

• High-volume stores (200+ orders/month)
• Complex product mixes requiring different shipping logic
• International-heavy businesses needing duty/tax calculation
• Multi-warehouse operations
• Stores that need deep carrier integration

Cost Comparison: Squarespace vs. Shopify for Shipping

Let's compare the all-in cost of running shipping on each platform:

For a store shipping 100 packages/month with an average label cost of $6:

• Squarespace: $33 + $10 (Shippo) + $600 labels = $643/month
• Shopify: $39 + $0 + ~$450 labels (with discounts) = ~$489/month

The Shopify carrier discounts save roughly $1.50/label on average. At 100 labels, that's $150/month — enough to offset the platform cost difference.

My Final Take

Squarespace is a design-first platform that added e-commerce. Shopify is a commerce-first platform that added design. Both do shipping, but with very different levels of depth.

If your business is 80% about the brand experience and 20% about shipping efficiency, Squarespace can work. Plug in Shippo or ShipStation, accept the manual steps, and enjoy your beautiful website.

If shipping is a significant part of your operations — dozens of orders daily, multiple carriers, international complexity — save yourself the headaches and use a commerce-first platform. Your future self will thank you when you're not copy-pasting tracking numbers at midnight.