How to transfer Squarespace domain to Shopify

Squarespace is a great website platform. It’s a fairly simple tool that is easy to understand and has some pretty great templates that give you a wonderful looking website.

So why transfer to Shopify?

As an e-commerce website, Squarespace simply doesn’t compare to Shopify, a website tool built for the purpose of e-commerce. I’ve found that Squarespace is better suited for service-based businesses such as graphic designers, acupuncturist, lawyers, etc. If you must use Squarespace for e-commerce, it’s a great place to start for companies with smaller product offerings.

Sooner or later though, you’ll run into limitations when trying to grow your business. Squarespace does have a few integrations and plugins, but nowhere near the extent of Shopify. I digress. I’ll talk more about when to choose Shopify vs Squarespace another time.

Who’s ready to make that transition from Squarespace to Shopify? 🙋🏻

I’ve got some good and bad news to share.

The good news is that transferring your Squarespace domain to Shopify isn’t super hard. Even better, you can keep the same domain name when you switch to Shopify.

The bad news is that it will take a bit of time and effort.

First, a few assumptions

The following instructions assume a few things when transferring your e-commerce store from Squarespace to Shopify.

1. Your site is hosted on Squarespace and you are not using a third-party provider.
2. You’ve confirmed your email in the admin panel is the right email – you’ll need this later.
3. You’ve already created an account and started your free Shopify trial.
4. You’ve already migrated your data from Squarespace to Shopify. If you haven’t migrated your data over to Shopify, you’ll need to do that first.

There are different instructions if your domain is hosted on a third-party such as GoDaddy or Namecheap as examples. You’ll want to look for instructions from them on how to unlock your domain. Also, don’t forget to check their transfer policy.

Prepare domain for transfer from Squarespace

1. Log in to your Squarespace account and go to Home -> Settings -> Domains
2. Click the domain you want to transfer.
3. Unlock the domain to get the authorization code.
   • Uncheck the “Lock Domain” button.
   • Click Send Transfer Authentication Code – this will send an email with the unique authentication code to the admin contact.
   • Copy the transfer key from your email.

If you do utilize a third party, look for similar instructions to unlock your domain and obtain the unique authentication code.

Transfer your domain to Shopify

1. From your Shopify admin, select Settings -> Domains.
2. Select Transfer domain.
3. Enter the domain you want to transfer to Shopify. For example mydomain.com (do not include www.)
4. Click Next.
5. Click Verify domain.
6. If the domain is ready to be transferred, you’ll see DOMAIN UNLOCKED. Click Next to continue. If you see DOMAIN LOCKED, go back up to Prepare domain for transfer from Squarespace.
7. In the Verification code box, enter the authentication code.
8. Click Next.
9. Click Buy and transfer.
10. Check the email account associated with your Squarespace account.
11. Approve the domain transfer which is usually a link or button in the email.
    • Once approved, this can take some time for the transfer to be complete. Shopify will send an email confirming that your domain has been transferred.

NOTE: Shopify and Squarespace may update their process. If you need help with this process, I recommend contacting Shopify support as they are best equipped to help you.

Now you need to design your store. Remember that because these two platforms are different, not everything will simply transfer over and look the same. Your site is live though so keep that in mind when making changes to your live store.

Once I've migrated to Shopify, then what?

Get a head start on your Shopify SEO and check out our resources on growing your store traffic. SEO is a pretty large topic and there are thousands of different things you can do.