MPX

Hey everyone, 

Adding to this thread in the hopes that by providing a templated email (feel free to edit), the Squarespace Community can collectively use the Support Email feature to voice their frustrations. I've also found in past when I've had issues that taking to social media and tagging @Squarespce also prompts direct action from their customer support team. Hopefully, we can implement some real change by expressing our dissatisfaction, frustrations and lack of support to the C-Suite at Squarespace so they become aware of this and fix it as soon as possible!
TEMPLATE EMAIL:
I am writing to express my profound concern regarding the persistent issues surrounding Core Web Vitals, specifically Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and the performance of your Content Delivery Network (CDN) that are adversely affecting our website's SEO rankings. This matter is not isolated but rather a widespread challenge that a significant portion of Squarespace users, including ourselves, are grappling with.
The absence of an option to upload images in the WEBP format further exacerbates this problem, leaving us without a viable solution to optimise our site's loading speed effectively. This limitation not only hinders our ability to enhance user experience but also our site's visibility on search engines, which is paramount.
I have come across a forum where numerous users share similar frustrations, indicating a critical need for Squarespace to escalate its efforts in addressing these SEO visibility impairments caused by unresolved Core Web Vitals issues. The discourse clearly illustrates a growing discontent among your clientele, who are considering alternative platforms for their website needs due to these ongoing shortcomings.
[Forum Reference: https://forum.squarespace.com/topic/169854-core-web-vitals/page/7/]
We seek concrete solutions and transparent communication from Squarespace on how you plan to address these critical issues. Specifically, we urge you to:
Implement functionality that allows users to upload and utilise WEBP images, enabling us to optimise our visual content more effectively for speed and performance. Enhance the efficiency of your JavaScript and CSS loading, focusing on optimising site loading times, especially for mobile users, to meet the evolving standards of web performance. Provide a clear and detailed roadmap outlining the steps Squarespace intends to take to ameliorate these Core Web Vitals issues. It is imperative that Squarespace acknowledges the impact these issues have on businesses' SEO rankings and demonstrates accountability through proactive communication and action. Our objective is not to seek apologies but to obtain a definitive plan of action that will assist us and other Squarespace users in navigating these challenges effectively. The success of our businesses on the digital front is heavily reliant on these foundational aspects of web performance, and as such, we implore Squarespace to prioritize and expedite the resolution of these issues.
We look forward to your prompt response and are eager to see the steps Squarespace will take to address these critical concerns. Your commitment to improving user experience and SEO performance is crucial for us to continue leveraging your platform for our digital presence.
Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.
Regards,
[Your Name] [Your Position] [Your Contact Information]

As a new Squarespace customer, this thread is a concerning read. 
It's also a major red flag that the company is not looking at their own forums for common complaints and legitimate issues.  It appears they don't care. There's a goldmine of customer feedback here. 
Before finding this thread, I discovered the issue myself after running Chrome's performance audit tool (Lighthouse?).  Having been mindful of image sizes, page and code content, I'm disillusioned to see that this is a common issue and is not something I can resolve myself.
It would be helpful if Squarespace could acknowledge the concerns raised here and state what they are doing to improve matters, rather than palming us of with generic responses and ineffective solutions.
The platform does not want to get a reputation for being slow... I'll think twice about recommending or renewing my subscription. 

I received the same canned response months ago. After I linked back to this thread here, they promised to hand it over to their development team but that was it. No follow up, no beep.
i think they’re ashamed and so they should be. Not for difficult technical issues but for ignorant behavior towards their customers.

I wrote to them today, here is their response:
 

@Mr_E 
I feel you. Exactly the same here with our extensive Website! After launch I was shocked. How many hours I have spent on tests and optimizations to see that there is hardly any change in the bad score. I'm pretty sure 30-40 score points are being pushed down by SqS. That's a bad realisation. For such a large company with +4.2 million accounts, this is an absurdity. Especially with regard to all common and known to come SEO rules. 
You have minimum 1 opportunity to change this: Participate in the critique of some community members and let the SqS support know about your finding and your displeasure. This is what (too few) others have done, as you can read here in this thread, as well as me. I was constructively, friendly but quite direct and used the technical terms and screenshots to describe the problem because I realised: it's their JavaScripts! I was clear in what I thought of it and that I couldn't use it for myself and my customers in this state and would have to move away if it wasn't improved soon. I had to complain to support twice before I was assured that this problem was known and that my feedback would definitely be passed on to the relevant departments. So: be patiened but use your voice.
Here's the link to get in touch with them.
Whether they will discuss and change this is questionable. But the more users like you and I refuse to accept this impossible situation and complain to support, the louder our voices will become and hopefully we will be heard at some point. My hope is that this will be fixed very soon, by Feb. 2024. Otherwise I need to invest in expensive Ads – or to leave.

It keeps getting ignored. How much longer?
I guess until enough old timers move.
But with the influx of new users I guess SS would accept that price.

I want to add my voice to this appalling situation. After so many years and given the financial success of Squarespace, the fact they have not found a solution to the obvious flaws in their backend that cause most of these problems is unconscionable.

The most (un)helpful advice they give is to reduce image sizes, which I already do - but most of the problem, as highlighted by many more knowledgeable than myself in the comments above, has to do with issues like loading unnecessary libraries etc.

I will not be building my next site on SS. I know going to Wordpress will have its issues, but I can't stay in the same boat and continue financially rewarding a company that spends large amounts on marketing to expand its client base instead of investing in improving their system.

In the end, like it or not, the pressure we face as customers of Squarespace is that Google is marking down our sites for poor performance and it is hard to justify continuing to support a platform that devalues my efforts and sees my penalised by Google.
Anyone from Squarespace care to comment - in particular not to argue with the hundreds of comments here, but to tell us what you are doing to fix these deficiencies - or if you intend to keep doing nothing?

I am a florist that only delivers locally and have been so frustrated by not being able to change the wording on the checkout page so that it's clear that we only deliver locally.  Most of our customers send our products as a gift to someone and Squarespace does not allow us to make this clear on the checkout page. Will probably be switching to Shopify.

I run a business that sells and delivers locally, I switched to Shopify and this is my honest feedback on why I switched.

Please note this is NOT a diss to Squarespace (SS). Please note I am a cake maker and sell and deliver locally. This feedback will prob be useful to other business owners that sell locally too.
I joined Squarespace in June 2021 and paid for the top plan. I will try be direct and constructive as I can without adding fluff.

First Impressions On Who To Pick
Squarespace
Easy to use navigation, easy to read FAQ, alot of design options. This is why I went with SS to start my local business ventures.
Shopify
Quite intimidating with all the options, editing a homepage was confusing at first, editing CSS was annoying, I was overwhelmed with all the options and the user interface wasn't as nice as SS.
Comment
As a person starting their first online store, SS was the best choice for me as I wanted to test my online store and see how it would turn out.

Page Speeds
SquareSpace
People have warned me SS servers are slow and clunky, even though I tried SS best practice on how to minimise a page's size, it was still slow to my liking
Shopify
Appears way faster and has apps to even further push your pages faster by pre-loading pages when a customer hovers over a link
COD (Cash on delivery)
Squarespace
Does not offer COD, I assume they don't offer this because there are no fees and SS can't financially support this feature.
Shopify
Does which can be helpful as I got a few orders which I would not with SS.
Apps
Squarespace
Lacks apps but SS does try build the apps in their platform so users don't need apps. But still lacking.
Shopify
The amount of Apps Shopify has is abundant and you can pretty much find anything you want for your site and for your budget. I have multiple free apps. The downfall of this, if the company or the creators of the app shut down, you are forced to find an alternative. Too many apps can slow down your site and if the apps server is down, your site can not load. For example: I had a postcode checker app and their server crashed, my website didn't load for a good 30 seconds or more...... I decided to get rid of that app and find an alternative. Apps can get costly over time if you do need paid multiple apps. But if you do your research, you can try get free apps suited to your needs
Customisation (CSS, JAVA, HTML)
Squarespace
Has one section of CSS which is useful and you can see your change in real time when you enter your CSS.
Shopify
Can be quite difficult to navigate and locate as different themes have different names for their CSS, themes, HTML and JSS. You also have to write your code, save then in another window, wait a few seconds then refresh to see if it actually works. This is quite annoying. Also you have to duplicate your theme and make sure you don't break your site (which is fine, but fiddly)

New Pages
Squarespace
Squarespace is very easy to add new pages and edit. Very easy and pleasing experience.
Shopify
Has the worst process in making new pages (such as a FAQ page or a contact us page), I had to install an app to make new pages and I am afraid if that app shutsdown, I will have to start from scratch from another app.

Discounts
Squarespace
Customers can stack product and delivery discounts! Which is amazing....
Shopify
Can NOT have customers stack discounts. It's only 1 discount at a time. Additionally, only 1 automatic discount can be running which is annoying. I cannot have a free delivery automatic discount, paired with buy 2 get one at 50% off discount...... you will need to install an app and from research, all stackable discount apps you have to pay......

Design
Squarespace
One of the best design platforms I have used, its easy and has alot of features to really make a dynamic, creative website
Shopify
Technically bound to the theme you have chosen. There are free themes, but they are really basic in terms of design. You have to pay alot of money for a unique theme and even then, it limits you. You either have to install an app or get a designer to help you which cost even more money.
Local Delivery
Squarespace
Does not have a local delivery options to certain zip/postcodes and can not offer different rates based on distance.
Shopify
Has inbuilt local delivery where you can set rates to different areas, furthermore there are plenty of apps that enhances this feature even more!
Price
Squarespace
I paid $624AUD for the top, advance commerce yearly plan with no additional adds such as the e-marketing addon
Shopify
I paid $470AUD for the basic yearly plan + $318AUD for adds I need, totally to $788AUD per year. Different $164AUD more than SS.
Community
Squarespace
Quite small which is expected and its a shame the admins or staff do NOT monitor the forums which addresses alot of SS issues. Some forum posts can't be answered because there's only a small number of people that know the answer.
Shopify
The community is large and when I post of the forums, I get an answer within hours with a fix, though I had more difficult questions some people can't answer but I look elsewhere such as reddit or google.

Overall Thoughts
Squarespace
I think SS is a good platform for people to show off their portfolios, digital products, services and products very minimal variants such as maybe electronics, non-custom jewellery, soaps, lotions etc......

As I bake cakes, I need customers to have full control of customisation and SS really lacks a user friendly interface for this. I had alot of workarounds and agreements a customer should tick. With Shopify, they dont need to tick an agreement because the interface was straight forward.

SS to me is like a gated community where SS tries to control the user (you, the business owner) in their way of thinking, doing and seeing. You can confined by SS rules and design and there's no room to think outside the box.
Shopify
Vastly caters to e-commerce business owners, alot of apps, customisation and help when needed. It's quite open source where a user can see help and implement their ideas.

Businesses that sell locally and businesses that has products that can be fully customisable as there are apps to further expand on your products should use Shopify not SS as it offers COD and local delivery options.

If you guys like to see the difference between my SS and Shopify stores, here it is, I linked a cake product and you can go through the buying process on both and you can be the judge on which has the better buying process for a customer:

Enter Postcode 2000 which is part of the buying process
Squarespace:
https://onyxhive.squarespace.com/cakes/p/cosmos
Shopify:
https://www.onyxhive.com.au/products/cosmos

The Quantity input on Product Detail Pages can be modified with the following JavaScript. You'll need to add this to the Code Injection Footer panel.
<!-- Change all quantity inputs to allow only multiples of 5 --------------------------------> <!-- Copyright Soundfocus Digital [sf.digital] ----------------------------------------------> <!-- Use freely in your code injection. Do NOT re-publish.-----------------------------------> <script>   document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {     const sfsfQuantityInputDiv = document.querySelector('.product-quantity-input');     if (sfsfQuantityInputDiv) {       const sfQuantityInput = sfsfQuantityInputDiv.querySelector('input[type="number"]');       if (sfQuantityInput && sfQuantityInput.step === '1') {         // Set the default value to 5         sfQuantityInput.value = '5';         // Change the step to 5         sfQuantityInput.step = '5';         // Set the min to 5 and the max to 300         sfQuantityInput.min = '5';         sfQuantityInput.max = '300';                }     }   }); </script> Bear in mind that the cart can't hold more than 500 items, so if a user adds 300 of one item, there's only a remaining capacity of 200 items.
Note: Like all the code posted on this forum, this is a simplified example, provided without warranty. For a supported solution from a professional developer, I recommend booking a Squarespace Expert.
Did this help? Please give feedback by clicking an icon below  ⬇️

I'm a bit late but yes, you can accomplish this with our Product Gallery Video Plugin.
 

There is now code!
Please see Add to Cart Button Active Hours.
Let me know how it goes.

The customer will not have been charged. You'll need to contact the customer and ask them to place their order again.
Before doing this, take care to disable test mode, delete the test order, reset your order numbers and replenish the stock levels for the items on the order.
Did this help? Please give feedback by clicking an icon below  ⬇️

Tried so many different ways to get through this terrible problem, all these work around come up short by some equation.   Solving the problem is so easy, simple a by product flat rate option.
 

I have the same problem, I guess no other way just to migrate to Shopify!

Same (selling merch of my art through Printful).
I went through the hassle of creating my catalogue of items on Printful, connecting to Squarespace but haven't been able to come up with a shipping rate that doesn't either rip off my customers or screw myself. 
I think I'm going to downgrade my Squarespace account (not pay for the eCommerce tier) and just link out to my RedBubble. They handle billing much better anyway. 
#givingup

Unfortunately if a customer chooses five product and each has a different price whoa, incredible confusing for both my store and my customer.
A simple shipping $ per product would solve this really messed up shipping multiple items.
Very bad for our business.  
How can I create 8 basic by product shipping rates.
 

In 2023, why is Squarespace's shipping set up so archaic?  Why can't it be integrated versus setting up by zip code to zip code.  Every test has been a disaster.  Truly regretting SS as my choice for commerce.  This needs to be SO much more easy, effortless and intuitive for the ui/ux experience---for both us and the customer experience.  

I have just switched back to Shopify after dealing with this and several other extremely basic limitations in Squarespace. Like all of you, I share the frustration but sadly there is no other option then leaving, if you are indeed in need of something as simple as item-dependent shipping costs. Shopify has very nice "return customer" options by the way, you can save the first year with your shop subscription if you return from Squarespace to them, just so you know... : ) 

I'd also like to know an alternative. This makes doing business incredibly difficult.

I am shocked that Squarespace doesn't offer this simple function. Setting up specific shipping costs by each item........
I was trying workaround such as creating diverse Shipping Options, but obviously the inventory setup doesn't offer Choosing "Shipping Options" even though we can create several shipping options by default/weights by zone....
My courier company charge the shipping cost based on weight / Measurement / types of shipping (freight or ocean..) , but Squarespace made this impossible. 
Hope Squarespace supports Commerce customers with this new function of setting up specific shipping costs per item. 

Can someone suggest a platform that solves this issue?
It is 2022 for Pete's sake. 
 

My annual subscription renewal is coming up next month, and the lack of options here is making my decision of whether or not to continue selling with Squarespace pretty clear.
I signed up about two years ago to sell a small batch of one product, and since then have only really been able to use the site to sell a single product at a time.  That has allowed me to set store-wide shipping rates each time I had a product to list.  I have had a few opportunities to expand the products I'm selling simultaneously on my store, but have not been able to find any suitable options for setting their shipping rates.  My actual shipping costs vary more based on the size of the product than the weight, as I'm primarily selling hollow 3D prints.  Weight for each product rarely goes much higher than 2 lbs, but the size of each product can vary wildly so my shipping quotes are driven more by the package size than the package weight.  Adding to this is the fact that most of the products can't easily be boxed together.  As a result, setting shipping rates by total order weight is just completely useless for me.  I could include US shipping in the product price, but I don't want to limit my sales to the US; I could set up the US for "Free" (i.e. included) flat shipping and require other customers to pay an additional shipping fee, but run into the same issues in calculating how much they should be charged for what they're buying and where they're located.
"Carrier calculated" shipping sounds like it would be ideal for my situation, based on how it's described in the Squarespace Help Center.  But it requires the "Advanced Commerce" plan at more than double the price of the "Business" plan I'm currently on.  Selling products online is a side interest for me with very modest sales, and not a single one of the other features missing from the "Business" plan is something I feel I'd benefit enough from that it would justify the increased subscription cost.  And while real-time carrier-calculated shipping rates would be nice, just having reasonable options to manually set my shipping rates is all I actually need.  It'd be nice if I could gradually grow my online sales to a point that does justify the "Advanced Commerce" subscription fee, but I see no path from here to there as expanding the business is stymied by the options available to me.  Using the "carrier calculated" option to avoid losing money on shipping is pretty pointless if I'm instead just losing it to a subscription fee that's too high for my sales to support.
As a website-builder Squarespace has presentation options and ease-of-use that I really appreciate.  But I'm paying for ecommerce features that I can't actually use, despite having items that I would love to be able to list for sale.  I cannot list online the inventory of items that I currently sell at events, much less really consider further expanding my online business with a wide variety of made-to-order items (which was ultimately my longer-term goal) without potentially either losing my shirt on shipping or significantly overcharging customers for it.  The terrible shipping options are a major blocker preventing me from expanding my online offerings, and the sole reason that I cannot justify renewing my Squarespace subscription for another year when it expires next month.  Given that this appears to have been a known issue for years on Squarespace, with no sign of any improvement, it's clearly time for me to take my business elsewhere.

Hmmm it is a little bit better I believe but definitely not impressive. Desktop will do ok but mobile always fails.

I see this: