Squarespace's native export tooling, present in both 7.0 and 7.1, does not produce the data fidelity most merchants expect. The export is incomplete, the format is opinionated, and Shopify expects a richer data model than Squarespace can deliver out of the box.
That gap is solvable, but it has to be planned for. This post walks through the data migration patterns we use to move Squarespace Commerce stores to Shopify without losing the fidelity that matters.
What Does Squarespace Actually Export?
Both Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1 offer a native WordPress-compatible XML export under Settings → Advanced → Import / Export. The catch is right there in the label: it is WordPress-compatible. The export covers blog posts, pages (with caveats), and the basic media library. It does not cover:
- Product data with full variant fidelity.
- Customer accounts.
- Order history.
- Subscription bindings or member areas.
- Custom forms and form submissions.
- Commerce-specific structured data (inventory levels, variant SKUs, pricing rules).
For commerce data specifically, Squarespace offers a separate Products CSV export under Commerce → Inventory. That CSV is the closest thing to a usable product feed, but it has its own constraints: variant structure, image references, and certain custom fields do not always round-trip cleanly.
The Three Data Streams You Need to Plan For
A Squarespace-to-Shopify migration is best understood as three parallel data streams, each with its own pattern.
Stream 1: Catalog Data (Products, Variants, Collections)
The Products CSV from Squarespace is the starting point. It contains product titles, descriptions, SKUs, prices, inventory levels, variant configurations, and image URLs. The migration pattern we run:
Export, then enrich. The raw CSV is rarely complete enough to feed directly into Shopify's product import. Image URLs must be dereferenced: Squarespace hosts product images on its own CDN, and those URLs need to be either downloaded and re-uploaded to Shopify's CDN or proxied through a permanent destination. Variant structure must be reshaped into Shopify's option/value model (Shopify supports up to three option dimensions per product). Custom product fields exposed via the Squarespace storefront need to map to Shopify metafields.
Reconcile against the live storefront. A scripted reconciliation pass crawls the live Squarespace storefront and validates that every product in the CSV is present, that every variant maps cleanly, and that no product has gone missing in the export. This step is unglamorous, but it catches the gaps that quietly surface at launch.
Collections. Squarespace's category structure ("Categories" or "Tags" depending on the template generation) maps to Shopify collections. The mapping is rarely one-to-one. Squarespace tends to use tags as a soft taxonomy, while Shopify collections are explicit. Decide which Squarespace tags justify a dedicated collection and which become metafields or are dropped entirely.
Stream 2: Customer and Order Data
This is where Squarespace's export tooling stops being useful. There is no native, full-fidelity customer or order export on Squarespace 7.x. The Commerce dashboard offers an Orders CSV with basic order data, but it does not include the full set of fields Shopify expects: line-item-level tax breakdowns, fulfillment events, refund history, and customer account associations are partial at best.
The migration patterns:
Customer accounts. Pull the customer list from the Commerce dashboard CSV. Customers will need to reset passwords on the new Shopify storefront. Passwords do not migrate, and the standard pattern is a triggered "set your password" email at launch.
Order history. Migrate the recent window (typically the last 12 to 24 months) into Shopify using the Admin API's orders endpoint. For older history, the honest approach is an archived read-only export accessible to customer service staff. The fidelity drop on multi-year-old orders does not justify the engineering cost of perfect round-tripping.
Subscriptions and member areas. Squarespace's subscription bindings and member-area subscriptions have no clean Shopify equivalent. Subscriptions typically rebuild on a Shopify subscriptions app (Recharge, Bold, or Shopify Subscriptions). Member content is reshaped into Shopify customer tags with content access logic built on the new storefront. This is rebuilding, not migrating, and merchants need to plan for the customer-communication side of it.
Stream 3: Content (Pages, Blog Posts, Media)
The WordPress-compatible XML export covers pages and blog posts, but conversion to Shopify's content model is rarely automatic.
Blog posts. These map to a Shopify Blog with appropriate handles. The XML export usually preserves post titles, body content, dates, and tags. Image references inside post bodies need to be dereferenced and re-uploaded to Shopify's CDN. Author metadata is usually flattened.
Pages. Squarespace pages are visually structured with Squarespace's block system. The HTML export captures rendered content but loses structural metadata. Most migrations rebuild key pages (about, contact, FAQ, policies) directly on Shopify rather than importing them: the imported version typically needs so much cleanup that rebuilding is faster.
Media library. Images, PDFs, and other assets need to migrate to Shopify's Files. For sites with deep media libraries (style guides, lookbooks, product PDFs), a scripted migration is faster than a manual one.
The Squarespace 7.0 vs. 7.1 Wrinkle
The two Squarespace template generations behave differently enough that the migration plan changes shape.
Squarespace 7.0 sites use an older template architecture with template-specific limitations. Style and structural editing are constrained by the template family. The data export is identical to 7.1, but URL structures sometimes differ and the page-rebuild work tends to be lighter. Squarespace 7.0 sites often have simpler structural layouts.
Squarespace 7.1 with Fluid Engine is a different beast. Fluid Engine pages are visually richer, more grid-based, and contain page sections that require real design work to recreate on Shopify. The data layer is identical to 7.0 from a Commerce perspective, but the front-end rebuild is typically a more involved engagement.
If the merchant is satisfied with their Squarespace 7.1 design and the only reason to migrate is commerce capability, we sometimes recommend keeping the 7.1 site as a marketing presence and running Shopify as a commerce backend, though this is a niche path. For most merchants, a full migration with a Shopify theme that approximates the visual intent of the 7.1 design is cleaner. Our Squarespace web design practice can also help merchants who decide their commerce needs do not yet justify a platform shift.
URLs and the Redirect Map
Squarespace URL structures are template-dependent. Common patterns:
- Products:
/shop/<product-slug>or/store/<product-slug> - Collections:
/shop/<category-slug>or/category/<category-slug> - Pages:
/<page-slug> - Blog posts:
/<blog-name>/<year>/<month>/<slug>or/<blog-name>/<slug>
Shopify normalizes these into /products/<handle>, /collections/<handle>, /pages/<handle>, and /blogs/<blog-handle>/<post-handle>. Every legacy URL that earned inbound links, organic traffic, or strategic value gets a 301 redirect. The redirect map and validation patterns follow the same process as any other migration. Our migration SEO methodology covers the full validation suite.
Squarespace-to-Shopify Migration FAQ
How long does a Squarespace-to-Shopify migration take?
For typical SMB catalogs, 6 to 10 weeks from kickoff to launch. The compressing factor is catalog size and the depth of the content rebuild. Page-heavy Squarespace 7.1 sites with extensive Fluid Engine layouts take longer than catalog-heavy 7.0 sites with simple page structures.
What gets lost in the migration?
If planned properly, very little of operational consequence. The honest losses: customer passwords (requiring a reset at launch), some historical order fidelity on multi-year-old orders, and any Squarespace-specific Member Area subscription bindings that have no clean Shopify equivalent. The work is identifying those losses in advance and planning customer communication and operational workarounds accordingly.
Should I move to Shopify or stay on Squarespace?
Squarespace remains a legitimate platform for content-led merchants with light commerce needs. The merchants who migrate to Shopify are typically those whose catalog complexity, integration requirements, or international ambitions have outgrown what Squarespace Commerce supports. Our Squarespace to Shopify migration practice scopes discovery as a fixed deliverable so the decision is data-informed.
What about Wix or BigCommerce as alternatives?
Both are real destinations. We hold dual partnerships with Shopify and BigCommerce and run migrations to all three platforms. The Shopify vs BigCommerce comparison is the right read if BigCommerce is on the table. The Wix to Shopify migration practice is the right reference if Wix is the alternative.
Talking Through Your Migration
If you are scoping a Squarespace-to-Shopify migration, the first conversation should be about the data inventory and what fidelity matters to your operations team. A clean data migration is the difference between a smooth launch and a 90-day cleanup project.
Start a conversation with our team and we can walk through your Squarespace exports, your catalog, and a realistic migration timeline. Our Shopify migration services team handles the engineering, and our Shopify plus agency practice handles the design and growth work that follows.