Selling Online in the UK with Squarespace: The Decisions to Make Before Your First Order
Adding a product to a Squarespace store takes a couple of minutes. Getting a UK online shop ready to take real money takes a good deal longer, and hardly any of that extra time goes on products.
It goes on decisions about VAT, payment methods, delivery charges and returns, plus the small print UK law expects a shop to show.
Those choices shape how the shop runs every day, and they're far easier to settle before the first order than after the hundredth. This guide works through them in the order we tackle them when setting up Squarespace stores for UK businesses, and shows where each one lives in Squarespace.
A quick note first: this is practical guidance from a web studio, not legal or tax advice. For anything borderline, speak to an accountant or read the GOV.UK guidance we link to.
Selling online is not a fringe activity here. Internet sales made up 27.3% of all retail sales in Great Britain in August 2026, according to Office for National Statistics figures released on 18 September 2026. Taking a share of that through Squarespace means settling six things: the plan you sell on, how you handle VAT, how customers pay, what you charge for delivery, the policies and company details you have to show, and how your products are structured. None of them are hard in isolation. The cost of getting them wrong arrives later, as refunds you hadn't budgeted for, delivery charges that swallow the margin on every heavy parcel, or a VAT return that turns into a lost weekend.
1. Which plan you sell on
Every current Squarespace website plan can sell: Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced. The differences are in the detail. At the time of writing, Basic carries a 2% commerce transaction fee and the other three don't, and some features covered below, including automated VAT calculation and live courier rates, start at Core. Advanced adds the option of connecting your own carrier accounts, Royal Mail among them.
Payment processing fees are separate and depend on the processor, so check Squarespace's current pricing before committing.
2. How you handle VAT
You have to register for VAT if your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in the last 12 months, or you expect it to in the next 30 days. The threshold rose from £85,000 on 1 April 2024. Lots of small shops sit comfortably below it. What matters is that your store is set up for where you are now, and ready for where you're heading.
Once you're registered, two settings do most of the work.
Tax-inclusive pricing. UK shoppers expect the price on the page to be the price they pay. Squarespace lets you include tax in your prices, which sets aside part of each order total for VAT instead of adding it on at checkout.
Your VAT number. Add it to your business information and it appears on customer receipts.
Automated tax, which covers UK and EU VAT, is available on Core, Plus and Advanced. If you set tax up manually instead, note that Squarespace can't apply different tax rules to different products that way. That matters if you sell a mix of standard-rated and zero-rated goods (children's clothing and printed books are the classic examples), so work out how you'll handle it before launch rather than on your first VAT return.
3. How customers pay
UK shops have more choice here than they used to. Squarespace Payments is available in the UK, as are Stripe and PayPal. The combination needs a little thought, because Squarespace Payments can only be connected alongside PayPal. Connecting it replaces Stripe as your processor.
Depending on the setup, UK customers can pay with:
cards, including Visa, Mastercard and American Express
Apple Pay and Google Pay
Klarna, which works with Squarespace Payments or Stripe
Clearpay, for businesses based in the UK, on orders over £1 and under £1,000
Buy now, pay later can make a real difference to a shop selling £400 armchairs. For £6 greetings cards it's mostly clutter. Choose based on what your customers buy, not on how long you can make the list.
One more detail: your store currency follows the bank account connected to your payment processor, and a Squarespace store takes one currency at a time.
4. Delivery
Get delivery charges wrong and the margin on awkward orders disappears. Squarespace offers flat rate, weight-based and carrier-calculated shipping, along with free local pickup and local delivery by postcode.
For UK orders on Core, Plus and Advanced, carrier-calculated shipping can pull live rates from DPD, Evri, Parcelforce, UPS and DHL, provided every product has a weight and dimensions. It doesn't work for cross-border orders, so anything going abroad needs flat rate or weight-based rules.
Delivery pricing is also the single biggest reason baskets get abandoned. Baymard Institute puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, drawn from 50 separate studies, and when it asks shoppers why they left during checkout, 40% say extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees were too high. Slow delivery accounts for another 20%, and 12% say they couldn't work out the total cost upfront. None of those are design problems. They are decisions made in the shipping settings, which is why it pays to work out what delivery really costs you before picking a headline rate.
There's a legal side too. The drip pricing rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 have applied since 6 April 2025. The CMA's guidance on prices says mandatory delivery charges must be shown when you invite someone to buy, and included in the total price if you can reasonably calculate them. If customers have to choose between delivery options, the cheapest should be included until they choose another. In practice, show mandatory delivery charges alongside the price and include them in the total wherever you can work them out, rather than letting them appear for the first time at checkout.
5. Returns, cancellations and what you must tell people
UK law gives online shoppers the right to cancel most orders for goods. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, the cancellation period ends 14 days after the day the customer receives the goods. Once you get the goods back, or proof they've been sent if that comes first, you have 14 days to refund, including standard delivery.
There are exceptions. They include goods made to the customer's specifications or clearly personalised, goods that go off quickly, and sealed hygiene products once they've been unsealed. Digital downloads work differently: the customer loses the right to cancel once the download starts, as long as they gave express consent and acknowledged they'd lose that right.
Return postage catches people out. A customer only pays to send goods back if you told them so before they bought. Say nothing and the cost can land on you.
Squarespace gives you somewhere to put all of this. In the checkout settings you can add a return policy, terms of service and a privacy policy, which appear as links at checkout, and you can require customers to agree to your terms before they pay. Squarespace doesn't write the policies for you, so allow time for that (or for a solicitor).
Details your website has to show
Two sets of rules are easy to overlook. The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 require online businesses to make their name, geographic address and email address easy to find, along with registration details and a VAT number where relevant, and to say whether prices include tax and delivery. Limited companies also need to show their registered name, company number, registered office address and which part of the UK they're registered in. A footer or contact page is the usual home for both.
The 2024 Act covers reviews as well. Posting or commissioning fake reviews is banned, and if you publish customer reviews you're expected to take reasonable steps to prevent and remove fake ones.
6. How your products are structured
This part feels easy, which is exactly why it gets rushed.
Each Squarespace product can have up to six option types and 250 variant combinations, which covers most clothing and homeware ranges. Squarespace sells physical products, services, digital downloads, gift cards and subscriptions, although subscriptions need Squarespace Payments or Stripe and can't be downloads. The other limits are roomy: a 7.1 store page holds up to 10,000 products, a basket holds 500 items (150 once carrier-calculated shipping is switched on), product images need to be under 5 MB, and a digital download can be a single file of up to 300 MB, with the customer's download link valid for 24 hours before Squarespace reissues it. Decide early how you'll name variants and whether you'll track stock, because low-stock alerts are only as good as the numbers behind them.
Then there are the parts customers see after they buy. Order confirmation and shipping emails can be customised to match your brand. Abandoned checkout emails are off by default. Switch them on and Squarespace emails shoppers 24 hours after they leave with items in their basket, provided they entered an email address. It's one of the cheapest wins in the whole setup.
Selling subscriptions? Keep an eye on the new subscription contract rules in the same 2024 Act. The government currently expects them to start in spring 2027.
Do it yourself, hire a Squarespace Expert or use a specialist studio?
Is there professional help for setting up a Squarespace store? Yes, and you might not need it.
Doing it yourself works well for a small range with simple delivery. Squarespace's Help Center and its on-demand webinars cover the mechanics properly.
The Squarespace Marketplace lists Squarespace Experts, invited from experienced Circle partners and vetted by Squarespace. Online store setup is one of the services you can hire them for.
A specialist studio makes sense when the shop is part of a wider brand or website project, when the catalogue is large, or when VAT, delivery, policies and integrations all need joining up before a launch date that can't move.
We set up stores through our Squarespace e-commerce and online store setup service, and it's familiar ground for us as a Circle Platinum Partner and Squarespace Expert studio. If you're weighing it up, send us a rough idea of what you sell and where you ship, and we'll say what we'd do in your position.
FAQs
Are there professional services to help set up an online store on Squarespace?
Yes. There are three routes. Squarespace's Marketplace lists vetted Squarespace Experts, and online store setup is one of the service categories you can hire them for. Specialist studios such as Made by Dave, a UK Circle Platinum Partner and Squarespace Expert studio, set stores up as part of a wider build, covering payment processing, VAT settings, delivery rules, product structure and the checkout policies UK law expects you to show. And shops with a small range and simple delivery can often do it themselves using Squarespace's Help Center and free on-demand webinars. Paying for help makes most sense when the catalogue is large, when a launch date can't move, or when VAT and delivery rules need joining up properly first time.
Do I need to charge VAT on my Squarespace store?
You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in a 12-month period, or if you expect it to within the next 30 days. Once registered, Squarespace lets you use tax-inclusive pricing and show your VAT number on receipts. Check HMRC guidance or speak to an accountant about your situation.
Which payment methods can a UK Squarespace store accept?
UK stores can use Squarespace Payments, Stripe or PayPal. Depending on the setup, customers can pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna or Clearpay. Squarespace Payments can be connected alongside PayPal but replaces Stripe.
What does a UK online shop need to show on its website?
Your business name, geographic address and email address, your VAT number if you're registered, and whether prices include tax and delivery. Limited companies also need their registered name, company number, registered office address and place of registration. You should also explain cancellation rights and who pays for returns. This isn't legal advice, so check GOV.UK guidance for your circumstances.
