Setting up a small store on Squarespace or Wix: documented limits and the test order that proves it

A store is six settings that must agree

A small store looks like a list of products, but it only works when six things agree: the products and their options, the stock counts, the shipping zones and rates, the tax settings, the payment provider and the wording of checkout and the confirmation. Each is set in a different part of the builder, usually by a different person on a different day, and none of them is checked against the others until a customer pays.

That is why the test order matters more than any single setting. Orders placed through the real checkout, with a product that has options and a delivery address in each of the shipping zones you sell to, exercise all six at once.

• Write down who decides shipping rates and tax settings; the builder will not.
• Decide the payment provider before building anything else.
• Draft the confirmation wording before the first test.

Squarespace: plans and limits

Squarespace says commerce features need the Basic, Core, Plus or Advanced plan. The first product you add must have a name, an image, a price and a quantity before other details can be entered, and the product type cannot be changed later. Physical products need at least one shipping or local pickup option. Version 7.1 allows up to 10,000 products per store page, while version 7.0 allows 200 per store page, and hidden products count toward the limit.

Each product can have 250 variants, images and SKUs, whether you add them in the editor or by CSV. Product names are limited to 200 characters, SKUs to 60 characters, images should be under 5 MB, and download files to 300 MB. Check your own account's plan and the version of your site before relying on any of these figures.

• Count the variants of your most complex product against 250.
• Check which version of Squarespace the site uses.
• Add at least one shipping or pickup option before adding physical products.

Wix: plan and limits

Wix says you need a Premium or Studio plan that can accept payments before you can sell products. Its documented store limits are 50,000 products, six options per product, 100 choices per option and 1,000 variants per product. A variant is one combination of choices, so two options with two choices each make four variants, and a product with three options of ten choices each makes 1,000, which is already at the ceiling.

Wix shows a dashboard notice as you approach a limit and an error once you exceed it. A catalogue that needs more options than six has to be redesigned, for example by splitting a product into separate products.

• Multiply the choices of each option to find the variant count.
• Keep the option list short for each product.
• Do not build around a limit before reading your own dashboard.

The test order, what does not fit, and acceptance

Work out one order by hand first: price, shipping and any tax you expect. Place that order through the checkout, using the payment provider's test mode where it offers one, or a refundable order agreed in advance, and compare the totals with your calculation. Then cancel it and check that the stock count is back where it began, restocking by hand if the builder does not. No card details should ever be sent to anyone helping you.

Deciding what tax to charge, product photography, subscriptions, bookings, downloads and product feeds are outside a configuration job. The fixed-scope set-up of up to 25 physical products is priced at £695 as an untested proposal and paid only after you sign off. It is accepted when every product field matches your sheet, a test order for a product with options to each of two destinations you choose has totals equal to the hand calculation, one order record and one confirmation exist, and after your account holder cancels the order (and restocks it if the builder does not) the stock count is back to its start. The job covers Squarespace version 7.1 and Wix.