TheBusinessTimes.com.au


Squarespace, the design-driven platform helping Aussie entrepreneurs build brands and businesses online, announced Refresh 2024, its annual release of new products, features, and updates that empower entrepreneurs to unlock their creativity and take their business to the next level. 


As AI becomes more prevalent in Australia, Squarespace is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs harness this technology to enhance their creativity and simplify their business operations so they can focus on their passions. Squarespace is excited to introduce Design Intelligence: a new approach to web design that combines cutting-edge technology, including AI, with two decades of industry-leading design expertise. Built on Squarespace’s belief that AI should unlock human creativity, not replace it, the Design Intelligence suite of features aims to support and amplify a user’s creativity in building their personalised and unique online presence, tailored to their specific needs. 


As part of Design Intelligence, Squarespace today launched the next evolution of Blueprint AI, the company’s first AI-powered website builder. Serving as a creative partner, Blueprint AI helps Aussie users create elevated, fully-bespoke websites through curated design and content  recommendations that reflect their individual brand identity. Blueprint AI supports users at every step of the website building process, from the initial onboarding experience to the design and functionality stages. By incorporating core elements that make each brand unique—such as business type and preferred colour palette—Blueprint AI helps create a beautiful, custom starting point for any entrepreneurial journey. Blueprint AI is now available globally in all languages.


"Squarespace champions the irreplaceable value of human creativity, and our latest platform innovations are designed to further empower entrepreneurs to easily bring their visions, brands, and businesses to life," said Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO of Squarespace. “It has been an incredible year of innovation at Squarespace as we combine the latest technologies with our deep rooted focus on design to deliver unmatched capabilities for customers globally.”


The latest tools and features highlighted in Refresh 2024 include: 


Make your mark 

The latest suite of design and content generation tools deliver a more personalised online presence, tailored to every user’s brand profile and need.

Design Intelligence:

Blueprint AI: The next evolution of Squarespace’s guided website builder is enhanced with AI integrations that automatically create a standout website populated with curated and beautifully-designed imagery and copy, tailored to a customer's goals and brand personality.

Layout Switcher: An adaptive layout menu that enables faster website design experimentation—offering a set of flexible compositions with one's content automatically embedded, then applied instantly to a page.

Site Themes: One-click styling combinations that make it easier to preview and apply a new website aesthetic—via handpicked font pairings, colour palettes, button styles and more, with recommendations aligned to a customer's brand personality.

Brand Identity Management: A central hub for crafting and storing one's unique brand identity that guides Squarespace’s AI writer to instantly generate first draft, on-brand copy populated across key surface areas, including website text, content descriptions, and client documents, among others.

Usability & Expressibility Tools: New updates to cookie banner functionality and compliance systems to enhance website privacy and protection on a global level. Plus, new pinning effects to create a more engaging website scrolling experience. 


Your business, your way

Built to support every type of business with an intuitive setup, plus management, monetization, payment, and marketing tools that help Aussie entrepreneurs establish their business effectively.

Client invoicing: On-brand, professional documents like invoices, proposals, and contracts to help Aussie entrepreneurs easily secure and manage their clients. Plus, tools to schedule document sends help foster a positive customer experience.

Content & Memberships: New ways to monetise content, like charging for access to blog posts or videos, allow customers to turn their expertise into income. Entrepreneurs can provide website visitors a preview of their content, and then charge a one-time fee or recurring subscription for access to full blog posts and video libraries.

Donations: Enhanced tools to make collecting donations more efficient, including a new dashboard, support for recurring donations, and a streamlined donation process to help customers reach their fundraising goals faster.

Marketing Tools: An intuitive new experience for building automated email flows to give Aussie users total control over outbound marketing. Users can structure campaigns based on audience actions and custom rules, or browse existing templates to save time on customer communication, including thank you notes to first time buyers or discounts to new subscribers.

Business Guidance: New updates that make managing and growing every kind of business easier than ever, with dynamic dashboards, specialised analytics, custom navigation, and step-by-step setup guides that help customers succeed with customised guidance for their specific needs.


A platform that scales with you

An extended network of best-in-class digital solutions help brands and businesses grow.

Domains by Squarespace: As one the world’s largest domains registrars, Squarespace continues to invest in new features to support its millions of domain customers globally. The latest innovation, Domains Dashboard, offers an improved experience for configuring domain DNS settings, email or domain forwarding rules, and more, all from one place. Plus, a new Reseller API allows qualified reseller partners to earn commission on every domain registration.

Acuity Scheduling: A modernised appointment details page that makes it easier than ever to manage key actions: users can quickly contact clients, reschedule bookings, or initiate the checkout process directly from the streamlined interface. Acuity Scheduling also now features automated invoices generated directly from appointment details. These invoices can be customised before sending, ensuring a smooth and professional payment process that saves time and reduces administrative tasks.

Bio Sites: New releases help Bio Site users capture all of their content and interests in a single link-in-bio. With the introduction of Product Links, Bio Sites offers a better way to turn followers into customers. Users can connect their Bio Site to their Squarespace store or manually import products from any digital storefront.


“Squarespace amplifies creative potential with an unmatched digital presence, tools to streamline business management, and support as users grow and scale,” said Paul Gubbay, Chief Product Officer. “As we enter this new era of entrepreneurship, we're excited to launch these tools that will transform how entrepreneurs build, manage, and scale their businesses.”