Squarespace: How to sell high-risk products using Authorize.Net or NMI

If you want to process credit card payments for high-risk products like pipes, glass, CBD, premium cigars, tactical items, or other restricted products on Squarespace using a properly set up high-risk Authorize.Net or NMI payment gateway, this article may be a godsend.

As many of you might already know, Stripe, Square, and PayPal do not process payments for many businesses in the high-risk industry. Numerous high-risk business types are listed within their “prohibited” categories or violate their allowed use policies.

Thousands of Squarespace site owners have spent hours on their CBD, vape, cigar, pipes & glass, or tactical e-commerce sites – only to realize that the “out of the box” payment options are limited to Stripe, Square, and PayPal.

For most, high-risk options like Authorize.Net seem out of reach. Luckily, they are not. Established in 2002, A+ rated, and BBB accredited, Tasker Payment Gateways LLC has put together this comprehensive guide to selling high-risk products on Squarespace.

Over the years, we have fine-tuned, tested ways to integrate high-risk payment gateways with Squarespace and learned how to set up payment processing alternatives to Square, Stripe, and PayPal.

This article goes over, in detail, how to set up an alternative cart, a high-risk friendly payment processor, and integrate Authorize.Net or NMI while still using Squarespace.

If you have found that Stripe, Square, and PayPal prohibit your product, this article will help you get your Squarespace site set up with a payment gateway that works for you.

Learn more about connecting Squarespace to high-risk payment processing

If you are ready to start selling on Squarespace and want us to help you integrate a high-risk payment gateway into Squarespace now, contact Tasker Payment Gateways LLC any time for free friendly advice. If you are looking for general information, please continue reading for details on our four ways to set up high-risk payment gateways with Squarespace.

Many clients have asked us, “How  can I sell high-risk products on Squarespace without starting over with a new website?”

Squarespace has some excellent website-building features that make it easy to create the e-commerce store you want. It’s straightforward to edit without you needing to know anything about coding.

It offers a significant amount of freedom to customize your site as you see fit. Squarespace is an excellent fit for small and medium online businesses. Of course, it also allows you to easily edit SEO elements of your site with a standard gear icon.

If you have already created your site, you’ve probably invested a lot of care and time into creating the online store you’ve always imagined. Luckily, there is a way to keep using Squarespace while still selling your high-risk products.

Squarespace payment gateway alternatives for high-risk product sales

Many of you might already know that Squarespace has three main ways of accepting credit card payments for online merchants. Their official payment integrations include Square, Stripe, and PayPal. Stripe is one of the most popular choices. However, none of these Squarespace alternatives work for high-risk product sales. This means you need to find a Squarespace payment gateway alternative.

With this in mind, let’s look at some of the best ways to accept payments for high-risk products while using Squarespace. We want to provide you with plenty of choices and find the best credit card processing setup for your high-risk Squarespace website.

Below are four alternative payment gateways that work for Squarespace sites selling regulated products like smoking accessories, vape, CBD oils, cigars, tactical items, and FFL to FFL:

1. Foxy Cart payment integration, using a correctly set up Authorize.Net account or high-risk NMI gateway (best fit for most)
2. Squarespace Shopify integration using Authorize.Net -when Authorize.Net is set up correctly
3. Embed WuFoo form payment collection on Squarespace
4. Squarespace NMI & QuickClick integration

Squarespace high-risk payment gateway integration details

You can use all these integrations with Squarespace, if you do it right and set the individual payment gateways up for high-risk processing. Contact us anytime for a payment gateway that works with your site.

Below we discuss each high-risk Squarespace payment processing integration option in detail.

 

#1 – Foxy works best for most high-risk Squarespace site owners

As you might know from our earlier article covering Foxy.io, or Foxy Cart as they were previously known, they work brilliantly for high-risk e-commerce. It’s an agile e-commerce solution that’s mobile-ready, cross-platform compatible, and integrates intelligently with many site builders and e-commerce platforms. It’s possible to use Foxy on a Squarespace page and accept payments with a beautiful-looking cart on-site.

However, there is one thing you must do before you start selling FFL products, CBD, bongs, premium cigars, pipes & glassware, or tactical gear on Squarespace. You need to make sure that you set up your payment gateway correctly for high-risk processing – that’s where our partners can help. Contact us here for a high-risk payment processing recommendation. 

Does Authorize.Net integrate with Squarespace?

Yes, Authorize.Net can be used as a payment gateway with Squarespace, but you need to know how to set it up correctly. Unfortunately, the steps are not detailed on the Squarespace tech pages, so let’s go over the process.

Authorize.Net is one of our clear favorites – when set up correctly for high-risk. Using Foxy as a tool, Tasker Payment Gateways LLC will help you set up Authorize.Net as your high-risk payment gateway and allow you to accept credit cards on your existing Squarespace website. In addition, we will assign you to a trusted independent agent who will work to ensure that the processing on the back end allows your exact product type.

We spoke with Foxy tech staff to get their view on Squarespace and how a Squarespace site owner would go about integrating the Foxy shopping cart, Authorize.Net, and high-risk payment processing abilities.

Frankly, we’re impressed, having gone through the details and the processes used to integrate Foxy with Squarespace. You don’t need coding expertise, yet it looks fantastic and works like a charm. Most importantly, the support staff at Foxy has been very responsive and helpful.

You can sign up and check out the Foxy software yourself by visiting Foxy.io’s website.

Again, though, after you sign up for the trial, you will still need to set up the payment gateway piece for high-risk processing – Foxy does not offer payment processing. Contact us for help with that piece.

 

How to set up our recommended high-risk payment gateway Squarespace integration:

Adding Foxy, with “add to cart” and an “on-page cart overview,” to your Squarespace page is very user-friendly. Follow these steps:

1. In Squarespace, click on “settings,” then “Website Column,” and finally click “Advanced.”
2. Click “Code Injection”
3. Open a new tab, go to the Foxy website, and access your “Foxy Admin.”
4. Click on Sample Code (near the top of the page) and Copy the code snippet from “Step 1” on the page.
5. Go back to the Squarespace tab and paste the piece of code you just copied into the “Footer section.”
6. Click “Save Changes”

This enables your Squarespace page to operate Foxy.

Now, enable Foxy:

1. Click on “Pages” to choose the page where you want to add the purchase options.
2. Click on “Edit” to edit page content and add a button element, which you can style to your liking.
3. Go to the Foxy tab again, and in the Foxy Admin – copy the “href” value from the link example in step 2, listed on the admin page.
4. Go back to the Squarespace tab and paste the copied link into the “clickthrough URL” field.
5. Then modify the product parameters as necessary (such as cost or description). Click “Apply.”
6. Changes” and “Save Settings”

This makes the button on your Squarespace page connect to Foxy. Now, let’s add some photos.

Add product pictures:

1. On your Squarespace page, go to view mode, right-click on your product image, and choose “Copy Image Address” from the right-click menu.
2. Switch back to edit mode and click to edit your button element, and edit the “Clickthrough URL.”
3. At the end of your “clickthrough URL,” add “&image= “(without the quotes) and paste the image address you just copied right after the equal sign.
4. Apply changes and save settings

Just like that, you have a beautiful-looking, fully functional e-commerce site on your Squarespace page. We find that Foxy.io is the best third-party alternative shopping cart we recommend for Squarespace.

You can also use Ecwid to integrate high-risk processing via either Authorize.Net or NMI into Squarespace. Read more about that here.

Remember, you will need a high-risk payment gateway/merchant account combo to make any of these solutions work – we can help.

#2 – The Shopify cart with Squarespace for high-risk sales

To sell high-risk products on your Squarespace site, you can integrate Shopify Lite or a Shopify Buy Button.

Below we explain the Shopify Buy Button a little more and discuss how to make all this work together to enable high-risk payments.

The good news is that the Shopify Buy Button allows you to get plenty of a Shopify store’s full shopping cart features. Please check our dedicated page for more information about features and high-risk sales on Shopify.

Making all the moving pieces work can be a little confusing, and depending on your product type, you may want a little head start.

Please feel free to contact us early in the process of merging your Squarespace site with Shopify store functions. Just let us know what you are trying to sell, and we will work with you to get an appropriate high-risk payment gateway up and running on Squarespace.

What is the Shopify Buy Button?

The Shopify Buy Button allows you to transform any website into an e-commerce site where you can sell most products easily and quickly. Simply set up your Shopify Buy Button, and Shopify will create the code you need to add the button to your site.

Choose between Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons

You can choose between different button options. You can integrate Shopify with Squarespace with a straightforward, fixed price button for single items, or you can generate and use an “Add To Cart” button. While both will take your customer to a different checkout URL than your original URL, you can purchase a custom URL for your checkout page to avoid confusing your customers. Essentially, it’s a copy and paste job.

Something that sets the Shopify button apart is that it allows you to customize it to fit your brand and high-risk website. In summary, it’s simple to set up, affordable, and gives your site a consistent look when it comes to how your customers buy.

How to enable high-risk payments with the Shopify Buy Button

There’s more to accepting credit cards for high-risk products on Squarespace than adding Shopify. You see, Shopify doesn’t allow high-risk sales with their out-of-the-box payment options either.

What Shopify does offer, as opposed to Squarespace, is high-risk payment integration. We realize it might sound confusing, but it is pretty straightforward if you’re familiar with high-risk payment processing.

You can start accepting payments for high-risk products on your Squarespace site by contacting us to get a high-risk friendly Authorize.Net account. This account is then integrated with Shopify’s back-end high-risk processing. With these combined, you’ll get a high-risk friendly Shopify Buy Button for your Squarespace site. In short, follow these steps:

1. Set up a high-risk Authorize.Net account with proper processing on the back end
2. Have us help you connect your Shopify account to high-risk processing
3. Paste the Shopify Lite, or Shopify Buy Button, into your Squarespace site

That’s it, and don’t forget we’re always available to talk you through the entire process. You can use our contact form below to reach out for some free advice and one-on-one talks about your payment needs.

#3 – WuFoo for Squarespace high-risk product sales

If you’re looking for a payment processor/contact form hybrid, then WuFoo is the way to go. The good news is that it’s also possible to embed your Wufoo form into your Squarespace site and use it to collect payments.

The way to embed WuFoo on your Squarespace page is essentially the same method as other 3rd party codes like QuickClick discussed in option 4. For you to get the code you’re looking for, you need to follow these steps:

1. Log into your WuFoo account and go to Forms.
2. Click “Share” on the right-hand side of the form.
3. Select “Embed on iFrame” -this will give the simple HTML code you’re looking for.
4. Click “Copy Code.”
5. Paste the code to your web page.

Before you start adding your WuFoo form to whichever page you want to accept payments from, you need to know a couple of things.

Disclaimer: when we spoke with the WuFoo support team, they highly recommended using the JavaScript embed method first. Then look to the iFrame method as a backup choice. However, considering Squarespace’s emphasis on custom HTML, we’re currently recommending trying to use the “embed on iFrame” method. We’ll keep our ears to the ground and update this recommendation should we find more evidence in favor of one way over the other.

You should know that you need to make sure your WuFoo form is set up correctly for high-risk processing. The good news is that you can set up WuFoo forms with Authorize.Net if you have someone like us to set up the processing as “high-risk friendly” – which then allows for high-risk credit card processing. We’re more than happy to give you a hand and set it up for you. It’s what we do.

#4 – Use NMI QuickClick to sell high-risk products on Squarespace

We’re glad to say that NMI – another of our favorite gateways – offers a solution for selling high-risk products on Squarespace. You can start accepting credit card payments for high-risk sales like FFL, tactical gear, CBD, glassware, or vape products by integrating the QuickClick button from NMI with your Squarespace page.

The process is straightforward:

1. Log into your QuickClick account and click on the very top category you see on the page: “Generate Button.” If you don’t already have an NMI account, we’ll set one up for you. Use the short contact form found here to get started.
2. There, choose whether you want to generate a “Shopping Cart Button,” a “Fixed Price Button,” or a “Donation Button.”
3. Then click “Create Button,” which will take you to a new page that clearly shows you the fully formatted HTML code of the button you’ve just created.
4. Go to your Squarespace page and edit the page where you wish to display the button.
5. Add the HTML code exactly where you wish it to feature on the specific page where you want your customer to be able to purchase your product.

We’ve worked with NMI for hundreds of high-risk site owners, so please get in touch if you need help getting set up. We’ll also be able to help you integrate NMI with your Squarespace page.

Squarespace compatible high-risk products

Do you have questions about whether you can sell your products on Squarespace? Contact us today!

At Tasker Payment Gateways LLC, we’re always happy to give you some free advice and provide hard-to-find information on integrations and high-risk payment processing.

Our dedicated, independent, high-risk payment processing experts specialize in Squarespace. They will lay out all your next steps by phone, email, or text.

You can see a more comprehensive list of generally acceptable high-risk products and services here if you want to know more.

Pro tip: If you’re selling regulated products, you should always seek qualified legal advice. Review the terms of all your providers, Squarespace included, before launching your e-commerce site.

Are there alcohol-friendly payment gateways for Squarespace?

Yes, there are payment gateways that allow alcohol and also work with Squarespace, but they require a few pieces to work in a stable way. Your Squarespace website will need a reliable 3rd party tool to integrate a high-risk payment gateway, an alternative payment gateway, and a merchant account underwritten for alcohol.

You can accept payments online for alcohol through Squarespace by integrating the right Authorize.Net payment gateway, set up with alcohol-friendly payment processing on the back end.

Advice: selling alcohol online can be complicated. We recommend that you seek qualified legal advice and do your own due diligence. Learn more about alcohol e-commerce here.

Are there cigar payment gateways for Squarespace?

Yes, there are payment gateways that allow cigars and also can work with an existing Squarespace website. To set up a tobacco-friendly payment gateway on Squarespace you must only offer premium cigars and loose tobacco (no flavored cigars or cigarettes for example). Additionally, you need a 3rd party software to add a high-risk payment gateway option. Lastly, you will need a tobacco payment gateway and merchant account to make it all work. This process is fairly straightforward and no coding experience is generally required.

Advice: Do your research, if done correctly, you can sell premium cigars and loose tobacco on Squarespace. You have options on the high-risk payment gateway side too. Both NMI and Authorize.Net can handle cigar transactions as long as the underlying merchant account is also tobacco friendly. Your payment processor must also register you with the card associations. Contact us with any questions.

Are there Squarespace payment gateways that allow bongs, pipes, and glass?

Yes, you can accept payments for bongs, glassware, and pipes on Squarespace using a smokeshop-friendly payment gateway, merchant account, and 3rd party shopping cart. However, to add headshop payment processing to Squarespace, you will need to expand the payment gateways usually available by using 3rd party software. This is what the 3rd party shopping cart software does.

Advice: Learn more about payment gateways for pipes, bongs, and grinders on our pipes and glass payment gateway information page. If set up properly, you can easily add either an Authorize.Net or NMI payment gateway for you and connect it to a headshop-friendly merchant account to ensure smooth deposits.

Are there vape payment gateways that work with Squarespace?

Yes, you can set up a vape-friendly payment gateway and integrate it with Squarespace, but there are a couple of extra steps. First, to expand the available payment gateway integrations within Squarespace, you need to use 3rd party software. Additionally, you must ensure that both the payment gateway you use and the merchant account it connects to also allow vape products.

Additional information: When you use Squarespace to sell vape products online, you can choose between using the NMI payment gateway or Authorize.Net to handle your transactions as long as you have set up the 3rd party software that allows you to add high-risk payment gateway options. Often, you can quickly get a payment gateway and integrate it with a vape merchant account and Squarespace simply using tested, affordable solutions.

 Advice: You can keep an eye on the vape industry and its changes in our vape payment processor updates.

Can you process credit cards for tactical equipment on a Squarespace site?

Yes, you can process credit cards for tactical items on Squarespace without rebuilding your website. Tactical friendly payment processing simply involves a few extra steps. First, you will need a 3rd party Squarespace cart that expands the payment gateway options. Then you can somewhat easily add a tactical-friendly payment gateway and merchant account to your website.

Additional information: You can sell survival gear and tactical equipment using Squarespace. Similar to other high-risk product types, you have a choice of high-risk-friendly payment gateways. We can recommend either Authorize.Net or NMI for your product type and ensure that the merchant processing is tactical friendly. Reach out to us any time for advice and recommendations.

Can you add FFL-friendly payment processing to Squarespace?

Yes, but you will need to add 3rd party software to Squarespace in order to expand the shopping cart’s functionality. Depending on your unique business, you will likely use either NMI or Authorize.Net for your Squarespace FFL payment gateway once those options have been enabled. You will also need second amendment friendly payment processing that integrates with your payment gateway.

Additional Information: Most FFL solutions work with Squarespace and popular auction sites like GunBroker. You can sell legal firearms and ammunition on Squarespace via FFL to FFL transfers, but you should absolutely sit with a qualified attorney long before selling online.

Contact us with any payment processing questions or for an FFL payment gateway and merchant account recommendation.

How do I add a high-risk payment gateway to Squarespace?

Because the native Squarespace cart does not support the types of payment gateways required to integrate a high-risk merchant account, you must first expand the payment gateway choices within Squarespace. To do this, you can use a 3rd party Squarespace shopping cart and add that software by following the steps laid out by the 3rd party shopping cart provider.

Additional information: In our effort to make sure we give you the most up-to-date payment gateway advice, we spoke with the Squarespace customer support team. Through our talk with them, we got a clear and concise answer as to how to add custom code, which we outline below.

NOTE: If you use our recommended Foxy method, you will not have to worry about custom code. Squarespace support won’t be able to offer the same integration support and troubleshooting for “custom code” by third parties as they do with their official integrations.

Adding custom code to Squarespace

There are multiple ways of adding custom code to your Squarespace e-commerce store. For example, you can add HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from third parties to your store to accept payments. However, support did mention that HTML might be the best route to make this happen for your site.

In other words, selling high-risk products doesn’t need to create problems – you can still use Squarespace and add third-party features, modifications, and processors. The main thing to remember here is that if you need assistance or support, you may need to contact the third party you got the code from.

In short, this is how you integrate non-official third-party features, code, and customization:

1. Get the widget, HTML, or JavaScript code from the third party
2. Copy the Code
3. Insert the code where you want it to appear on your page

It’s not as simple as it sounds. The main challenge for high-risk site owners is finding third parties that offer high-risk processing and also allow you to extract and copy the code you need to insert on your Squarespace website.

This is where the steps above will come in handy. Of course, should you have any questions or need any help setting up high-risk payment processing, please get in touch. You can always reach us through our contact form or get in touch with us here.

Contact us for free, friendly Squarespace high-risk payment gateway advice

At Tasker Payment Gateways, we’ve helped high-risk site owners set up payment processing since 2002. We specialize in finding excellent high-risk payment gateways that suit our clients’ needs and recommending high-risk merchant accounts. In other words, we are incredibly familiar with the high-risk payment processing world. We can help you find and integrate the payment methods you have in mind for the platform of your choosing.

Check out Tasker Payment Gateway LLC’s A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and read some reviews here.

Keep in mind, we offer lots of free advice, and you don’t have to have everything figured out before you get in touch. We’re more than happy to talk through your options and what’s best for your business. So contact us today, and we can help you start processing credit card payments on your high-risk Squarespace e-commerce website as soon as possible.