Squarespace checkout not working: where it stops

You tested the store with your own address, so the checkout you saw ran the path for your country. A shopper in another country enters an address your shipping settings may not cover. The shipping step then offers no method, and the Continue button stays grey. The page may not say which field caused it. Each screen passes the shopper on only when the screen before has what it needs, so one missing country can end every order from that country.

• Add one item, then enter your own address. Does the shipping step offer a method?
• Repeat with an address in another country. Does shipping still offer a method?
• Apply a discount code. Does the total change, and does the next step still load?
• Reach the payment step. Does the total match the cart and the shipping line?
• Try a second item from the same shop. Does it stop at the same step?

Once a shopper presses the checkout button, the store takes over the order. They usually enter a contact email, then a delivery address, then pick a shipping method, then reach payment. Each screen checks what it needs before it lets the shopper through, and a screen that finds nothing usable does not always say so in plain words. It keeps the next button inactive, or shows a line of red text that points at no field in particular. The shopper cannot tell which screen to blame, so they assume the store is broken and close the tab.

Your own test probably passed because your saved address, your country and your tax setting were already in place. Nothing on your path asked the store for a rate it did not have. A shopper who types a new address brings in every rule you never had to think about, and that is why a checkout can pass your test and fail the first order from abroad. The fix is not to test harder with your own details. It is to run the same cart with details you did not choose.

Shipping can stop a foreign order, because it depends on the address entered and on the places and rates you set up. A country left off the list gives the shopper no method at all, and a method with no rate for that address leaves them without a price. Tax works in the other direction: a total that changes between the cart and the payment step makes a shopper think the order is broken. Check the total on every screen, not only the first and the last.

Discount codes come next. A code can work for your address and fail for a shopper whose cart is below its minimum, or whose items the code does not cover. The page may then show a message about the code, and the total may stay where it was. Run the same cart with and without the code, so you can tell a code problem from a shipping problem.

Write down three things for every stop: the step name, the address you typed, and the total on screen. A stop at shipping with an address abroad points at shipping settings. A stop at shipping with your own address points at something you changed recently. A stop at payment with a total that differs from the cart points first at tax or a discount, not at the payment method. A simulated test records the same three things for each visitor, so its stops are easy to line up with your notes.

Each new shipping rate, country or discount rule can close checkout for one group of shoppers without changing anything on your own screen. Rerun the same simulated shoppers after each change, from an address abroad and with each code you publish, and see who got further. Include one address you did not plan for, since that is where a gap usually sits.