Authenticating Shopify Emails with SPF and DKIM

Why are my Shopify emails going to Spam?

If you have a problem with Shopify emails going to spam, that is, going to the junk folder of your recipients, then it is very likely an issue with your email authentication. Emails failing authentication, be they failing SPF, failing DKIM, or failing DMARC is common, as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are often not properly implemented by domain administrators. Often, the main cause of Shopify emails being blocked is due to the Shopify emails failing DMARC, which in the case of Shopify, is usually due to a misconfiguration of SPF and DKIM.

How to stop Shopify emails going to Junk.

The first step to preventing Shopify email going to spam is to retrieve a failed message and access its header information. This will allow you to quickly diagnose whether any authentication issues such as DKIM or DMARC are flagging your email as spam, instructing the recipient sender to move it to junk. Simply paste the email headers into our free Stellastra Deliverability Tool, which you can use freely with no log in required. Our deliverability tool should allow you to avoid Shopify emails from going to spam, or at least rule out authentication as the issue.

How to remove ‘via shopify.com’ or ‘on behalf of shopify.com’

Another example of where a Shopify DKIM misconfiguration is to blame, is if your recipients report seeing the message as ‘via shopify.com’ or ‘on behalf of shopify.com’ and that the emails typically end up in spam or junk. The Stellastra Email Deliverability tool above will confirm this prognosis, however, you may also wish to configure DKIM for Shopify by logging in to your Shopify account to check to see if you have followed the following article to configure your Shopify dkim setup to authenticate your domain.

How to stop Shopify Failing DMARC

To ensure that your Shopify campaigns pass DMARC and get delivered to your prospects, it is important to ensure that DKIM and SPF passes authentication for your domain. A common mistake is to sign an email with Shopify’s own DKIM keys. However, in order for Shopify’s email to pass authentication for your own domain, it is necessary to use your own DKIM keys as per Shopify’s own guide. If you wish to verify the above, paste the message headers for a failed Shopify message into our Shopify email testing tool. Furthermore, you should also follow the instructions on how to set up SPF authentication for Shopify.

Get Specialist Deliverability and DMARC Consulting for Shopify