Email Bounceback Management
Outgoing emails from your store are an important part of your business and it can be stressful when they don't arrive at their destination or get caught in the recipient's trash folder. Many times, it is through no fault of the store owner that messages don't go through, but rather the recipient service's anti-spam safeguards that prevent messages from getting through correctly. To prevent the misidentification of your store's outgoing emails as spam, Shift4Shop Version 9 introduces email bounceback management and DKIM signatures.
What is DKIM?
DomainKeys Identified Mail is an email authentication method that is intended to confirm to service providers that email coming from a domain is truly coming from that domain. DKIM attaches a digital signature linked to your domain on outgoing emails. This digital signature acts as a sort of "fingerprint" that allows the recipient service to look up the domain's public key and verify the email is indeed coming from the domain in question.
To turn on your store's DKIM functionality, please follow these steps:
Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager.
Using the left navigation menu, go to Modules.
Once you're on the Modules page, use the search bar at the top to search for "DKIM" and bring up the module.
Place a mark in the "Enable" checkbox and click Save at the top right of the screen.
The above steps will add a special TXT record to your domain's DNS record, which will act as its DKIM signature. You may have a look at the DNS entry that is created by using Shift4Shop's Manage DNS tool (also introduced in version 9).
Additional Information
To use DKIM, you must use a domain for your Shift4Shop store. It will not work for stores only using the temporary *.s4shops.com or *.3dcartstores.com URL. Ideally, your domain's DNS should be pointed to Shift4Shop. However, if your domain name is not pointed to Shift4Shop's Nameservers, you can still utilize the DKIM function. However, you will have to create the TXT record on whichever Name Server is handling your domain. It will be the same key used on the store (use the Manage DNS tool to copy it). Please consult with your domain administrator if you need assistance with adding DNS records.
How does Email Bounceback Management Work?
Spammers often send thousands of emails to large lists that can include old or otherwise nonfunctioning email addresses. So anyone that repeatedly sends emails to dead addresses runs the risk of looking like a spammer to a recipient's ISP.
Now, let's say your customer - when checking out - used a misspelled email address. Or perhaps they logged in with an email that no longer exists and didn't update it during checkout. When your store sends a confirmation email, followed by a "Your Order Has Shipped" email, then subsequently followed by a newsletter or a "Please leave a review" email... Well, after a bit, these emails may inadvertently flag your store as sending spam.
Shift4Shop's email bounceback management works by analyzing any hard bounceback (i.e., User not found) messages that return. Shift4Shop itself will not automatically blacklist these emails, but you do have the option to blacklist emails from your store. Please see our article here for more information.