Deliverability for Shopify Recovery Emails: Subdomains, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and Unsubscribe

A perfect abandoned cart email does nothing if it lands in spam. Recovery emails are time-sensitive, so deliverability problems cost real orders. The good news: the fundamentals are well documented and mostly one-time setup.

The requirements below come from Google's email sender guidelines, which apply to anyone sending to Gmail addresses. Yahoo publishes similar requirements.

Send from a branded subdomain

Send marketing and recovery email from a subdomain such as mail.yourstore.com or send.yourstore.com instead of your root domain.

• It keeps your marketing reputation separate from the mail your team sends day to day.
• Shoppers still see your brand in the From address.
• If something goes wrong, you are not putting the domain your staff use for everyday email at risk.

Use a consistent From address for each type of email. Google recommends that messages of the same category use the same From address.

Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

Google requires all senders to use SPF or DKIM, and senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail to use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Setting up all three is the safe default for any store.

• SPF lists which services may send mail for your domain.
• DKIM adds a cryptographic signature proving the message came from your domain and was not altered. Google requires keys of at least 1024 bits and recommends 2048.
• DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails those checks. To pass, the domain in your From address must align with the domain that passed SPF or DKIM. A policy of p=none meets the requirement; you can tighten it later.

Your email app should give you the exact DNS records. Add them at your domain provider, then verify.

Support one-click unsubscribe

For bulk senders, Google requires marketing and subscribed messages to support one-click unsubscribe (the List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers described in RFC 8058) and to include a visible unsubscribe link in the email body. Confirm your sending tool does both. Making it easy to leave is better for you than a spam complaint.

Keep spam complaints low

Google asks senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10%, and to never reach 0.30%. For recovery flows that means:

• Only email shoppers who have given marketing consent.
• Stop the series as soon as they buy, so customers never get "you forgot your cart" after paying.
• Avoid misleading subject lines, fake reply prefixes, and display names that are not your store.
• Send one recovery flow, not two (for example, Shopify's built-in email plus an app).

You can monitor your domain's spam rate and reputation for free in Google Postmaster Tools.

Ramp up new domains gradually

If you have just set up a new sending domain, do not switch every email to it on day one. Google recommends starting with a low volume to engaged recipients and increasing gradually. Recovery emails are a good place to start because they go to people who just interacted with your store.

Keep the email itself clean

• Format HTML properly and do not hide text with CSS.
• Use links shoppers can understand, pointing to your store or checkout.
• Keep images optimized and include real text, not just one big image.

Setting this up with EmailSync

EmailSync includes a domain setup screen where you add your sending domain, see the DNS records to publish, and check that they verify. Once your domain is connected, the 3-step abandoned checkout series sends under your brand and stops as soon as the shopper places an order.

Related: how to set up abandoned checkout recovery on Shopify and our general email deliverability checklist.