Shopify order emails: send them from your own domain

Customers say their order confirmation never arrived, or it was in spam. Many guides tell you to “set up custom SMTP in Shopify”. Shopify does not have that setting. This page explains what you can actually change.

How Shopify sends email

Shopify sends every store notification (order confirmation, shipping update, password reset, abandoned checkout) from its own mail servers. The address customers see is the Sender email under Settings → Notifications.

If your domain is not authenticated with Shopify, these emails are sent from a Shopify address such as [email protected] instead of your own. Some inboxes treat that as less trustworthy.

Shopify has no custom SMTP setting

The fix: authenticate your domain in Shopify

1. Shopify admin → Settings → Notifications.
2. In Sender email, enter an address on your own domain, for example [email protected], and save.
3. Follow Shopify’s steps to authenticate the domain. Shopify gives you CNAME records that handle DKIM and SPF. If Shopify manages your domain’s DNS, it can add them for you; otherwise add them at your DNS host.
4. Add a DMARC record yourself. Shopify does not add it. A safe start is a TXT record named _dmarc with the value v=DMARC1; p=none;.

Shopify’s help page covers this in detail: Setting up your email.

Check that it works

1. Place a test order using a Gmail or Outlook address you control. Check the inbox and the spam folder.
2. In Gmail, open the email → More → Show original. SPF, DKIM and DMARC should all say PASS, and the From address should be on your domain.
3. For a second opinion, send a notification to the address that mail-tester.com gives you and read the report.

Where SecureSMTP fits

SecureSMTP is useful for emails that Shopify does not send for you, for example a message to your team when a large order comes in, a custom follow-up, or the contact form on a headless storefront.

From Shopify Flow (Grow, Advanced and Plus plans)

1. Sign up at securessmtp.com/signup (the Free plan includes 5,000 emails a month).
2. Dashboard → Forms → Sites → + Add Site. Copy the API key from the last step. It is shown only once.
3. In Shopify Flow, create a workflow with the trigger you need (for example Order created).
4. Add the action Send HTTP request: method POST, URL https://securessmtp.com/api/v1/mail/send, headers Content-Type: application/json and x-securessmtp-api-key: <your key>.
5. Body (Flow fills in the Liquid values):

   {
     "to": "[email protected]",
     "subject": "New order {{order.name}}",
     "text": "Order {{order.name}} from {{order.email}}",
     "from": { "name": "Your Store" }
   }

6. Run the workflow once and check the Email log in your SecureSMTP dashboard.

From your own app or backend

If you run a custom app or a headless storefront, send from your server with our REST API or our SMTP settings. Keep the API key on the server.

Frequently asked questions