How to Fix Shopify Emails Going to Customer’s Spam

Are customers not getting emails from your Shopify store? Many store owners face this frustrating problem when order confirmations, shipping updates, and marketing emails don’t reach customers. The emails just go straight to the spam.

The good news: this problem can be fixed, even without technical knowledge. This guide offers 7 simple solutions that will help more of your emails get delivered.

7 ways to fix emails going to customers spam

Fix 1: Complete SPF Record Setup

Email providers need to know you’ve authorized Shopify to send emails on your behalf. That’s exactly what an SPF record does.

How to implement:

1. Log in to your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
2. Navigate to DNS settings or DNS management
3. Find your existing SPF record (looks like: v=spf1...)
4. Edit the record to include: v=spf1 include:shops.shopify.com include:_spf.google.com ~all
5. Save changes
6. Wait 24-48 hours for DNS propagation

Why this matters:

Without proper SPF records, email providers can’t verify if emails claiming to be from your domain are legitimate. It’s like sending a letter with no return address—immediately suspicious. Setting up SPF tells email systems, “Yes, these emails are actually from me,” which significantly improves deliverability.

The ~all directive in your SPF record strikes the perfect balance—it flags non-authorized senders as suspicious but doesn’t automatically reject them, preventing legitimate emails from bouncing while still maintaining security.

Fix 2: Verify DKIM Setup

DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails that proves they haven’t been tampered with. Think of it as a wax seal on an important letter—it proves the message is authentic and hasn’t been altered.

How to implement:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin
2. Click “Settings” in the bottom left
3. Select “Domains” from the menu
4. Find your primary domain
5. Check if DKIM shows “Verified” status
6. If not verified, click “Enable DKIM”
7. Follow the provided instructions to add CNAME records to your DNS
8. Click “Verify” after adding records

Why this matters:

Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo heavily weigh DKIM authentication when determining whether to deliver emails to inbox or spam. Without it, your perfectly legitimate emails might trigger spam filters, regardless of content.

Have you noticed how some brands’ emails consistently reach your inbox while others go to spam? DKIM is often the difference. It’s invisible to your customers but critical for email providers evaluating your legitimacy.

Fix 3: Set Up DMARC Record

DMARC completes your email authentication strategy by telling email providers what to do if an email fails authentication checks. It’s like having a security policy for your emails.

How to implement:

1. Return to your domain registrar’s DNS settings
2. Create a new TXT record
3. Set the host/name to: _dmarc.yourdomain.com
4. Set the value to: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:youremail@yourdomain.com
5. Save the record
6. Wait 24-48 hours for DNS propagation

Why this matters:

DMARC builds upon SPF and DKIM to create a complete authentication system. The p=none policy initially just monitors without taking action, allowing you to see potential issues before they affect delivery.

The reporting feature sends you regular reports about emails using your domain, helping identify legitimate emails that might be failing authentication. This knowledge is power—you can fix issues before they hurt your deliverability.

With SPF, DKIM, and DMARC properly set up, you’ve completed the trifecta of email authentication that modern email systems expect from legitimate senders. Your emails now have the best possible chance of reaching your customers’ inboxes.

Fix 4: Check for Blacklisting

Even with perfect authentication, a blacklisted domain is doomed to the spam folder. It’s like having a perfect product in a store that nobody can enter—you need to clear the barriers first.

How to implement:

1. Visit MXToolbox.com
2. Enter your domain in the search box
3. Select “Blacklist Check” from the dropdown
4. Click “Blacklist Check”
5. If listed on any blacklists, click the link for each listing
6. Follow the specific delisting instructions provided for each blacklist

Why this matters:

Email blacklists are databases of domains and IPs that have been reported for sending spam. Many email providers automatically check these blacklists when deciding whether to deliver an email.

A single blacklisting on a major list can cause widespread deliverability issues across all email providers. Checking and resolving blacklisting issues is often the fastest way to restore email deliverability.

Think of blacklists as credit reports for email senders—one negative mark can affect everything, but you can clean it up with the right approach.

Fix 5: Fix Your Email Templates

Your email content itself might be triggering spam filters. Spam filters have become incredibly sophisticated, analyzing everything from image-to-text ratios to specific language patterns.

How to implement:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin
2. Go to “Settings” > “Notifications”
3. Click on each email template one by one
4. Reduce the number of images in each template
5. Ensure text makes up at least 60% of the content
6. Remove any “spammy” words like “free,” “limited time,” “act now”
7. Save each updated template

Why this matters:

Image-heavy emails with minimal text often trigger spam filters because this is a tactic spammers use to avoid text analysis. Similarly, certain words and phrases are statistically more common in spam and can trigger filters.

Modern spam filters use machine learning to identify patterns across thousands of data points in your emails. By maintaining a healthy text-to-image ratio and avoiding trigger words, you significantly reduce the likelihood of being flagged as spam.

Have you ever received a legitimate email that was clearly trying to avoid spam filters with tricks like writing “F.R.E.E” instead of “FREE”? Those tactics actually make things worse—clean, straightforward content always performs better.

Fix 6: Add Proper Unsubscribe Links

Every marketing email needs a clear way out. Not only is this legally required, but email providers specifically look for unsubscribe links when determining if your email is legitimate.

How to implement:

1. For marketing emails, go to Shopify Email or your email marketing app
2. Edit your email templates
3. Ensure each marketing email has a clear unsubscribe link at the bottom
4. Test by sending yourself a sample email
5. Verify the unsubscribe link works properly

Why this matters:

Clear unsubscribe links are required by anti-spam laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR. Beyond legal compliance, without an unsubscribe option, recipients who no longer want your emails may mark them as spam instead.

This is critical: when a subscriber marks your email as spam instead of unsubscribing, it significantly damages your sender reputation. Think of it as the difference between a customer politely declining your product versus them complaining to the Better Business Bureau—one hurts much more than the other.

Over time, spam complaints will affect all your future email deliverability, not just for that one subscriber. A clear, working unsubscribe link is your protection against this reputation damage.

Fix 7: Contact Shopify Support

Sometimes, you need expert eyes on your specific situation. Shopify’s support team has tools and insights that aren’t available to store owners.

How to implement:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin
2. Click “Help” in the bottom left corner
3. Select “Contact support”
4. Choose “Email” as the issue category
5. Explain your email deliverability issue
6. Request a review of your email sending setup
7. Ask about additional steps specific to your store

Why this matters:

Shopify has specialized tools to check technical aspects of your sending configuration, including shared IP reputation, email authentication details, and potential content issues specific to your store.

They can also verify if there are any account-level restrictions or platform-specific settings affecting your deliverability. Sometimes, there are recent changes that only Shopify would know about that could be impacting your emails.

Think of this as bringing in a specialist when basic treatments aren’t working—sometimes you need that extra level of expertise to solve persistent problems.

Conclusion

Poor email deliverability isn’t just a technical nuisance—it directly impacts your bottom line. Order confirmations that land in spam folders lead to confused customers and increased support requests. Marketing emails that never arrive mean lost sales opportunities.

By implementing these seven fixes, you’re not just solving a technical problem—you’re improving your customer experience, reducing support headaches, and ultimately, protecting your revenue.