DMARC, SPF & DKIM settings - Email deliverability

[shipping175]

We want the FROM address set to our domain so that '@Shipstation.com' does not appear on emails sent to our customers.

We are unable to use our own branding on emails from ShipStation because they get quarantined, and get tons of calls. Where is my package? When will it arrive? 

We had to switch to ShipStation branded emails to handle this, but that has its own set of problems, including that it looks like we use a free version of a product, are cheap and unprofessional.

We'd simply like to be able to get the info we need so we can configure mail delivery settings on our end and use our own branding on emails. 

Those are the following:

DMARC
SPF
DKIM

I believe sendgrid can support this.

Can't stress this enough. Please make this.

[tremmert]

We are experiencing the same issue.  We have contacted support and are waiting on a reply.

[Rich]

Welcome to the 8 year old problem.

https://community.shipstation.com/t5/Orders-Shipment-Management/Email-Authentication-based-on-Client...

[Start_Haus]

I'll share our fix to this dated problem.

Delete your company email from the branded tab (you can leave everything else, website, logo, phone, etc). Create a new template for both tracking confirmations and delivered confirmations (copy from default). Edit these new templates to remove the email field and enter a static value (your email @ your domain). Save.  Change the default email templates to use these newly created templates. Save. Emails are still branded, and emails are delivered.

While this solves the DEMARC deliverability issues caused by ShipStation effectively spoofing your domain, there are still problems with this.  If a customer hits "reply" to either the tracking or the delivery confirmation, it will bounce as tracking@shipstation.com is a no-reply address.  However, at least they are delivered, its a clean and branded email looking as though it is from your company, and the email contact is in the body of the email.

[WishShipStation]

In my opinion that is not really a solution because you lose connection with your customers as the reply back is to Ship Station.  You are better off finding another way to send the emails. Ship Station failed to fix this in time after years of customers saying this was an issue.  They were warned of this.  It is old news when Google and Yahoo eventually said they were going to force Dmarc.

[porkchopzz4]

This month Gmail and Yahoo Mail have both implemented more rigorous email verification requirements... so expect even more customers not to get tracking emails.

https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-security-authentication-spam-protection/

It doesn't get much dumber than Shipstation not fixing this in the years and years it's been complained about.. and it's about to get critical with the changes this month.

[brendan1]

This is a perfect example of the fact that ShipStation devs don't listen to customer input. Along with all the negative feedback about the new layout, then more recently the new order page layout, not to mention simple fixes that could be implemented into products, these order emails should be looked at by ShipStation as a CRUCIAL feature that should be addressed immediately. 

[james7]

Given the lack of documentation and Shipstation not feeling this is an important issue to inform their customers about, I will be looking into other alternatives to Shi*tstation.

[geoffreyH]

We are also now waiting for a fix. Due to the issues around spam, and with Google and Yahoo's dmarc requirements, I am seeing that our shipstation, via sendgrid are getting quarantined. We have an spf record with sendgrid, why can't they provide a dkim record. As far as I can see, this is the only thing needed. I hope someone from Shipstation is actually monitoring this thread.

[WishShipStation]

Good luck if you think Ship Station will fix anything. 

[Rich]

According to them it is "fixed" for now - if you use tracking@shipstation.com as the sender, which you can't switch to without talking to support, from my experience. 

They switched me over and now the emails are getting delivered. That doesn't solve the issue of the customer trying to reply to the email, of course, but they do get delivered. They are supposedly working on this as well.

See Erin's final note on the last page of this 8 year old thread, before she "closed" the thread by disabling replies.

https://community.shipstation.com/t5/Orders-Shipment-Management/Email-Authentication-based-on-Client...

[WishShipStation]

This is not a fix because customers cannot respond to the email.  tracking@shipstation.com  should have always been working.  It is there own domain.  This is Ship Station pretending they fixed something when they did not.

[Start_Haus]

All one needs to do is remove your business email from the branding page.  Tracking communication will then come from tracking@shipstation.com

For our business, I created new templates with ~~~ NO REPLY~~~ featured at the top of the email, and pertinent STATIC contact info at the bottom (not being fed by branding information).

I agree, this is not exactly a fix, but emails are delivered and customers need only reply when necessary by clicking on the mail link at the bottom of our "no-reply" message.

[Start_Haus]

I should note- this is satisfactory for us because the actual order confirmations come from us, from our site, from a properly configured domain.  Only the tracking confirmations come from shipstation (noted as a no-reply) which I find is common in ecommerce. Our customers generally have always respond to order confirmations, not tracking communications.

[geoffreyH]

I wrote to Shipstation support and this is the answer I got which confirms what Start_Haus and others said:
 
our engineering team is aware of these coming requirements and is working on a solution. More communications to come. Our default email address tracking@shipstation.com is DMARC-compliant, so the merchant can remove their email address from the Branding tab in their store settings to ensure immediate compliance.

I wrote back asking specifically where to change it and what happens if a person replies to this email.

[geoffreyH]

Here is the followup email I got:

Here is a video on how you can change the email: [LINK], the shipstation email is just a momentary workaround, the developers are working on having merchants put in their own email.

I can't share the video because it was filmed in our store. However you change the email under "Settings > Store Setup" then go to the 3 dots to the right of your "Store Name" and then to the "Branding tab" change the email there. After doing that I updated our email template to let people know not to reply but to use our email to contact us. 

Out of curiosity, I sent myself a test email and it did indeed come from tracking@shipstation.com but when I replied to that email I got a "Email address not found" failure message. 

It would be nice if until they fix the issue they would at least set up some sort of autoresponder to say "This email is not monitored, please contact the store owner" or something like that.

[shipshipper]

This is still an issue. No updates from Shipstation devs since Jan 31 2024, and they have been locking threads on this issue in an attempt to make it look like it's not a problem.

• 8 year old thread with 160 posts started in 2016: https://community.shipstation.com/t5/Orders-Shipment-Management/Email-Authentication-based-on-Client...
• 3 year old thread: https://community.shipstation.com/t5/ShipStation-Features/Why-sending-email-without-a-verified-sende...
• 3 month old thread: https://community.shipstation.com/t5/ShipStation-Features/New-Email-Delivery-Requirements-for-Yahoo-...
• All recently locked by Shipstation staff to prevent discussion

What is going on @Manager-Erin ? It's crazy that this simple, integral aspect of the shipping service we pay for is functionally broken and has been for years. It's far worse as of Feb 2024 now with GMAIL/Yahoo's stricter authentication policies.

At absolute minimum, in the short term, Shipstation needs to change tracking emails sent out to come from noreply@shipstation.com. As is, it is not clear to our customers that they shouldn't reply to tracking emails since they go into the void. Including an option for a banner notice at the top of the emails that that email address can't receive replies would also be good.

(Alternately, Shipstation could forward us the email if a customer replies to the tracking@shipstation.com emails.)

In addition, in Selling Channels > Store Setup > Branding > Email it should have a warning explaining that you should leave the box blank because if you enter your own domain email right now, it will likely go to spam or be rejected due to DKIM authentication issues.

To actually fix the problem, the Shipstation devs need to implement a legitimate CUSTOM MAIL FROM solution. This problem has been known, but unresolved for 8+ years, meanwhile the developers spent time redesigning the interface multiple times. It's past time to make this a priority.

It is definitely possible for a 3rd party service like Shipstation to be authorized to send mail from our custom domain, for example, here are the instructions Amazon AWS has for setting a "CUSTOM MAIL FROM" with their service: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/dg/mail-from.html - but Shipstation needs to set this up on their end first.

[brendan1]

So well said and couldn't agree more. 

The links to the old threads about this same topic are so very telling as to how customer input is never received (or never considered). 

I do certainly hope that they get this fixed soon.

[james7]

They'd rather focus their efforts on siccing their sales guys on me to use ShipStation's carrier accounts after they started charging me $60/mo to use my existing negotiated carrier rates.

This is typical of these tech companies as of late.

Go public/get bought by bean counters>continue to focus on customer acquisition>let existing platform go to sh*t by refusing to add essential features (like this one) >slash operational/maintenance costs>milk existing customer base by charging extra for things they already had been paying for.

[GoFishMedia]

Take a look at this thread started by Manager-Erin and please reply there with your thoughts.

• ShipStation DMARC Compliance - ShipStation Community

[pathcoffee]

What are people doing who operate a dropshipping business? we dropship for many customers and we have been using their personal or business emails in the branding section and in bcc for notifications. Will emails no longer be delivered for notifications now if i can verify every single email and domain? Will orders stop coming into SS so we can send out the order? if anyone has more info on what can be done please let me know. I have no idea how i would go about verifying every email and domain for customers we ship for.

[MelanieV · Accepted solution]

Hello Community!

We are thrilled to share an exciting update, ShipStation now supports domain authentication to ensure your branded emails pass DMARC checks seamlessly and improve your deliverability rates.

We appreciate all your valuable feedback and suggestions. To set up and benefit from this feature, please review the feature requirements and steps in our "Configure Domain Authentication in ShipStation" article. For more insights into email authentication policies and protocols, explore our guide on Email Domain Authentication (DMARC).

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.