How Do I Set Up My Domain Email With An External/3rd Party?

Using a 3rd party Email Provider

In order to better focus on our eCommerce site hosting services, Shift4Shop no longer offers email hosting on its plans. The following guide will outline the basic steps needed to get an external email provider set up on your Shift4Shop store.

Set Up Your External Email Host
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This part of the process is entirely up to the email hosting service you decide to use.

There are many email service providers to choose from with varying costs and features. Most services offer email hosting priced at a "per user" basis, while others offer free email for small businesses. A broad Internet search for "Domain Email Providers" should give you plenty of options to choose from. Click here for some popular ones that offer free email for businesses.

Verify Your Domain With The External Mail Service
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When setting up your external email service to use your domain, the service provider may require you to verify the domain as being yours. There are two common methods used for this type of verification:

• A TXT record added to your domain's DNS.
• A meta tag added to your site

Verification Using A TXT Record

The process to add a TXT record depends on whether your DNS is hosted by Shift4Shop or a 3rd party domain provider like GoDaddy.

If your DNS is handled by Shift4Shop:

1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
2. Using the left hand navigation menu, go to Settings >General >Store Settings
3. Once there, click on the "Manage Domain & Store Url" button
4. Under Custom Domain, look for your "Store URL" and click on the "Manage DNS" link listed for it.

5. In the Shift4Shop DNS Manager page, click on the "Add New Record" button at the top right.
6. Select the record type as TXT
7. Leave TTL at its default 3600 setting
8. Enter a record name provided by your email provider
   (If no record name was provided by them, you can just write your domain name.)
9. Enter the TXT provided for you in the "Text Data" box.
10. Click "Save"

The next step is to clear the store's cache.

11. Go once again to Settings >General >Store Settings
12. This time, click on the "General" tab found along the top.
13. Look under the "Performance" section and click on the "Clear Cache" button

The TXT record is added and you can now check with your email service provider to complete the verification process with them.

If your DNS is handled by a 3rd party domain provider
(i.e. GoDaddy, Register.com, etc)

If you handle your own DNS through a 3rd party provider, the process is essentially the same - but using their navigation steps and pages instead. Please refer to your domain provider on how to add and edit DNS records.

Verification using a META tag

If your email service provider is using a meta tag to verify your domain ownership, the following steps will allow you to add the meta-tag to your site.

1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
2. Using the left hand navigation menu, go to Marketing >SEO Tools
3. Once there, click on the "Google Tools" tab found along the top.
4. Look for the "Google Webmaster Tools Verification Meta Tag" section and enter the verification meta tag in this field.
5. Click "Save" at the top right.

The next step is to clear the store's cache.

6. Go to Settings >General >Store Settings
7. Once there, click on the "General" tab found along the top.
8. Look under the "Performance" section and click on the "Clear Cache" button

The verification meta-tag is added and you can now check with your email service provider to complete the verification process with them.

Update Your Domain's MX Records
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The final step is to add the email provider's MX (Mail Exchanger) records to your domain's DNS. These records will basically "tell" the Internet that the domain's mail service will be handled by your external email provider.

First Gather the Records

Before beginning this process, go to your external email hosting service and locate/copy the following.

MX records
These will usually be 2 or more mail server names along with a numerical value known as the server's "preference"

For example:

SPF record(s)
If your external mail service provides SPF records, you'll want to copy this information as well.

Typically an SPF record will look like the following:

Once you have these records on hand and copied, you may proceed with the following steps to add them to your store.

Adding the Records

As with TXT records, how and where to add MX records depends on whether your DNS is hosted by Shift4Shop or a 3rd party domain provider like GoDaddy.

If your DNS is handled by Shift4Shop:

1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
2. Using the left hand navigation menu, go to Settings >General >Store Settings
3. Once there, click on the "Manage Domain & Store Url" button
4. Under Custom Domain, look for your "Store URL" and click on the "Manage DNS" link listed for it.

5. In the Shift4Shop DNS Manager page, click on the "Add New Record" button at the top right.
6. Select the record type as MX
7. Leave TTL at its default 3600 setting
8. Enter your domain as the record name
9. Enter the mail server name provided for you in the "Mail Server Host" field
10. Enter the Preference number for the host
11. Click "Save"
12. Repeat for all other MX records given to you and used by your external email service

Adding the SPF record

While you're in this section of the Shift4Shop Online Store Manager, you can also add the SPF record for your email service.

13. In the Shift4Shop DNS Manager page, click on the "Add New Record" button at the top right.
14. Select the record type as TXT
15. Leave TTL at its default 3600 setting
16. Enter your domain as the record name
17. Enter the SPF record provided for you in the "Text Data" field
18. Click "Save"

The next step it to clear the store's cache.

19. Go once again to Settings >General >Store Settings
20. This time, click on the "General" tab found along the top.
21. Look under the "Performance" section and click on the "Clear Cache" button

That's it! You're all set up to use the external email service for your Shift4Shop store's email.

If your DNS is handled by a 3rd party domain provider
(i.e. GoDaddy, Register.com, etc)

As with TXT records outlined above, the process is essentially the same - but using their navigation steps and pages instead. Please refer to your domain provider on how to add and edit DNS records.

Information on Transactional Emails
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In addition to regular email that is delivered/received by your 3rd party email host, your online store website itself also has the ability to send email messages.

Emails that originate from your site are typically in the form of newsletter emails, order confirmations, password reminders, low inventory alerts, and other automated store functions. These types of emails are called Transactional emails, and they are handled by the Shift4Shop software.

You do not need to make any MX record changes for transactional messages to work. However, there are some best practices that are recommended to ensure smooth delivery of these messages. Please review our Best Practices for Sending out Newsletters guide for more information. Specifically, the first three topics found on the article:

• Setting up your Store's Sender Email Address
• Set Up SPF-Records
• Set up DKIM