Shopify: DKIM and SPF setup

Before you start

Your sender email is the From address of your store's notifications, order confirmations and marketing emails. It is set in Settings > Notifications. This guide is for a sender email at example.com.

Shopify says your store must be on an active paid plan to add the CNAME records. It is not possible for client transfer stores, development stores, or stores on the Pause and Build plan. You also need access to the DNS settings of example.com.

If you bought example.com through Shopify, Shopify sets up DKIM, SPF and DMARC for you, and you need none of the steps below.

Turn on DKIM

Shopify calls this email domain authentication. It uses CNAME records that handle both DKIM and SPF.

If example.com is hosted at Cloudflare, GoDaddy or IONOS, Shopify can add the records for you:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications.
2. In the Sender email section, click Email domain authentication.
3. Click Authenticate automatically and wait for it to finish.

At any other DNS host, add the records yourself:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications.
2. In the Sender email section, click authenticate your domain.
3. Enter every CNAME record Shopify shows at your DNS host. Shopify says the number of records may vary, so add all of them.

Shopify's pages do not give the record names. Copy them from the Shopify admin. Shopify says the change can take up to 48 hours.

Shopify also asks for a DMARC record. If example.com already has a DMARC record, it sends reports to your reporting address. A domain may have only one DMARC record. Shopify says several records make DMARC fail and your sender email gets rewritten. Keep your record, and do not add Shopify's v=DMARC1; p=none.

Sign with your own domain

Shopify's CNAME records are what set up DKIM for example.com. Shopify also rewrites your sender email to store+123@shopifyemail.com, with a number unique to your store, when the records are missing. Add the CNAME records as in Turn on DKIM.

Use your own bounce domain

The same CNAME records cover this. Shopify says they configure SPF as well as DKIM for your sender email. Add them as in Turn on DKIM.

SPF

Shopify says you do not need a separate SPF TXT record for your sender email. The CNAME records handle SPF, and you do not need to add any IP addresses to example.com.

Shopify also asks you to keep aspf and adkim relaxed. If your DMARC record has adkim=s or aspf=s, Shopify recommends removing them or changing them to adkim=r and aspf=r.

Check it worked

1. Once the records are in place, your customers see your sender email at example.com instead of store+123@shopifyemail.com. If domain verification fails, compare the records at your DNS host with the ones in the Shopify admin.
2. Most mailbox providers send one report a day. Reports from the next 24 to 48 hours show whether DKIM aligns for Shopify.

If you later remove the CNAME records, Shopify says your sender address goes back to store+123@shopifyemail.com until you restore them. The records stay available in Settings > Notifications.

Shopify's pages: Setting up your email and Displaying your store's sending email.