This happens more than most ecommerce store owners realize. And it's not just order confirmations. Abandoned cart emails, shipping notifications, password resets — all of them depend on your domain's deliverability being healthy. When it's not, revenue leaks silently.
Why Email Deliverability Matters for Ecommerce
Every ecommerce store sends two types of email: marketing emails (campaigns, newsletters) and transactional emails (order confirmations, receipts, shipping updates).
Most store owners obsess over marketing email performance and ignore transactional. That's backwards. Transactional emails have open rates of 50–80% — customers expect them and actively look for them. When they land in spam, customers assume the order failed, contact support, or worse, initiate a chargeback.
A single week of broken deliverability can cost more than months of email marketing spend.
What Actually Affects Email Deliverability
Before you can fix deliverability, you need to understand what inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook are checking. There are three technical records every domain needs — and most small stores have at least one misconfigured.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF is a DNS record that tells inbox providers which servers are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. If you're using Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or Shopify Email, their servers need to be listed in your SPF record. If they're not, Gmail sees your email as potentially spoofed and routes it to spam.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to your outgoing emails. It's how inbox providers verify that the email actually came from you and wasn't tampered with in transit. Your email provider generates a key, you add a DNS record, and every outgoing email gets signed. Without it, your domain has no verified identity.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)
DMARC ties SPF and DKIM together and tells inbox providers what to do with email that fails both checks — nothing, quarantine it, or reject it outright. Starting in 2024, Google and Yahoo made SPF, DKIM, and DMARC mandatory for bulk senders. Outlook followed in 2026. If you're missing any of these, your deliverability is already at risk.
Blacklists
Beyond authentication records, your sending IP can appear on email blacklists — databases of IP addresses known for sending spam. If you're on a blacklist, a significant portion of your emails will be blocked regardless of how well-configured your DNS records are.
How to Check Your Email Deliverability (Step by Step)
The fastest way to check everything at once is to use a free tool that tests SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and blacklists in one go. CheckLab does exactly this — no signup required.
- Go to checklab.io
- Enter your domain (e.g.
yourstore.com) - Hit Check
In a few seconds you'll see the status of each check. Here's what to look for:
- SPF: pass — your DNS record is correctly configured and includes your email providers.
- DKIM: pass — your domain has a valid DKIM signature. A fail here usually means DKIM signing isn't enabled in your email provider, or the DNS record wasn't added.
- DMARC: pass — you have a DMARC policy in place. Even
p=none(monitor-only) is better than nothing. - Blacklist: clean — your sending IP isn't on any major blacklist. If it is, you'll see which list and can start the delisting process.
How to Fix Common Deliverability Issues
SPF Fail
Add a TXT record to your domain DNS. The exact value depends on your email provider — check their documentation. Most providers like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and Google Workspace provide a specific include: statement.
A typical SPF record looks like:
v=spf1 include:klaviyomail.com include:_spf.google.com ~allAdd it as a TXT record on your root domain (@). Changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate.
DKIM Fail
DKIM setup happens in two places: your email provider and your DNS. In your ESP's settings, find the DKIM or domain authentication section and enable it. They'll give you one or more CNAME or TXT records to add to your DNS.
If you're on Shopify using Shopify Email, DKIM is configured through your domain settings. After adding the DNS records, re-check on CheckLab — DKIM validation can take a few hours.
DMARC Missing
Add a TXT record to _dmarc.yourdomain.com with this value to start:
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]p=none means monitor only — inbox providers won't reject anything yet, but you'll start receiving reports. Once SPF and DKIM are solid, tighten to p=quarantine or p=reject.
Blacklisted IP
Identify which blacklist flagged your IP — CheckLab shows this in the report. Most blacklists have a self-service delisting form on their site. If you're on shared hosting, the IP may have been blacklisted because of another customer on the same server — contact your provider.
How to Monitor Deliverability Over Time
Checking once is a good start. The real risk is not knowing when something breaks.
DNS records can be accidentally overwritten during domain migrations. Your ESP might rotate sending IPs. A new team member might set up a third-party marketing tool without updating the SPF record — silently breaking authentication for weeks.
CheckLab's monitoring checks your domain every 24 hours and sends an email alert the moment something degrades — before your customers notice, and before your sender reputation takes a hit. The Pro plan monitors up to 10 domains with daily checks and email alerts.
- SPF record exists and includes all your email providers
- DKIM is enabled in your ESP and DNS records are added
- DMARC record exists (even p=none is a start)
- Your IP is not on any major blacklist
- Monitoring is set up so you'll know if anything changes
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