When planning the launch of an eCommerce website, you’re probably wondering whether you need your own business email or if a Gmail account would suffice. A dedicated business email looks a lot more professional and trustworthy than opting for a free email service.
To make things easier from a technology management perspective, you probably want an eCommerce platform, hosting and email account access in one. If you’re looking at Shopify as your eCommerce platform, you’re wondering whether Shopify email hosting is available.
The Hosting Review team is here to answer your question and give you a detailed overview of eCommerce email hosting management for Shopify.
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The Short Answer on Shopify Email Hosting
Email hosting refers to a hosting service provider also giving clients access to dedicated email accounts. In this sense, it’s easy to say that no, Shopify does not offer email hosting. Shopify doesn’t provide hosting – just the platform to run the eCommerce platform on. As such, Shopify also doesn’t have an email hosting service with its subscription plans.
To have a professional email account, you’ll need to explore other service providers and integrate the solutions that they deliver with your Shopify website.
Dedicated Shopify Email Hosting Providers
To have a corporate email to go with your Shopify eCommerce website, you can explore dedicated email hosting providers. Dedicated Shopify email hosting providers are companies that offer email hosting (sometimes they also offer website hosting) services. One of the most prominent solutions in that field is Shopped, which is put together and run by Shopify developers.
The price of this service starts at 10 dollars per month, which isn’t unattainable even for a startup. Major hosting service providers out there also have Shopify email hosting plans and in some cases, the prices are much lower. You can easily find hosting management solutions for anywhere between two and three dollars per month.
What matters in such instances is checking the quality of the service and the technical characteristics/functionalities you will be getting for your money.
Features to Look for in Email Hosting Solutions for Shopify
Available storage space is a good research starting point. Even if your business starts slow, sooner or later you’ll start receiving numerous emails from customers, suppliers, potential business partners and employees. If you plan to use email for marketing purposes, you’ll witness even more intense traffic.
The amount of space available under the hosting plan is crucial. Some companies offer only 100MB of storage space per account. Usually, these are the most affordable Shopify email hosting offers out there and they’re suitable for startups/small businesses.
Security is another big essential. Will there be any form of encryption? How will the service provider make sure that your communication is protected? Some other features to look for when picking a hosting solution for your Shopify store email include:
- Spam and virus protection
- Webmail, POP3 and IMAP integration
- Migration support
- Media and file storage capabilities
- Email forwarding
- Size limitations for email attachments
- Support (what communication channels are available, is there 24/7 support)
- Add-on features and tools like address book, calendar, notes, bookmarks, etc.
Obviously, some eCommerce business owners will find a few of these features to be irrelevant or not that important. It’s up to you to determine what your email hosting priorities are. Sit down and think about what matters the most before you choose the email hosting solution to integrate with your Shopify store.
Is Shopify Email Hosting Easy to Set Up?
Setting up Shopify email accounts is usually very easy. There will be a setup wizard or a detailed guide that will help you go through the steps so that you could confirm the business email(s) that will go with your Shopify website.
Shopify itself has an official email setup forwarding guide. The Shopify YouTube channel also provides important educational resources that are much more visual.
Once you complete all of the setup and configuration steps, you will have to wait. The waiting period ranges from 24 to 48 hours. This is the amount of time that will have to pass for DNS changes to propagate and for your email to become active.
Are Free Email Accounts a Good Choice for Shopify Websites?
The final option we’ll take a look at is a free email account and whether that’s a good choice for a Shopify business. Free email accounts like those provided by Gmail and Yahoo have several disadvantages.
The first one is the inability to do branding, due to the fact that the email isn’t going to feature your domain name. Instead of being [email protected], the email will be [email protected].
Additional shortcomings stemming from free email services include:
- Limited security
- No dedicated support team to address your concerns immediately
- Limited storage space, especially for larger companies or businesses experiencing rapid growth
- Limited backup and disaster recovery options
Shopify’s email hosting is not that expensive. Thus, there’s really no reason to opt for free emails. Not only will these look unprofessional, but they could also jeopardize some of the important information contained in your business emails.
As a platform, Shopify does not offer email hosting. Luckily, many domain and hosting companies also have email-related services. Professional emails are still a communication staple, which is why you’ll have to take some time and identify a good email hosting service provider for Shopify. There’s a vast range of companies that offer professional and dedicated email hosting services. Check out at least a couple of options to acquaint yourself with the market. Even more importantly, don’t base your final decision on price alone. Being tempted to choose the most inexpensive service could contribute to additional unnecessary expenses down the line.
