Question

Magento is complicated…

So all the mail coming from my Magento install is being sent straight to spam. We believe it’s either the SMTP server or the headers being set. I read a few articles on Stack about changing Zend_Mail() headers but none of them were Magento specific so anywhere I put the header it would always error out on me.

Does anybody know where I can go to edit the headers that Magentos Zend_Mail() is using?

Answer 1

Email should not be ending up in spam out of the box. Depending upon where your server is hosted i.e. if it’s a shared IP, and if other websites that share that IP are white/black listed with ISP feedback loops – this can affect spam filters. Additionally, the header info can cause these issues as well.

As an indirect/alternative solution is to relay your email through a 3rd party established SMTP server, if you have a low volume of emails you can use Google Apps (500/day), or if you need more email throughput you can use something like http://sendgrid.com.

A great module to accomplish this in magento would be: http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/aschroder-com-smtp-pro-email-free-and-easy-magento-emailing-for-smtp-gmail-or-google-apps-email.html

[edit] Additionally, setting up postfix or any email server can be rather complicated. Lastly, smtp relays like sendgrid give you the ability to monitor email opens, bounces, etc. via the control panel or a rather extensive api. This is very useful for ecommerce websites since sending emails can be a very good way to have repeat customers and so forth.

Yes. magento is very complex but highly extensible system, one of the most interesting open source PHP implementations you can experience.