Vanix admin
Customer emails
Vanix emails your subscribers in your store's name: a reminder before each order, a confirmation when their subscription is cancelled, paused or resumed, and messages when a payment fails. Go to Customer Emails to choose which send and what they say.
These are service emails about a customer's own subscription. Vanix doesn't send newsletters or marketing.
Who it's from
Emails come from notifications@mail.vanixcommerce.com, shown under your store's name, and replies go to you. Under Sender you can change:
- Sender name: the name customers see. Blank means your store name.
- Reply-to address: where replies go, such as a support address. Blank means your store's contact email.
To send from an address on your own domain instead, see Your own domain.
The emails
| When it's sent | When you notify the customer | When customers do it themselves | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upcoming order | A set number of days before each renewal is charged | Off to start (one switch for all) | Not a change, so no second switch |
| Subscription cancelled | A subscription is cancelled straight away | On | On |
| Cancellation scheduled | A subscription is set to end at the close of its cycle | On | On |
| Cancellation withdrawn | A subscription that was set to end is kept | On | On |
| Subscription paused | A subscription is paused | On | Off |
| Subscription resumed | A paused subscription is resumed | On | Off |
Choose Save changes at the bottom of the page when you're done; nothing changes until you do.
Upcoming order reminders
Reminders are off until you turn them on, so customers don't start getting emails before you've read what they say. When on, choose Days before, from 1 to 14 (3 to start). Each customer gets one reminder per order. A reminder isn't sent if the order is less than 12 hours away, or if the subscription is paused, and a moved order date gets a new reminder for the new date.
Emails about changes
Each of these has two switches:
- When you notify the customer: for changes made in Vanix. The email only goes out when you also turn on Notify the customer while making the change, so leaving this on costs nothing. Turn it off to stop the email even when someone chooses to notify.
- When customers do it themselves: for changes customers make from their account, where nothing else needs turning on. The cancellation emails start on, because many places expect a customer who cancels to get a confirmation. Pause and resume start off.
Other changes, such as items, dates, frequency and address, don't send an email. Customers see those confirmed on the page as they make them.
Editing an email
Choose Edit on an email to change its subject and body. The preview beside the editor shows it filled in with sample details. Every email starts with our wording, and Reset to default goes back to it. Choose Done, then Save changes on the page.
Send me a test emails what's in the editor, filled in with the sample details and marked [Test], to your store's contact email in Shopify. Nothing is saved. You can send five an hour.
Click a variable in the list to insert it. Variables use the same {{ }} style as Shopify's own notifications, for example {{ customer.first_name }}, and {% for line in lines %} repeats for each item. Prices and dates are already formatted in your store's currency and time zone.
| In | Variables |
|---|---|
| Every email | shop.name, shop.email, customer.first_name, customer.last_name, subscription.id, subscription.manage_url, and lines, each with title, variant_title, quantity and price (the line's total after discounts) |
| Upcoming order | order.date, order.total, and shipping_address with name, address1, address2, city, province, zip and country (empty for pickup and local delivery) |
| Cancellation scheduled | subscription.ends_at |
| Subscription paused | subscription.resumes_at, when there is one |
| Subscription resumed | order.date, the next order |
| Recovery emails | payment.amount, payment.failed_at, payment.next_retry_at (empty after the last attempt) and payment.update_url |
A misspelled variable is caught in the editor, not when a customer opens the email: the preview says what's wrong, and Done stays off until it's fixed. Every email ends with a short footer saying the customer gets it because they subscribe to your store.
Recovery emails
Emails for failed payments are set up in Billing Recovery, because one sequence can need several, such as a first notice and a last reminder. Switch on the Email channel there, then under Email templates choose Add an email and start from one of ours (Payment failed, Last reminder, Paused after failed payments, Cancelled after failed payments) or a blank one. Each attempt, and the end of the sequence, picks the template it sends. They use the same sender and editor as the emails above. Billing recovery
payment.update_url is a link for the customer to update their payment method. Shopify gives one for some payment methods but not for cards, so for most customers it opens their account on your store, where they can update it.
Your own domain
You can send from an address on your own domain, such as orders@yourstore.com. You'll need to be able to add DNS records where your domain is managed, such as GoDaddy, Cloudflare or your domain registrar. The address doesn't need to be a real mailbox, because replies go to your reply-to address.
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Enter the address
Under Your own domain, enter the address to send from and choose Set up domain. Addresses at Gmail, Outlook and other email providers can't be used, because nobody can add records to those domains.
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Add the two records
Vanix shows a TXT record that signs your mail (DKIM) and a CNAME record that handles bounces (Return-Path). Add both where your domain is managed, using the copy buttons. Many DNS hosts want only the part of the name before your domain:
pm-bounces, notpm-bounces.yourstore.com. Adding them doesn't affect your website or any email you already have on the domain. -
Wait for them to be found
Records can take from a few minutes to a few hours to be found. Vanix checks every hour, or choose Check now. When both show Found, the domain is Verified and emails go from your address. Until then they keep going from ours, so nothing is held up.
Add a DMARC record too. It isn't needed to verify or send, but without one Gmail reports DMARC as failing on your emails, and Gmail and Yahoo expect one from stores that send a lot of email. If your domain has none, Vanix suggests one: a TXT record named _dmarc with the value v=DMARC1; p=none;. It only asks for reports and never blocks mail.
Vanix checks verified domains once a day. If a record goes missing, the page says so and emails go from our address until it's back, rather than going out in a way that could land in spam. Change address switches to another address on the same domain. Remove goes back to sending from ours; to use another domain, remove this one first.
Bounces and spam complaints
If an email to a customer bounces because the address doesn't exist, or the customer marks it as spam, Vanix stops emailing that address. The subscription's page shows a warning with the reason, so you can reach the customer another way. Temporary problems, like a full mailbox, don't block the address.