16 Configure Email Settings

Retail Digital Commerce lets you configure and automatically send different types of email notifications to customers. In order to send email to customers, you must have an account with an email service.

For information about customizing the templates for emails your store sends, see Customize Email Templates.

Enable the Types of Email Your Store Sends

You can use the Email Settings option in the administration interface to configure and automatically send many types of emails from your store.

Retail Digital Commerce includes templates for the following types of email:

  • Reset Password emails are sent when customers click the Forgotten Password link.
  • Abandoned Order emails remind customers that they left unpurchased items in their shopping carts. You can configure settings that determine when Abandoned Order notifications are sent. See Configure Abandoned Cart settings for more information.

    In addition, you can include product recommendations in Abandoned Order emails. For information about product recommendations, see Display product recommendations. To learn how to customize email templates to include recommendations, see Customize Email Templates.

  • Items Shipped emails let customers know that their orders have shipped. This notification is sent when Retail Digital Commerce receives confirmation from your order fulfillment system that an order has shipped.
  • Order Placed emails let customers know that an order has been submitted for fulfillment. This notification is usually sent as soon as an order is submitted, though if you specified a remorse period, the email is sent as soon as the time you specified for the remorse period has passed. See Understand the remorse period for more information about remorse periods.
  • New Account emails are sent when customers have registered on the storefront.

    You can include product recommendations in New Account emails. For information about product recommendations, see Display product recommendations.

  • Back-in-stock email notifications are sent to shoppers after they have clicked the Notify Me link when viewing a product that is out of stock, and they have provided their email address. The Notify Me email template must be enabled, and configured, in order for the back-in-stock email notifications to be sent when those products become available. See Understand back in stock notifications for more information.

    These email notifications are part of the built-in back in stock functionality. If your Retail Digital Commerce environment integrates with an external system to track and notify shoppers about inventory changes, enable the Inventory Update webhook, which notifies the external system when SKUs are back in stock. See Understand webhooks for more information.

  • For details about Wish List emails, see Configure Wish Lists.
  • For additional types of email you can send, see later in this topic.

You can customize each type of email your store sends. For example, you can edit the text or change the colors and fonts to match those of your store, add a company name and logo to email templates for account-based storefronts, or add site details if your Retail Digital Commerce instance runs multiple sites. See Customize Email Templates for more information.

In order to send email to customers, you must enable the email type, and specify the name and email address that appears in the From field of that type of email. You can specify a different name and email address for each type of email you enable.

To enable a type of email, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Settings icon, then select Email Settings.
  2. If you run multiple sites from a single Retail Digital Commerce instance, select the site whose email types you want to configure and enable.
  3. Select the email type you want to set up.
  4. Click Enabled.
  5. (Optional) In the From Name field, enter a display name for the sender.
  6. In the From Email field, enter a valid email address to use as the sender.

    Important:

    The address you enter must be a valid, active email account capable of receiving messages. If you use Oracle to send transactional emails or other outbound email for your Retail Digital Commerce site, which is typical, invalid sender email addresses will result in an email block. If you use another email service, an invalid email address will result in bounces; a high number of bounces may cause the service to suspend your email account.

    To test the address you want to use, send an email to it from any account and verify it does not bounce.

  7. Click Save.

If your environment includes the console, you can also send the following types of email:

  • Cancel Order emails are sent when an agent cancels an order during the remorse period.
  • Edit Order emails are sent when an agent amends an order during the remorse period.
  • Forgot Password emails are sent when an agent resets a customer’s password.
  • Return Order emails are sent when an agent processes a return.
  • Return Order Refund emails are sent when an agent processes a return with a manual refund.
  • Shopper Registration emails are sent to customers who agents register on your site.

If you are creating an account-based storefront, you can also send the following types of email:

  • Account Assignment Changed emails are sent when an active contact has been added to an account. This could happen because a new active contact is added to an account or an existing active contact has been moved from one account to another. This email is also sent when an inactive contact that is already associated with an account is activated or when a contact is removed from an account. The email contains a link that the contact can click to set a new password for logging in to the storefront.

    You can cut down on the number of emails contacts receive when you make multiple account and role assignment changes at the same time. See Customize Email Templates for more information.

  • Role Assignment Changed emails are sent when one or more roles are added or removed from a contact.
  • Contact Deactivated emails are sent to contacts when they are removed from the system and are no longer associated with any accounts.
  • Account Deactivated emails are sent to all contacts associated with an account when that account has been deactivated.
  • Account Activated or New Contract Added emails are sent to all contacts associated with an account when the account is activated, a contract is added, or if the account is moved to a new parent, where it inherits the parent’s contracts by default.

    Note: Emails are sent only when the account is active and has at least one contract.

  • A number of emails notify contacts about events related to order approvals. For more information about these types of emails, see Notify users of order approval-related events.

If you are creating a storefront that lets account-based shoppers submit a new account registration request for business accounts, you can also send the following specific types of email that are specific to that process. For further details on the new account registration request process, refer to Configure Business Accounts.

  • New registration requests emails are sent to business users with the administrator or account manager privilege.
  • Account Request Approved - Manager emails are sent to administrators and account managers.
  • Account Request Rejected - Manager emails are sent to are sent to administrators and account managers.
  • Account Request Acknowledgment - User emails are sent to the account requester to let them know that their account request has been received and is under review.
  • Account Request Approved - User emails are sent to the account requester to let them know that their account request has been approved.
  • Account Request Rejected - User emails are sent to the account requester to let them know that their account request has been rejected.
  • Account Assignment Changed emails are sent to a user when they become a new active contact. In this case, the account registration requester has been successfully added to an account as an active contact. The email contains a link that the contact can click to set a new password for logging in to the storefront. The email also instructs the user to contact their organization if additional access information is needed.

If you are creating a storefront that lets an existing account-based shopper (contact) or a non-account-based shopper submit a contact registration request , you can also send the following types of email that are specific to that process. For further details on the contact registration request process, refer to Configure Business Accounts.

Note:

The templates for these emails can be found by going to the administration interface and clicking on the administration menu. Next, click Settings > Email Settings. All templates associated with contact request registration can be found in the Templates section of the Email Settings page. All associated template names start with “Contact Request…”

  • Email containing list of new contact registration requests - These are emails that are sent to Administrators, Delegated Administrators, and Account Managers that provide lists of new self-registration requests. Each email includes (at most) 25 contact self-registration requests and contains summary information about each new request. Also, for each account that has requests, an email is also sent to all Delegated Administrators on the account. The Administrators/Account Managers emails have a link to the Accounts Administration Page to obtain more details, a requested account ID, and a requested account name. The Delegated Administrator emails do not have this additional information.
  • Email to Delegated Administrators requesting they check on a contact registration request – When an Administrator assigns a new account and saves the request, updates the account on a request, and/or saves the request without accepting or rejecting it, Commerce sends an email to the account’s Delegated Administrators so that they will know to check for a request that needs attention.
  • Emails to Administrators, Delegated Administrators, and Account Managers when a contact request is accepted - When a contact self-registration request is accepted (approved), one email is sent to all active internal users with the Administrator and/or Account Manager privilege (if the approval was performed in the Administrator user interface or via an Administrator endpoint). An email is also sent to all Delegated Administrators on the account (regardless of where the approval was performed).
  • Emails to Administrators, Delegated Administrators, and Account Managers when a contact request is rejected - When a contact self-registration request is rejected, one email is sent to all active internal users with the Administrator and/or Account Manager privilege (if the rejection was performed in the Administrator user interface or via an Administrator endpoint). An email is also sent to all Delegated Administrators on the account (regardless of where the rejection was performed).
  • Email to a requester when Commerce receives a contact registration request - When a new contact self-registration request is received, an email is sent to the requester to communicate that the request has been received and is under review.
  • Email to a requester when a contact registration request is approved - When a new contact self-registration request is approved, an email is sent to the requester to communicate that the request was approved. It also informs them that they will receive a separate email with additional information, including login information, if needed.
  • Email to a requester when a contact registration request is rejected - When a new contact self-registration request is rejected. It may also contain comments on why the request was rejected
  • Email to a requester when they have been activated as a contact - When the contact is activated, an “Account Assignment Changed” email is sent to the contact just as for any other newly activated contact who belongs to an account.

If your store allows shoppers to create and share purchase lists, you can enable emails to be sent to purchase list recipients. To enable this feature, go to the Settings section of the administration user interface. In the Email Settings area of Settings, add a new template named “Purchase List Shared.”

The types of emails sent out with shared purchase lists include the following:

  • An email that notifies a registered shopper that they are the recipient of a purchase list being shared by another registered shopper. It tells them that they have been granted access to purchase list XYZ (purchase list name). If the purchase list has a description they will also see the purchase list description. There may also be list creator/owner comments in the email.

    It tells them that to access the purchase list, they need to view it on their profile on their site.

    Note:

    Site is the name (with a link to the correct URL) of the site from which the owner shared the purchase list. The system does not take into consideration any restrictions on the sites where the purchase list can be viewed.

  • An email that notifies an account based contact that they are the recipient of a purchase list being shared by another account based contact. It tells them that they have been granted access to purchase list XYZ (purchase list name). If the purchase list has a description they will also see the purchase list description. There may also be list creator/owner comments in the email.

    The system determines which site to include in the email as follows:

    • If the site from which the owner shared the purchase list currently has a contract with the account in whose context the list was shared (which will always be the case when the list is shared from the provided widget), then that site will be included in the email. Otherwise, the email includes any site that has a contract with the account in whose context the list was shared.
    • If the account in whose context the purchase list was shared has no sites with contracts, an email is not sent and the purchase list is not shared. The system also returns an error to the list creator.
    • The system does not take into consideration any restrictions on the sites where the purchase list can be viewed.

Configure Abandoned Cart settings

If you enable Abandoned Order emails, you can specify the number of days that must pass before a shopping cart is considered abandoned and the minimum value that the cart must contain before an Abandoned Order email is sent.

To customize Abandoned Cart settings, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Settings icon, then select Order Settings.
    When running multiple sites from your Retail Digital Commerce instance, your configurations will be applied by site. Choose a site from the site picker at the top of the Settings menu options.
  2. Under Abandoned Cart Settings, enter an integer for the number of days after which a shopping cart is considered abandoned. The default setting is 7 days.
  3. (Optional) Enter a value that specifies the minimum amount that the cart must be worth in order for the system to send an Abandoned Cart email. The default setting is 0.
  4. If you have configured the Cart Idle webhook, enter an integer for the number of minutes after which a shopping cart is considered idle. The default setting is 20 minutes. See Use Webhooks for more information about the Cart Idle webhook.
  5. Click Save.

Ensure Emails are not Rejected as Spam

You must work with your email service provider to ensure your site can send and receive emails correctly.

In addition to completing general configuration, make sure the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record is configured appropriately for your domain to prevent emails that your store sends from being rejected as spam.

To do so, add the following entry to the TXT record in your domain’s DNS zone file:

"include:_spf.atoracle.com"

Refer to http://www.openspf.org/ for more information on the Sender Policy Framework.

Configure an Alternate SMTP Email Relay

The REST APIs provided with Retail Digital Commerce allow you to use an alternate Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) relay to send email messages.

Retail Digital Commerce provides a default fully managed email service. However, if necessary due to your own corporate policies or needs, you can use an alternative SMTP email relay. When you use your own SMTP Relay, you assume full responsibility for any deliverability concerns. Retail Digital Commerce’s responsibility in this situation is limited to attempting to deliver the message to your SMTP relay, Deliverability includes making sure your email is not treated as spam as discussed in Ensure Emails are not Rejected as Spam.

When you set up an SMTP email service property, your emailSMTPHost is added to the proxy and SMTP traffic is routed through the proxy so that it can reach your SMTP relay.

Retail Digital Commerce allows you to use the REST API to configure your email service types. For example, if you issue a GET command to the /ccadmin/v1/email endpoint, and you will see the default setting:
GET  /ccadmin/v1/email

"emailServiceProperties":{
    "emailServiceType" : "DEFAULT"
}
The response contains two JSON objects: the emailSerivceProperties that contains the email service settings, and an emailNotificationTypes object, which contains information on the available email types and their site-specific settings. For example:
{
  "emailServiceProperties": {
    "emailServiceType": "DEFAULT"
  },
  "links": [
    {
      "rel": "self",
      "href": "/email"
    }
  ],
  "emailNotificationTypes": {
    "ccadmin_user_password_reset_v1": {
      "recommendationsSupported": false,
      "displayName": "Retail Digital Commerce Administrator Password Reset",
      "description": null,
      "recommendationsStrategy": null,
      "version": 1,
      "enabled": false,
      "fromEmail": null,
      "recommendationsAllowAnyStrategy": true,
      "recommendationsRestriction": null,
      "fromName": null,
      "recommendationsAllowRestrictions": true,
      "includeRecommendations": false,
      "id": "ccadmin_user_password_reset_v1",
      "recommendationsPermittedStrategies": [],
      "numberOfRecommendations": 12
    },
    "placed_order_v1": {
      "recommendationsSupported": false,
      "displayName": "Order Placed",
      "description": null,
      "recommendationsStrategy": null,
      "version": 1,
      "enabled": false,
      "fromEmail": null,
      "recommendationsAllowAnyStrategy": true,
      "recommendationsRestriction": null,
      "fromName": null,
      "recommendationsAllowRestrictions": true,
      "includeRecommendations": false,
      "id": "placed_order_v1",
      "recommendationsPermittedStrategies": [],
      "numberOfRecommendations": 12
    }
  }
}

Important:

Some of the configuration's details are not included in the response for security reasons.

For information on working with email notifications, refer to Enable the types of email your store sends.

Note that the endpoint configuration uses the site context specified using the X-CCSite request header or the occsite query parameter. Omitting the site will display all of the settings for your default site.

To set the SMTP email service type, issue a POST command to the /ccadmin/v1/email endpoint and include the following properties:
  • emailSMTPPort - Indicates the port to use when communicating with the SMTP host. The port number should be either 465 or 587 and match the emailSMTPAuthMethod. Note that you can specify an SMTP server in the allowedURLs property by adding its domain name, such as smpt.example.com.
  • emailSMTPHost - The SMTP host name.
  • emailServiceType - This property is set to either DEFAULT or SMTP.
  • emailSMTPAuthMethod - This identifies the authorization method as either SSL or TLS. This property indicates if the authorization method used by your SMTP server uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL with port 465, legacy) or Transport Layer Security (TLS with port 587, modern).
  • emailSMTPUsername - The name used to log into the SMTP server.
  • emailSMTPPassword - The user password for the SMTP Server. This field will not be displayed when you issue a GET command.

For example:

"emailServiceProperties":{
        "emailSMTPPort":"587",
        "emailSMTPHost":"smtp.myrelayservice.com",
        "emailServiceType":"SMTP",
        "emailSMTPAuthMethod":"TLS",
        "emailSMTPUsername":"smtpadmin"
        "emailSMTPPassword":"smtpadminpassword"
    }

If you issue a POST command to the /ccadmin/v1/email endpoint without passing in "emailServiceType":"SMTP" an error occurs indicating that you cannot change settings when the email service type is set to DEFAULT. If you do not provide all of the required settings described earlier, you will also get an error.

Once you have issued a POST command to the endpoint with the required properties, all email will switch to use the newly configured SMTP server.

Note that the endpoint configuration uses the site context specified using the X-CCSite request header or the occsite query parameter. Omitting the site applies all of the settings for your default site.

To switch back the email service type to use the default email service, issue a PUT command to the /ccadmin/v1/email endpoint:
PUT  /ccadmin/v1/email

"emailServiceProperties":{
    "emailServiceType" : "DEFAULT"
}

Your SMTP configuration settings will be reset to their default, internal values.