Google and Yahoo announced the latest changes to their email rules that could affect e-commerce and omnichannel marketers. These rules will start in February 2024 for Gmail and early 2024 for Yahoo and AOL email users. The aim is to make emails more secure and reduce unwanted ones.

Email Security and Authentication

One important rule is about email security. Starting in 2024, emails that are not authenticated (proven to be real) may be marked as spam. To follow this rule, email senders need to use methods like Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and ideally both, along with Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) records. This applies to all types of emails, including ones for transactions and marketing.

For businesses that send a lot of emails (5,000 or more per day) to Gmail or Yahoo Mail, there must be an easy one-click unsubscribe link. However, this mainly applies to marketing or subscription emails, not messages like order confirmations.

Sending Wanted Emails

Google and Yahoo want email senders to make sure people want their emails. Email senders must keep their spam rates, as reported in Google Postmaster Tools, below 0.3%. Yahoo might make this rate public soon.

Impact on E-commerce

These rule's changes could affect e-commerce businesses in several ways:

1. Better Email Delivery: If businesses follow these rules, more of their marketing emails might end up in people's inboxes. This means more chances for engagement and sales.

2. Domain Reputation: E-commerce companies using external domains for emails can think about adding their own domain with DMARC authentication to build a trusted reputation, which can help improve email delivery.

3. Unsubscribes: With one-click unsubscribe links, there's a worry that people might accidentally unsubscribe. Ecommerce marketers should keep an eye on unsubscribe rates and make sure these links work correctly.

4. Cleaning Email Lists: To keep spam rates low, it's a good idea to regularly clean up email lists by removing people who aren't engaging with the emails.

Apple's Approach

It's important to know that Google's and Yahoo's rules are different from what Apple is doing with email privacy. Google and Yahoo want to make sure emails are real and wanted to reduce spam and fraud. Apple's focus is more on preventing email senders from collecting data about when people open or click on emails.

E-commerce and omnichannel marketers should get ready for these new Gmail and Yahoo email rules. This means using email authentication, improving unsubscribe processes, and making sure email content matches what people want. Following these rules could also lead to better email delivery, which is good for ecommerce businesses.

Are you prepared to #automate?