Is your Prestashop store running smoothly? Are you having trouble with email configuration or sending emails on time? I had them too! I’ll show you how to solve them in this article!
- How to Change the email displayed in the PrestaShop footer
- How to set global email for your store
- Configure PrestaShop email SMTP/IMAP settings
- How to test if PrestaShop sends emails properly
- PrestaShop does not send emails
- What email should you use for contacts and back-office logins
- Don’t use @gmail.com as your store contact
- Best email addons for PrestaShop
How to Change the email displayed in the PrestaShop footer
This email, by default, is the one you use to login into the store when you are installing PrestaShop.
For PrestaShop 1.7, you can change the email address displayed in the footer by going to Back Office → Shop Parameters → Contact → Stores. At the bottom, you will see the Contact Details block to change one. Hit Save when you update it.
Typically your PrestaShop store client sees a contact email in the store footer. It is a great place to have contacts listed when you offer dedicated support.
My clients usually get lots of spam and irrelevant emails when the contact email is in the header.
So generally, the best place for contacts (phone number, email, and store address) is a dedicated Contacts or About Us page.
For PrestaShop 1.6, you can change the email address displayed in the footer by going to Back Office → Preferences → Store Contacts. Then, in the Contact Details block at the bottom, update the Shop Email field and hit Save.
How to set global email for your store
Change the PrestaShop store email in the back office:
- PrestaShop v1.7: Back Office → Shop Parameters → Contact → Store PrestaShop
- v1.6: Back Office → Preferences → Store Contacts
After you change one – be sure to test if PrestaShop can send emails properly from the server.
Configure PrestaShop email SMTP/IMAP settings
Head down to the Back Office → Advanced Parameters → Email.
In the Email block, you will see three alliances to choose from:
Use PHP's mail() function– I would recommend leaving that one as most of the time, it works the best. See the bottom section to send a test email to yourself to see if that works.Set my own SMTP parameters– this is the place to enter your SMTP and IMAP settings. Be sure to send a test email to yourself – it is very easy to make a mistake/typo.Never send emails– only do this if you have a test (demo, staging) or development store.
What PrestaShop email format to choose: HTML or TEXT
Both! Email clients are smart enough to detect what template format to show:
- HTML format will contain lovely images, and tables. Looks excellent on Desktop
- devices (tablets, laptops, computers). TEXT format can’t have any fancy
- resources (no images, tables, or texts). Use this one if you have some issues
- with HTML emails (for example, when theme emails contain problems).
How to test if PrestaShop sends emails properly
Test emails sending feature in PrestaShop v1.6 and v1.7 by going to Advanced Parameters → Email. At the very bottom, there will be Test Your Email Configuration block where you can enter your personal email and hit Send A Test Email.
PrestaShop does not send emails
If you chose SMTP/IMAP and you are not receiving test emails, that might mean two things:
- You have mistyped your settings (usually that is Port Number and Encryption inputs).
- Your email server blocks emails from this IP. It is hard to check for this case.
If PrestaShop does not send emails, I encourage you to choose Use PHP\'s mail() function in the Back Office → Advanced Parameters → Email. This way, email is sent right from your PrestaShop store server, which should work 99% of the time.
There is no harm to use this option, and there is no risk of being marked as a spammer by using it.
You should rarely tweak SMTP/IMAP settings. And if you update your email password (for example, Gmail password), you will have to come back to the settings page and update there too. That is overhead.
What email should you use for contacts and back-office logins
I do not advise using the same email for logins and contacts. It is insecure. A contact email will be used in brute-force attacks trying to access your back office (bots will be trying random passwords with your email as username).
So use personal or companies direct email addresses for logins. Be sure to use the actual email address, otherwise, the password reset feature won’t work in that case.
And for public display – use something else. Emails like support@example.org or help@example.org works best these days.
Do not use info@example.org – this one should be disabled (if possible) because this usually attracts lots of spam.
Don’t use @gmail.com as your store contact
I have seen this many times – @gmail.com, @icloud.com, or even @hotmail accounts used for solid stores.
Don’t do that. That is super unprofessional!
Spend some time to fix this and use something generic like support@example.org or help@example.org for store emails.
Do not use info@example.org to avoid automated spam. For example, all info@eshopaddons.com emails are going to the spam folder as they are full of spam messages.
Best email addons for PrestaShop
You don’t need to install any extra addons for PrestaShop email handling.
PrestaShop does a great job of delivering email notifications (after the order is sent after the status is changed or newsletter is subscribed). It also offers you (the shop owner) to customize email templates out of the box.
So do not spend money on any add-ons you might think you need.