Email authentication for retail and e-commerce brands

Protect your revenue and brand trust with zero-maintenance email authentication

Get a demo | Check your domain

Retail brands rely on high-volume, high-impact email, especially during peak season. From personalized promotions to shipping confirmations and loyalty rewards, it’s your most direct connection with customers. But that same visibility makes you a prime phishing target — especially during high-volume seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

That also makes them prime targets for phishing. Valimail gives retailers 100% visibility into all senders, protects revenue, and delivers recognizable brand trust with BIMI and Google’s Blue Checkmark without minimal DNS work. 

Whether you’re a fast-growing DTC brand or a global retail chain, Valimail gives you complete visibility, safe enforcement, and inbox-ready branding without DNS guesswork or risky downtime.

Retail email security challenges

• Brand impersonation: Cybercriminals spoof your exact domain to send fake promotions, phishing emails, or discount codes that trick customers into handing over credentials or payment info.
• Shadow IT and third-party senders: From legacy CRMs to seasonal ESPs, retail teams often rely on untracked or unauthorized services to send email. These sources create security blind spots and deliverability risks.
• Fragile DNS records: Constant changes to platforms and service providers, especially around sales events, can break DNS records or push your SPF past the 10 DNS lookup limit, resulting in bounced messages or failed authentication.
• Missed BIMI opportunities: Retailers that reach DMARC enforcement can unlock BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) to show their logo in inboxes, but many miss out due to complex DNS requirements and lack of automation.
• Peak-season pressure: During holidays and sales events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, email volumes surge. Attackers take advantage of the urgency, impersonating trusted brands to exploit rushed clicks and stressed systems.
• Campaign performance risks: Poor inbox placement or blocked messages hurt open rates and ROI. Misconfigured senders or insecure infrastructure can derail even the most well-planned email campaigns.

DMARC built for retail operations

When phishing succeeds, customers lose trust, and so does revenue. Retailers need more than reactive filters or SEG guesswork. They need a way to prove who’s authorized to send on their behalf. Authentication enforces identity at the protocol level and builds inbox trust that can directly lift engagement. 

Valimail protects revenue, brand equity, and customer trust without disrupting the email campaigns that drive your business.

• Stop brand impersonation: DMARC enforcement stops attackers from spoofing your domain to send fake promotions, discounts, or phishing emails to customers.
• Protect promotional and transactional messages: Ensure legitimate messages like abandoned cart reminders to shipping confirmations land in the inbox, not the spam folder.
• Support campaign velocity: Automatically authorize new senders and platforms as marketing evolves, so IT isn’t stuck troubleshooting broken records mid-campaign.
• Boost performance with BIMI: Once DMARC enforcement is in place, Valimail helps you activate BIMI, adding your verified logo and the Google Blue Checkmark next to every email and improving open rates.
• Safeguard customer trust: Customers know when a message looks off. Valimail gives you control over your sender identity, so every message reinforces brand credibility.
• Centralize control: Govern multiple brands, domains, and regions from a single dashboard, with built-in protections against the 10 DNS lookup limit.
• Integrate seamlessly: Valimail works with every ESP, CDP, CRM, or eCommerce platform you already use. No need to rip and replace — just plug in and go.

Valimail Enforce protects retail and e-commerce brands from the phishing, deliverability, and DNS risks that come with high-velocity email.

How retail companies use Valimail

“Valimail has completely transformed how we manage email authentication. Their automation gives us confidence, and their customer support team has been incredible—especially during urgent, high-stakes moments.”- Sara Diaz, Senior Manager of Information Security & IT, Glossier

• Stopping brand impersonation: DMARC enforcement blocks phishing emails that impersonate your domain, especially during peak sales events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
• Protecting promotional campaigns: Valimail ensures promotional emails reach inboxes, not spam folders and boosts open rates and preserving engagement metrics.
• Securing transactional messaging: Email confirmations, shipping updates, and account notifications are protected from spoofing and deliver reliably to customers.
• Onboarding new senders faster: Whether it’s a new ESP, seasonal partner, or loyalty platform, Valimail helps teams safely authorize third-party senders without DNS delays.
• Enabling BIMI to increase visibility: Brands ready for enforcement can activate BIMI and display their logo in the inbox and improve recognition and open rates.
• Reducing IT burden during busy seasons: Automated discovery and hosted SPF eliminate risky manual edits, so teams can focus on growth, not troubleshooting.

Retail and e-commerce companies using Valimail protect supply chains and prevent costly email fraud:

100% sender visibility

Valimail automatically uncovers every known and unknown sending service so IT teams aren’t flying blind.

1 include, zero lookup issues

Valimail’s hosted SPF keeps your records under the 10-lookup limit. No manual edits, no risk to your high-volume sends.

BIMI ready in 6-8 weeks

Already at enforcement? You could have your logo live in inboxes to boost open rates quickly. 

4x faster time to enforcement
Reach DMARC enforcement in 45 days median instead of the 300-600 days typical with other implementations.

Security and compliance for retail and e-commerce

• FedRAMP authorized: We’re the only DMARC vendor with FedRAMP authorization—important for manufacturers working with government contracts or defense industry partnerships.
• SOC 2, PCI, GDPR compliant: Regular audits that meet all major security and privacy frameworks required for international manufacturing operations.
• Trusted by global manufacturers: Manufacturing companies worldwide trust Valimail to protect supply chain communications and prevent email fraud.
• Zero production disruption: Our implementation process guarantees critical supply chain communications continue flowing throughout deployment and beyond.

Protect your retail and e-commerce operations

Schedule a demo to see how Valimail protects retail and ecommerce brands from email-based attacks and business email compromise while also using BIMI to make their brand more apparent in the inbox.

Additional resources

1. https://www.valimail.com/blog/dmarc-in-retail/ 
2. https://www.valimail.com/winning-and-keeping-shopper-trust/ 
3. https://www.valimail.com/retail-email-risk-assessment/ 

Common retail and e-commerce questions

What are retail authentication best practices? 

Here are email best practices for the retail space:

• Audit all senders: CRM tools, marketing platforms, and legacy systems
• Reach DMARC enforcement before peak seasons
• Use hosted SPF to stay within the 10 DNS lookup limit
• Enable BIMI once enforcement is in place to boost engagement

What are common pitfalls when it comes to managing retail email authentication?

Here are some common pitfalls retail industries can fall into when setting up DMARC:

• Missing legacy senders that trigger deliverability issues
• Manually editing SPF records and breaking authentication
• Waiting until the holidays to address phishing risks

Have you helped set up DMARC for other retailers? 

Yes! We’ve worked with some of the biggest brands in retail, like Aritzia, Birkenstock, Lulus, Petco, Samsonite, Zenni Optical, Mercedes-Benz, JM Smucker Company, and so many more. Read a specific case study in the email for the retail industry here. 

How does Valimail give us 100% sender visibility?

Most DMARC vendors that rely on IP addresses can only identify this top 2% of existing cloud services out of the box, which can result in email from mission-critical services occasionally getting blocked if they are not included in the DMARC policy. 

Rather than having you stare at a screen full of IP addresses and incomprehensible DNS PTR records and try to figure out which sources are authorized, Valimail has the largest network of thousands of senders, consisting of known IP ranges and naming patterns to present these sources to you as names you’ll recognize, making it much easier for you to claim the sources as legitimate and make sure they’re included in your domain’s SPF records.

Valimail’s Precision Sender Intelligence streamlines and automates identifying and authorizing new email services for email marketing for retail with just one click. This feature includes:

• Patented technology that uses a vast database of known IP ranges and naming patterns
• Instant identification of new email services and presentation as recognizable names
• Simplification of the authorization process for adding new services
• Confidence for businesses to expand their email for retail services
• No compromise of email security during the expansion of email services

How fast can a retailer reach DMARC enforcement?

If you’re not already at enforcement, Valimail can get you to DMARC enforcement 4x faster than other DMARC providers and 8x faster than doing it on your own. Most teams move quickly because discovery and validation are automated. We guide you step-by-step so you can confidently move to p=reject or p=quarantine, even during busy email marketing for retail seasons.

How long does BIMI take, and what do we need?

If you’re already at DMARC enforcement, Valimail can help you enable BIMI in about six to eight weeks. You’ll need a compliant logo file and the right DNS records; we automate the entire process.

Will this work with multiple ESPs, CDPs, and eCommerce platforms?

Yes. Valimail is vendor-agnostic and surfaces all third-party senders so each is authenticated correctly.

Will changes disrupt email during peak season (BFCM, holidays)?

Our approach is designed to be safe and incremental. Hosted SPF and automated discovery reduce risky edits, and monitoring helps you catch issues before they impact revenue.

Can we manage many brands, subdomains, and new acquisitions?

Yes. You get a single view to govern large domain portfolios, onboard new brands quickly, and keep everything under the SPF 10-lookup limit.

What is the Blue Checkmark in email?

Google’s Blue Checkmark is available to brands and domains that set up BIMI with a Verified Mark Certificate. This signals to the consumer that this is a trusted email, with easy and visible verification. 

What are the benefits of working with Valimail as a retailer?

Whether you’re a global chain or a growing eCommerce brand, Valimail helps you deliver real outcomes without adding unnecessary complexity.

For IT and security:

• Surface and validate all senders, even legacy and third-party systems
• Reduce the time and burden of managing DMARC and DNS manually
• Enforce faster, with confidence, and prevent costly phishing incidents
• Gain visibility with real-time alerts, anomaly detection, and reporting

For marketing:

• Boost open rates by improving inbox placement
• Enable BIMI and stand out in a crowded inbox
• Avoid sender misconfigurations that hurt campaign performance
• Protect brand trust at every touchpoint

How have other retailers leveraged Valimail?

With limited internal resources focused on DNS management and email deliverability at stake, Glossier needed a solution that would simplify authentication and provide fast, reliable support when needed most. 

Valimail helped Glossier:

• Improve deliverability across campaigns
• Streamline the onboarding of new third-party senders
• Increase confidence across the marketing and IT teams in email infrastructure

Read the full case study

How do I know if my retail or e-commerce brand is protected form phishing? 

Are you protected from phishing? Find out in seconds.

Use our free Domain Checker to see if your brand is over the SPF 10-lookup limit and how close you are to enabling BIMI.