📬Connect an email inbox

Retailers email you when you place an order, when it ships, when it's out for delivery and when it arrives. Connect the inbox that receives those emails and Shippified turns them into orders, then updates each order as the later emails come in. You set this up on Links → Email. Each connected inbox is called a source.

This guide covers the four ways to connect, every field on the form, what the source card shows, which emails Shippified recognises, how to import a single email by hand, and how to fix common problems.

Before you start

• You need a Shippified account. If you're setting up for the first time, the setup wizard shows the same form on its Inbox step. You can also skip that step and come back here later.

• Decide which connection method suits you (see the next section). Have the mailbox's sign-in details to hand.

• Built-in support covers Target, Walmart, Amazon and Best Buy. Mail from other stores needs a custom template. See Custom templates.

Choose a connection method

Open Links in the sidebar, choose the Email tab, and click Add inbox. The Provider menu has four options:

OAuth is the "Sign in with Google / Microsoft" style of permission: you approve access on the provider's own page, and Shippified never sees your password. IMAP is the standard way mail apps read a mailbox.

Connect your inbox

The form starts with the same three fields for every provider:

• Label: a name for this source, shown on its card and in the Inbox. Starts as "Order Inbox". Example: Main Gmail. Left blank, it's saved as "Order Inbox".

• Address: the mailbox's email address, used for display. For Google and Microsoft it's replaced with the account you connect. For a forwarding source it's replaced with your new inbound address. It can be left blank; the card then says no address set — click edit to add one.

• Provider: how Shippified reaches the mail.

Then follow the tab for your provider.

• Gmail (Google sign-in)
• Outlook / Microsoft 365
• IMAP (any provider)
• Forwarding address

Shippified asks Google for read-only Gmail access. It can read messages. It can't send, delete or change anything.

1. Save the source

   Click Add inbox, enter a Label, set Provider to Google (OAuth) and click Connect inbox. The new card appears with the amber status needs auth and the line "Not connected yet — sign in to Google before this inbox can sync."

2. Sign in with Google

   Click Connect Google on the card. Google's sign-in opens in a new browser tab, and the card notes "Finish signing in to Google in the new tab, then come back here." Choose your account and approve access.

3. Close the tab

   The tab shows Connected and Connected you@gmail.com. You can close this tab. Close it and go back to Shippified.

4. Check the card

   Reload Links → Email if the card hasn't changed. It now shows connected and your Gmail address. The first check reads your 25 most recent messages.

The Connect Google account button inside the form only works on a saved source. If you click it on the new-source form, Shippified shows Save the source first, then click Connect Google on the saved card. Once the source is saved, you can sign in from the card's Connect Google button or from Connect Google account in its edit form.

Google reads across your whole mailbox, not just one folder, so labels and filters that skip the Inbox don't hide order mail. You can remove Shippified's access at any time from the security settings of your Google account.

Set templates and allowed senders

Two optional settings on every source control how it reads mail. Both are on the add form and the edit form.

Templates this source parses against

A template is the set of rules that recognises one kind of email (for example "Target Order Shipped") and pulls out its details. Each chip is one template: the built-in ones for each retailer and status, plus any custom email templates you've built.

• None selected (the default): the heading reads None selected — your custom templates are tried first, then every built-in. This is the right choice for most people.

• One or more selected: click chips to select them. The heading changes to N selected · only these are tried, top→bottom; first match wins, and each chip shows its priority number in the order you clicked. Only those templates are tried, custom or built-in. Click a selected chip again to remove it.

Selecting templates doesn't block other mail. When none of the selected templates matches, Shippified still applies its general rules for order mail (see "Which emails become orders"). To stop mail from a sender reaching the source at all, use Allowed senders.

A custom template only matches email if it has at least one match rule.

Allowed senders

A list of sender addresses, one per line (commas also work). If it's empty, any sender is accepted. Each line can be:

Matching ignores upper and lower case. The check uses the email's real sender. For a message forwarded by hand, the retailer quoted inside it ("Forwarded message … From:") counts only when the forward came from the account owner's own address: your Shippified account email, the source's Address, its IMAP Username, or the connected Gmail or Microsoft mailbox. Then you list only retailer addresses, never your own. A message forwarded in by anyone else is judged by that person's own address, because a quoted "From:" line is just text anyone can type.

Email from a sender that isn't allowed never becomes an order. It's listed in the Inbox as Rejected, with the sender that was checked, so a missing entry is easy to spot. The list applies to every way mail reaches the source, including emails you import by hand.

Read the source card

Each source has a card on Links → Email. The heading above the cards counts the sources whose status is connected (1 connected source), followed by "· N paused" and "· N not connected" when there are any.

The icons in the top-right corner:

• Pause syncing (pause icon) or, on a paused source, Resume syncing (play icon): see Pause a source. Hidden until a Google or Microsoft source is signed in.

• Rebuild orders from mailbox (clock icon, Google, Microsoft and IMAP only, hidden until a Google or Microsoft source is signed in, and while the source is paused): re-reads older mail. See Rebuild orders from a mailbox.

• Edit source (pencil): opens the form inside the card. Change what you need and click Save changes, or Cancel. Provider is shown but can't be changed: "Can't be changed on a saved source. To switch provider, add a new inbox and delete this one."

• Delete source (bin): asks Delete this source? with the note Past orders parsed from it stay in your workspace. The inbox will stop ingesting new emails. Click Delete source to confirm or Keep it to back out.

Source statuses

Pause a source

Pausing stops a source without deleting it, for example while you clean up a mailbox or stop using a forwarding rule for a while. Any source can be paused once it's connected, including forwarding addresses.

To pause, click the pause icon (Pause syncing) in the card's top-right corner. The tag changes to paused and the heading counts it under "· N paused".

While a source is paused:

• Google, Microsoft and IMAP: Shippified stops checking the mailbox. The sync line reads Paused — Shippified isn't checking this inbox. Resume to pick up where it left off., Sync now is replaced by Resume, and Rebuild orders from mailbox is hidden.

• Forwarding address: the address keeps accepting mail, so nothing bounces, but everything that arrives is dropped. It isn't turned into an order, and it isn't kept to read later.

To resume, click the play icon (Resume syncing), or Resume on the sync line. The source goes back to connected. A mailbox source picks up where it left off, so mail that arrived while it was paused is read on the next check (up to 50 messages per check). Mail sent to a forwarding address while it was paused isn't recovered; forward it again or import it by hand.

How checking works

Each order is dated with the email's own date, not the time Shippified read it, so mail read late still lands on the right day. To bring in mail from before you connected, use Rebuild orders from a mailbox.

Which emails become orders

A typical inbox has far more marketing and account mail than order mail. Shippified creates or updates an order only when an email is clearly about a purchase. Everything else is ignored: it isn't turned into an order, isn't kept, and isn't listed in the Inbox.

Supported retailers. Built-in templates cover these stores, recognised by the sender's domain (including subdomains such as oe.target.com):

Recognised emails. For each retailer there's a template per status, matched on the subject line. Shippified checks them in this order, so a subject that mentions both cancelling and shipping counts as a cancellation:

General rules. If no template matches, an email still becomes an order when all of these are true: it's from a supported retailer's domain, it contains an order number, and its subject (or the start of its body) describes a placed, shipped, delivered, updated or canceled order.

Emails about the same order (confirmation, shipping, delivery) are combined into one order by order number. See Order lifecycle.

Always ignored:

• Marketing and newsletters, such as "New drops this week!", because they don't read like an order event.

• Sign-in codes, password resets and account notices: no order number, no order event.

• Amazon seller notices. Amazon emails buyers and sellers from the same domain, so subjects about sellers, listings, brand approval, feedback removal, payouts and disbursements, and replies starting "Re:", are always skipped.

• Mail from stores Shippified doesn't recognise. To track another store, build a custom email template on the Templates page.

• An email Shippified already has. Every email is recorded by its unique message ID, so the same email read twice (a re-check, a rebuild, or through two sources) never makes a second order.

An email that belongs to an order you deleted by hand is also left out when it's read again (a re-check, a rebuild, or the same forward arriving twice), so a deleted order stays deleted. The Inbox lists it as Skipped. A new email about that order, such as a later shipping notice, still creates an order, and so does importing the email by hand.

Import an email by hand

At the bottom of Links → Email, Import an email by hand turns one pasted email into an order. Use it for a single email that arrived before you connected, or one that wasn't forwarded.

1. Open the panel

   Click Import an email by hand to expand it. If you have no sources yet, it says Connect an inbox above before testing the parser.

2. Choose a source

   Under Test against, pick the source this email belongs to. Its templates and Allowed senders apply.

3. Paste the email

   Paste the email into Raw email body (it starts empty, with an example in grey). The full original with its headers works best: in Gmail use Show original, in Outlook View message source. Pasted HTML or plain text works too.

4. Add the sender if needed

   If what you pasted has no From: line, type the retailer's address in From (sender), for example orders@target.com. It's required when the source has Allowed senders set.

5. Run it

   Click Run parser (it can't be clicked while Raw email body is empty). The button shows Parsing…, then Imported — it's in your orders now.

Emails you import by hand are never ignored. If Shippified can't tell the store or item, the order gets the Issue status so you can fill it in. Importing the same email twice doesn't create a second order.

Troubleshooting

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