We often receive inquiries from merchants running online stores on Shopify, such as "order confirmation emails are not arriving" and "we've been getting more inquiries from customers saying they can't receive emails."
In Japan in particular, many customers use carrier email addresses from providers such as Docomo, au, and SoftBank (e.g., @docomo.ne.jp, @ezweb.ne.jp, @softbank.ne.jp), and delivery problems to these email addresses occur frequently. When emails fail to arrive properly, this can lead to lower customer satisfaction and the loss of valuable sales opportunities.
In this article, we explain in detail how to use the Shopify app "RuffRuff Order Limits" to proactively restrict orders placed with carrier email addresses. With this setup, you can solve email delivery problems at the root and provide a better shopping experience for your customers.
What Is RuffRuff Order Limits?
RuffRuff Order Limits is a Shopify app that lets you implement quantity limits, price limits, bundle limits, customer limits, payment limits, delivery limits, and access limits — all with a single app. By using customer limits, you can run member-exclusive sales, VIP-member-exclusive sales, Silver-member-or-higher-exclusive sales, and more.
The customer limit feature includes a setting that blocks orders from specific email domains, allowing you to prevent orders placed using carrier email addresses.
Steps to Set Up Email Domain Restrictions
Outcome
By making the settings in this section, when a customer attempts to place an order using a carrier email address such as "~@docomo.ne.jp" or "~@ezweb.ne.jp," an alert message will be displayed on the checkout page and the order will be blocked.
A demo product is also available, so please check the actual behavior.
Setup Steps
1. Preparation
Since we will be using the Shopify app "RuffRuff Order Limits" this time, we'll walk through the preparation steps from installation to enabling the app embed.
(1) Install RuffRuff Order Limits, introduced above, from the Shopify App Store.
You can find "RuffRuff Order Limits" by searching for "ruffruff" on the Shopify App Store. Once you access the "RuffRuff Order Limits" app page, click "Install."
(2) Select "Pricing plan" in the app
(3) Click "Change plan" for the plan you want to subscribe to
(4) Review the plan details and click "Approve"
After upgrading to the Lite plan, enable the app embed in your current Shopify theme. This makes it possible to display product messages and more.
(5) From the Shopify admin, go to "Online Store"
(6) Select "Themes" and click "Customize"
(7) Select "App embeds" on the left side of the screen
(8) Enable the app embed named "RuffRuff Order Limits"
(9) Click "Save"
2. Create a Customer Rule
Once the preparation for RuffRuff Order Limits is complete, create a customer rule to block orders from carrier email addresses.
(1) Click "Customer rule" in the app's left-hand menu
(2) Click "Create rule"
(3) Enter any rule name you like for the title
This is a name used for management purposes within the app, so it is not shown to users.
(4) Check "Block purchases from the email domains below."
(5) Add the email domains you want to block orders from
The email domains entered here are matched by suffix. For example, adding "example.com" will also block "sub.example.com."
By selecting "Japanese carrier email domains" from the preset options, you can add carrier email domains such as "docomo.ne.jp" and "ezweb.ne.jp" all at once.
(6) Select "All items" for Eligible items
(7) Enter any message you like in Product message
(8) Enter any message you like in Alert message
(9) Click "Save"
(10) Click "Enable"
After saving, the rule's status will be Disabled, so you need to switch it to Enabled.
3. Verify the Behavior
(1) Add a product to the cart and proceed to the checkout page
(2) On the checkout page, enter an email address that is blocked from ordering
(3) Confirm that the alert message is displayed
(4) Re-enter an email address that is not blocked
(5) Confirm that the alert message is not displayed
Conclusion
With the settings introduced in this article, you can effectively prevent email delivery problems by proactively restricting orders from customers using carrier email addresses.
What This Article Enables
- Restricting orders from carrier email users before the order is placed
- Displaying a clear error message at checkout
- Preventing email delivery problems before they occur
Operational Notes
- After setup, periodically verify the behavior to confirm it is functioning correctly
- To minimize the impact on sales, it is also effective to note information about email addresses on your product pages or FAQ page
- To prepare for customer inquiries, we also recommend guiding customers in the alert message to use an alternative email address (such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail)
In addition to the customer limit feature introduced here, the RuffRuff Order Limits app includes other useful features such as purchase quantity limits, price limits, and bundle limits. Please make use of these features as well to run your online store more efficiently.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the RuffRuff support team.
