How to fix missing spf on BigCommerce

Steps for BigCommerce

1. BigCommerce transactional emails can be sent via BigCommerce's shared infrastructure or routed through a custom SMTP provider.
2. To use a custom SMTP provider: BigCommerce Admin → Settings → Email → SMTP settings → enter your provider's credentials (SendGrid, Mailgun, etc.).
3. Log in to your domain registrar or DNS host (the registrar where your domain is registered, or Cloudflare/Route 53 if you've delegated DNS).
4. Add a new TXT record: Name/Host = '@', Value = v=spf1 include:[your-smtp-provider-include] -all. If using BigCommerce's default sending, check BigCommerce's official documentation for the current include string for their outbound mail servers.
5. Save the record and wait for propagation.
6. Verify using MXToolbox SPF Lookup and confirm test emails pass SPF authentication by inspecting the email headers.

What is missing spf?

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record — a single line of text you publish at your domain — that lists every mail server and service allowed to send email from your domain address. When someone receives an email claiming to be from you, their mail server looks up this record and checks whether the sending server is on your approved list. If there is no SPF record at all, there is nothing to check against, and your domain is completely open to impersonation. Think of it as a guest list for who is allowed to send email in your name.

Without an SPF record, criminals can forge your domain in the "From" address of phishing or spam emails — a technique called email spoofing — and your customers, suppliers, or partners may receive fraudulent messages that appear to come from your business. This directly harms customer trust and can expose you to legal liability. Beyond fraud risk, major email providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) now treat domains without SPF as suspicious and are more likely to send your legitimate transactional emails — order confirmations, shipping notices, password resets — straight to spam, costing you sales and customer satisfaction. A missing SPF record also contributes to OWASP A05:2021 Security Misconfiguration findings, which can affect security audits and partner due-diligence reviews.

See the complete Missing spf guide for every platform and the full background.