Adding Gmail Inbox Actions to Magento Emails

We have recently released our latest open-source module over on GitHub! This module adds Gmail Actions to your transactional emails. The action buttons allow your customers to quickly click to view their order in the account area of your store, all without opening the email.

The goal of these Actions are to increase user-engagement on transactional e-mails, by adding view go-to buttons your customer is viewing their inbox.

How it works

This is achieved through adding Schema mark-up to each of the following transactional emails: Orders, Shipments, and Credit Memos.

The schema code looks like this:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "EmailMessage",
  "description": "Description of what is in the email",
  "action": {
    "@type": "ViewAction",
    "url": "http[s]://www.magentostore.com/sales/order/view/order_id/1/",
    "name": "View Order"
  }
}
</script>

Essentially, in this snippet we have defined: what is in the email (description), the type of action we want (defined by @type: "ViewAction", see more here), the destination URL of the action, and final the name of the action which is what Gmail will use to display to the user on the button.

Installation

You can install via Modman:

  cd /to/magento/root/
  modman init
  modman clone https://github.com/meanbee/gmailactions.git

Or, by logging into http://www.yourmagentostore.com/downloader and uploading the package.

Configuration & Requirements

In order for Gmail to start displaying these Actions in your customers inboxes, there are a few requirements which you must meet first:

• Emails must be authenticated via DKIM or SPF
  • If you are unable to modify your DNS records to support this, one way of achieving is through the use of a SMTP module.
• Your domain of the DKIM or SPF signatures must match the domain of your From: email address exactly. eg for From: foo@bar.com the DKIM must be for the bar.com domain and not a subdomain such as email.bar.com.
• Emails must come from a static email address, eg foo@bar.com
• Emails must follow Google's general email guidelines

Once you have met these requirements, you can then register with Google so your customers can start seeing the new Go-to Actions in their inboxes.

Testing

If you have met the above requirements then you are ready for testing your emails. Gmail allows you to test Actions by emailing yourself (x@gmail.com to x@gmail.com), Google Apps users can use their Gmail accounts to. You can change who sends transactional emails in System > Configuration > Store Email Addresses under Sales Representative.

Once the store email address has been updated you can test by placing an order as a logged in user.

Conclusion

This module will increase user-engagement in transactional emails, by taking advantage of these features provided by Gmail. You can currently download the module from the GitHub repository: Meanbee Gmail Actions.