Sending emails through the B2C Commerce platform's email (SMTP) server

By design, the B2C Commerce platform is a transactional eCommerce platform, and not an email provider. Therefore, we recommend that customers use a product specifically designed to handle delivery and reporting requirements. If you require sending emails to customers in bulk, we recommend the following:

1. Utilize the functionality outlined in the Business Manager Email Configurator documentation to configure the platform to utilize your SMTP server of choice.
2. Use a dedicated e-mail provider e.g. Marketing Cloud.

There are risks if you use the platform's SMTP server vs. an external SMTP server as laid out below:

1. Risk of delivery problems: Using the Commerce Cloud SMTP server to send mass emails runs the risk of a low success rate of mail delivery.

All the large destinations (GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) will lessen the score of the e-mail because it comes from Commerce Cloud, rather than a dedicated email provider. This can cause delivery problems, increase the number of inbound cases your customer service team will have to field, and decrease customer satisfaction.

2. Lack of tracking or reporting: Commerce Cloud does not provide a mechanism to track emails since we are not an email provider. If you want to track down an individual email to troubleshoot delivery problems, Commerce Cloud will not be able to track or report on it, whereas other services provide more robust reporting capabilities.

In short, there is no hard limit to the number of emails that can be sent via a SFCC SMTP server; however, if a customer chooses to send emails via Commerce Cloud as opposed to another email platform, they must assume responsibility for the above-mentioned risks.

If you decide to utilize the platform to send emails despite what is mentioned above, please review Best Practices for sending email via the B2C Commerce platform.