Forwarding sends a copy of every email that reaches your existing support address straight to your Arbyn inbox, so Arbyn can read and answer it, without changing anything for your customers. They keep emailing the address they already know.
What it does
This sets up a rule in your email provider that copies incoming mail to your unique Arbyn inbox address. It takes a few minutes, works with Gmail, Outlook, and most other providers, and can be switched off at any time by removing the rule in your provider's settings; nothing on Arbyn's side needs to change.
Where to find it
Start in Settings → Email. Your Arbyn inbox address (with a Copy button) sits at the top; you'll need it for every guide below. Then set up the actual forwarding rule in whichever email provider holds your support inbox, not inside Arbyn itself.
Setup (step by step)
Gmail and Google Workspace
In Gmail, open Settings (gear icon), then See all settings, then the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
Click Add a forwarding address.
Paste your Arbyn inbox address, then click Next → Proceed → OK.
Gmail sends a confirmation email to your Arbyn inbox to prove you control it. You don't need to go find that confirmation yourself: if you're setting this up from Arbyn's onboarding wizard or from Settings → Email, Arbyn is already watching for it and picks it up automatically. A normal Gmail account can't retrieve that confirmation, since the inbox belongs to Arbyn, not you; that's exactly why Arbyn detects it for you instead.
Back in Gmail's Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab, once the address shows as confirmed, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to, and choose your Arbyn inbox address.
Click Save Changes.
Done. Every email sent to your support address now also lands in your Arbyn inbox.
Outlook and Microsoft 365
In Outlook, go to Settings → Mail → Forwarding.
Toggle Enable forwarding on.
Paste your Arbyn inbox address into the forwarding field.
Click Save. Outlook doesn't require a separate confirmation step; forwarding starts immediately.
Shopify's own domain email forwarding
If you bought or transferred your domain through Shopify, you likely already have a store-branded address like [email protected], set up as a free forwarding address under Settings → Domains in your Shopify admin, forwarding on to whichever personal inbox you gave it, Gmail, Outlook, or otherwise.
You have two ways to bring that into Arbyn:
Recommended: forward from the personal inbox it already reaches. Since Shopify's own forwarding already lands your support mail in your Gmail or Outlook account, just follow the Gmail or Outlook steps above in that same account. You keep reading your support mail exactly as you do today, and Arbyn gets a copy too.
Alternative: point Shopify's forwarding rule directly at Arbyn. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Domains, click your domain, and open the Email forwarding section for your support address. You can change its destination there to your Arbyn inbox address directly. Shopify forwards each store address to only one destination at a time, so doing this stops your support mail arriving in your personal inbox too. Most stores prefer the first option for exactly that reason.
How it works
Every provider's forwarding does the same thing under the hood: it copies incoming mail to a second address without removing it from the first. Nothing about your original support address changes; customers keep emailing it, and you can keep reading it in your own inbox exactly as before. The copy that reaches Arbyn is what gets read, checked against your live Shopify data, and drafted into a reply.
The confirmation-code step is where most people get stuck, specifically on Gmail. Gmail requires proof that you, or in this case Arbyn, actually control the address you're forwarding to, before it will forward anything there. Since your Arbyn inbox isn't an address you can personally log into, Arbyn handles that confirmation automatically, provided you're going through the Connect inbox step in onboarding or the equivalent flow in Settings → Email. If you set up the Gmail forwarding rule from Gmail's own confirmation link instead, it still works the same way, Arbyn just detects it once real mail starts arriving.
Once forwarding is live, nothing further needs to happen per email; every message that reaches your support address is copied automatically from then on, for as long as the rule stays in place.
Good to know
Setting up forwarding doesn't confirm it's working. The rule can be typed correctly and still not deliver, a typo in the address, a provider-specific quirk, anything. Always follow up with the verification step, covered next, before assuming it's live.
You only need to do this once. Once forwarding is set up and verified, every future email to your support address reaches Arbyn without any further action from you.
ProtonMail's forwarding is a paid feature. On ProtonMail's free plan you'll need to upgrade to forward mail, or use your Arbyn inbox address directly with customers instead.
Removing the forwarding rule at any time stops new mail from reaching Arbyn, without affecting your existing conversation history or your regular inbox.
FAQ
Will my customers ever see my Arbyn inbox address? Not from forwarding alone. Your outbound replies still show your store's name as the sender, covered in the replies and threading article. Customers only see your Arbyn inbox address if you choose to give it out directly instead of forwarding.
I use a provider that isn't listed here. What do I do? Any email provider that supports forwarding will work. Look for "forwarding" or "mail rules" in that provider's settings, and point it at your Arbyn inbox address, copied from Settings → Email. The mechanics are the same everywhere: forward incoming mail to a second address.
Does forwarding slow down or change the mail my customers get? No. Forwarding only copies incoming mail to your Arbyn inbox; it doesn't touch outbound mail or delay anything for your customers.