Can I send outbound emails?

Yes. Outbound email is part of the dashboard, so your team can start a conversation with a customer instead of waiting for one to arrive. You can also forward existing threads to addresses outside Simple Chat.

Starting a thread

Create a new outbound email conversation from the workflow Simple Chat provides for starting email threads, compose the message, and send it to the customer's address. Replies come back into the same conversation view as inbound mail, attached to that ticket.

Typical occasions: following up on a failed delivery, sending a personalized offer after a high-value cart abandon, or continuing support over email after a phone call when you already have the shopper's address.

Forwarding to outside parties

Forwarding sends a conversation thread to an external email address with its context intact, which beats copying snippets from the dashboard into a blank email. Useful when:

• A 3PL or warehouse partner is investigating a damaged shipment.
• A manufacturer needs a defect report with the full message history.
• An internal finance contact needs a sensitive thread.

After the send succeeds, Simple Chat adds a staff-visible internal note on that conversation naming the To and Cc addresses. The customer never sees this note, and it is not included if you later forward the same thread again. Use it as the handoff record in the transcript: who received the thread, without leaving the dashboard.

Keeping proactive mail trustworthy

Configure your custom from-address and DKIM in Email settings first, so outbound messages land in inboxes rather than spam folders. Make the reason for contact clear in the first line; customers flag unexpected outreach quickly. And once it's sent, treat replies like any other conversation: monitor AI involvement, take over when policy requires a human, and close when resolved.

Inbound covers reactive support; outbound covers deliberate merchant-initiated contact. Both stay tracked in one system.