Forwarding mail from another mailbox
Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo or your own domain: writing the rule that sends confirmations to the connected Gmail mailbox, without forwarding everything else.
Open the screen in StockFeelStockFeel can only read a Gmail mailbox. If your sale confirmations arrive on Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo or your own domain, the answer is not to change your address at eBay: it is to create a rule that copies those emails, and only those, to the Gmail mailbox connected to StockFeel.
If you do not have a dedicated Gmail mailbox yet, create one for this. It will serve nothing else, and your private life never has to enter it. Then start with Connecting your Gmail mailbox.
The rule to write, before the tool that writes it
Three decisions hold for every provider, and they are what separates a useful rule from a flooded inbox.
Filter on subject keywords, never "all messages". A rule that forwards everything sends your personal email into a second mailbox for nothing. Listing every platform and every carrier, on the other hand, makes an endless rule that misses the next shop you sell on. Useful confirmations give themselves away by their subject, wherever they come from:
- sales and purchases:
order,sold,sale,purchase,commande,vendu,vente,achat - shipping and tracking:
shipped,parcel,delivery,tracking,expédié,colis,livraison,suivi - payment:
invoice,payment,receipt,facture,paiement,reçu
These are the words StockFeel's detection looks for first. Keep those of the languages you sell in: a seller who only uses English-speaking platforms can drop the French ones.
A keyword rule lets a few extra emails through, such as a pizza order or an
electricity bill. That does no harm: StockFeel sets aside on its own whatever
cannot be resold. If a platform writes subjects with none of these words, add its
sending domain as well, for instance ebay. or vinted., rather than growing
the list.
Forward the message, not an attachment. Some clients offer to forward by attaching the original. The analysis then reads an empty envelope. Look for "forward" or "redirect", never "forward as attachment".
Prefer "redirect" where the choice exists. A redirect keeps the original sender, a forward may replace it with your own address. Both work, but the first gives better detection.
A rule only applies to messages arriving after it was created. Your past sales will not be forwarded: to bring in a history, see Importing your inventory from a CSV.
Writing the rule at your provider
Pick the mailbox your confirmations arrive in today: only its steps are shown.
Where do your sale emails arrive?
Open the mail rules
In Outlook on the web: the gear at the top right, Mail, then Rules.
Add a rule
Add new rule, and give it a name you will still understand in six months, for instance "Sales to StockFeel".
Set the condition
Condition Subject includes, then your keywords, confirming each with Enter. The values of a single condition are read as "or": one word found in the subject is enough. Do not add a second condition, Outlook would combine them as "and" and hardly anything would be forwarded.
Set the action
Action Redirect to, with the Gmail address connected to StockFeel. If only Forward to is offered, it will do.
Keep a copy
Leave the option that stops processing further rules unticked, and check that the message stays in your Outlook mailbox. A redirect is a copy, not a move.
iCloud can only forward in bulk or by rule, depending on where you go.
For a targeted rule, open iCloud Mail in a browser, the gear at the bottom
left, Rules, then Add a rule: condition If the subject contains, one
keyword, and action Forward to your Gmail address. iCloud takes a single value
per rule, so count one rule per word. Four or five are enough: order, sold,
shipped, tracking and commande cover most confirmations.
For total forwarding, under Settings, Forward my email to, you send the whole mailbox on. Only do this on an address that exists to sell.
Yahoo filters live under Settings, More settings, Filters. A filter can file into a folder but cannot forward on free accounts: automatic forwarding is under Settings, Mailboxes, your account, Forwarding, and it applies to the whole mailbox. Same advice as for iCloud: keep it for a selling address.
At a hosting provider, forwarding is set on the address itself, not in the mail client.
- Google Workspace: admin console, the user, Gmail, Forwarding, or a Gmail filter on the mailbox side, identical to the Gmail case below.
- cPanel: Email Forwarders, Add Forwarder, then the destination Gmail address.
- OVH: customer area, Emails, the address, Redirections tab, then Add a redirection to the Gmail address. Tick Keep a copy if you want to go on reading those emails where they are.
A provider-level redirection passes the message through as it is, original sender included. It is the cleanest of the three, but it sends on everything that reaches the address, with no subject filter: keep it for an address that exists to sell. Otherwise, set the rule in the mail client that collects that address instead, as for Outlook.
If your sales arrive on a first Gmail address and you want to gather them on the one connected to StockFeel, Gmail does this properly.
Declare the destination address
In the source mailbox: gear, See all settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP, Add a forwarding address.
Confirm the code
Gmail sends a code to the destination address. Open it, get the code, confirm. Without this step no rule will be able to forward.
Create the filter, not the blanket forward
The Filters and blocked addresses tab, Create a new filter. In the Subject field, put your keywords separated by
OR, for instanceorder OR sold OR sale OR purchase OR shipped OR parcel OR delivery OR tracking OR commande OR vendu. Gmail matches whole words: writeshipped OR shipping, not a fragment such asship.Tick the right action
Create filter, then Forward it to, and pick the address validated in the previous step. Leave Never send it to Spam ticked if your confirmations sometimes land there.
Apply to the past where you can
Gmail offers Also apply filter to matching conversations. That option files and labels old mail, but does not forward it: forwarding only concerns messages still to come.
Checking that it works
Run a real test rather than an empty one: wait for the next confirmation, or send yourself a message from another address with a subject along the lines of "Your order has shipped".
In the connected Gmail mailbox, the message must appear with the original sender. Then open Configuration, Gmail detection, and press Synchronise now in StockFeel. If the counter announces one email analysed, the whole chain works.
Expect a few seconds to a few minutes of lag depending on the provider. Forwarding is not instant, and detection runs in passes: a sale shows up in the inventory within the hour, not within the second.