Customer data - direct upload from UI

You can import customer data as a CSV file from the Blueshift UI by creating an import task.

Click here for information about data types, customer attributes, and formats.

Create an import task

Complete the following steps to create a data import task:

• Go to Customer Data > Profiles in the left navigation to import customer data. Click +CUSTOMERS > Import Customers.
  
• Select Direct File Upload as the Source.
• Provide a Name for the customer feed. This will help you identify and track the specific batch of customers you're importing. For example, you could name it "ABC Sales Event - Import (2024-04-01)" or something as specific as "Summer Blast - Past Purchase 2023" (a customer list from sales last summer).
  The import task form opens.
  
  
  
• In the Destination section, you can see the type of data being imported as Customers. 
• Under Notification Preferences on the left, you can set up email alerts. These emails will be sent to the addresses you specify whenever:
  - The status of a task changes.
  - A specific percentage of records fail during an import process.
• In the Source Configuration section, select the file containing your customer information. Click Continue to import the data.
  

File Settings: Blueshift reads and automatically populates the File Format, Encoding, and Delimiter (only for CSV) fields based on your uploaded file in the File Settings section. You can pick your desired encoding and separator, but the file format cannot be modified. 

Supported Encodings:

• Default: UTF-8 (recommended setting for most files)
• Other options: UTF-16 (including Little Endian and Big Endian variations) and ISO-8859-1.

Supported Delimiters:

• Comma (default). Other delimiter types are Tabs, Space, Pipe, Semicolon, ASCII Record Separator, and Unit Separator.
• Others: If you want to set a specific delimiter for your source file, then specify that delimiter in the input text box that follows.

Choose the correct file configuration and click Continue.

The Configuration section previews the first ten rows of the imported data. 

• Map the fields from the imported data to the fields in Blueshift. 
  
  
  
  
• This means you must select a corresponding destination attribute for each source attribute. The Source Attribute Name is the attribute in your file, and the Destination Attribute Name is the attribute in Blueshift.
• Search and Select: Find the corresponding Blueshift attribute for each field in your imported data. Use the search bar Destination Attribute Name to locate the matching attribute easily. 
  If you wish to create a custom destination attribute in Blueshift, type the attribute name you want to add and click on that attribute suggestion. 
  
  • Source attributes in the imported data are auto-mapped to destination attributes in Blueshift.
    • To clear the auto-mapping, click the Clear Destination Attribute Mapping icon.
    • To restore auto-mapped suggestions, click the Reset Destination Attribute Mapping icon.
  • Notice that Blueshift standard attributes and Custom attributes are grouped separately in the drop-down list so that you can easily distinguish between them. 
    Note: Only source attributes mapped to a destination attribute will be imported.
  • You cannot change the data type for a custom attribute once it is imported.
  • For source data of floating-point numeric data type, select the matching data type in Blueshift as Decimal.
  • One column must be mapped to a customer identifier: customer_id or email or cookie or device_id.
  • You can delete the fields you don't want to import from the source file.
    
    
• Click Check Data Quality to verify that the imported data has the right values for all the records based on the field mapping.
  • Ensure that all fields are mapped.
  • Fix any data quality issues identified to improve the quality of the data and ensure the data import is successful. You can download the data quality report in JSON or CSV format.
    
    
    
• Click Test Run to verify that the Destination Data Type is mapped correctly. Notice that the deleted attributes during mapping are removed from the sample destination JSON payload. A maximum of 10 records are fetched during this test run.
  

  

• Verify that the data mapping is done correctly. Edit the data mapping if necessary. After you make the changes, click Test Run again.

In the Additional Configuration section, set the import preferences for customer profile updates:

• Allow blank user attributes (Enabled by default): Updates existing profiles with blank values from the import data.
  Note: Boolean attributes cannot be set to NULL or blank; they must be true or false.
• Update all matching profiles (Disabled by default): This option is relevant when there are multiple customer profiles in the system with the same identifier (e.g., email address). Enabling this option ensures that all profiles with the matching identifier are updated.
  
  
  • If multiple profiles share the same identifier (e.g., jdoe@example.com linked to Jane Doe and John Doe), all matching profiles will be updated.
  • If there is only one profile matching the identifier, this option does not provide any additional functionality, and is effectively redundant.
  • If none of the identifiers in the import match an existing profile, a new profile will be created regardless of whether 'Update all matching profiles' is selected.
  For example:
  Existing profiles: Jane Doe (jdoe@example.com) and John Doe (jdoe@example.com)
  Import file includes: Updates to jdoe@example.com
  Result: Both Jane's and John's profiles are updated.
• Only update existing customer profiles (Disabled by default): Updates only profiles that already exist in the system. If an identifier from the import file doesn’t exist in the system, no new profile will be created.
  For example:
  Existing profiles: john@example.com and jane@example.com
  Import file includes: john@example.com, jane@example.com, and bob@example.com
  Result: John and Jane’s profiles are updated, but no profile is created for Bob.

• Click Continue to proceed to the next step.

In the Schedule section, set the Start Date and time for the import task. You can upload a file immediately or set a date and time for the upload.

• Click Save to save the task first, and click Launch to run the import task.
  

You will receive an email confirmation after the customer list has been uploaded. The email includes information for both processed and failed records.

• Click Launch to run the import task. The task status can be viewed from the View Uploads page.