Export segment members

Blueshift also allows you to export segment membership. You can validate your segment counts/users by exporting segments, which you can then use to validate the counts and compare the users with your backend systems.

This can be done in two ways:

One-time export
Scheduled export

Exporting large segments

Before exporting large segments, review Blueshift’s Fair Use Policy. Exporting segments with more than 6 million users can affect campaign and syndication performance, as they share the same underlying resources.

To view the Fair Use Policy:

Consider these alternatives to exporting large segments:

Split segments using the bsft_control_bucket. For example, assign users to buckets with values 1–100, then export smaller ranges (e.g., 1–33, 34–66, 67–100).
Split segments into lists and export them separately.
Use syndications to export segments rather than the Export Segment task. Syndication exports only updated users during each run.

One-time export

You can export the list of users for a particular segment by clicking the export icon in that segment. Once processed, you will receive an email from Blueshift with a link to the exported file.

Note: This export contains the users that qualify for the segment at that moment.

The file contains all standard and custom user attributes for that specific segment. You will not be able to customize/pre-select columns with this option.

Attribute casing in one-time exports

One-time exports read user data from our search index, where values are stored in lowercase to support case-insensitive lookups. As a result, all attribute values in the exported file appear in lowercase, including customer_id, even if the original values use mixed case.

If you need values in their original casing, use a scheduled segment export instead.

Scheduled segment exports

You can regularly export segments from Blueshift to S3 or an SFTP server as CSV files for use in your custom workflows or for integration with your data warehouse. The exported segment file can include user attributes as well as content recommendations.

Note: Scheduled exports read user data from the user profile store, so all attribute values retain their original casing. Use scheduled exports when you need case-sensitive values.

Step 1 - Modify segment settings

Select the gear icon in the top right of the Segment dashboard.

Step 2 - Add an adapter

An adapter specifies the location where our platform stores the CSV files. Choose an Adapter Name from one of the following and provide the following details:

Adapter Name	Details
Blueshift Export	We store files in an S3 bucket we create for you. You can find the S3 location details under the API tab in your account settings. For more information, see Account Settings. If you choose Blueshift Export as your adapter, proceed to step 3.
Export CSV to S3	We can store CSV files of your segments in an S3 location of your choice. If you choose this adapter, provide the following details: Alias Name: Specify the name of the adapter for identification purposes. AWS Key: The Access Key ID that we use to store segment files on your S3 bucket. AWS Secret: The Secret Access Key that we use to store segment files on your S3 bucket. For more information about the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key, visit the programmatic access documentation on AWS. AWS Bucket: Enter the bucket name only (e.g., `mycompany-data-bucket`). Do not include the URL or `s3://`. AWS Region: Specify the AWS region where the S3 bucket resides. Path: Enter the folder path inside your bucket (e.g., `exports/segment_members/`). Do not prefix with `s3://` or a leading slash. For more information, refer to this AWS documentation.
SFTP	We can store files on an SFTP server of your choice. If you choose this adapter, provide the following details: Alias Name: Specify an alias name of the adapter for identification purposes. Host Address: Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server that hosts the SFTP service. For example: sftp.domain.com Host Port: Specify the port on the server that accepts incoming SFTP requests—for example, 22. Remote Path: Specify the path to the directory where you want to store the files. For example, /segments/blueshift. Username: Specify the username we should use to sign in to the SFTP server and store files. Password: Specify the password that we should use to sign in to the SFTP server and store files. After you provide these details, please proceed to step 3.

Step 3 - Specify and save user and product attributes to export

Select which user attributes, and optionally product attributes, should be included in scheduled exports. These are account-wide settings and apply to all scheduled exports.

Note: Product attributes will be included only when a recommendation algorithm is selected during export scheduling.

Step 4 - Schedule segment export

Click the dropdown menu (three-dot) for the segment, then choose Schedule Report. Define the schedule and export settings, and select the adapter.

Note: If there is only one adapter of the selected type, the alias dropdown does not appear. If there are multiple adapters of the selected type, select the required alias from the dropdown.

If you select a recommendation algorithm, the export will include recommended products and product attributes configured in Step 3. If no recommendation algorithm is selected, the export will contain only user attributes.

Sample S3 export file

Contains user and product attributes

You can also view and sort all segments that have an export scheduled in the Segment dashboard.

Filename prefix requirements

When setting the filename prefix for scheduled exports:

Do not use spaces - Use underscores instead (e.g., "customer_export" not "customer export")
Avoid slashes and other special characters that may cause file system issues
Good examples: "weekly_users", "segment_export_2024", "customer_data"

Export segment members

Comments