FAQs

Category	Question	Answer
Events	What type of events should we send?	We recommend sending at least the following: identify (the event that passes the email/customer id of a user upon login and sign up), viewed page (essential for everything else to work, should be on every page), viewed product, add to cart, checkout, purchase
	How does Blueshift identify a user and corresponding activities?	For the identify call, we recommend sending customer_id (preferable), email and/or device_id. For non-identify events, we need customer_id or device_id. We capture cookie on the web by setting up a first party cookie
	How does Blueshift track conversions/revenue?	By setting Attribution parameters here: (https://app.getblueshift.com/dashboard#/account/other). Additionally, you need to use the standard Purchase event in order to track revenue.
	How can we ensure events we sent are processed in Blueshift?	You can view event logs including errors (by dates) here: https://app.getblueshift.com/dashboard#/click_stream/index
	Are there specific field types we should be using?	For dates, please send us data in iso8601 format
Product Catalog	What should I include in the Product catalog?	At the very least, we need product id, product name, product url, image url, price, and sale price. However, we also recommend sending us category, on sale, in/out of stock fields.
	Do you accept multiple product catalogs?	Yes, we do. However, product ids must be unique across all catalogs.
	How do you set a product to out of stock?	You can set rules in the catalog settings to set a product as OUT_OF_STOCK or IN_STOCK based on one of the fields in the catalog file. For example if "inventory" was a field you can use "0" to set it to "OUT_OF_STOCK" and leave default to IN_STOCK. Or you can use a field like 'status' with Active/InActive as values mapped to IN_STOCK AND OUT_OF_STOCK.
	How do I expire/remove a product?	For each product you can send "start_date" and "end_date" fields in the file. The expected format is iso8601 for these two fields. We will use them to automatically set a product to OUT_OF_STOCK if the current_date does not fall within that range.
	What happens when we reimport or update a catalog?	We use INSERT/UPDATE logic to INSERT new products and UPDATE existing products as identified by SKU/product_ID.
Data Upload	Can I use the dashboard to upload CRM data?	Yes. However, we recommend uploading no more than ~500K rows at a time. For larger data, you may split the file into smaller segments and/or work with the Blueshift team to upload via S3.
	What information should I provide in historical data?	We only need order/purchase data and not other events. In the csv file, please provide a separate row for each transaction.
	Can I add user attributes on an ongoing basis?	Yes. You can upload as many (and as often) user attributes through the dashboard as long as you map them to an email
	How do I unsubscribe users manually?	For small set of users, you can search for the user via Customer Attributes and edit their status manually. For a larger set, you can create a csv file (email, unsubscribe = true) and upload via Customer Attributes process
Segments	What data can I use for segments?	All data provided by you (event, user attributes, product catalog, historical) is available for segmentation. However, we only expose last 90 days of event data for segmentation.
	How often do Segments get refreshed?	Depends on the campaign but for triggered it gets refreshed every 3-5 minutes
	I have campaigns (ex. Reactivation) where I need to segment users based on events greater than 90 days. How can I accomplish that in Blueshift?	There may be other options available and please contact the Blueshift team to discuss
	Can I get a csv file of users in the current Segment?	Yes, you can click on the Export User List icon to get the csv file via email
Templates	How do I personalize an email template?	It can be achieved by first selecting the appropriate product algorithm (Abandoned search, add to cart, etc.) followed by embedding user and product attributes in the html
	What level of personalization is available in a push notification?	You can use the same process for email personalization. However, given the limited real estate, you may only want to select a few attributes in the template
	Can I preview the email in a browser?	Yes, but inserting the variable {{email_preview_link}} in your template
	Can I preview my templates prior to launching a campaign?	Yes there is a Test Send feature for each messaging channel. You can send the test user’s personalized email to your email address. However, personalization preview is only available for Email at the moment.
Campaigns	Can I overwrite UTM parameters in email template?	Yes by defining it in campaign trigger
	Do you host a preference center for us?	Please contact Blueshift team to discuss options
Reporting	How are push messages tracked?	For push, opens = sends/users, click = app opened and an event was generated within 15 minutes of open
	Can I get a detailed user activity report per campaign?	Yes, we provide summary, detailed and user activity report for each campaign
	How are bounces tracked?	We show hard bounces on the dashboard. For soft bounces, Sendgrid (or your vendor) will retry up to 72 hours
	Do you track deliverability of push messages?	Once we send a message to GCM/APNS, it is upto their service to ensure deliverability.
Push Setup	Do you support deep-linking within mobile app?	Yes
	How does a push message get delivered?	Whenever an app is installed (or re-installed) by a user on the device, a device_token gets created and is sent to Blueshift. Blueshift will send a push message to this device_token. If multiple users sign into the same device, they will all get assigned the same device token
	Do you store multiple device tokens per customer?	Yes, we append any new ones. device tokens only get removed if Apple or GCM notify us that a token is no longer in use. Also, we will send a push notification for each device token registered in Blueshift
	Can you tell me more about the last_device_token?	1) By default last_device_token is set to false in Admin settings 2) if set to true, we would message only the last device even if a user has multi mobile devices 3) if we set the last_device_token to false and if the user has multiple devices, then for Android we always only send to 1 device token. For iOS, we send to every device (iPad, iPhone, etc.)