Introduction to Customer Data Formats

One of the most important questions to consider when deciding on the format in which you want to share or download customer data is "Where is that data going to be used?"

The endpoint with which you choose to share data may require that you provide that data in a specific format.

You can share customer data in the following formats:

If you are sharing customer data in Data Export v8 format, you can also download the resulting zip file locally.

Why choose CSV Format for my output?

Choose CSV as your output format if:

  • the endpoint with which you are sharing the data knows how to read and structure CSV, for example, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and
  • you only require data relating to captured attributes associated with individual customer profiles.
  • you want the ability to specify which customer data to share at the individual attribute level.

CSV data is essentially unstructured data, so you must ensure that your endpoint knows how to format and read that data.

Why choose JSON Format for my output?

Choose JSON as your output format if:

  • you are working with programmatic integrations, such as APIs, and
  • you only require data relating to captured attributes associated with individual customer profiles.
  • you want the ability to specify which customer data to share at the individual attribute level.

JSON provides you with structured data, removing the need to structure that data manually before it can be used by those integrations.

Why choose Data Export v8 Format for my output?

Choose Data Export v8 as your output format if you want to:

  • download your customer data locally to check its integrity,
  • analyze your customer data in a BI tool, or
  • merge your data with existing customer data held, for example, in your Data Warehouse, to enrich that data with information about customer behavior and intent, and
  • you require all data relating to individual customer profiles, including data about customer events and merged TIDs.

Data Export v8 provides you with a .zip of CSV files, containing information about both captured customer attributes and customer events.