In some cases (e.g. after adding a new field to your sales data file), the data in Smart Insight cannot be automatically amended, and a full historical reload of customer data is necessary. Although it might be inconvenient, it is also beneficial to data quality because reloading your full historical customer data removes all accidental duplicates from your database that might have accumulated over the years.
When do I need to reload my Smart Insight data?
You need to reload your data into Smart Insight when:
- You add a new field to your sales data file and you would like to use that retrospectively.
- You change your Unique identifier (i.e. the contact identifier).
- Your results or Smart Insight screens are distorted due to incorrect sales data (i.e. duplicate orders).
- Your account is switched to Emarsys Retail and you would like to turn on Store Reporting. In this case, data reload is required to establish connection between old purchases, their store IDs and the stores in the store data. Please note that Smart Insight cannot establish the connection retroactively for already imported purchases.
- You change your Revenue Attribution settings (i.e. the attribution method or window) and you would like your data to reflect the changes retrospectively.
- You change the structure of your product categories.
After reloading the data into Smart Insight, Emarsys recalculates the Revenue Attribution Service data automatically. The Revenue Analytics, Strategic Dashboard and Smart Insight reports will reflect the data from the Revenue Attribution Service.
Reloading your Smart Insight data
To reload your Smart Insight data, proceed as follows:
While your Smart Insight data is being reloaded, make sure that you:
- Are not uploading data into Smart Insight, including automatic Predict or Plug-in data loads,
- Pause any Smart Insight-based programs,
- Are not using Smart Insight segments and campaigns.
1. To empty your database, navigate to the Management > Smart Insight Settings > Advanced tab and click the Empty Database button.
Before emptying your database, consider the following:
- This process deletes all your data stored in Smart Insight and usually takes 2-10 minutes. All your other data (contacts, etc.) in Emarsys will remain untouched.
- This is an irreversible operation that can severely impact your scheduled campaigns and automated communication. Please consider the possible consequences of this procedure before performing it.
2. Change your contact identifier if required.
The selected unique identifier has to be identical in your sales data file and in the Emarsys database. This identifier is used to:
- identify your contacts when they make a purchase and
- store their registration date.
For more information, see Selecting contact fields for filtering.
3. When your database is empty, reload your full historical sales data file and a complete product data file in the usual way.
Take the following into consideration:
- Your next scheduled data load will fetch the files and load all data to Smart Insight. If you do not want to wait for the next scheduled load, you can initiate a load manually from the Data Loads page by clicking Load Now.
- Until your data is fully loaded, your account will contain only partial, or no data at all. Therefore, during this period all segmentation requests will return empty, partial or false data and this will be reflected in your reports. To avoid such errors, we recommend suspending all Smart Insight-based programs and campaigns until your account is fully operational.
- When reloading your Smart Insight data, please also pay attention to the dependencies, including the timing of the submitted orders and the details included within the timestamps etc., that might affect the Revenue Attribution Service.
- If your product data comes from Predict, then it will be synced nightly, so it might happen that some of your segments will be unavailable for a day until synchronization is completed.
- Smart Insight data reload does not affect Loyalty, only pending points may be recalculated based on new purchase data.
4. If you need to reload missing products after the initial product data synchronization, then proceed as follows:
a. Navigate to the Management > Smart Insight Data Quality page, select Unknown products, then click Export.
b. Upload the missing products in a single product CSV file (you need to upload this file only once).
5. To verify the delta files containing the changes, choose from the following options:
- If you upload your data through the API, then check the entries in your API log and on the Data Loads page. To confirm that your sales data is accurate, you need to compare the results to your total sales amount.
- If you upload your data by using the FTP, then go to the Analytics > Impact page and check the reports to confirm that your total sales amount is accurate.
FAQ
How can I upload the same sales data files via the Sales data API again?
If you wanted to upload exactly the same sales data files via the Sales data API, please contact the Predict Team with the help of Emarsys Support to complete this step, to overcome a preventative mechanism of the Sales Data API.
Alternatively, you can upload your Sales Data manually.
When you are ready, please also contact your Client Success Manager who will help you reload the sales data files into Smart Insight.
Can I empty the Smart Insight database if Batch Sales Data Load is enabled in my account?
If you are using our Batch Sales Data Load solution, then your sales data will not be deleted when you empty your Smart Insight database. For more information, see Emptying your Smart Insight database when using Batch Sales Data Load.