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Export Customers

The Export dialog, control by control: the scope that decides who goes in the file, the two CSV formats, the twenty columns that all start ticked, and the summary that counts what you have chosen. The file is emailed to the address you signed in with rather than downloaded, and the dialog closes the same way whether it worked or not.

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The Export button on the Customers list opens one dialog that holds every choice an export has. Where the file goes is the part to know before anything else: the dialog says it will be sent to the email address you signed in with, and prints that address under the heading. Nothing lands in your downloads folder.

What you end up with is a spreadsheet of the customers you chose, carrying the columns you ticked, in your own mailbox. Exporting Customer Data makes the case for taking one and sets out what you owe the people in the file; this article is the controls.

Before you begin

  • Your role includes Export customers, which is the permission the dialog runs on.
  • You can reach the mailbox of the account you are signed in as, since that is the only place the file is sent.
  • Go to Customers. Export sits at the top right of the list, before Import and Add Customer.

Where the button is

The Customers list in the admin. (1) Export, at the top right of the page, to the left of Import and Add Customer (opens full size)

Export (1) acts on the list as it stands, which is why the search you ran before opening it matters. Nothing inside the dialog can filter for you.

The dialog

The Export Customers dialog. Under the heading, a line says the export file will be sent to the signed-in address, blurred here. Export scope offers Current page and All, each reading 11 customers, over the line 11 rows will be exported. Export format offers CSV for Excel, Numbers, or other spreadsheet programs, and Plain CSV file. Columns has Select all, Deselect all and a search field above twenty ticked boxes grouped as Contact, Address, Details and Marketing, then 20 columns selected, a Preset name field with Save preset, and an Export summary reading Items 11, Fields 20 and the format. Cancel and Export sit at the foot (opens full size)

Control What it offers
Export scope Current page or All, each with a count. A third option appears while a search is running
Export format CSV for Excel, Numbers, or other spreadsheet programs, or Plain CSV file
Columns Twenty boxes, every one ticked to begin with, with Select all, Deselect all and a search field
Preset name A field and a Save preset button under the column list
Export summary The running count of items, fields and format, directly above Cancel and Export

Two lines keep count as you work. Under the scope, one reads 11 rows will be exported on the store pictured here, and at the foot the summary repeats that figure as Items, with Fields and Format beside it. Read the summary last, before you press Export: it is the only place all three choices are stated together.

Choosing who goes in the file

Current page is the default, and it means the rows on the page you are looking at rather than the whole store. On a store whose customers fit on one page the two options come to the same thing, and on a longer list they do not.

Run a search first and a third option appears, Customers matching your search:

The Export scope block in the dialog while a search is running. Current page reads 2 customers and is selected, All reads 2 customers, and a third option reads Customers matching your search. Below them, the line 2 rows will be exported (opens full size)

The counts beside the first two options follow what is on screen. With a search narrowing the list to two customers, All reads two as well, so the figures cannot tell you which scope is wider. Choose by the option you mean rather than by its number, and if you want the whole store, clear the search before you open the dialog.

Taking the third option also empties the count: the line under the scope and the Items figure in the summary both disappear, so the dialog stops saying how many rows it is about to send.

What the twenty columns are

The columns sit in four named groups, and the names are the dialog's own.

Group Columns
Contact First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Company
Address Address, Address 2, City, Province, Country, Postal Code
Details Tags, Note, Tax Exempt, Total Orders, Total Spent, Status, Created At
Marketing Accepts Email Marketing, Accepts SMS Marketing

All twenty start ticked, so an export taken without changing anything carries names, email addresses, phone numbers and street addresses. Deselect all clears them in one action, and the search field above the groups finds a column by name. Ticking back only the columns the file is for takes a few seconds, and it is what separates a file you can send to a supplier from one you cannot.

Steps

1. Narrow the list, if you want part of it

Search the Customers list before you open the dialog. The scope cannot filter. It works on what the list has already been narrowed to, and the matching-search option is not offered at all until a search is running. Search the Customer List covers the narrowing itself.

Skip this and the dialog opens on Current page, which on a short list is everybody.

2. Open Export and read the address

Select Export at the top right. Read the line under the heading first: it names the mailbox the file is going to, and the dialog offers no second copy and no download.

On a shared or borrowed login that address may not be yours, and the file goes wherever the line says it goes.

3. Set the scope, the format and the columns

Choose the scope you mean, then a format, then cut the columns down with Deselect all and tick back what the file needs. Both formats are CSV: the first is described for spreadsheet programs, the second as a plain file.

Watch the Export summary as you go. It is the only place that states, at once, how many rows, how many columns and which format you are about to send.

4. Send it

Select Export. The dialog closes.

The dialog closing is not a confirmation. It closes the same way whether the export went through or not, and nothing on the Customers page changes. Give it a few minutes and check your mailbox rather than pressing Export again.

5. Check the run if the file does not turn up

The admin does keep a record of the job, on a page most people never find. Go to Exports and imports, on the Settings page.

The Exports and imports page in the admin, headed Exports and imports over the line saying every run from the last 90 days, with files available for 7 days after a job finishes. Five rows are in view: three Order Export rows, then (1) a Customer Export row reading 60 rows and Completed with Files expired beside its date, then a Product Import row. The list continues below (opens full size)

Every export and import of the last 90 days is listed here (1), newest first, each with the kind of job, when it ran, how many rows it covered and how it ended. The row count is the quickest check that the scope was the one you meant, and the status is where an export that did not finish shows itself.

The page also states its own limit: files are available for 7 days after a job finishes. After that the row stays, marked Files expired, and the file is gone. So the emailed copy is the one to keep, and an export taken for a record needs saving somewhere of your own within the week.

Once the file is in your hands, what happens to it is no longer governed by anything in the admin. Exporting Customer Data covers keeping it safe and when a segment would have served you better than a file.

If something goes wrong

  • No file arrived, and nothing said why. Open Exports and imports on the Settings page and look for the run: the row shows how it ended and how many rows it covered. If no row appeared at all, confirm your role has Export customers before trying again.
  • The wrong customers are in it. The scope was All or Current page when the search results were what you wanted, or the search had been cleared before the dialog opened.
  • More columns than you meant to send. Everything is ticked when the dialog opens, so an export has to be cut down rather than built up.
  • Export is not on the page at all. Your role cannot reach the feature.

Next steps

Still stuck?

More in Customers

  • Customer Detail Page

    Everything the store knows about one customer on one screen: the five summary tiles including the RFM group, recent and draft orders, the Customer panel with its three separate marketing consents, store credit that can hold a balance per currency, the More actions menu where merging, privacy requests and deletion live, and a timeline you can resend an email from.

  • Customer Segments

    A segment is a saved question about your customers rather than a saved list, so its members change as they do. Tanqory gives you two ways to write that question, a query builder and a form of Field, Operator and Value filters, and this article covers both, plus the panel that starts closed, the AI Refine field and what to do when it answers with nothing, the forty-nine fields you can filter on, and everything the row menu lets you do to a segment afterwards.

  • Adding a Customer

    Creating a customer record by hand, from the Add Customer button to the saved record. Three fields are required and everything else can wait, the three marketing consents start unticked and are a record of what the customer agreed to rather than a way to opt them in, and the Save bar is on the form from the moment it opens.

  • Customer Tags

    A tag gives a group of customers a name so it is already assembled when you need it. This article covers where tags are set, one record at a time or in bulk from the list, what a tag is actually good for once it exists, and the one thing it will not do, which is answer the search box.

All 49 articles in Customers

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