Omnisend syncs data with your store, so your store contacts are added to Omnisend automatically. You can also import new contacts from a file or from other services as well as update the contact details of your current contact base.
Before You Begin
Customer Data File Format
To import your contact lists into Omnisend, we recommend using our downloadable example file, which is optimized for the import flow and will automatically map all fields. If you choose to use your own file, please review the following points.
When using your own files, you need to change the format of the fields before uploading the file to Omnisend:
The first row in the file contains column headings or your customers' data. The document should be in one of the following formats: .csv, .xls, .xlsx, or .ods, and it should have only one sheet.
A single file may contain up to 200 contact properties, where each column represents one property. You can split the data into several imports if you have more information.
All information about each contact should go into one separate row, and each column should contain a single type of information (e.g., First name, Last name, City, etc.).
You must have at least an email address or phone number as an identifier for each contact.
The phone number should be in the international format: +11231234567 (+ country code, area code, phone number). To ensure that Excel treats this data as text and not a function, you can add an apostrophe ('+1 ...) or change the cell format to the text format.
Time stamps should be in the ISO 8601 format. For example: 2020-01-01, 2020-02-29 14:23, 2020-02-29T14:23Z, 2020-02-29T14:23+02:00, etc. Using the format "2020-01-01" without specifying a time defaults to 12:00 p.m. Additionally, opt-in/opt-out dates that are in the future won't be saved in the system.
Only one Address field in Omnisend accepts values from Address 1 and Address 2 lines. Make sure to combine both fields in the file into a single comma-separated string: Address 1, Address 2. Make sure to combine both fields in the file.
The information for import should be recorded in a table similar to the one presented below ⤵️
Once you're finished setting up your file, follow the steps below to import the contact successfully.
Import From File
To import your contacts from the file, go to the Audience tab → click on the Add or update contacts button → Import contacts from a file → Select file.
The import process consists of the following steps:
1. Upload File: Select the file to upload.
2. Map properties: The first step is to map the properties in your file to the corresponding fields in Omnisend. We can detect and automatically map many fields for you. If you're using our example file, all the fields will be mapped automatically.
Please note: Customer data will only be imported into Omnisend if the corresponding checkbox under the import column is checked. Any data with an unchecked checkbox will not be uploaded.
3. Organize: At this step, you can choose whether to add a tag or create a segment with the imported contacts.
4. Subscribe: Specify the status of imported contacts. Here, you can select whether to import contacts that are subscribed to different channels.
5. Finalize: Here, you can choose how to handle duplicate contacts by updating their properties and subscription status and decide whether to overwrite existing data with empty fields.
6. Review: Check your import details before completing the import process.
Map Customer Properties
In the drop-down menu, you can choose the mapping for the properties in the file. The list of the fields you can map consists of the default and custom properties.
If you can find the default field, it is better to use it instead of creating a custom one.
After selecting one of the properties from the drop-down menu, the following property is mapped as:
Default property (standard information that is the default property for most contacts).
The default information includes the following data:Personal data: Email address, Phone number, First name, Last name, Birthdate, Gender.
Address: City, State/Province/Region, Country, Country code, Postal/Zip code.
Opt-in status: Email opt-in date, Email opt-out date, SMS opt-in date, SMS opt-out date.
Important! If, for any reason, you map the opt-out date provided for the contact as later than the opt-in date, the customer is added with an unsubscribed status.
Custom property (some specific information about your contacts you would like to keep, like their clothes size, etc.).
If you are adding a custom property and you don't have any contacts with this property added yet, you need to type in the name you'd like to call it and click Create New.
It's critical to know that there are some name restrictions for custom properties:
It can contain only Latin characters, numbers, "_" (underscore) sign.
Max name length - 128 symbols.
The name is case-sensitive.
After mapping all properties and clicking continue, newly created properties will be available in forms, on the contact's profile page, in segmentation, etc. Read more about custom properties here.
Tip: It's significant to remember that if you have the field for both the email address and phone number, it is always better to record your customer phone number as a default property instead of a custom one. The phone number won't trigger the automation workflow when mapped as a custom property.
For the first import, we recommend mapping all the properties available. If you have already added information about your customers and want to upload your contacts to the Segment, it is sufficient to map the email address or phone number field only.
💡 If you wish to import a list of tags to Omnisend, you may use custom properties instead of the tags.
Organize Customer Data
Add Tags
When you import contacts, Omnisend adds two tags automatically:
source: manual import;
imported from a file on DD/MM/YY HH:MM:DD, for example: imported from a file on 27/03/20 09:57:05am.
In addition to the tags added automatically, you can also add one manually by selecting one of the existing tags or creating a new one.
You can add as many tags as you wish. When you add a tag, all file contacts will be tagged so you can filter and segment them in the future to use for more targeted communication.
Create a Segment of Imported Contacts
Although you can always create a segment based on the tags added during import, you can also create a segment based on the import date and time or create a new segment with a custom name.
If you pick the date and time option, the segment will be called "Contacts imported via <manual_import_type> on <date_of_import>.” If you select a custom name option, the segment will appear in Audience → Segments under that name. You can only create a new segment for a new import; you won't be able to select one of the existing segments.
Manage Contact Statuses
In this step, you can choose whether to import them as subscribers or with an undefined status (non-subscribed).
Add customers with email addresses or phone numbers without the property defining your contacts' opt-in statuses. You will be able to select your customers' subscription statuses for Email and SMS channels.
When one of these boxes is unchecked, the customer is added to the system with non-subscribed status. Non-subscribed contacts, per default, are those that placed an order in your store, abandoned a cart, created an account, but never agreed to receive your marketing. Uploading contacts with non-subscribed status will provide the following benefits:
all data about your customers will be kept in one place;
we will ensure you are not sending marketing messages to them (transactional emails can still be sent to these customers).
Finalize Import
When importing contacts, some of them might already exist in your Audience. You can choose how to handle these duplicates:
Update subscription status and contacts’ properties (Recommended)
This option updates both the subscription status and any mapped contact properties in the import file.Update contacts’ properties only
This updates only the mapped contact details (e.g., name, phone number, etc.) but keeps the existing subscription status unchanged.Update subscription status only
This updates the subscription status while keeping all other contact details as they are.Do nothing
This option prevents any changes to existing contacts. Only new contacts will be imported.
Empty Field Handling
If a repeating contact in your file has missing values in some fields, you can choose whether or not to clear existing data in those fields:
Overwrite with empty fields
If enabled, any fields left blank in the import file will clear the corresponding existing values for the contact.
If disabled (default), existing values remain unchanged even if the import file has blank fields.
After configuring these settings, click Continue to Review to verify your import details before finalizing the process.
Review Import Details
In the last step, a summary of the file is shown. You can see the number of contacts found, tags that should be assigned, segments, and subscription statuses assigned.
Once you've finished contact import, you can go to the Imports tab (Audience → Imports) to see the progress of your import.
Click View to see the detailed report showing the number of new and existing contacts added and the number of good/bad emails/phone numbers found.
That's it; your import is completed, and you can send your emails to imported users 🚀
⚠️ If you get problems with displaying non-Latin letters incorrectly, save the .csv file in UTF-8 format and upload your contacts again.
Update Existing Customers' Data
If you want to add more information to your customers' profiles, you can import the file with the new data or with the data to be updated. Keep in mind that the list you upload should contain the email address or phone number to identify your customer; you don't need to add all the information about the user.
Important: If you are importing contacts with both an email and a phone number, any duplicate in either field will cause that contact to be skipped.
For example:
[email protected] + (123) 456-7890 → ✅ Imported
[email protected] + (555) 123-4567 → ❌ Skipped (duplicate email found)
[email protected] + (123) 456-7890 → ❌ Skipped (duplicate phone number found)
To ensure all contacts are imported, check your file for duplicates before uploading.
Omnisend doesn't duplicate your contacts but only adds new information to the system. Therefore, if you need to update your customers' data without changing their subscription status (from non-subscribed or unsubscribed to subscribed), uncheck the checkbox and import your customers with non-subscribed status.
In that case, your customers' data is updated in the following way:
| Name | Last name | Phone number | |
Information you have in Omnisend | Kath | Smith | No phone number | |
New File | Kath | Wood | +14049638495 | |
Result | Kath | Wood | +14049638495 |
Have more questions? Feel free to contact us at [email protected].