Using Heap API to Drive Data Standardization

  • 28 February 2022
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Userlevel 2
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We have a number of different digital properties with a lot of variation from a technical standpoint. To drive data standardization across those properties, we make heavy use of Tellium (as our data layer) and Heap’s APIs. I put together a brief summary of how we use Heap’s APIs to develop a better understanding of our customers.

If you’re not familiar with Heap’s APIs, check out the Client-side APIs overview and API documentation in the Heap Help Center (includes specific recommendations for SaaS, eCommerce and Financial Services).

We typically use Heap’s identify, addUserProperties and addEventProperties APIs.

This helps us connect the data to our backend, offline and other data sources. It’s essential to have a unique identity that is associated with the backend data sources so that we can correlate their activity with business results. 

 

 

We’re using the addUserProperties API to collect certain attributes that not only helps our other systems, but also makes reporting and segmentation of users easier within Heap.

  • We collect the custom events and properties against purchase events and other purchase events: total revenue, order IDs, product IDs and so on. 

  • We also collect certain custom properties, like profile fields and partyID, that help us understand how to best present information in the UI for different end users. 

 

In addition to the APIs mentioned above, we also use track API to gather custom events and associated properties to 

  • fill in the gaps and smooth out variation between our different web components. 

  • collect an exact count of important events like registrations, purchases, add to cart, etc…

 


2 replies

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I love this use case Smiti! Have you had any need yet to add user properties in bulk? This can be helpful when you have a bunch of user properties from a 3rd party (like technographics) that you want to merge with your user profiles:

https://developers.heap.io/reference/bulk-add-user-properties

Userlevel 4
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This is a great write up! Thanks for sharing. It’s always so interesting to see how folks use the APIs. 

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