Understanding identity resolution transformations in Klaviyo

You will learn

Learn how to activate and manage identity resolution transformations in Advanced KDP to merge duplicate profiles caused by email typos. These transformations build on Klaviyo’s standard identity resolution functionality by checking profiles with different email addresses and overlapping identifiers.

Identity resolution transformations vs. identity resolution

Klaviyo natively offers identity resolution that consolidates customers’ interactions across multiple channels under a single record. This standard identity resolution in Klaviyo uses deterministic profile merging, resolving the identities of different profiles that share a common identifier—most often, a unique email address—based on the existing data in your account.

Meanwhile, the identity resolution transformations within Advanced KDP build upon this deterministic merging functionality by exploring profiles with different email addresses but other overlapping identifiers such as the same phone number.

Identity resolution transformations

The first available identity resolution transformation offered as part of Advanced KDP is aimed at reducing the number of duplicate profiles for a contact due to misspellings or typos in the email address. In the future, Klaviyo will offer additional merge logic, such as deduplicating profiles that exist due to the use of email aliases, as well as probabilistic merging based on shared first name, last name, address, and more.

Email typo merge can be turned on or off and does not require you to configure matching rules.

Activate email typo merge

To activate email typo merge:

1. Navigate to Data management > Transformation.
2. Select the Identity resolution tab.
3. Select Activate on the Email typo merge card to open the confirmation panel.

4. Select Download preview in the panel and review the profiles that would be merged before you activate the rule. If no potential merges were found, the preview download is unavailable.
5. If prompted, enter the number shown in the confirmation prompt, then select Activate.

Once activated, you’ll see an Active status for the transformation on the Identity resolution tab. Activation schedules automatic merging; the status does not mean that the initial merges have finished.

Deactivate email typo merge

Deactivating the transformation stops future automatic merges. It does not undo completed merges.

1. On the Identity resolution tab, select Deactivate on the Email typo merge card.
2. Select Deactivate in the confirmation panel.

Merge log

The download is unavailable when the log is empty. Before the initial merge run, you’ll see Download preview instead.

To download a record of the profile merges performed by email typo merge:

1. On the Identity resolution tab, open the three-dot menu on the Email typo merge card.
2. Select Download merge log to export the CSV.

You can also select Deactivate on the card to open the panel, then select Download merge log there without confirming deactivation.

The CSV contains merges from the last 30 days with the following information:

• Source profile ID
  The Klaviyo ID of the source profile.
• Source email
  The email address of the source profile.
• Source external ID
  The external ID of the source profile.
• Source phone number
  The phone number of the source profile.
• Destination profile ID
  The Klaviyo ID of the destination profile.
• Destination email
  The email address of the destination profile.
• Destination external ID
  The external ID of the destination profile.
• Destination phone number
  The phone number of the destination profile.
• Merged at
  The timestamp for the profile merge.

Identity resolution transformation methods

Email typo merge is available. Email alias merge is a planned transformation that is not yet released.

Email typo merge

Email typo merge identifies profiles that share the same phone number and appear to be duplicates due to a typo in an email address. For example, 2 profiles might share a phone number and have the addresses example@klaviyo.com and exampke@klaviyo.com because a customer mistyped their email when signing up for a marketing list. A difference before the “@” alone is not enough to trigger a merge: in this example, the exampke@klaviyo.com profile must also be suppressed due to an invalid or bounced email or manual suppression, and the example@klaviyo.com profile must not have any of these suppressions. Once activated, email typo merge automatically merges profiles that meet the conditions below.

Email alias merge

Email alias merge identifies profiles that share the same phone number and appear to be duplicates due to a “+” used to create email aliases. For email providers that support plus addressing, an alias adds a “+” and a tag before the “@” and delivers emails to the primary account’s inbox.

For example, 2 profiles could share a phone number and have the addresses example@klaviyo.com and example+marketing@klaviyo.com. With a provider that supports plus addressing, emails sent to example+marketing@klaviyo.com arrive in the inbox for example@klaviyo.com.

With this transformation, the profile with a plus-addressed alias (a “+” and tag before the “@”) will be merged into the corresponding primary profile.

Additional resources