Customer Search

Customer Search enables merchants to search across a large number of Customers in a Project, supporting back-office use cases.

The Customer Search API is designed to be ID-first—returning only Customer IDs—to provide the best performance. To fetch a Customer, use local caches or the Get a Customer by ID endpoint.

In addition to the Merchant Center, the feature also lets you search for Customers in other back-office applications. It is not intended for searching through customers in a storefront.

Customer Search is deactivated for a Project, by default.

To activate, use the Change Customer Search status update action on the Project API or index the Customers in the Merchant Center (by navigating to Customers > Customer list).

If no calls have been made to the Search Customers endpoint in the last 30 days, the feature is automatically deactivated for a Project and must be reactivated.

Representations

CustomerSearchRequest

query

The Customer search query.

sort
Array of SearchSorting

Controls how results to your query are sorted. If not provided, the results are sorted by relevance in descending order.

limit
Int

The maximum number of search results to be returned.

Default: 20Maximum: 100
offset
Int

The number of search results to be skipped in the response for pagination.

Default: 0Maximum: 9 900
Example: json
{
"query": {
"fullText": {
"field": "all",
"value": "john"
}
}
}

CustomerPagedSearchResponse

total
Int

Total number of results matching the query.

limit
Int

Number of results requested.

Maximum: 100
offset
Int

Number of elements skipped.

Maximum: 9 900
results

Search result containing the Customers matching the search query.

Example: json
{
"results": [
{
"id": "e41337a0-ea96-4ddc-a9a4-d267976f21e0",
"relevance": 0.9264881
},
{
"id": "05cd5998-015c-4232-8943-ff8a1880bcbc",
"relevance": 0.6989829
},
{
"id": "09c3c5a2-6569-49dd-b021-af5de4cf4b02",
"relevance": 0.6989829
}
],
"limit": 100,
"offset": 0,
"total": 3
}

CustomerSearchResult

id
String

id of the Customer matching the search query.

relevance
Float

How closely this customer matches the search query.

CustomerSearchIndexingStatusResponse

Current status of indexing the Customer Search.

Progress of indexing. Only available when indexing is in progress.

startedAt

Date and time (UTC) when the last indexing started.

retryCount
Int

Indicates how many times the system tried to start indexing after failed attempts. The counter is set to null after an indexing finished successfully.

lastModifiedAt

Time when the status was last modified.

Example: json
{
"status": "Indexing",
"states": {
"indexed": 43242,
"failed": 0,
"estimatedTotal": 100000
},
"startedAt": "2023-08-15T12:56:07.89Z",
"retryCount": 2,
"lastModifiedAt": "2023-08-15T12:56:07.89Z"
}

CustomerIndexingProgress

indexed
Int

The number of Customers successfully indexed.

failed
Int

The number of Customers that failed to be indexed.

estimatedTotal
Int

The estimated total number of Customers to be indexed.

CustomerIndexingStatus

The current indexing status of Customer Search.

Scheduled

Indexing is scheduled.

Indexing

Indexing is in progress.

Ready

Indexing is complete and the Search Customers endpoint returns up-to-date results.

Failed

Indexing failed due to an internal error.

Search Customers

To check if an index is available, use the Check if Customer Search index exists endpoint. To check the indexing progress and status, use the Get indexing status endpoint.

POST
https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}/customers/search

A SearchNotReady error is returned if the indexing is in progress or the feature is deactivated. If deactivated, you can reactivate it.

OAuth 2.0 Scopes:
view_customers:{projectKey}
Path parameters:
region
String

Region in which the Project is hosted.

projectKey
String

key of the Project.

Request Body:CustomerSearchRequestasapplication/json
Response:
200CustomerPagedSearchResponseasapplication/json
200 Response Example: CustomerPagedSearchResponsejson
{
"results": [
{
"id": "e41337a0-ea96-4ddc-a9a4-d267976f21e0",
"relevance": 0.9264881
},
{
"id": "05cd5998-015c-4232-8943-ff8a1880bcbc",
"relevance": 0.6989829
},
{
"id": "09c3c5a2-6569-49dd-b021-af5de4cf4b02",
"relevance": 0.6989829
}
],
"limit": 100,
"offset": 0,
"total": 3
}

Get indexing status

GET
https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}/customers/search/indexing-status

Returns the indexing status of the Customer Search for a Project.

OAuth 2.0 Scopes:
view_project_settings:{projectKey}
Path parameters:
region
String

Region in which the Project is hosted.

projectKey
String

key of the Project.

Response:
Request Example:cURL
curl --get https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}/customers/search/indexing-status -i \
--header "Authorization: Bearer ${BEARER_TOKEN}"
200 Response Example: CustomerSearchIndexingStatusResponsejson
{
"status": "Indexing",
"states": {
"indexed": 43242,
"failed": 0,
"estimatedTotal": 100000
},
"startedAt": "2023-08-15T12:56:07.89Z",
"retryCount": 2,
"lastModifiedAt": "2023-08-15T12:56:07.89Z"
}

Check if Customer Search index exists

HEAD
https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}/customers/search

Checks whether a search index of Customers exists for a Project. If an index exists, a 200 OK is returned; otherwise, a 409 Conflict.

OAuth 2.0 Scopes:
view_customers:{projectKey}
Path parameters:
region
String

Region in which the Project is hosted.

projectKey
String

key of the Project.

Response:
200

A search index exists and the Search Customers endpoint is fully operational.

Request Example:cURL
curl --head https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}/customers/search -i \
--header "Authorization: Bearer ${BEARER_TOKEN}"

Searchable Customer fields

The following list contains the Customer fields that are supported in query expressions for a CustomerSearchRequest.

Number and date fields

Use the following fields in exact, exists, and range query expressions. Data type indicates the type of field for the field.

Standard fieldData typeQuery for
dateOfBirthdateCustomers with a certain date of birth.
createdAtdateTimeCustomers created at a certain date and time.
lastModifiedAtdateTimeCustomers last modified at any of its fields at a certain date and time.
versionlongCustomers with a certain version of the resource.

Example:

Find Customers signed up in December 2023:

Requestjson
{
"query": {
"range": {
"field": "createdAt",
"gte": "2023-12-01T00:00:00.000Z",
"lt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}
}
}

Text fields

Use the following text type fields in exact, fullText, prefix, wildcard, and exists query expressions.

Standard fieldQuery for
addresses.allCustomers with a certain string in the combination of all Address fields.
addresses.cityCustomers with a certain string in the city field of all the Customer's addresses.
addresses.companyCustomers with a certain string in the company field of all the Customer's addresses.
addresses.countryCustomers with a certain string in the country field of all the Customer's addresses.
addresses.firstNameCustomers with a certain string in the firstName field of all the Customer's addresses.
addresses.lastNameCustomers with a certain string in the lastName field of all the Customer's addresses.
addresses.mobileCustomers with a certain string in the mobile field of all the Customer's addresses.
addresses.phoneCustomers with a certain string in the phone field of all the Customer's addresses.
addresses.postalCodeCustomers with a certain string in the postalCode field of all the Customer's addresses.
allCustomers with a certain string in any of the Customer's fields.
Does not support wildcard queries.
companyNameCustomers working for a certain company.
emailCustomers with a certain email address.
firstNameCustomers with a certain first name.
lastNameCustomers with a certain last name.
middleNameCustomers with a certain middle name.
fullNameCustomers with a certain string in their full name as a combination of firstName, middleName, and lastName fields.

Examples:

Find Customers with the first name of John (case insensitive):

Requestjson
{
"query": {
"fullText": {
"field": "firstName",
"value": "john"
}
}
}

Find Customers mentioning "example" in any field. This query will not only find "example" in fields like companyName, but also in email addresses like email@example.com.

Requestjson
{
"query": {
"fullText": {
"field": "all",
"value": "example"
}
}
}

Keyword fields

Use the following keyword type fields, containing unique IDs or keys, in exact, prefix, wildcard, and exists query expressions. To query for multiple values of the same field or for several fields in the same request, combine the query expressions with a compound expression.

Standard fieldQuery for
ida Customer with a specific id.
keya Customer with a specific key.
customerNumbera Customer with a specific customerNumber.
externalIda Customer with a specific externalId.
vatIda Customer with a specific vatId.
customerGroup.idCustomers with a specific CustomerGroup identified by its id.
stores.keyCustomers of a specific Store identified by its key.

Example:

Find Customers associated with one of the specified Stores:

Requestjson
{
"query": {
"or": [
{
"exact": {
"field": "stores.key",
"value": "store1"
}
},
{
"exact": {
"field": "stores.key",
"value": "store2"
}
},
{
"exact": {
"field": "stores.key",
"value": "store3"
}
}
]
}
}

Custom Fields

In addition to the standard fields on a Customer, you can also search for its Custom Fields, if any. custom.<field-name> queries for Customers with a Custom Field of a specific name, and the SearchFieldType determines the data type of the field.

The ltext SearchFieldType is not supported.

To query enum and lenum SearchFieldTypes, use the key of the enum value.

Example: An exact query to find Customers with an enum type Custom Field accountPlan to the enum key of silver.

Requestjson
{
"query": {
"exact": {
"field": "custom.accountPlan.key",
"value": "silver",
"fieldType": "enum"
}
}
}