What happens when event data arrives late?

Late-arriving event data creates timing problems:

Consequences: Cart abandonment email sent days after purchase. Welcome email sent a week after signup. Real-time triggers become stale messages. Recipient confused by irrelevant timing.

Causes of late data: Batch sync schedules (daily, hourly). System integration delays. Processing queues backed up. Network or API failures causing retries.

Mitigation strategies: Timestamp validation: Check event age before processing. Reject events older than threshold. Conditional sends: Verify current state before sending. Do not send cart abandonment if cart now empty. Real-time integration: Prioritize live feeds over batch. Grace periods: Build acceptable delay into automation design.

Timeliness is not just about send time. Event data must arrive promptly for automation to be relevant.