When testing triggered messages via a catch-all email address, you may find that emails look the same, even when they’re meant to reflect different customer actions. This is typically due to how non-transactional service providers handle batching and data rendering. The article explains what causes this and why it doesn’t affect live sends to individual customers.
This behavior typically occurs with non-transactional service providers such as SendGrid, used by default for Fresh Relevance, or Mailchimp. These service providers batch and send emails differently than transactional service providers, which use APIs to send messages immediately. This distinction affects how cart data is handled and rendered in emails.
Why emails can appear identical
When triggers are sent to a catch‑all email address:
Each email is constructed as though for an individual customer, including their cart data.
Cart contents are integrated into the email in one of two ways:
Uploaded to a field - product and cart content are stored in the provider’s system before sending.
Pulled from a URL - product and cart content are fetched via URL during send.
Timing and batching
Even though emails are triggered in real time:
Most non‑transactional providers batch requests and send them after a short delay.
During that delay:
Carts may change - the customer’s cart could update several times.
Repeated HTML may be used - the same stored HTML block (from field or URL) is inserted in each email in the batch.
This results in identical‑looking emails for different test scenarios.
Impact on customer emails
Live sends to real customers are not affected:
Emails are merged with data for each individual email address.
Each customer’s cart and product data are loaded separately, producing personalized content.