Best Practices for Validating Addresses

Jun 7, 2024

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2 min read

Address validation benefits both buyer and seller. It helps accurately deliver goods, enables faster customer service, and allows for a smoother experience for your users. In this article, we'll take a detailed look at address validation, the benefits of address validation apps and how to implement them, and some best practices for address validation.

What is Address Validation

Address validation, or address verification, is the process of verifying that a physical address is valid and deliverable.

It ensures that the recipient's name, street name and number, city, state/province, zip/postal code, and country are all correct.

With ecommerce, address validation is more important than ever.

With the right address-checking software, your company can reduce costly errors in delivery.

It'll also improve customer satisfaction by:

Reducing the chances of customer orders being delivered to incorrect addresses or going missing altogether. Undelivered packages equal unhappy customers.
Saving time and money by limiting the need for returns and, in turn, refunds. Minimize returns by ensuring products reach the correct recipient.
Improving customer service by ensuring orders are delivered quickly and accurately. No one likes waiting more than a few days for an order to arrive. Address validation ensures this doesn’t happen.

Implementing & Benefits of Address Validation Apps

You've heard “there’s an app for that” before.

Well, there are great apps for address validation too.

Address validation apps are helpful for both users and merchants because, among other reasons, they:

Are mobile-friendly, making it easy for customers to enter their address information on the go. With the volume of traffic taking place on mobile these days, this is an invaluable feature.
Are customizable: Some address validation apps allow you to customize the app to fit the specific needs of your business. Customizations include adding custom fields, and changing the look and feel of the app to align with your brand, among others.

Offer alternative addresses: In some cases, an address may not be deliverable due to an error or because it is a new address that is not yet in the database. Use an app to ensure orders are delivered to a location that does exist.
Improve customer experience by giving them confidence that their orders will be delivered to the correct location. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, addresses can be validated in near real-time with many of these apps.

3 Steps to Implementing an Address Validation App

Implementing an address validation app in ecommerce can be a simple task. Here's how you might do it for an online store:

Choose an address validation app that meets your needs – for example, one that can recognize international addresses or integrates with your store's ecommerce system (e.g. Shopify).
Then you'll need to properly configure it according to what type of validation you need. This means setting up rules such as spelling corrections or Zip+4 formats and which locations should be supported.
Then, integrate the app into your online store or checkout process so that customers can validate their addresses without manually checking an address themselves. Follow the instructions provided by the app for how to install it.

8 Best Practices for Address Validation

We know what address validation is, apps exist to help us do it, and what benefits it might provide.

Now, let's consider eight best practices for the address validation processes you build into your store.

These include allowing customers to provide context in contact fields, offering a guest checkout option, changing their delivery addresses before shipment, and verifying address data before confirming shipments/orders. Other tips include confirming mailing addresses are authorized, standardizing address formats, and suggesting address corrections when needed.

Allow Free Context in Contact Fields

To ensure that customers can provide full, accurate contact information and addresses when making purchases, allow them to provide free context in the contact fields.

‘Free’ means not limiting their input to predetermined formats or asking for unnecessary details.

For example, an address in the UK may include the postcode, county, and town/city name.

Suppose you limit the input to just one field with a predetermined format, such as Postcode + County + Town/City (e.g. CF10 7BT Cardiff).

In that case, it could be difficult for customers who don't know that format or have a different way of writing their address – like anyone outside the UK.

Allowing them to provide free context means they can enter the information exactly as it should be.

Offer Guest Checkout by Default

Consider offering a guest checkout by default. Here's what these terms mean:

'Guest checkout' means allowing customers to make purchases without creating an account. This means they don't need to provide additional information than what is necessary for the order (name, address, payment details). Guest checkout equals smoother checkout equals more checkouts. More checkouts are good for business.
'by default' means it's the pre-selected option, i.e. they would have to select a different option to log in or create an account.

Allow Address Changes to Be Made Before Shipment

To ensure the orders are delivered to the right address, allow customers to change their delivery addresses before shipment.

This way, if customers realize they've entered an incorrect address after confirming their order (or if something changes, like their shipping address), they can modify it quickly and easily.

For example, you could allow customers to modify their delivery address until the order is confirmed and the shipment is ready.

You can also set up a notification system where customers are sent an email after confirming their order to make sure that the address is correct.

Oftentimes a customer will realize they won't be available at the address provided at delivery time and would prefer to change it.

Offer Pin Locations for Addresses That Are Not Found

If an address isn't found, offer customers the option to select a pin location instead.

This way, they can pinpoint their exact mail delivery address on a map and ensure that the order is delivered to the right place.

For example, you could prompt customers to select a pin location if their address wasn't found through an address validation service or if they are having difficulty finding their exact address.

Allowing a customer to move a pin on a map ensures a legitimate address will be selected, after which you can validate it.

Verify Contact Data Before Confirming Shipment/Orders

It's also important to verify contact data before confirming shipment. This includes verifying names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information customers provide.

This step helps reduce the number of returned or undeliverable packages and improve delivery rates.

Verifying this information ensures that the customer is who they say they are – something essential for business security.

This process is known as know your customer, or KYC, in some parts of the world.

Many businesses use automated systems or manual checks done by their staff to verify contact data.

An example of a situation this step might prevent is someone intentionally entering a fake shipping address for another person to receive their order.

With contact data verification, you can ensure the customer is who they say they are and that orders are delivered correctly and securely.

Another example is when a returning customer's address has been saved from a previous purchase.

They may need to remember their older address was listed if they cannot verify it.

Confirm Mailing Addresses Are Authorized By Postal Services/Carriers

Always ensure postal services or carriers have authorized your customers' mailing addresses.

Examples of these entities include the United States Postal Service in the US and PostNord in Scandinavia.

This step helps ensure that orders get delivered to their destination and that customers don't encounter any problems with postal services rejecting their addresses.

For example, you can use a combination of address validation tools and manual checks to ensure that an address is legitimate.

You can also leverage the APIs of postal services or carriers to validate addresses accurately and ensure that they're authorized.

This way, you won't have any issues with failed deliveries due to an incorrect address.

Standardize Address Formats

Standardizing address formats helps you make sure your customers are providing accurate addresses.

To do this, you can use a combination of address validation tools and manual checks to ensure the address format is standardized across different countries.

For example, a valid address in Japan might be formatted as follows:

Name of Receiver
Street Address
City, Prefecture
Postal Code

But in the United States, it would be formatted as:

Name of Receiver
Street Address
City, State Zip Code

And in the United Kingdom:

Name of Receiver
House Number and Street Name
Town/City
County
Postcode

All with different minor details!

Using address standardization ensures that addresses are properly formatted and that the delivery service has no issues locating them.

Offer Suggestions for Corrections

Sometimes, an address may be entered incorrectly but is still deliverable.

Utilizing an address validation app that suggests corrections can help ensure that orders are delivered to the correct location.

For example, some online stores use address validation solutions that suggest alternate versions for an address when entered incorrectly.

This way, customers can quickly select the correct version and confirm their order without manually retyping the entire address.

A common mistake is typos in the street names: either a misspelling or incorrect characters.

In many cases, the intended and the typo street name will exist, perhaps in different parts of the city or country.

In these cases, having a system that can suggest corrections makes it easier to ensure the order is delivered to the correct address.

Bottom Line

Address validation is important for any online business to ensure a safe and satisfying shopping experience.

This process involves verifying customer data in the form of names, physical addresses, and contact information. The user data is verified to ensure that the customer is who they say they are and that orders are delivered correctly and securely.

Your business could use address validation apps and manual checks to verify contact data. In addition, you should ensure postal services or carriers have authorized mailing addresses, standardize address formats, and suggest corrections when required. Other tips include using third-party address validation tools to standardize and verify addresses and making API requests to postal services or carriers.

Implementing an address validation app is easy, and makes a huge difference in order accuracy and delivery success. To ensure your business is set up for success, consider using Address Validator – an automated address validation tool that works seamlessly with ecommerce sites to ensure accurate mail delivery. Learn more about Address Validator and how it can help your business.

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