Failed deliveries are a common occurrence in today’s world. This mostly occurs due to wrong addresses and the lack of means to reconfirm them. Address validation is the most effective way to minimize losses caused by incorrect addresses.
Providing standout experiences to your clients is the only way you can stay loyal to your customers, and address validation is your solution.
When customers omit or mistype certain parts of addresses, it can lead to wrong deliveries and thus incur more costs, which will eventually lead to a bad brand reputation.
Below, we will discuss the reasons for using address validation and the valid elements one needs to look for in an Address Validation plugin. I am also including a brief introduction to the ELEX Address Validation Plugin.
5 reasons to use Address Validation for your business
The following are the top 5 reasons for you to add address validation for your business.
1. Saves Time
When a customer enters a wrong or incomplete address, it will result in undelivered shipments and incur extra costs for re-initiating the shipments.
With a good address validation plugin in place, such incomplete addresses are flagged right at checkout and thus saving a lot of time .
2. Conversion Rates
A large number of users abandon their shopping cart after adding a product to the cart because they find the checkout process to be far too complicated. The address validation feature will also ensure satisfaction for your customers that their product will be delivered to the correct address.
Fewer clicks will lead to an increase in the conversion rate. This, in turn, results in customer satisfaction and possible returns for future purchases.
3. Cut Costs from Reworks and Returns
Multiple deliveries of the same shipment can bring in a lot of expenses. Some of the expenses that may rise due to wrong addresses are lost shipping fees, labor costs for reprocessing, and wasted packaging. These costs are preventable with the help of a good address validation plugin.
4. Enhancing your Brand Perception
Seamless and customer-friendly checkouts ensures that the business is here for the customers. When you add address validation to your store, you are focusing on customer loyalty, positive reviews and everything that revolves around improving the experience of your store.
5. Staying Modern and Competitive
If you compare the shopping experience 20 years ago with what we have today, there are a lot of improvements you can make out in terms of technology, payments, shipping, including the complete shopping experience.
You don’t want to appear outdated in terms of handling shipping addresses. Hence, you need to make efforts to reduce keystrokes for the users and also make sure you have the required information you need.
Now that we know the importance of Address Validation for our business, let us look at some of the top features to look for in an address validation API/tool.
9 factors to look for in an Address Validation Plugin
If you have a WooCommerce store, you must have come across different address validation plugins. While some plugins have their own address validation API, others integrate APIs from shipping services like UPS, USPS, AddressFinder, etc.
There are a number of plugins that offer a different set of features. But a useful address validation (and even autocomplete) plugin must have the following nine features:
1. Faster Text Processing
Most of the users, while typing their address, do not enter their address in the typical address format. They miss out some letters, numbers, or blank spaces. No matter what a user types in, the address validation API should validate for misspellings, spaces, and capitalizations. The plugin should return close to possible address suggestions for the users to validate.
2. International address validation
If a potential international customer sees address validation and addresses autocomplete fields related to his/her region, it will have a positive impact on your business. Your store will have positive brand awareness and a wider reach.
3. Don’t just ask Zipcodes
Some of the address validation APIs ask only for zip codes to validate addresses. This method will not work for all countries, as some of the countries do not have zip codes in their addresses. A more useful approach would be to use a plugin that allows the user to type in the address itself.
4. Autocomplete address fields
If you are tapping address validation with autocomplete fields, the checkout process becomes much simpler. The customers do not have to type in the complete address; rather, they can just start typing the address and choose the correct address from the suggestions. Depending on the API you use, the address suggestions might differ.
There are a number of autocomplete tools in the market; one of the most popular for finding addresses is the Google Places API Autocomplete. This API automatically geolocates the customer’s location using the IP address and suggests the address relevant to the user’s region. This makes finding the address a lot quicker.
5. Address type
Some of the shipping services have different rates depending on whether the address is residential or commercial. They offer a slightly lower rate for residential addresses. Hence, your address validation plugin should be able to detect the type of address entered by the customer.
6. Confirming address manually
No matter how good the address validation API is, you should let the user verify the address manually. The API should validate the address entered and show the possible addresses for users to confirm the address. If the API offers both automatic and manual confirmation options, it is a plus point, as you can choose the desired setting yourself.
7. Editing address
The address validation API or the address autocomplete API may or may not return the complete address of the customer. Hence, you need to give the capability to the customer to edit the address returned from the autocompleted suggestions. This will also help when customers have apartment numbers, building numbers, and other such details that may have been missed by the address autocomplete API.
8. Enforcing address validation
Now, why would you want that?
If you are really frustrated with undelivered packages, you can force the customers to enter a valid address only. This means the order will not be placed until a valid address is entered by the customer. This will take out the overhead of finding the correct addresses for the customers.
9. Customized Label
How would your customers feel when they see a label like “Just start typing your address here” or “Search for your address” while entering the shipping address, in the Checkout page? Intriguing right?
Your plugin should be able to offer you some handy customizations for setting up the address validation and address autocomplete feature on the Checkout page.
ELEX WooCommerce Address Validation & Address Autocomplete Plugin
With our ELEX WooCommerce Address Validation & Address Autocomplete Plugin, you can validate addresses using EasyPost, UPS, and USPS services. Use the Google Address Autocomplete feature that adds a text input field to your WooCommerce Checkout page and monitors that field for character entries. It also allows you to confirm the address from the customers in either a pop-up window or an inline message, and much more!
Key Features:
- Giving address suggestions using Google Address Autocomplete API
- Accepts orders only for valid addresses
- Get customer validation before confirming address
- Add custom label name for the autocomplete field
To know how to use this ELEX plugin, watch the video:
Conclusion
Getting the address right is very important for a delay and error free delivery. Adding address validation to your eCommerce store can help bring in solid changes in overall flow and customer perceptions. Choose the right address validation plugin for a smooth functioning of your WooCommerce store.
FAQs
- What is address validation in e-commerce?
Address validation is the process of checking and correcting customer addresses at checkout to ensure accurate delivery and reduce shipping errors. - How does the ELEX Address Validation plugin work?
The plugin integrates with providers like EasyPost, USPS, and UPS, and uses Google Autocomplete to suggest and validate addresses in real-time during checkout. - Can customers still edit their addresses after validation?
Yes. The plugin allows customers to review, confirm, and make changes to suggested addresses before placing an order. - Does it support international addresses?
Absolutely. The plugin supports both domestic and international address validation, making it suitable for global e-commerce stores. -
Why should I add address validation to my WooCommerce store?
It helps reduce failed deliveries, saves shipping costs, improves customer satisfaction, and boosts trust in your store.
