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If you have an online business, you know that the delivery of an order is of crucial importance, especially because it is the final stage of the shopping experience. However, it does not always go as it should.
Incredible to think that most delays or missed deliveries are mainly caused by incorrect addresses provided during the purchasing process. In case of errors, an average of 5 minutes per order is spent on correcting them. This is only when you realise the error before the order is dispatched.
If, on the other hand, it is not possible to be so prompt and the order has already been handed over to the delivery service , the time lost rises dramatically - we are talking about weeks - in addition to the costs for suspended delivery, the order being held by the courier, and returns caused by incorrect deliveries.
As a solution to these problems, ShippyPro has perfected its API suite by adding features that will allow all its users to drastically reduce, if not completely avoid, the problems caused by unsuccessful deliveries related to address errors and more. Let's discover them together.
Table of contents
- CheckAddress API: check the validity of the address
- CheckAddress API advantages
- IsResidentialAddress API: checks whether the delivery address is residential
- Advantages of IsResidentialAddress API by ShippyPro
CheckAddress API: check the validity of the address
With ShippyPro's CheckAddress API, you can automatically check and validate shipping addresses in over 240 countries with a single API call to your Couriers.
This new functionality will allow you to:
- Reduce errors during the shipping process and save time and money in handling a failed delivery
- Offer all your customers the best shipping experience possible
- Optimise the costs of unsuccessful deliveries or deliveries held in storage by the courier in case of invalid addresses.
What you can avoid thanks to CheckAddress API by ShippyPro
- Errors during order processing: the wrong address may create problems during the generation of shipping labels in the fulfilment process, slowing down warehouse operations and significantly impacting the number of orders to be shipped in a day. Warehouse operators who have to understand the type of address error and correct each order manually will be able to process fewer orders and the costs of handling them will increase.
- Customer Support overburdened by support requests for undelivered or delayed orders: each support request takes time, as it entails searching for information and manually correcting each order. This obviously has an impact on response times, which will increase, generating frustration in your customers and a negative impact on their satisfaction level. In addition, you will see an increase in budget costs related to the Customer Support department, whether internal or external to your company.
- Unsuccessful deliveries: wrong addresses are the number one cause of undelivered orders, and couriers charge a daily fee for each order left in storage at their warehouses, so it is easy to see that a high rate of unsuccessful deliveries will also have a major impact on your budget.
CheckAddress API advantages
With CheckAddress API you can avoid disruptions for your company and customers, saving time, as well as money. In addition to improving your ecommerce performance, of course. With this feature, each order will be automatically checked and corrected in case of errors or inaccuracies in the delivery address, either at check-out or as soon as the order is received and accepted. This will significantly help your online business to:
- Speed up warehouse operations and improve the number of orders delivered in a day
Checking all addresses automatically before each shipment will drastically increase the number of orders dispatched every single day and eliminate the number of errors related to missed deliveries.
- Reduce customer support requests and increase your customer satisfaction rate
By automating the verification of addresses and correcting them before dispatch, you will increase the number of successfully delivered orders resulting in more satisfied customers and fewer requests for customer support.
- Reduced costs for returns and undelivered orders
By automatically checking the addresses of all your orders and correcting them before dispatch, you will increase the number of successfully delivered orders, which will allow you to save considerably on the stock of your pending deliveries at your carriers' warehouses with a very positive effect on your year-end budget.
IsResidentialAddress API: checks whether the delivery address is residential
Those who sell online know very well that there is a real difference from a logistical point of view between setting up a delivery to a private address, also known as a residential address, or to a company address.
There are couriers that apply surcharges, for example, but knowing this aspect also allows you to better monitor and reduce the risk of other traps: from fraudulent retailers to unfair competition, to avoiding real damage to your brand image and reputation.
What you can avoid thanks to IsResidentialAddress API by ShippyPro
Let's have a look at the risks of shipping to non-residential addresses, and let's learn more about some of the critical issues you might face without this tool:
- Higher courier costs for shipments to residential delivery addresses
Couriers such as UPS and FedEx adopt a no-residential policy and apply surcharges of up to 3 or 4 € per delivery if the destination address is residential.
- Parallel imports
You might notice that some of your branded products are currently sold on unofficial sites at different prices. By analysing destination data, you may easily learn that some of the addresses to which you have delivered your products are not residential addresses, i.e. they do not correspond to a consumer's home, for example. Parallel imports are a risk for your business because they easily allow unauthorised sites to resell your products at lower prices, creating a reputational problem for your brand.
- Frauds
You may encounter an increase in fraudulent orders and find that many of these have a business address as delivery address. In this case, the lost revenue from those orders, added to the shipping costs, could negatively affect your profit margins.
Advantages of IsResidentialAddress API by ShippyPro
These APIs are particularly useful and strategic in many cases, as they provide reliable information about the security of your business and protect you from brand protection issues. Indeed, verifying whether the shipping address of one of your orders is residential or not at checkout or as soon as the order is processed will help your business to:
- Reduce costs related to surcharges charged by couriers in case of residential addresses
- Choose the ideal courier for your B2C or B2B deliveries
- Intercept and mark orders with a non-residential address
- Reduce order fraud rates
- Detect parallel import orders and better protect your brand
If you wish to know more about how to start using these APIs on your account, take a look at these articles: CheckAddress API and IsResidentialAddress API.
