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
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.