Joining the dots between delivery
issues and poor address data
A major headache
It’s no secret that delivery issues cause massive problems for retailers. As consumers, we feel frustrated when our packages are delayed, or fail to show up at all. For the retailer, that pain goes deeper. Much deeper. Lost revenue, wasted resources, decreased customer loyalty, and poor brand image are all factors at stake. The average cost per failed delivery to retailers in the US is $17.20, £11.60 in the UK, and €14.70 in Germany. Ouch.
Delayed and failed deliveries will occur for a number of reasons. Some of these are external factors such as weather events and supply chain issues etc. All outside of the retailers’ control. However, one reason—which is within a retailer’s control—crops up over, and over, and over, and over, and over again: incomplete or inaccurate addresses.
Why are addresses wrong?
Capturing accurate and complete addresses may seem straight forward, but reality paints a different picture. The fact is, address information is often entered incorrectly. Not because customers relish in paying money for goods that they never receive…it happens for lots of reasons:
1. Making purchases on a phone, i.e. a smaller screen is more likely to result in mistakes
2. Using the browser’s autofill feature which may not match the corresponding fields set out on the retailer’s form
3. Trying to get through the checkout process quickly and accidentally mistyping part of the address
4. The retailer is using the Google Places Autocomplete API to capture addresses. As Google does not cross reference its information against An Post data, addresses may be missing apartment information, or the returned address may not even exist!
5. The form is not intuitive for the customer which causes confusion, leading to errors in the submission details (See the example below from a well-known Irish retailer using a US styled address form).
Including Apartment, suite, etc. in the second line of the form could be confusing to any Irish shopper, especially when the line above says Address without any further description. How many customers will enter their full address in just this box? There’s also no mention of an eircode, despite the delivery country being set to Ireland.
Recent research from Baymard highlights the importance of getting address fields right and optimising forms to ensure a hassle-free checkout process.
The gap
Most retailers won’t be aware that any address errors have occurred. Even if it’s the very reason why a package was delayed or undelivered in the first place. This gap is often attributed to an incompetent delivery driver or a clumsy customer, but blaming the customer is a dangerous gamble—it would be taxing for anyone if an order is delayed or doesn’t arrive at all. A recent study showed that 41% of respondents would question their loyalty to a retailer after a late delivery, while 39% claimed that they would be less likely to shop with them in the future.
Some retailers will be made aware of address issues from customer complaints during the last mile of delivery. Unfortunately, resolving these complaints incurs costs in terms of customer service and redelivery, resulting in major inefficiencies.
Solving the problem
Some of the costs associated with delayed and failed deliveries can be avoided. Answering the following questions is a great place to start:
1. How often are customers making complaints about delayed or missing deliveries?
2. How often are deliveries marked as “address not found” or “return to sender”?
3. How often does the courier have to attempt a delivery more than once?
Once the connection has been made between delivery problems and poor address data, retailers can finally close the gap. One of the most effective ways to do this is with address validation, i.e. improve how address information is collected during the checkout process.
Autocomplete in real time
As a customer types out their address, autocomplete suggestions will appear with fully validated addresses from a regularly updated and trusted data source. This helps to reduce typos and incomplete entries…essentially making it difficult for the customer to get their address wrong!
Error detection & correction
Missing apartment numbers or incorrect eircodes can be detected straight away, and prompt customers to fix them.
Standardisation & formatting
Automatically corrects and formats addresses to match the layout of the retailer’s address form.
Some of the obvious benefits of address validation include:
1. Reducing the likelihood of lost or delayed packages. This will in turn minimise negative reviews and customer complaints
2. Reducing friction during the checkout process and getting more conversions. After a recent implementation, one of our customers—a well-known Irish grocery retailer—saw a 10% increase in orders
3. For retailers doing their own deliveries, address validation ensures that packages are routed correctly. Deliveries will be faster and more efficient, particularly in rural areas
4. Resources don’t need to be wasted on manual corrections and customer service issues as a result of delivery problems
5. Consistent and standardised address data across different regions for retailers who are shipping internationally. Address validation ensures that global address formats are correctly processed
Conclusion
Delivery issues may feel like an unavoidable part of e-Commerce in 2025. While many external factors do play a part, validating address data is often an overlooked, yet fundamental piece of the puzzle. Retailers that recognise and overcome this challenge are in a stronger position to improve delivery success rates and streamline logistics.
The next time a package goes missing or arrives late, it’s worth asking why the address wasn’t correct in the first place!
