Shipping to Bulgaria: How to Address Your Packages Correctly

Golden beaches, affordable flights, and a yogurt that’s made its way into the world of science. For most Germans, Bulgaria is a vacation destination. Sun, the Black Sea coast, rakia with dinner. And then there’s that thing about shaking your head: In Bulgaria, it means „yes.“ Nodding means „No.“ Anyone experiencing this for the first time briefly doubts themselves.

Something similar happens when shipping to Bulgaria. You think you’ve done everything right. The address is entered, the package is sent. But then it comes back anyway. That’s because Bulgarian addresses follow their own rules. There are apartment buildings where the entire street name is missing, and instead, the address line contains completely different information. And as if that weren’t complicated enough, most customers also enter their addresses in Cyrillic.

According to Eurostat Although only about 57 percent of Bulgarian internet users shop online (the lowest figure in the entire EU), that number is rising. And anyone who wants to ship to Bulgaria should know how addresses work there.

This is how Bulgarian addresses are structured

Bulgarian addresses follow a clear pattern. However, this pattern varies significantly depending on the type of residence.

Line 1: Recipient name

The person's first and last name. For business addresses, enter the company name here, followed by the contact person on the next line.

Line 2: Street and house number or block address

In traditional street addresses, the street name is followed by an abbreviation for the street type and then the house number. The most common abbreviations are:

ul. (st.) – Street
bul. (bul.) – Boulevard
pl. (pl.) – place

In prefabricated housing estates, apartment buildings very often do not have street names.
Instead, the address here consists of the residential complex, block number, entrance, floor, and apartment number.

We'll explain exactly what this means in the section on address specifics.

Line 3: Oblast (province)

According to the official addressing standard of Bulgarian Posts The oblast (province, abbreviation „obl.“ / обл.) must be listed on a separate line in every Bulgarian address. Bulgaria is divided into a total of 28 oblasts.

However, for large cities such as Sofia, Plovdiv, or Varna, the oblast is often omitted in practice because the ZIP code already uniquely identifies the location. For smaller towns and villages, however, it is important for correct identification.

Line 4: ZIP Code and City

The four-digit ZIP code comes before the city name. There are no spaces or separators within the ZIP code.

Line 5: Country

For international shipments, "BULGARIA" is written here in all capital letters.

An Overview of Bulgarian Address Examples

Here's what Bulgarian addresses look like in practice:

Home Address (Street)

ul. = Street

Private address (apartment building without a street name)

zh.k. = Residential complex, bl. = Block, vh. = Entrance, et. = Floor, ap. = Apartment

Home Address (Apartment Building and Street)

bul. = Boulevard, bl. = Block, vh. = Entrance, et. = Floor, ap. = Apartment

Business address

bul. = Tabloid

„EOOD“ (ЕООД) is the Bulgarian equivalent of a limited liability company with a single shareholder.

Postal Code System in Bulgaria

Bulgaria uses a four-digit postal code system without letters or separators.

The format is logical. The first digit indicates the zone, and the second digit indicates the region. The last two digits identify the town or post office.

An Overview of the Zones (Source: Wikipedia):

1xxx – Sofia (city)
2xxx – Sofia (province), Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad
3xxx – Vratsa, Montana, Vidin
4xxx – Plovdiv, Pazardzhik, Smolyan
5xxx – Veliko Tarnovo, Lovech, Pleven, Gabrovo
6xxx – Stara Zagora, Sliven, Yambol, Kardzhali, Haskovo
7xxx – Ruse, Razgrad, Targovishte, Silistra
8xxx – Burgas
9xxx – Varna, Dobrich, Shumen

Sofia alone occupies the entire 1000 range, with ZIP codes from 1000 through the 1800s. All other major cities, on the other hand, share their range with surrounding provinces.

Address Formatting in Bulgaria

In addition to the standard street address format, Bulgaria has address types that are not supported in this way by German online stores.

Block addresses without street names

This is the point where most checkout forms give up. In Bulgarian cities, there are still large prefabricated housing estates from the socialist era. You can recognize them in addresses by the abbreviation „zh.k.,“ which stands for „residential complex.“ Behind this abbreviation lie numbered apartment blocks, many of which don’t have street names. The address then consists of the complex name and the block number. However, some blocks are also located on a street or boulevard and include both pieces of information.

The components of a block address:

zh.k. or j.k. (residential complex) – Residential complex, followed by the name of the neighborhood
kv. (кв.) – Neighborhood (not the same as zh.k., but also appears in addresses)
bl. (bl.) – Block number
vh. (in.) – Input (letter, e.g., A, B, V)
et. (фр.) – Floor
ap. (ap.) – Apartment number

Here is an example without a street name: „zh.k. Mladost 1, bl. 47, vh. A, et. 6, ap. 24.”.
This is an apartment in the Neighborhood Mladost 1, Block 47, Entrance A, 6. Floor, Apartment 24.

And here's an example using a street address: „5 Rayko Daskalov Blvd., bl. 12, vh. A, et. 4, ap. 8.”.
Here, "Boulevard" is added as a street name.

Rural Addresses

Those who deliver to customers in rural areas will come across additional abbreviations:

„s.“ (с.) stands for selo (village)—its counterpart is „gr.“ (гр.) for grad (city)—
„obl.“ (обл.) for oblast (province)

In addition, village addresses often lack a house number, which regularly causes problems during checkout. (Source: UPU)

Parcel Delivery Services in Bulgaria

The Bulgarian delivery market is dominated by two private providers. Anyone shipping to Bulgaria from Germany, Austria, or Switzerland typically uses an international parcel service. The last mile is then usually handled by Econt or Speedy.

Econt Express

Econt holds about 85 percent of the e-commerce logistics market (Source: Metapack). The infrastructure consists of over 550 offices and more than 600 automated package stations (known as „Econtomats“). Recipients can even open the package before paying, check the contents, and return it if they are not satisfied. Econt calls this „Review and Test.“.

Speedy

Speedy has been part of the Geopost Group—a subsidiary of France's La Poste—since 2021 and is thus part of the DPD network (Source: Ordertracker). There are over 1,050 offices, package shops, and package lockers spread across the entire country. If you already work with DPD, Geopost may offer you a direct connection to Bulgaria.

It's also good to know that the Speedy courier will call the phone number listed on the waybill before making the delivery. If the courier can't reach the recipient, the package will be taken to the nearest branch (Source: Speedy FAQ). If no phone number is on file, there will be no home delivery.

By the way, Econt and Speedy allow customers to redirect shipments via an app to another location, an office, or a self-service kiosk.

Bulgarian Posts

The state-run postal service operates more than 3,000 post offices throughout the country. In the major cities, the service works well. In rural mountainous regions such as the Rhodopes, however, delivery can take some time.

International Providers

DHL, FedEx, and DPD primarily handle express and international shipments in Bulgaria.

Other Special Considerations for Shipping to Bulgaria

Not everything that stands out when shipping to Bulgaria is directly related to the address format.

Cyrillic in the address field

Bulgarian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, and most Bulgarian customers enter their addresses using that same script. Your address field should therefore accept Cyrillic characters. In addition, transliteration into the Latin alphabet varies widely. The same street name can end up in your system with different spellings, depending on how the customer enters it.

Cash on Delivery

About 55 percent of Bulgarian online shoppers pay by cash on delivery (Source: Novinite). Although more and more customers are opting to pay by card, cash on delivery remains the most popular payment method for now. For international merchants without a fulfillment partner in Bulgaria, however, cash on delivery is hardly feasible directly. This is because local delivery services only process cash on delivery orders through their own networks.

Your next step

Before you ship your first order to Bulgaria, it’s worth taking a look at your checkout process: Can it handle block addresses without street names? And do your address fields accept Cyrillic characters?

It’s also helpful to know the Bulgarian address abbreviations. If you see „zh.k.,“ „bl.,“ or „vh.“ in your system, you should know what they stand for.

Bulgaria isn't a mass market. But if you know the address formats, you won't have to learn that the hard way from returns.

You can read how address validation works across national borders in our article International address verification explained in compact form.

Do you ship to other countries as well? If so, feel free to check out our posts on Shipping to Norway and to the Shipping to Romania to.

endereco: Address validation for international shipping

Other countries, other address formats. Our Address validation checks customer addresses in real time, directly when they are entered in the checkout. Typing errors, missing zip codes, incorrect place names: Corrections are made before the order goes out. For over 200 countries worldwide.

Want to know how this would work for your store? Get in touch with us.